And so we begin 2022 much like we began 2021: with creeping worry about a new COVID-19 variant, concerns about overrun hospitals, and the gnawing question of when the world will right itself. Along with the relentless pandemic, the year brought political shifts and milestones, the return of a cherished communal event, and a plan to deal with the tragedy unfolding in plain sight on Boston’s streets.
Here are some of the region’s top stories for 2021.
Vaccines raise hope, give way to déjà vu
After a sluggish initial vaccine rollout early in the year, including problems with a state-run signup website, vaccination efforts kick into high gear. By early spring, optimism rises for a return to normal life. But hopes are dashed by the rapid spread of the Delta variant of the virus, including a major outbreak in July that started in Provincetown, where more than 1,000 people in Massachusetts were infected. And as the year ended, the state is besieged by a fresh enemy — the even more contagious Omicron variant. The statistics are staggering as the year comes to a close: more than a million COVID cases and the number of deaths edging toward 20,000.
Seeking accountability in Soldiers’ Home deaths
The tragedy at the Holyoke Soldiers’ Home put a human face on the pandemic: 76 veterans died in spring 2020 — one of the highest death tolls of any senior-care center in the country. This year, efforts to hold people accountable for those deaths prove elusive. A report by the Globe’s Spotlight Team finds that the Baker administration took no personal responsibility for the massive loss of life at the state-run facility and instead laid blame solely on officials below them. Two former leaders of the home are indicted on criminal neglect charges, but a judge dismisses all criminal charges, saying there is no “reasonably trustworthy evidence” that their actions harmed veterans.
Baker bows out
Charlie Baker upends the state’s political landscape by announcing Dec. 1 that he will not seek a third term in 2022. Baker, a moderate Republican who kept his distance from the controversies of the national party and cast himself as a thoughtful manager, framed the decision as an attempt to avoid the “distraction” of campaigning while guiding the state through the ongoing pandemic.
Walsh shipping out of Boston
Mayor Martin J. Walsh steps down March 22 after two terms to become US labor secretary, marking a seismic shift in Boston politics. His legacy includes a host of redevelopment and city revitalization projects — fruits of the historic economic success the city saw during his tenure before the pandemic struck. But he left a leadership mess in the police department and other unfinished business, including securing a comprehensive recovery campus after the Long Island Bridge demolition; an affordable housing crisis; and the task of improving city schools.
History-making part 1: “Today is a new day”
City Council president Kim Janey is sworn in as acting mayor on March 24, making her the first Black person and the first woman to lead the city after a 200-year run of white, male mayors. “She smashed a concrete ceiling and changed the bounds of what is possible in our city,” US Representative Ayanna Pressley said. Janey plunged into governing the city’s reopening efforts from COVID-19 and tackling the turmoil in the police department (see below). Despite the benefits of the office, Janey failed to advance to the Nov. 2 general election.
History-making part 2: “We have so much work to do.”
Michelle Wu, the daughter of Taiwanese immigrants, handily defeats rival City Councilor Annissa Essaibi George to become Boston’s mayor. Wu’s victory, after uniting supporters in progressive enclaves and communities of color, makes her the first woman to be elected the city’s mayor and the first Asian American — a rarity in major US cities. Her agenda: free public transportation, an entirely new approach to downtown development, rent control, and a municipal Green New Deal. “We have so much work to do,” Wu says at her swearing-in Nov. 16.
Upheaval in Boston’s police leadership
After Walsh leaves for Washington, Acting Mayor Janey confronts the police leadership crisis in June by firing newly named Commissioner Dennis White, whom Walsh had placed on leave amid Globe inquiries about the handling of a 1999 allegation of domestic violence involving White. A report commissioned by the city paints a damning portrait of an institution that allegedly protected its own, ignored complaints of abuse, and minimized — and covered up — allegations against White. White sues the city and Janey, alleging gender and race discrimination.
Reining in the epicenter of Boston’s opioid epidemic
After years of watching the humanitarian crisis grow, Boston officials move to dismantle the sprawling encampment of tents that has sprung up near Massachusetts Avenue and Melnea Cass Boulevard, the heart of the city’s addiction and homelessness crisis. In October, Acting Mayor Janey’s administration declares the situation a public health crisis. Within weeks, dozens of people are steered into alternative housing and treatment, and tents have been cleared from one stretch of street. After her election, Mayor Wu announced a plan to clear out the Mass. and Cass encampment by Jan. 12. The city identifies more than 150 new housing units that will offer medical services, drug counseling, and mental health programming to help people make the transition from living on the streets.
The Marathon returns, lifting city’s spirits
The Boston Marathon — and perhaps Boston itself — roars back to life Oct. 11 after a 2 1/2 year hiatus caused by the pandemic. From Hopkinton to Boylston Street, runners and their supporters revel in the city’s annual race, not seeming to care much that it was smaller than usual or that it was taking place in October instead of April. The overall scene was one of jubilation.
Students return to classrooms full time
In late August, thousands of Massachusetts students masked up and headed back to classrooms for full-time, in-person learning, starting the third academic year marked by the anxieties and uncertainty of the coronavirus pandemic. Despite concerns that the highly transmissible Delta variant could complicate the safety of in-person learning, Massachusetts school leaders choose to keep remote learning off the table as an option.
Shake-up in admissions at Boston’s exam schools
After heated debate, the Boston School Committee in July approves the biggest overhaul of the city’s exam school admission process in more than two decades. The new system is aimed at giving disadvantaged students a better chance of getting into Boston Latin School, Boston Latin Academy, and the O’Bryant School of Math and Science.
Cutting ties with unusual peer-counseling group
In March, Boston’s public school system ends its relationship with a nonprofit youth advocacy organization whose unusual peer counseling sessions had prompted complaints from students. The Globe reported allegations that the group, Youth on Board, emotionally manipulated students through sessions known as “Re-evaluation Counseling” that delved deeply into childhood trauma and asked them to share intense emotions with the group.
A new, tantalizing clue in the Gardner Museum art heist
Paul Calantropo, a 70-year-old fine arts appraiser, speaks publicly for the first time about his decades-old meeting with Bobby Donati, a potential suspect in the Gardner thefts. During the meeting, Calantropo told the Globe, Donati unwrapped a shiny finial in the shape of an eagle. Calantropo recognized the gilded bronze object from media reports as one of 13 pieces of artwork, including several Rembrandts, that had been stolen from the museum. The reported sighting of the stolen finial, so soon after the 1990 theft, offers a tantalizing clue in the enduring mystery, bolstering other accounts linking Donati to the crime. Donati was slain in September 1991.
Rise of the Moors
It began as a seemingly routine stop by a State Police trooper to help motorists on the shoulder of Interstate 95 near Wakefield. But the July 3 encounter spiraled into a surreal hours-long confrontation between nearly a dozen armed men and police. Members of the group, calling themselves the Rise of the Moors, say they are part of the sovereign citizen movement and contend they are outside the authority of the US government.
Hate-fueled violence
The shooting deaths of an Air Force veteran and a retired state trooper in Winthrop on June 26 are investigated as hate crimes after officials found antisemitic and racist statements written by their accused killer. Ramona Cooper, 60, a staff sergeant in the Air Force, and David Green, 68, the retired trooper, were each shot multiple times by 28-year-old Nathan Allen, after he crashed a stolen truck into a home.
Meanwhile, on July 1, Khaled A. Awad, an Egyptian national, repeatedly stabs Rabbi Shlomo Noginski outside a Jewish day school in Brighton. Noginski survived the attack. Authorities, believing Awad was motivated by antisemitism, file hate crime and civil rights charges in the brazen, daytime assault.
“The strongest wind we’ve ever experienced”
A bellowing nor’easter packing hurricane-force winds and drenching rain slams into the state Oct. 27, initially knocking out power to 500,000 residents, most south of Boston and on Cape Cod. It would be four days before electricity was fully restored.
A college grapples with student mental health
Worcester Polytechnic Institute finds itself on the front lines of the national conversation about student mental health after the suicides of four students over five months. The deaths at WPI come at a time when, because of the pandemic, the nation as a whole has begun to talk openly about mental health in unprecedented ways.
Roy Greene can be reached at roy.greene@globe.com. Follow him @roygreene.