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Massive clown heads in downtown Boston freak out tourists: ‘Very creepy’

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Massive clown heads in downtown Boston freak out tourists: ‘Very creepy’


No clowning around: this is some “creepy” art.

A public art installation of two massive clown heads in downtown Bostonhas has gotten tourists and Bostonians talking — but not everyone’s laughing.

The clowns are part of the Downtown Boston Business Improvement District’s “Winteractive” walkable art experience launched this month in the hopes of giving those exploring downtown “a delightful experience around every corner.”

The clowns are one of 16 exhibits but they’ve been singled out by some passersby for being “creepy.”

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Photos and videos of the installation shared by the BID received mixed reactions, with one Instagram user receiving over 900 likes on their commentary noting the piece “looks like something out of the original Batman movie.”

The unique piece, titled “Endgame (Nagg & Nell)” features two inflatable clown heads with shocked expressions wedged between two buildings in the Harlem Place Alley.

Artist Max Streicher told Axios he was trying to make the inflatable clowns look “sort of alarmed and just stunned and shocked by the condition they’re in.”

Another Internet commentator called the red-nosed clowns “very creepy” and several Instagram users compared them to the work of Junji Ito, a Japanese horror manga artist.

Others were quick to dunk on the city, with one critic calling the piece a “perfect metaphor” for the city, while another wrote, “There’s plenty of clowns in Boston the whole city filled.”

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The inflatable clown artwork was placed downtown on Jan. 17 as part of the downtown BID’s “Winteractive” installation. Boston Globe via Getty Images

One Bostonian took to X to ponder, “Okay, whose idea was it to add creepy clowns to the already kinda threatening overall vibe…”

Another person joked, “Everyone that has ever wronged me is now a creepy clown head in downtown Boston.”

While there are always detractors, many were quick to sing “Send In The Clowns.”

Similar clown heads created by Streicher were erected in Toronto in 2010. Toronto Star via Getty Images
The clowns will remain downtown through April 14, just a week before the Boston Marathon. Boston Globe via Getty Images

“Didn’t know about this. Thanks for sharing,” one Instagram user commented along with a heart-eyes emoji. “Exciting things on the way in Downtown,” another person added.

“We saw them on Saturday, followed by a stroll into Brattle Book Shop. It was great to see everyone having such a great time with this. Boston provides so many great things to do,” another added.

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Winteractive features eight artists and design teams from Canada, England and the US, many of whom are being presented in America for the first time, Downtown Boston BID said in a press release.

“This exhibition will animate and illuminate our streets this winter, bringing internationally acclaimed artists to Boston, and punctuating visits downtown that could include shopping, dining, live performances, or office work,” the organization’s president Michael Nichols said.

The 16 installations, which were set up on Jan. 17, will remain in the city through April 14, which is the Sunday before the Boston Marathon.

Winteractive has already received an abundance of attention. The Boston Fire Department had to remove a life-like sculpture of a fisherman perched atop a Chipotle restaurant after they received several concerned calls that it looked like a real person was sitting on the roof, The Boston Globe reported.

The piece has since been moved to a one-story Macy’s building, not far from other parts of the installation.

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The Post has reached out to Streicher for comment.





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First Alert: Mix of snow and rain today, then looking ahead to warmer weather

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First Alert: Mix of snow and rain today, then looking ahead to warmer weather


Today is a First Alert weather day. A system to our south is pushing mix of snow and rain into southern New England through this evening and tonight. 

For us here in Greater Boston, expect snow to continue spreading over our area through the afternoon/evening commute. In fact, parts our area could see up to 1 to 2 inches of snow accumulation before the sleet and rain move in.

Much of Greater Boston will likely see snow amounts on the lower end. Higher snow amounts are expected toward southern New Hampshire and along and north of outer Route 2. Also, some ice accumulations are possible, up to a tenth of an inch, creating a thin glaze here and there.

Dozens of schools in Connecticut and Massachusetts have already announced early dismissals as a result of the storm.

While this system won’t cripple our area, conditions could still create a mess on the roads during the evening commute through tonight. Be careful while driving. A Winter Weather Advisory remains in effect for parts of our area through early Wednesday morning. High temperatures will be in the mid to upper 30s today. Overnight lows will drop into the low 30s.

We’ll wake up to patchy fog Wednesday morning before the sun returns. High temperatures will be in the upper 40s. We’ll stay in the 40s on Thursday with increasing clouds. But by late Thursday night into Friday, wet weather returns. Some snow could mix with the rain into Friday morning. Highs will be in the upper 30s Friday.

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Warmer weather is expected this weekend. Highs will be in the 50s Saturday and possibly near 60 on Sunday.



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Boston police officials dominate the list of highest-paid city workers in 2025 – The Boston Globe

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Boston police officials dominate the list of highest-paid city workers in 2025 – The Boston Globe


That was more than what every other city department spent on overtime combined, though it was a slight drop from the $103 million the police department spent on overtime in 2024.

High overtime spending inside the police department has long been controversial and a source of frustration for police-reform advocates. Last year’s nine-figure total comes as Mayor Michelle Wu warns of a challenging budget season to come for the city, which is grappling with inflation and the possibility of more federal funding cuts.

In a December letter, Wu told the city council that she instructed city department heads to find ways to cut 2 percent of their budgets in the next fiscal year. She also imposed a delay on new hires. Boston Public Schools Superintendent Mary Skipper has also proposed cutting somewhere between 300 and 400 positions next fiscal year due to budget constraints.

Overall, the city spent about $2.5 billion on employee salaries in 2025, up around 1.5 percent from $2.4 billion in 2024. The city employs roughly 21,000 workers, according to a public dashboard.

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In a statement, Emma Pettit, a spokesperson for Wu’s office, attributed the payroll increase to raises, and in some cases, employees receiving retroactive pay, that were part of contracts the city negotiated with its various labor unions.

“We’re grateful to our city employees for their hard work to hold Boston to the highest standard for delivering city services,” Pettit said.

When Wu won her first mayoral race in November 2021, all of the city’s 44 union contracts had expired. Since then, Wu’s office has negotiated new agreements with all of them, and last year, agreed to a one-year contract extension with the Boston Police Patrolmen’s Association, the city’s largest police union.

But as the city heads back to the bargaining table to negotiate extensions or new contracts with others, city leaders should keep cost at the forefront of those conversations, said Steve Poftak, president of the Boston Municipal Research Bureau, a business-backed budget watchdog group.

“As budgets tighten, I’m hopeful that it increases the scrutiny on these collective bargaining agreements,” Poftak said.

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The top earner on the city’s payroll last year was Boston Police Captain Timothy Connolly. In addition to his $194,000 base salary, Connolly took home nearly $230,000 in overtime, about $26,000 in undefined “other pay,” and roughly $49,000 as part of a higher-education bonus, for a total of $498,145 in compensation.

Skipper, as BPS superintendent, was the 55th-highest earner among city workers, coming behind 54 members of the police department. She made a total of $378,000 in 2025.

Nearly 300 city employees made more than $300,000 last year. In contrast, Wu made $207,000, though her salary increased to $250,000 this year. More than 1,700 city employees made more than the mayor in 2025.

Larry Calderone, president of the Boston Police Patrolmen’s Association, argued that the high overtime costs in the police department are, in part, a result of understaffing.

The department is short roughly 400 rank-and-file police officers, Calderone said, meaning the department has to pay its staff to work overtime and fill vacant shifts. The average salary for an officer in the BPPA is roughly $195,000, Calderone said.

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With several large events approaching, including a Boston-based fan fest around this summer’s World Cup matches and the return of a fleet of tall ships to Boston Harbor, Calderone said most of the members of his union are likely to be working the maximum allowable 90 hours a week.

“We just don’t have the bodies on the street,” he said.

The Boston Police Department and the Boston Police Superior Officers Federation — the union that represents the department’s sergeants, captains, and lieutenants — did not immediately return requests for comment Monday.

Jamarhl Crawford, an activist and former member of the Boston Police Reform Task Force, said while high spending on overtime is not new for the police department, it’s a pressing problem the city should tackle.

The police and fire departments are “essential components of the city and society in general … [and] folks should be getting a fair wage. But it also has to be within fiscal responsibility,” Crawford said.

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“In another 10 years,” he continued, “with pensions and everything else, this type of thing can bankrupt the city.”


Niki Griswold can be reached at niki.griswold@globe.com. Follow her @nikigriswold. Yoohyun Jung can be reached at y.jung@globe.com.





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Red Sox rotation contender strikes out four in dominant outing

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Red Sox rotation contender strikes out four in dominant outing


FORT MYERS, Fla. — Johan Oviedo’s first outing of the spring last week didn’t go great, as the right-hander walked three over 1 2/3 innings in a performance manager Alex Cora described as “erratic.”

His second outing on Monday went much better.



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