Next City Executive Editor Ariella Cohen went to Cambridge, Mass. last night to attend a conference at the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy. Today, she woke up to a city on lockdown.
Following a shootout in the suburb of Watertown, Mass. on Thursday, in which a suspect in Monday’s Boston Marathon bombings was killed, authorities have warned area residents to stay inside as the hunt for a second suspect continues.
Meanwhile, much of the Boston metropolitan area has essentially shut down, with schools, businesses and transit closed throughout the city and its suburbs.
After spending the morning hunkered down in a Sheraton hotel, Cohen ventured outside to see if anything was happening in the largely empty streets. She found a deserted Harvard Square and hastily closed storefronts, but also a number of Bostonians who didn’t want the lockdown to get in the way of them and their coffee or beer.
“Most of the people outside are homeless,” Cohen said in a phone call.
Below, we have some pictures Cohen took on her walk, as well as live updates from her Twitter feed.
Near Harvard Square, empty save for a lone cyclist and a defunct weapon of war.
Cambridge quiet aside from occasional siren wail. No cabs. No public transit.
— ariella cohen (@AriellaCohen) April 19, 2013
The T, the Boston area’s public transit system, has shut down for now. A few people loiter around the station stop and nap on benches.
Clearly typed up in a hurry.
The lone business open? A newsstand, with an employee pacing the brick sidewalk.
Armored trucks, snipers in Watertown. Shell shocked undergrads, eerie quiet in Cambridge.
— ariella cohen (@AriellaCohen) April 19, 2013
Crisis be damned, undergrads want their Starbucks.
Or at least its free WiFi.
In the absence of people, buses and traffic, the birds and their chirpsown the streets. #boston
— ariella cohen (@AriellaCohen) April 19, 2013
An ambulance goes by Harvard Square. Cohen said there were also police cars, but that traffic was also picking up.
Taking advantage of the relative privacy, homeless man lounges with his dog in a Cambridge park.
A drinks a beer decked out with red Sox regalia and listens to news of the ongoing manhunt on the radio.
All photos by Ariella Cohen.
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