Category: YourArlington

  • Arlington launches new public meeting documents portal

    Sara Creato

    Arlington has launched an updated online portal on the town website to house all public meeting documents in an effort to improve accessibility.

    The new database includes all board, committee and commission meeting agendas and minutes from Jan. 26 onward. Users can filter through the portal based on categories such as board and commission, date and keywords. Older documents can be found under the website’s “Boards and Committees” tab.

    Arlington Public Information Officer Joan Roman said the portal was set up to better organize public documents on the town website and to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act. 

    “It was something I always wanted to do because people were frustrated with things living in different places,” she said. “If things live in different places, it’s not very intuitive.”

    The creation of the portal began in 2024 when the town’s meeting management software platform, NovusAgenda, phased out of use. That April, the U.S. Department of Justice also released its final rule on ADA Title II regulations requiring state and local government-designed web content and mobile apps to meet a set of accessibility standards.

    To meet the ADA standards, the town’s communications team implemented new, screen-reader-friendly public document templates, and also trained staff and volunteer committee members on how to create them. 

    Many people with blindness or low vision use screen readers to access online content. The software uses speech synthesizers and braille displays to convey text and image descriptions embedded in the website’s code. Users navigate digital content with a keyboard or Braille display to tell the speech synthesizer which components to read aloud.

    Seemingly minor errors in the code can significantly impede screen reader users’ ability to navigate digital documents, Roman said.

     “If there’s a wrong piece of code, it can really stop people in their tracks,” she said. “We put a lot of thought to how things are set up, so we’re not putting up these barriers for folks.”

    Although many Arlington residents seemed unaware of the new portal, they expressed optimism about it once it was described to them.

    Educational consultant Bruce Johnson said he likes the portal’s convenient nature.

    “It’s a good idea that what the government is doing is available for us to read,” he said. “If I ever was really interested, I know I could go there.”

    Suzanne Kaminski, a first-grade teacher at Brackett Elementary School, said she likes that the portal centralizes the documents into one location instead of scattering them across the website.

    “Anytime things are consolidated in one place, it’s a good idea,” she said.

    Scott Mullen, the transportation management demand director at A Better City, a nonprofit for businesses and commerce in Greater Boston, said the new portal seems like an improvement that many residents will likely use leading up to the town’s override vote on March 28.

    “The old way it was done on the website, sometimes you have to click around a couple of times,” said Mullen, a Town Meeting member who serves on its Finance Committee. “It’s good to know that this is centralized, searchable. That really is key to keeping everybody informed.”

    The town is in the process of transferring its older public documents from NovusAgenda to its new platform, OneMeeting, before the DOJ’s April 2027 deadline. Roman estimates that 20,000 documents still need to be migrated into the portal.

    “I’m excited for the migration to be done and to have all these important documents in one place where people can easily search them, and can help residents of Arlington understand the business of the town,” Roman said.

    This story, published Feb. 18, 2026, is part of a partnership between Your Arlington and the Boston University Department of Journalism.

  • The many ports of call on Lynn Bishop’s cruise

    Sara Creato

    Lynn Bishop presents a pen. “I bought this pen, and it means a lot to me. Hold it until tomorrow,” she instructs. At a table in The Roasted Granola Cafe, she explains how to boost the self-worth of people with mental health conditions.

    “They would feel like they matter. They could look at the pen and think, ‘That’s important to her, and she thinks I’m going to come back tomorrow.’”

    These small acts of trust are impactful, she says.  

    “When we treat them like people who have value, they act like people who have value,” she said. 

    After 35 years of working at the Edinburg Center – a Bedford-based human services agency for adults and children with mental health conditions and developmental disabilities – Bishop, 62, retired as executive vice president. The Arlington resident’s tenure at the center was part of her lifelong love for advocacy.

    “My mother says I was born a feminist,” Bishop said. 

    As a child, her father’s work as a diplomat transported Bishop, her mother and two siblings to New Zealand, Lebanon and West Africa. Bishop said that her time spent abroad helped her to better empathize with the Edinburg Center’s immigrant staff, many of whom hailed from regions like Haiti and East Africa. 

    “I think staff found me to be unusual because I understood when they said that they lived in a village,” she said. “I knew they didn’t mean the village of Newton.”

    After graduating from Vassar College in 1985 with a bachelor’s degree in psychology and spending a year in Costa Rica with the Peace Corps, Bishop reunited with a college friend in Somerville. The friend – who taught two nonspeaking children on the autism spectrum at the Language and Cognitive Development Center in Jamaica Plain – struggled with retaining staff and encouraged Bishop to visit.

    That visit sparked her interest in special education.   

    “I fell in love with both of them,” she said. “They were as different as night and day, but to me they were such big puzzles.”

    Bishop remained at the school for three more years before working as a vocational developer at the League School for Autism in Newton. At a work training, she met Donna Mills, who was then associate director of the Edinburg Center. In 1991, Bishop joined the center as the qualified intellectual disability professional program director. 

    “There wasn’t [a patient] that I found too difficult or too challenging,” she said. “I got the reputation in the area as a person who would take the people that nobody else wanted.”

    After a center employee made a racist comment to another staff member, Bishop cofounded the center’s Diversity Committee in 1999. The committee’s programming centered around cultural competency and current issues, such as same-sex marriage.

    With many employees from countries that criminalize same-sex relations, Bishop, who now worked in management, felt confident that people would eventually overcome their prejudice. 

    “A lot of the staff came from countries where gay people were killed and we were telling them that they had to accept us to work at The Edinburg Center,” she said.  “I used my position of privilege to say, ‘They’ll get to know me and my wife, and maybe they’ll change their minds,’ and they did.”   

    In the wake of George Floyd’s murder by a Minneapolis police officer in May 2020, Bishop organized virtual town halls so people at the center could process their feelings together.

    Edinburg Center CEO Patti Maguire praised Bishop’s efforts.

    “There was just so much pain in our community and Lynn created a place for people to bring that,” she said.

    During the Covid-19 pandemic, Bishop also launched Meaningful Whole Life. The initiative allows patients to collaborate with staff – referred to as “Champions” – to create individualized day programming that caters to patients’ passions. The program supports roughly 300 activities ranging from fishing to crochet. Bishop says the program is “one of [her] proudest achievements.” 

    “We basically said, ‘We’re not sure that you’ll be able to achieve your wishes, because some of us never do, but we can help you towards the path,’” she said.

    Bishop taught patients how to write letters to their state representatives and produced short videos about individuals. She also co-created the center’s annual Legislative Breakfast to connect state lawmakers with the disability community. In 2023 she received the Ruth M. Batson Advocate of the Year Award for her dedication.  

    Bishop emphasized how individuals with developmental disabilities are infantilized or ignored in many scenarios, such as during interviews with media personnel and at doctor’s appointments. She said this treatment makes self-advocacy challenging.

    “People with developmental disabilities get treated like children,” she said. “Awareness about people with autism is relatively recent, and I think people dismiss them and some people are scared.”

    Bishop continued her activism outside of the center by working on political campaigns, including that of Arlington’s first openly gay selectperson, Dan Dunn, in 2009 and Gov. Maura Healey’s runs for attorney general and governor. 

    Outside of campaigning, Bishop maintains a close relationship with Healey and her sister, Dara. After being diagnosed with throat cancer in December 2024, Gov. Healey called to offer assistance.

    After undergoing a laryngectomy, Bishop couldn’t speak for roughly a year before receiving a voice prosthesis device a couple weeks ago. She said losing her voice was an eye-opening experience.

    “I’ve worked with people who couldn’t hear and who couldn’t speak because of developmental disabilities, but I never knew how discriminated against the voiceless were,” she said.    

    Bishop’s cancer diagnosis prompted an early retirement from the Edinburg Center. 

    Kathleen Doherty, the former executive vice president of the Edinburg Center takes Bishop to her doctor’s appointments and eats lunch with her every week. She said Bishop is perpetually positive.  

    “When I could be the black cloud of doom, she is that bright light.”

    In retirement, Lynn enjoys painting and spending time with her four dogs, Ms. Rita Bean, Gus, Jazz and Domino. She also frequently visits the center.

    Bishop calls her healing journey a boat cruise. During a dinner at Barcelona Wine Bar in Cambridge, she invited her loved ones to support her as members of “Lynn’s Village.”   

    “I was going to go on a cruise. If you were part of my cruise, you’re part of Lynn’s village,” she said. “Lynn’s Village was a huge success. Probably this spring, the cruise is coming into harbor parking.”

    This story is part of a partnership between Your Arlington and the Boston University Department of Journalism.

  • Arlington Education Foundation holds Innovations Showcase for grant recipients

    Nicole Abrams

    Dozens of families and community members gathered Saturday at Arlington High School to learn about projects and initiatives the Arlington Education Foundation has funded.

    The Innovations Showcase presented 14 projects, each focused on improving the learning environment for students throughout the district.

    The foundation funds over $100,000 in grants every year. It gets support from private donations, particularly from the Arlington community.

    This is the first year the foundation has made the showcase open to the public. “We’ve kind of gotten to the point where we want to just kind of get our name out more and make more of a connection with the community,” said Stephanie Murphy, co-president of the foundation.

    One of the grants funded a 3D printer, which gave all teachers at Menotomy Preschool access to 3D-printed toys designed to enhance learning.

    The toys are based on children’s books or tailored to fit the curriculums for math, literacy, and social and emotional learning at the preschool.

    Sif Ferranti, a special education teacher at the preschool, and Elena Knightly, a social worker there, came up with the idea for this project. Knightly said that the toys have helped to motivate and engage students.

    “Instead of just talking about something and showing a picture of something, it really adds to a different level of learning,” Knightly said.

    Zoo Crew, a club at Arlington High School where students look after and feed animals, received grant money from the foundation to revamp its enclosures.

    Moon Hackparth-Davis, a senior at Arlington High School, wrote the grant when she noticed one of their snakes was having a hard time shedding because of a humidity problem.

    “We had a lot of issues with his enclosure,” Hackparth-Davis said. “It was so dry, and it’s really harmful for his lungs.”

    The money paid for humidity monitors, temperature monitors, different types of soil, food, and enrichment activities for multiple enclosures.

    As a result, Hackparth-Davis said, the animals are a lot more active and content in their enclosures.

    Although many people associate spiders, roaches, and snakes with filth, Hackparth-Davis said, “they can be so affectionate, they can be very smart.”

    “They deserve all the love that all the other animals get,” Hackparth-Davis said.

    Julianna Keyes, a seventh grade Global Studies teacher at Ottoson Middle School, used her grant money to partially fund her trip to Antarctica over Christmas break.

    Keyes said she hopes to use the information she gathered during her trip to create lesson plans with other global studies and science teachers about climate change and international cooperation.

    “I’ve always found that travel is the best form of professional development I can do,” Keyes said. “To go to the places that I’m teaching about, experience things firsthand, and bring back ideas to my classroom.”

    Laura Saylor, a parent with three kids in school, said she has been donating to the Arlington Education Foundation for years and came to the event to see what it has been up to.

    “It looks like they’re doing great things,” Saylor said. “Everything here seems like a really worthwhile endeavor.”

    Angela Elias, a Dallin Elementary School representative for the foundation, tells families and teachers about grant opportunities and events to increase awareness about the foundation’s work.

    “I think it’s fantastic that the Arlington community supports this type of foundation to be able to have more programs and more after school programs and enrichment programs for children,” Elias said.

    All photos are by Nicole Abrams.

    Julianna Keyes tells observers about her trip to Antarctica and the work that she did. PHOTO/Nicole AbramsSif Ferranti, center, and Elena Knightly, at right, let students play with their interactive 3D-printed toys.Moon Hackparth-Davis speaks about the different enclosures that high school students tend to.

    This story, published Feb. 3, 2026, is part of a partnership between Your Arlington and the Boston University Department of Journalism.

  • Inside the new Arlington High, students and faculty reflect on their school

    Amber Morris and Mila Sandstedt

    • For Arlington High School students and faculty, the transition from the old buildings to the new one was a matter of quality of life and learning.
      “It felt a lot more welcoming,” said Asra Nourollahi, an Arlington High junior. “I was just more excited to go to school.”
      The old buildings were falling apart, said Ed Foley, a longtime language teacher at Arlington High. Plaster was coming off the walls, floors looked dirty, and at times it was an uncomfortable learning environment, he said.
      “The shades didn’t really work, so in the spring the sun would come pouring in in the afternoon, turning the class into a furnace,” Foley said. New air conditioning units in the old building would regularly blow fuses, shutting down power in classrooms, he said.
      Arlington’s new $290 million school and athletic fields officially opened in October after more than five years of phased construction. Students could remain in class while new portions were built and the old school, built in 1914, was gradually demolished.
      State funding covered $84.7 million of the cost, and Arlington voters approved a tax increase in 2019 to help pay for the rest.
      “One year, before December 1, the heating didn’t work,” said Liza Basso, who has been teaching English at Arlington High for seven years. “And after they got it to work the room was constantly 85 degrees. You couldn’t even wear a sweater.”
      The technology in the old building was rapidly becoming outdated, and teachers struggled to incorporate new online learning practices into the classroom.
      “We had to use a yardstick to reach the projector in the ceiling,” Basso said. “Half the time it didn’t even work which got very frustrating,” she said.
      “I had an old projector on a rolling cart which was always overheating,” Foley said. “There were always a hundred cables coming out of it and they were all over the floor getting in your way,” he said.
      The new building features modern technology like electronic boards, making learning more engaging and efficient, said Indigo Blankespoor, a senior and student council president.
      “The ViewBoard is great. I’ve got no cables besides the one to connect to my computer,” Foley said. “There are lots of new ways I can teach lessons, so that is a nice change, and now I don’t have to worry about the technology causing issues.”
      When students returned to school after the pandemic shutdown, the construction of the new building introduced a new set of challenges to teachers and students.
      “One day I had students presenting and they were doing construction right outside the window which was causing the whole room to literally shake,” Basso said. “It made getting through the presentations really difficult.”
      An overcrowded narrow hallway that students called the connector funneled students between the old and new sections during construction. Nourollahi said this would often make her late to class.
      Now that the full building is open, Nourollahi said the positives far outweigh the early challenges.
      As the class vice president since freshman year, Nourollahi noticed that the larger and more flexible spaces made it easier for student government to function.
      The class council now holds its meeting in the open library, intentionally positioning themselves where students naturally pass through.
      “People can overhear us, and that’s kind of our intention,” Nourollahi said. Even if students don’t have time to join the meeting, they still hear what’s being discussed, she said.
      Nourollahi participates in orchestra, and for her, the biggest improvement was the larger rehearsal space, more practice rooms and expanded storage space. “If you enjoy something, now there’s space to do it,” she said.
      “I noticed more people were coming to different clubs,” Nourollahi said. She has seen a surge in participation and enthusiasm.
      For senior Anthony Sciaraffa, a new high school didn’t just improve the facilities, it helped him rekindle his love for drawing and painting. The new art studios are equipped with adequate materials and setup providing students with everything they need, Sciaraffa said.
      But something important was lost, Sciaraffa said. “The art in the new building could never compare to the art that was in the old one,” he said.
      The original high school was filled with student murals and creative pieces over the decades. Now, most of the walls are clean, bright white, with academic wings marked by simple blocks of color — reds and oranges in the humanities wing, blues and purples in the STEAM.
      “I’m surprised when I talk to students about the old building, a lot of them feel sentimental about it. They think it had character,” Foley said.
      “It’s lacking some of the life that the old building had. But I think with time and many more classes, it’ll gain that old building charm again,” Sciaraffa said.
      Despite the modern building lacking in nostalgia, it makes up for it in performance, Foley said. “I’m much happier in this room. It’s clean, I’ve got heat, I’ve got light, the shades work, and I have a great view.”
      All photos are by AHS intern Eli Choi.

    • This story, published Dec. 15, 2025, is part of a partnership between Your Arlington and the Boston University Department of Journalism. Mila Sandstedt, a senior at Arlington High School, is a YourArlington intern.

  • Inside the new Arlington High, students and faculty reflect on their school

    Amber Morris

    For Arlington High School students and faculty, the transition from the old buildings to the new one was a matter of quality of life and learning.


    “It felt a lot more welcoming,” said Asra Nourollahi, an Arlington High junior. “I was just more excited to go to school.”


    The old buildings were falling apart, said Ed Foley, a longtime language teacher at Arlington High. Plaster was coming off the walls, floors looked dirty, and at times it was an uncomfortable learning environment, he said.


    “The shades didn’t really work, so in the spring the sun would come pouring in in the afternoon, turning the class into a furnace,” Foley said. New air conditioning units in the old building would regularly blow fuses, shutting down power in classrooms, he said.


    Arlington’s new $290 million school and athletic fields officially opened in October after more than five years of phased construction. Students could remain in class while new portions were built and the old school, built in 1914, was gradually demolished.


    State funding covered $84.7 million of the cost, and Arlington voters approved a tax increase in 2019 to help pay for the rest.


    “One year, before December 1, the heating didn’t work,” said Liza Basso, who has been teaching English at Arlington High for seven years. “And after they got it to work the room was constantly 85 degrees. You couldn’t even wear a sweater.”


    The technology in the old building was rapidly becoming outdated, and teachers struggled to incorporate new online learning practices into the classroom.


    “We had to use a yardstick to reach the projector in the ceiling,” Basso said. “Half the time it didn’t even work which got very frustrating,” she said.


    “I had an old projector on a rolling cart which was always overheating,” Foley said. “There were always a hundred cables coming out of it and they were all over the floor getting in your way,” he said.


    The new building features modern technology like electronic boards, making learning more engaging and efficient, said Indigo Blankespoor, a senior and student council president.


    “The ViewBoard is great. I’ve got no cables besides the one to connect to my computer,” Foley said. “There are lots of new ways I can teach lessons, so that is a nice change, and now I don’t have to worry about the technology causing issues.”


    When students returned to school after the pandemic shutdown, the construction of the new building introduced a new set of challenges to teachers and students.


    “One day I had students presenting and they were doing construction right outside the window which was causing the whole room to literally shake,” Basso said. “It made getting through the presentations really difficult.”


    An overcrowded narrow hallway that students called the connector funneled students between the old and new sections during construction. Nourollahi said this would often make her late to class.


    Now that the full building is open, Nourollahi said the positives far outweigh the early challenges.


    As the class vice president since freshman year, Nourollahi noticed that the larger and more flexible spaces made it easier for student government to function.


    The class council now holds its meeting in the open library, intentionally positioning themselves where students naturally pass through.


    “People can overhear us, and that’s kind of our intention,” Nourollahi said. Even if students don’t have time to join the meeting, they still hear what’s being discussed, she said.


    Nourollahi participates in orchestra, and for her, the biggest improvement was the larger rehearsal space, more practice rooms and expanded storage space. “If you enjoy something, now there’s space to do it,” she said.


    “I noticed more people were coming to different clubs,” Nourollahi said. She has seen a surge in participation and enthusiasm.


    For senior Anthony Sciaraffa, a new high school didn’t just improve the facilities, it helped him rekindle his love for drawing and painting. The new art studios are equipped with adequate materials and setup providing students with everything they need, Sciaraffa said.


    But something important was lost, Sciaraffa said. “The art in the new building could never compare to the art that was in the old one,” he said.


    The original high school was filled with student murals and creative pieces over the decades. Now, most of the walls are clean, bright white, with academic wings marked by simple blocks of color — reds and oranges in the humanities wing, blues and purples in the STEAM.


    “I’m surprised when I talk to students about the old building, a lot of them feel sentimental about it. They think it had character,” Foley said.


    “It’s lacking some of the life that the old building had. But I think with time and many more classes, it’ll gain that old building charm again,” Sciaraffa said.


    Despite the modern building lacking in nostalgia, it makes up for it in performance, Foley said. “I’m much happier in this room. It’s clean, I’ve got heat, I’ve got light, the shades work, and I have a great view.”

  • Marijuana revenue falling in Arlington as consumers move to delivery services

    Marijuana sales broke records statewide this year, but trends in Arlington are headed in the opposite direction.

    Since legal sales of recreational marijuana use in Massachusetts began in 2018, the industry has generated over $8.6 billion in sales, according to the Cannabis Control Commission. Last month alone, the state reported over $140 million in sales. Marijuana sales have produced $264 million in tax revenue for the state and the communities where stores are located.

    Last year, the same commission released a dataset outlining the tax revenue benefits of marijuana legalization for municipalities that allow sales. The report said Arlington would bring in $309,000 in 2024. In reality, Arlington collected about half that much – $166,104.

    The town’s tax collection projections have been adjusted downward for next year, said Town Manager Jim Feeney. The last time Arlington reported an increase in revenue was 2022, the year after marijuana sales began in town.

    In Massachusetts, consumers typically pay three separate taxes totaling 20 percent on marijuana products, driving up their bill at the register: the 6.25 percent state sales tax, a 10.75 percent excise tax and usually a 3 percent local option tax.

    The state imposes the excise tax at the retailer level of the supply chain. Individual businesses collect the tax from customers and remit it to the state. That is on top of the statewide 6.25 percent sales tax that applies to most products sold in Massachusetts. Each municipality that allows recreational sales can also impose a local option tax of up to 3 percent, and most do.

    Since peaking at $340,940 in 2022, Arlington’s revenue from cannabis sales has steadily declined, dropping another $75,526 this year.

    Feeney said retailers have told him prices of products have dropped because of a drastic oversupply in the market. Local retailers have to compete harder for consumer attention, as buyers are overloaded with too many sellers and products.

    There are two dispensaries in Arlington, Eskar and Apothca.

    “This industry alone had such a huge expansion so quickly that the economy couldn’t support the growth,” said Anthony Lenoir, a longtime Apothca employee. “A lot of dispensaries are shutting down as the market has become so saturated. The state just wasn’t ready for such a big boom.”

    Eskar did not respond to repeated interview requests.

    Oversaturation, however, doesn’t seem to be the only cause for local retail stores to see a decline in business. Since recreational courier licenses were legalized in 2020, the annual revenue for delivery services has nearly quadrupled.

    In the first six months of this year, sales through online delivery services brought in $10.7 million in sales revenue, compared to $7.9 million from the same period the year before, according to the Cannabis Control Commission.

    As online delivery services become increasingly popular, it isn’t a surprise that in-person stores are closing across the state, Lenoir said. These delivery businesses operate without a storefront, mimicking a business model like Amazon, where the entire operation is done online with products stored in warehouses. And the convenience of delivery is making it hard for in-person stores to compete.

    When a consumer in Arlington orders cannabis products online through a delivery business based in a different municipality, Arlington does not collect that local tax revenue. Instead, the community where the delivery business is located gets the tax revenue.

    There are 451 cannabis businesses operating in the state. In the first months of 2025 alone, 23 cannabis stores in Massachusetts have surrendered or let their licenses expire, according to data from the Cannabis Control Commission obtained by the Boston Business Journal.

    Last year, 2.4 percent of adult-use marijuana retail licenses were surrendered. This year, the number jumped to 5.4 percent, according to data from the Cannabis Control Commission’s annual report.

    The number of licenses in Arlington has not changed. The two original dispensaries remain open. There has been an interest in opening a third business, even going as far as issuing another licensing agreement for the establishment; however, progress has stalled, said Feeney.

  • Marijuana revenue falling in Arlington as consumers move to delivery services

    Paige Albright

    Marijuana sales broke records statewide this year, but trends in Arlington are headed in the opposite direction.

    Since legal sales of recreational marijuana use in Massachusetts began in 2018, the industry has generated over $8.6 billion in sales, according to the Cannabis Control Commission. Last month alone, the state reported over $140 million in sales. Marijuana sales have produced $264 million in tax revenue for the state and the communities where stores are located.

    Last year, the same commission released a dataset outlining the tax revenue benefits of marijuana legalization for municipalities that allow sales. The report said Arlington would bring in $309,000 in 2024. In reality, Arlington collected about half that much – $166,104.

    The town’s tax collection projections have been adjusted downward for next year, said Town Manager Jim Feeney. The last time Arlington reported an increase in revenue was 2022, the year after marijuana sales began in town.

    In Massachusetts, consumers typically pay three separate taxes totaling 20 percent on marijuana products, driving up their bill at the register: the 6.25 percent state sales tax, a 10.75 percent excise tax and usually a 3 percent local option tax.

    The state imposes the excise tax at the retailer level of the supply chain. Individual businesses collect the tax from customers and remit it to the state. That is on top of the statewide 6.25 percent sales tax that applies to most products sold in Massachusetts. Each municipality that allows recreational sales can also impose a local option tax of up to 3 percent, and most do.

    Since peaking at $340,940 in 2022, Arlington’s revenue from cannabis sales has steadily declined, dropping another $75,526 this year.

    Feeney said retailers have told him prices of products have dropped because of a drastic oversupply in the market. Local retailers have to compete harder for consumer attention, as buyers are overloaded with too many sellers and products.

    There are two dispensaries in Arlington, Eskar and Apothca.

    “This industry alone had such a huge expansion so quickly that the economy couldn’t support the growth,” said Anthony Lenoir, a longtime Apothca employee. “A lot of dispensaries are shutting down as the market has become so saturated. The state just wasn’t ready for such a big boom.”

    Eskar did not respond to repeated interview requests.

    Oversaturation, however, doesn’t seem to be the only cause for local retail stores to see a decline in business. Since recreational courier licenses were legalized in 2020, the annual revenue for delivery services has nearly quadrupled.

    In the first six months of this year, sales through online delivery services brought in $10.7 million in sales revenue, compared to $7.9 million from the same period the year before, according to the Cannabis Control Commission.

    As online delivery services become increasingly popular, it isn’t a surprise that in-person stores are closing across the state, Lenoir said. These delivery businesses operate without a storefront, mimicking a business model like Amazon, where the entire operation is done online with products stored in warehouses. And the convenience of delivery is making it hard for in-person stores to compete.

    When a consumer in Arlington orders cannabis products online through a delivery business based in a different municipality, Arlington does not collect that local tax revenue. Instead, the community where the delivery business is located gets the tax revenue.

    There are 451 cannabis businesses operating in the state. In the first months of 2025 alone, 23 cannabis stores in Massachusetts have surrendered or let their licenses expire, according to data from the Cannabis Control Commission obtained by the Boston Business Journal.

    Last year, 2.4 percent of adult-use marijuana retail licenses were surrendered. This year, the number jumped to 5.4 percent, according to data from the Cannabis Control Commission’s annual report.

    The number of licenses in Arlington has not changed. The two original dispensaries remain open. There has been an interest in opening a third business, even going as far as issuing another licensing agreement for the establishment; however, progress has stalled, said Feeney.