Some slightly off-the-beaten-path stories you may have missed this past week:

— The referendum is not nearly as radical as some think: “Research: Starter Homes Ballot Question Would Unlock Hundreds of Houses Per Year” (Banker & Tradesman)

— He couldn’t find another Democrat to vouch for him, not one? “In new ad, she’s a Democrat backing GOP gubernatorial hopeful Mike Minogue. Left unsaid: She’s also his neighbor” (Globe)

— WTF? “South Boston lemonade stand robbed at gunpoint, police say” (Herald)

— The Boston City Council’s latest circus act: “Youth-jobs protesters shut down City Council budget deliberations; seven arrested” (Universal Hub)

— An interesting look at the economic views of modern democratic socialists, but it glosses over the entire social-justice/identify politics aspect of today’s democratic socialism: “Gen-Z socialism, from Zohran to Zack and beyond” (Economist)

— Speaking of democratic socialists, they’ve suffered a political setback in an unlikely place: “San Francisco Rejects a Tax Hike on Companies With Highly Paid Executives” (WSJ)

— The Times’ core white upper-middleclass readership loves this stuff: “A Paris Pied-à-Terre, Designed for a Daughter” (NYT)

— Speaking of white upper-middleclass sensibilities: “Cape Cod planning board denies Trader Joe’s, citing expected ‘chaos’” (BBJ)

— Russia’s historic view of warfare is entirely different from our view of warfare: “Putin’s deliberate brutality in Ukraine has a backstory” (Washington Post)

— The sad death of a scholarly giant: “Gordon S. Wood, Pioneering Historian of Early America, Dies at 92” (NYT)