Early last week, Suffolk University officials said that they had decided to scale down the size of its proposed new dorm, but many residents say the school is on the wrong track and should spend time planning for its future.

In response to neighborhood concerns about the size of the proposed dorm at 20 Somerset Street, the university decided to reduce the height from 31 stories to 22 and drop the number of students housed there from about 800 to between 520 and 550. It also will move the loading dock away from the adjacent Garden of Peace, a memorial to victims of homicide which supporters fear would be negatively impacted by the dorm.

Architectural plans for the revised building are currently being drawn, and no official documents have yet been forwarded to the Boston Redevelopment Authority, said Suffolk spokesman Michael Feeley.

Some residents feel the reduction in size is not a compromise at all but rather a strategy the university used to get what they wanted in the first place, said Molly Sherden, vice president of the Beacon Hill Civic Association. “It would be nice to say we all sat down and found a compromise, but this is really not a compromise.”

“I don’t know if that is true or not,” said state Representative Marty Walz. “But that’s not the conversation we should be having. In some sense, Suffolk has put the cart before the horse.”

Walz believes there are two things the university should be addressing: its master plan for growth and its student behavior. To its credit, she said, it has begun to work on the latter by putting into effect a new plan to reduce student misbehavior this fall. “But working with no master plan is a tremendous barrier,” said Walz. “We are all talking in a vacuum.”

The lack of a long-range plan for both academic and residential growth has been a source of frustration for members of the Suffolk Task Force. Chair Robert Whitney said without such a plan, university acquisitions appear “opportunist” and are difficult to evaluate. “The current and now changed proposal for residences in general is not part of their existing plan, and, as a result, it is difficult to see how the dorm fits into it,” he said.

Another task force member, Bowdoin Street resident Tim Padera, said he was disappointed that Suffolk said neighbors’ opposition was why it reduced the size of the building. “If this is a compromise, they have missed the point. In the task force meetings, we are trying to find where Suffolk is going. It seems to be planning for 2007 but not for 2027,” he said.

“The message we hoped it heard from the Beacon Hill community is that we are not comfortable with Suffolk expanding its campus here,” he said, referring to Suffolk’s goal to expand its campus to 5000 students, which means a gradual influx of 1000 additional students.

“To accommodate this goal, Suffolk needs to expand both its housing and its academic space, which are well below the nationally recommended sizes,” said Padera. “Just one dorm isn’t going to solve its housing problems. Where is it going? Now is the opportunity to plan for the future and shift its center of gravity near Tremont Street where there is more room for growth.”

That the neighborhood may not be able to absorb an additional influx of college students is of concern to the BHCA, said Sherden. “There is a delicate balance of age groups, income groups, businesses and institutions on the Hill. If we get too many of any one element, the balance is thrown over. We have to decide what the tipping point is of college students — is it another 500? 1000? What is the correct balance?”

An attorney herself, Sherden has been frustrated with the process so far and believes a real negotiation would be for residents to sit down, talk about a plan for future growth and look at other alternatives for locating the dorm. “The conversation should be about what is good for the neighborhood, what is good for Suffolk and what is good for its students,” she said.

Credit: Jacqueline G. Freeman
caption: The sewer underneath Charles Street will be under construction for the next few weeks.




Flatbed trucks lined end to end have dominated Charles Street’s streetscape since last week, as crews insert underground a 1,900 foot-long fiberglass liner that functions “like an open-toed sock” to reinforce the 112-year-old brick sewer below.

“Instead of excavating the entire street, which would cause a lot of disruption and noise, we’re using trenchless technology, said Tom Bagley, manager of community services for the Boston Water and Sewer Commission. The liner is being inserted through Charles Street’s manholes into the interceptor, which measures six feet in diameter underground, between Revere and Brimmer Streets. Linings have already been installed on Beacon Street between Brimmer and Dartmouth streets.

The project reached phase two on August 28, as construction began on the portion beneath Charles Street between Revere and Beacon streets. Roads will remain open during the project, which is expected to wrap up on October 1, according to Bagley.

Officially titled the Westside Interceptor Rehabilitation Project, rehabilitation of the sewer line snaking through Beacon Hill and the Back Bay entailed two phases during which the protective structural liner was laid inside. “Engineers tell us [the sewer will now last] anywhere between 50 and 100 years,” said Bagley. The $3 million project was funded by the commission’s Capital Improvement Program.

Construction began on phase one – the portion beneath Beacon Street between Charles and Dartmouth streets – on July 31, which may have a “tangible correlation” with a spike in residents’ rat-related complaints to City Councilor Michael Ross’ office. Although Ross’ office does not keep an official count of the complaints, “it’s usually a couple, but this summer has been dozens,” said Ross’ aide Sita Smith. ISD did not have figures available for the number of complaints received since the project began.

Citing a “precipitous increase in the rat population” of Beacon Hill and Back Bay, Ross called for an investigation of a possible link between the late-summer sewer rehabilitation project and the “explosion of rats.”

“I believe, though I am not certain, it has something to do with the Boston sewer project,” Ross told the council at its regular meeting last Wednesday. “This is not a topic I want to talk about every Wednesday, but I wouldn’t be here talking about it if it weren’t so egregious.”

The city’s Inspectional Services Department received 25 complaints from Beacon Hill and Back Bay for the month of August, when the sewer project began, five more than were received in August 2005. ISD received a total of 156 rat complaints from the Back Bay this year, as compared to the 101 received by this time last year. Beacon Hill complaints have remained relatively stable – 33 this year compared to 34 last year, according to ISD spokesperson Lisa Timberlake.

Ross said that, while he is wary of bringing “constituent issues” to the council, “this matter has risen to a level where we need to get the council involved.” He said that residents have been reporting encounters with “a different kind of rat,” larger and more aggressive, as the sewer project has progressed.

Ross told the council that the project’s contractors, New Jersey-based Spiniello Companies, and the subcontractor, Waltham Pest Control, failed to treat the area with rat poison and traps. “To not put baiting into these projects is equivalent to being a dentist and not using Novocain on a patient. You just can’t do it,” he said.

This is untrue, according to Bagley, who said Thursday that the entire project had been baited on seven occasions, including around manholes and at surface intersections. He said that he could not explain Ross’ comment, suggesting it might have been due to a lack of communication. “Had he been in contact with us, we would have informed him we baited,” he said.

All major projects require the implementation of a baiting program, Bagley said. He acknowledged that the project might have exacerbated the neighborhoods’ rat problems. “It’s always a possibility when you go into manholes,” he said. “and when you disturb an area with loud noises, rats tend to move.”

The sewer’s new, protective lining may help keep rats from escaping the sewer in the future, according to Bagley. “Nothing will be able to penetrate it,” he said.

John Meaney, the city’s principal health inspector, agreed that there might be a link between the project and increased rat sightings in the neighborhoods. “There’s always the possibility anytime you sanitize a sewer,” he said.

Meaney said that he planned to meet with Waltham Pest Control Thursday night to review the subcontractor’s plans. Waltham Pest began a sewer baiting campaign that night and will implement an intense subsurface baiting program this week, according to Meaney.

A date for Ross’ hearing, which will be open to the general public, has not yet been announced. The Boston Water and Sewer Commission and the city’s Inspectional Services Department will provide information on current inspection policies and procedures at the hearing.

PHOTO CREDIT: Suzanne Besser

Babek Bina poured wine last week at the bar of the new restaurant he opened with his sister Azita Bina-Seibel at 26 Charles Street. Bina said the concept behind “Bin 26 Enoteca” (“eno” references wine while “teca” means bar) is to have fun and relax in a friendly environment, whether stopping in for a single glass of wine and a bite of food or for a special occasion dinner. The wine book has 150 selections from around the world, with 50 wines sold by the glass. Azita, executive chef, will oversee the preparation of seasonal menus reflecting the different regions of Italy. The restaurant will be open for lunch and dinner seven days a week.

The Sunday School issue

In 2006 in Boston, how does a parent address spiritual issues?

On the one hand religion has gotten a bad name and many families have cut connections with their churches. There are the Catholic priest scandals and the disconnect between Vatican hierarchy’s stance on social issues and the laity, who are mostly using birth control and happily attending gay weddings.

There is the embarrassment among Protestants about the religious hypocrisy practiced by politicians like President Bush and leaders of Protestant fundamentalist churches who decry abortion, while approving the Iraqi war’s human destruction and refusing to take care of what should be, in their minds, God’s earth.

There is the fear about extremism among people who are repelled by religious fanatics with a take-no-prisoners approach, whether they are Osama bin Laden or John Ashcroft, the former attorney general. There is the fear in general—it seems among all religions—that they must circle the wagons, protecting themselves from the savages who are coming at them. One might hope that, at the root of it all, there would be compassion for all human conditions and a respect for others’ points of view, but that hasn’t necessarily been the outcome of a religious stance.

On the other hand, most parents recognize that religions can help answer questions about the meaning of life and how those lives might be lived. They can provide a refuge from the commercial world and popular culture, with liturgies that stretch back centuries, music that can’t be found on your local radio stations, comments on contemporary life and, in Boston at least, architecture that is heavenly. They provide a place for life’s great transitions—births, a coming of age, marriages, deaths. It’s handy to have a place for these.

A religious education also provides reference points. You won’t understand jokes about fig leaves unless you know the story of the creation. You won’t understand a reference to the wisdom of Solomon unless you know who Solomon was and what he did.

At a time in which schools and workplaces are relentlessly multi-cultural, churches, mosques and temples often aren’t. They offer familiarity, with a narrower range of class and culture than most institutions provide. This, in itself, is relaxing. You’re with people of your own kind.

Perhaps that’s the rub. How does a society like ours balance a desire to preserve culture — in other words, the ability to be with one’s own kind — with a need to blend those cultures into one that shares enough values, goals and aspirations to enjoy freedom, tranquility and respect for others’ points of view? How does a religion maintain itself while accepting intermarriage and members who don’t fully subscribe to all that religion’s precepts?

You won’t find the answers to these questions here. But they need to be discussed, and children’s religious education is a place to start. Children can learn the stories and the origins of their religion’s customs and beliefs. But religious education doesn’t end there.

In America, because of the clash of cultures and religious thought, religion is a continual presence, even if one considers oneself not religious. Religious education might help a budding citizen prepare for that lifelong situation.

In this issue, we provide a guide to the opportunities for your child in this realm.