photo and text by Tory Glerum





Summer splashing began last Friday at the official opening of the Boston Common Frog Pond, which will offer supervised wading for youngsters from 11 a.m to 6 p.m every day until Labor Day. Children and their families enjoyed arts and crafts activities, face painting, magic tricks and free treats provided by sponsors such as Snapple and Cabot Creamery Cheese as they waited for Mayor Thomas M. Menino to cut the ribbon, and the festivities continued into the afternoon with music and a luau party in the spray pool.

CAPTION: Cessy Templeton plans to stay involved in civic affairs.




Cessy Templeton (pronounced Chessy) reaches several milestones this year. The Chestnut Street resident turned 35, she’s having a baby in late July, and she has to leave Mayor Menino’s ONEin3 Advisory Council.

Of course, the baby is the important thing. But her service on the ONEin3 is also important: She hopes that during the last two years she and the council have helped make the city the kind of place where she wants to raise that child.

Templeton joined the council about two years ago after she saw an item about it in The Beacon Hill Times.

“I hadn’t known anything about it, but I was a committed resident who wanted to be a long-term resident,” she explained. “I thought it might be a place where I could provide some insight. I had no idea what I was getting into.”

What she got into was a group of 30 young people between the ages of 24 and 34, an age group the Mayor’s office says comprises fully one-third of Boston’s population. “The concepts are abstract,” said Templeton. “The big issues we can’t tackle, but we provide policy advice and insight into what this age-group is thinking.”

Templeton sat on the housing committee, one of four advisory council sub-committees. The others focus on young families, the socio-cultural world and civic engagement. The entire group meets bi-monthly to hear what all the committees are doing

She said her committee focused on renters and how to keep renters as well as owners in the city. “We looked at various resources for housing,” she said. “We made recommendations as to how to make it more user-friendly and appealing.”

Templeton said the most visible example of the kind of influence the ONEin3 Advisory Council exerts was last summer during the World Cup. Soccer fans on the socio-cultural committee suggested that the city get a direct feed from Germany and display the games on a Jumbotron on City Hall Plaza. They intended it to be a good chance for young people in the city to enjoy an event together. The Mayor’s office made it happen, and as luck would have it, Italy made it to the finals and won, which was a boon for a city with a large Italian population.

She said that another visible achievement of the group was a suggestion from the young families sub-committee that caused the Boston Public Schools to improve its website.

A real estate investment banker working in private equity in real life, Templeton has to leave the advisory council because her age makes her no longer eligible.

She’s glad she participated, however, for the two-year period. “The committee made contributions and they really listen, taking action on what they can,” she said.

After she settles into motherhood, Templeton plans to look around for other activities. “It was my first real foray into civic involvement,” she said. “It’s important to stay involved and engaged.”

SIDEBAR

Mayor Menino is looking for applicants for his ONEin3 Advisory Council. Applicants have to be between 24 and 34 years of age and live in Boston. The council meets bi-monthly and every six months with Mayor Menino. All council members serve on one of four committees focusing on housing, the socio-cultural scene, young families and civic engagement. To apply for one of the 15 open seats, call Devin Cole at 617-918-4303 or email him at Devin.Cole.bra@cityofboston.gov.

Storrow Drive should be a parkway, not a major road carrying as much traffic as the Mass Pike, which it does now. That’s the consensus of the Storrow Drive advisory committee, the neighborhood group that was assembled to consider several options about what to do with the 1950s road through the Esplanade now that the tunnel between Arlington and Clarendon streets is deteriorated and in need of fixing.

Identifying the ideal option is still up in the air, even though the committee’s work is winding down. Committee members must comment in writing on the pros and cons of the options by July 13. On July 30, the Department of Conservation and Recreation, the state agency that owns Storrow Drive and the Esplanade, must file a report identifying the option it prefers and detailing the environmental effects of all six options now under consideration.

All six plans are still on the table, according to participants, who have come to believe that state officials have focused too narrowly on the traffic conditions along that roadway without understanding how traffic might be diverted from it onto other major roads.

“[State officials] have been defining the problem as the road between the river and Back Street,” said Steve Wintermeier of Commonwealth Avenue. “But the problem is so much bigger than that.”

Participants were grim about the chances of reclaiming any meaningful amount of parkland. “I’d be willing to give up getting on or off in certain locations to get the park back,” said Peter Thomson of Bellingham Place. Plans that return a significant amount of land to the Esplanade are among the most expensive to build and maintain.

Committee members agreed they wanted more cooperation from state agencies such as the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority, Mass. Highway and the MBTA in taking cars off Storrow Drive.

While committee members have not weighed in publicly on a preference for any plan, a private poll revealed that many participants lean toward Option B3, which eliminates the tunnel, but depresses the roadway in both directions. Some residents might see disadvantages in that this plan eliminates the westbound entrance at Berkeley Street, forcing local drivers to Charles Circle or Charlesgate if they want to head west on Storrow Drive. It also provides no exit for eastbound drivers at Arlington. It adds only a narrow strip of green space to the Esplanade along fast-moving traffic.

Advocates point out that a new 12-foot wide footbridge included in this plan has potential, and the cost for B3 is significantly less than most other options.

But committee members had little confidence that the cost estimates the state has provided compare apples to apples.

Participants agreed that their letters in this round would not identify their choice of a plan, but primarily ask questions and state principles on which a decision should be based.

The Commonwealth Shakespeare Company, a program of the Citi Performing Arts Center, will continue the tradition of bringing free Shakespeare to the Common this summer with their production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream but with a much shorter run than the past few years. Shows, which used to go for over three weeks, will now only be given on six days, from Tuesday July 24 through Saturday July 28 at 8 p.m, Saturday at 3 p.m, and Sunday July 29 at 7 p.m.

According to Lynne Kortenhaus, spokesperson for the Citi Performing Arts Center, CSC had to reduce the number of performances because they, like many other artistic institutions these days, are simply not getting enough financial support from individuals, corporations, or foundations. After investing $4 million in CSC, the Center has not been able to raise enough to match that amount. They also recently lost Target as a sponsor.

“People say they love Free Shakespeare, but we need them to put their money where their mouth is,” Kortenhaus said. “Somebody has to pay for it.”

In order to maintain their budget and still ensure the high caliber of future Free Shakespeare performances, CSC had to make the decision to shorten this year’s run. “We had the funds to provide one week of shows,” she said. “We were not willing to sacrifice the quality or longevity of Free Shakespeare for years to come.”

Kortenhaus said that CSC hopes to start fresh and build up philanthropic support for Free Shakespeare in the future. “If everybody who came gave just $5, we could run shows for the entire summer,” she said.

Despite reducing the number of performances, however, Commonwealth Shakespeare Company has added two open dress rehearsals on Saturday, July 21, and Sunday, July 22, at 8 p.m so that the public can catch a behind-the-scenes glimpse of a professional production. They will also be offering backstage tours, workshops, and lectures on Saturday, July 28, as part of their second annual Celebrate Shakespeare Program.

In addition, Free Shakespeare has moved their stage this summer from the Parade Ground back to it’s original location at the Parkman Bandstand. This relocation corresponds with the CSC’s desire to perform A Midsummer Night’s Dream, the very first show they produced 12 years ago, in a more intimate outdoor setting.

To learn more about this summer’s performances, or how you can help keep Shakespeare free, call the CSC Hotline at 617-532-1212 or visit their website at www.freeshakespeare.org.

The Beacon Hill Times follows the progress, or lack thereof, on Cambridge Street through direct observation and interviews with the project’s supervisor John Lepore.

Progress during the week of June 25 - 29

Traffic signals: No work, but Best Electric is scheduled to return this week. The only problem is that with the Fourth of July, this week is a short one.

Plantings: Continues. The Beacon Hill Times has had several calls complaining that a good number of the plants are dead or dying. Workers have been observed watering. The landscape consultant will return after all is planted and “accept or reject” the plants, according to Lepore. Rejected plants will be replaced.

Lepore said the workers tell him that people are jumping into the median to cross the street, and they are breaking the irrigation lines and stomping on the plants. He suggests that the maintenance agreement contain provisions for replacing plants until the shrubs grow large enough to deter jaywalkers.

Street paving: Lepore scheduled paving this past weekend from Charles Circle to Blossom Street. The rest of the street will be paved on subsequent weekends.

The celebration of America

Again we publish this hymn in honor of Independence Day. The words are moving. They don’t boast. They don’t futilely wave a flag. They don’t pontificate or insist that one must believe this way or that to be patriotic.

Instead the hymn asks for God’s blessing. This humility seems appropriate in an era in which we are wreaking havoc on the world.

This hymn celebrates the nation’s natural beauty. Will we have that beauty in 20 years, with global warming not addressed? It celebrates self-control and sternness, two qualities our leaders have not asked of us, even though thousands of our young people are at war.

It equates liberty with law. Those who supervise Guantanamo Bay and spy on American citizens might be surprised to learn that the two are connected.

It hopes for nobility, not lies and deception. The song honors the America with the values we want in our country, not the ones we have recently seen practiced. Perhaps its ideal is unattainable. But on July 4, 1776, the founders of our republic must have felt their goals were just as unreachable.


America, the Beautiful
by Katharine Lee Bates

O beautiful for spacious skies
For amber waves of grain
For purple mountain majesties
Above the fruited plain.
America! America! God shed His grace on thee,
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea.

O beautiful for pilgrim feet,
Whose stern impassion'd stress
A thoroughfare for freedom beat
Across the wilderness.
America! America! God mend thine ev'ry flaw,
Confirm thy soul in self control,
Thy liberty in law.

O beautiful for heroes prov'd
In liberating strife,
Who more than self their country loved,
And mercy more than life.
America! America! May God thy gold refine
Till all success be nobleness
And ev'ry gain divine.

O beautiful for patriot dream
That sees beyond the years.
Thine alabaster cities gleam,
Undimmed by human tears.
America! America! God shed his grace on thee,
And crown thy good with brotherhood,
From sea to shining sea.