The Make Way for Duckling statues, created by sculptor Nancy Schon in celebration of Robert McCloskey’s book of the same name, turned 20 this weekend. A birthday party was held in the Public Garden.
The Mayor and sculptor Nancy Schon (far right) joined children in blowing out the candles on the birthday cake.
The Boston Lyric Opera transformed the Grand Ballroom of the Fairmont Copley Plaza into the Latin Quarter of Paris for their annual fundraising ball, "La vie de boheme — A Night at cafe Momus," on Friday, September 28. The La boheme-themed occasion featured a French bistro style dinner, a live auction and performances featuring several of Boston's young artists. Proceeds raised will benefit BLO's Calderwood Audience Development Fund. The BLO's 2007-2008 season opens with La boheme on November 2 at the Citi Shubert Theatre.
IN PHOTO: Composer Todd Machover with Marie and Parker Llewelyn, Longfellow Place.
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 October 1 - 5
Traffic signals: No progress.
Street paving: No progress. The street in front the Hurley building cannot be paved until the trailer is moved.
Last week, the city’s Inspectional Services Department tagged many news boxes along the borders of Beacon Hill for violating city codes. Some have inched past the edge of the historic district, where they are not allowed, while others have not been properly cleaned or refilled.
According to the city’s news box ordinance, boxes must be properly registered, and stationed less than 18 inches or more than 24 inches from the curb. They are not allowed inside an historic district or within five feet of a fire hydrant or lane, mailbox, pay phone, handicapped ramp, traffic sign, driveway, or bicycle rack. They must not protrude into the street and must be free standing, rather than attached to other boxes or signposts. Owners must keep the boxes in good condition, making sure they are not covered in graffiti or advertisements, always filled with updated copies of the newspaper or magazine, and standing upright at all times.
ISD is required to mark offending boxes and send photographs and notes about them to the city’s Public Works Department, said Captain Mike Mackan of ISD. “Things get moved out of place,” he said. “It’s hard to find a spot on a corner that does not run into crosswalks and handicapped ramps, or anything else. However, we get a lot of complaints about them so we need to continually go out and check.”
At the intersection of Charles and Cambridge Streets, for instance, his department has received complaints from neighbors who say it is hard to walk past the boxes when they move out of place. An area should never have more than five news boxes in a row, another reason boxes get ticketed, he said.
When they find a violation, ISD officers place a green warning ticket on the offending box. If the problem remains when officers check again, they stick on a red ticket. At this point, box owners must remove their property or face losing it to the city.
Confusion at intersection of Cambridge and Joy streets: When can pedestrians cross? by Mike Nesper
It’s a sunny Tuesday afternoon on Beacon Hill. You make your way down Myrtle Street. After picking up the latest issue of the Beacon Hill Times, you make a left down Joy Street. Just before heading to Whole Foods for lunch, you decide to get some cash from Bank of America. Then you wait to cross Cambridge Street; and you wait, and wait, and wait. When you look at the crossing signal, which is partially covered by another sign, the signal indicates “walk” but traffic continues to move down Cambridge Street. Because the crosswalk is on the right hand side of the intersection, there is never a time when traffic is clear. You have to make a run for it to cross the street.
This is the scene that several Beacon Hill residents have recently noticed. “We’re getting complaints about [the crosswalk] every other day,” said Suzanne Besser, executive director of the BHCA.
Besser also said that many are confused because the traffic lights don’t work on a consistent basis, thus magnifying the problem.
Besides the lack of crossing time for pedestrians, the crosswalk itself is on an inconvenient side of the street. Located to the right of the intersection of Cambridge Street and Joy Street, the crosswalk’s placement forces pedestrians to cross the street in front of traffic.
“We have not received any complaints about the crosswalk,” said Jim Mansfield, director of community affairs for the BTD. The BTD is responsible for the placement and/or relocation of the crosswalk as well as any repairs made on the traffic lights and crossing signals.
According to Mansfield, the Cambridge and Joy streets‚ crosswalk may be deemed a concurrent crosswalk, allowing pedestrians and turning traffic to move at the same time, with walkers having the right of way. Signs indicating a concurrent crosswalk would be posted at the intersection if the BTD considers it a concurrent crosswalk, but no official comment can be made at this time, said Mansfield.
Steve Young, who chairs the traffic and parking committee for the BHCA, said the committee is working with the city to rectify the problem. Because of mixed authority between the Massachusetts Highway Department and BTD surrounding the Cambridge Street construction, there has been delay and confusion in regards to the crosswalk problem.
The BTD sent engineers to the site Thursday, October 4, 2007, to assess the situation, said Mansfield. No further comment from the BTD can be made at this point.
The Massachusetts Highway Department could not be reached for comment on the situation.
A wind farm on City Hall Plaza? That’s the latest suggestion from the frustrated Tom Menino. It would certainly be an improvement over what is there now — broken bricks, a concrete patch and a parking lot for cars of unidentified people.
But the real issue is City Hall itself. Will Boston tear down this bunker, or will it renovate it in such a way that it wins the hearts and minds of its users, especially Mayor Menino, and the city’s citizenry? We urge the city to renovate it. It would be satisfying, but environmentally irresponsible, to tear it down.
Most Bostonians, including Mayor Menino, don’t like the building. It’s ugly, and it has major flaws, such as not being able to hear in the hearing rooms, and the plaza is just plain pitiful.
The architectural community has defended the building. They have proposed that the building be landmarked. In fact, the magazine ArchitectureBoston, published by the Boston Society of Architects, identified the problems the building has and challenged six young design teams to solve those problems.
Both architects and the general public can agree on the building’s problems. According to ArchitectureBoston, the building is too opaque, too big, too confusing inside, too ugly, too dark, too empty in the public spaces, too costly to run and too isolated and inaccessible.
The magazine noted that Boston City Hall’s architects, Gerhard Kallmann and Michael McKinnell, who saw the building as based on the idea of an ancient castle, encouraged change.
“When we designed the City Hall,” they wrote, “we envisioned not only a fragment of the city, but also a fragment in time.
That is to say, we regarded the construction of the building to be the start of a process that would engage successive generations of the citizenry in the embellishment, decoration, and adornment of the robust armature that we had designed.”
So the architecture community has taken them at their word and mounted a spirited campaign to rework the building in a 2010 kind of way.
The products of the young architects’ imagination are shown in the September/October issue of ArchitectureBoston, at the pinkcomma gallery at 81B Wareham Street in the South End and at http://www.architects.org/publications.
Their visions may or may not be what we want for Boston City Hall. But they show that we can remake this place. We should get started now.
The Beacon Hill Civic Association in conjunction with the Beacon Hill Business Association and the Boston Public Works Department will hold its Beacon Hill Fall Fest cleanup Saturday, October 20, from 9 a.m. to noon.
The day is all about having “good clean fun,” said Suzanne Besser, executive director of the BHCA.
Neighbors can meet at any of three locations (Myrtle Street playground, Phillips Street playground or Store 24 on Cambridge Street) and help clean up the Hill before winter.
Supplies, donated by the BPWD, including rakes, brooms, gloves and trash bags, can be picked up at all three meeting locations. Fall Fest T-shirts with the words “Clean Beacon Hill” printed on them will also be handed out.
Participants are encouraged to form teams to help reach the goal of cleaning the whole Hill, said Besser.
According to Besser, improving cleanliness on Beacon Hill has always been a major concern of the BHCA. Since its inception in 1922, the BHCA has had some form of a community cleanup event every year, said Besser.
The city of Boston is also getting involved. They have agreed to wash a few streets with a street cleaner, though specific ones are unknown at this time.
All the leaves collected from the streets will be used, together with hay, overalls, and, of course, a straw hat, to make scarecrows, which will be placed in neighborhood playgrounds as decoration, said Besser. Neighbors can also take a break from cleaning and paint a pumpkin.
After the cleanup, the BHCA will host a picnic for all participants at its office located at 74 Joy Street from 12 to 1 p.m. Complimentary food and beverages donated from local businesses will be served.
The food includes pizza, provided by the Upper Crust, and mini cheeseburgers, provided by the
Paramount. Infinity Portrait Designs is also donating food. Charles Street Liquors is donating Gatorade,
and Store 24 is supplying participants with beverages too.
For the kids, Cambridge Trust Company will hand out “kids packs.” The packs will contain a yo-yo,
slinky and a box of chalk.
“I‚m really excited about the cleanup this year,” said Besser. “I hope to get everyone involved and
have a good time doing it.”
)
)