In the aftermath of two recent attempted robberies on Beacon Hill, more than 75 residents joined police, elected officials and community leaders at a public meeting at Mount Vernon Street firehouse Thursday night to discuss what Captain Bernard O’Rourke of the Boston Police Department described as an “aberration” in the neighborhood.
At approximately 9:55 p.m. on May 19, a victim who stated she was walking her dog and talking on her iPhone when a group of black and Hispanic teenagers approached her at the corner of West Cedar and Mt. Vernon streets, according to police. One suspect grabbed the iPhone out of her hand, and the group fled. The victim chased the suspects as they ran at the corner of Beacon and Spruce streets towards the Boston Common. Three witnesses, identified as vacationing, off-duty Tennessee state troopers, stopped and restrained a 17-year-old male suspect until police arrived and arrested him on the scene.
“We’re fairly certain that the suspect will give the names of the other suspects,” O’Rourke said, adding that the youth had a “very minor arrest record”.
One day earlier, on May 18, at approximately 11:15 a.m., a 22-year-old Fisher College student was walking down Charles Street from the Charles/MGH MBTA station toward his Beacon Street apartment when a group of three or four black males approached him. One suspect attempted to take the victim’s iPod. The victim screamed and refused to give up his property. The victim, who suffered a wrist injury, got up from the sidewalk and ran down Charles Street towards Beacon Street, while the suspects fled in the direction of Charles Circle. No arrests have been made to date.
Earlier in the evening on May 18, O’Rourke said a citizen was robbed of his cell phone on Arlington Street in the Back Bay, adding that police believe the same suspects were involved in both incidents.
Two additional robberies took place on Beacon Hill this year.
At about 11:17 p.m. on Saturday, March 21, a victim reported approximately seven Hispanic males threw him to the ground, robbing him of his wallet at the intersection of Louisburg Square and Pinckney Street. The victim suffered heavy swelling and bruising under his left eye and temple area at the time. Soon afterwards, three suspects were arrested on the Boston Common and charged with unarmed robbery.
O’Rourke said on March 21, an individual was accosted by a group of youths who fit the description of the suspects wanted in connection with the robbery later that evening, but he failed to alert police to the incident at the time.
“Had he called, we probably would have stopped the individuals prior to the robbery,” O’Rourke said.
One resident countered O’Rourke’s claim and said his wife called 911 to notify police of a suspicious group of youths a short time before the attempted robbery on May 19. The call taker instructed the woman to call Area A-1 headquarters instead, perhaps failing to prevent the crime.
O’Rourke said he would bring the call taker’s response to the attention of the Boston Police Operations Department, which manages 911 calls, and encouraged residents to contact him directly if call takers are uncooperative. “There was a disconnect somewhere, and the call taker clearly made a mistake,” he said.
The first robbery took place on February 16, when a group of youths robbed a 53-year-old man of his wallet at knifepoint on Pinckney Street. No arrests have been made in that case to date.
O’Rourke said police are investigating a loosely connected group of high school students from Brighton and other nearby communities known as Most Violent Prophet, or “MVP,” in connection with all four robberies. “As for it being the same group of kids, it’s hard to tell now,” he said.
As for police response following the most recent attempted robberies, O’Rourke said directed patrols of Beacon Hill were increased following the May 18 incident, but he added that the Mounted Unit – a regular presence in the neighborhood for many years – was slated to be cut next month, due to budget cuts.
City Council President Mike Ross, who mediated the meeting with O’Rourke, Sgt. Tom Lema of Boston Police and Beacon Hill Civic Association Safety Committee Chair Paula O’Keeffe, described the high turnout at the meeting as a testament to the strong sense of community in the neighborhood, and also as a potential deterrent to future robberies.
“The response here tonight is impressive and important,” Ross said. “The best defense is knowing your neighbor…so you can tell who does and doesn’t belong in your community.”

Lt. Gov. Tim Murray (right) was the guest speaker at the Boston Ward 5 Democratic Committee annual cocktail party and fundraiser May 27 at Lir Restaurant. Murray is pictured with Committee Chairman Rob Whitney.

A standing-room crowd at City Hall last week largely supported the Boston Landmarks Commission’s recommendation to designate the Charles River Esplanade as a Boston landmark, but nearly half of those who attended the public hearing requested an amendment to approve construction of a permanent fence around Teddy Ebersol’s Red Sox Fields.
According to the study report that the Landmarks Commission presented at the May 26 meeting, the linear park that extends along the Charles River meets the criteria for landmark designation found in Chapter 772 of the Acts of 1975, amended, because it has brought about significant historical, social, cultural, architectural and aesthetic improvements to the city, the commonwealth and New England region. To this point, the Esplanade was listed on the National Register of Historic Places as part of the Charles River Basin Historic District in 1978, which led the creation of the Metropolitan Park System in the 1890s and is the work of three historically significant American landscape architects – Frederick Law Olmsted Sr., Charles Eliot and Arthur Shurcliff.
State Rep. Marty Walz said she supported the landmark designation with great enthusiasm. She also asked the Landmarks Commission to consider extending the boundaries of the landmark area to include the granite seawall along the Charlesbank, parkland in the area of Arlington, Berkeley and Clarendon streets that may be created as part of the tunnel reconstruction project by the state’s Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR), and a parcel of DCR-owned parkland that now serves as a parking lot for the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary and that may be returned to green space in the future.
The study area now “includes the parkland that extends from the upstream edge of the Craigie Drawbridge to the downstream edge of the Boston University Bridge,” and doesn’t include parkways under the jurisdiction of DCR, according to the Landmarks Commission report.
City Council President Mike Ross also endorsed landmark designation for the Esplanade, adding that a petition circulated by Beacon Hill resident Linda Cox in support of the status change garnered 850 signatures - including those of Ross and eight other Boston city councilors - although only 10 signatures were needed for consideration by the Landmarks Commissions.
DCR, which previously proposed the removal of hundreds of trees and pavement of the area around the Hatch Shell as part of permanent repairs to the Storrow Drive Tunnel, opposed the landmark designation.
In a May 26 letter to Boston Landmarks Commission Chairman Susan Pranger, DCR Commissioner Richard K. Sullivan Jr. said the DCR, as the state agency responsible for stewardship of the Esplanade, believes that the site is already afforded the “highest level of parkland protection under the Massachusetts Constitution.” He added that the Massachusetts Historical Commission carefully preserves the historic character of the Esplanade, which is already protected parkland because of its inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places. Furthermore, Sullivan wrote, the Esplanade couldn’t accurately be called a landmark, since it isn’t a single property.
Meanwhile, representatives for the nonprofits Red Sox Foundation and Hill House were among those who said they would support the landmark designation on the condition that the Landmark Commission amend its report to allow for the construction of a permanent ornamental fence to replace a temporary chain-link fence that now encloses Teddy Ebersol’s Red Sox Fields.
In response, Jeffry Pond of the Landmarks Commission said, “Our decision will not be based on whether or not there is a fence. We understand things change. Our job is to make it work for everybody.”
Susan Pranger then called for the formation a subcommittee to evaluate whether language used in the report for the Esplanade’s landmark designation would preclude construction of the fence, and to review the boundaries of the study area.

At a meeting sponsored by the state’s Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) last week, a controversial proposal to build a permanent fence around the Teddy Ebersol’s Red Sox Fields on the Charles River Esplanade was presented to the public for the first time.
DCR has allocated approximately $190,000 from the $4.8 million budgeted for repairs to Storrow Drive to build a permanent 6-foot ornamental steel fence to replace a temporary chain-link fence that now surrounds the baseball and soccer fields. Dedicated on June 10, 2006, the Teddy Ebersol’s Red Sox Fields honor the memory of Edward “Teddy” Ebersol, the 14-year-old son of broadcasting giant Dick Ebersol, who was killed in a plane crash in Montrose County, Colo., in 2004.
According to Nick Gove, acting regional director of DCR’s Urban Parks North Region, the goals for the proposed permanent fence are: to ensure the public safety of ballplayers and bicyclists and pedestrians on the adjacent Esplanade path; to limit public access to the fields from dusk to dawn; to facilitate operations and maintenance of the site; and to enhance the visitor experience and the aesthetic nature of the area. The new fencing would be placed behind the tree line, set back between 16 and 24 feet from the location of the existing fence. The fields would be accessible from nine gates, instead of the five gates that currently provide entry to the site.
In early April, the fence proposal received unanimous approval from the Friends of Teddy Ebersol’s Red Sox Fields, a collaborative composed of nominated representatives from three local nonprofits- Hill House, the Esplanade Association and the Red Sox Foundation- that contributed nearly $2 million in private donations to the construction of the fields and continues to spend $100,000 annually on their maintenance.
Soon afterwards, however, Jeryl Oristaglio, president of the Esplanade Association, countered that while the organization’s representative to the Friends group had voted in favor of the proposal, he cast his ballot on his own behalf and hadn’t consulted with the Esplanade Association board before he voted. Instead, Oristaglio said, “The Esplanade Association is not supporting the… fence proposal because our research indicates there are other field management strategies that are being used by other historic parks that we believe should be reviewed by the DCR and the Friends.”
At the May 27 meeting, Oristaglio said the Esplanade Association hadn’t entirely ruled out the proposed fence, but she suggested the temporary fence should remain in place for another athletic season, to allow ample opportunity to review site plans and additional information for its replacement.
“We are committed to preserving the fields and safeguarding children,” Oristaglio said. “If at the end of the discussion, a 6-foot fence is chosen to be the best alternative, then we would support it.”
Meg Vaillancourt, president of the Friends group and executive director of the Red Sox Foundation, pointed to the immediate need for a permanent fence to preserve the fields that were once rendered nearly unusable because they had fallen into such a state of disrepair.
“We predict what will happen to this wonderful gift to the commonwealth is that they will be destroyed as quickly as they were before,” Vaillancourt said.
Meanwhile, David Beardsley, executive director of Hill House, said the organization felt strongly that a fence was necessary for public safety.
“It’s very easy for children to wander off the path or into the river if there’s not a fence there to stop them,” Beardsley said.
State Rep. Marty Walz said she was working with stakeholders to find a solution that ensures public safety, field maintenance, and public access to the park. She said she welcomes comments from her constituents on the issue at 617-722-2070 or via e-mail at marty.walz@state.ma.us.

Two were arrested in connection with a shooting around Cambridge Street last week, according to Boston Police.
On May 24 at approximately 2:04 a.m., Area A-1 officers in the area of Cambridge Street heard several gunshots coming from the area of Staniford Street and responded to the location, where they found a black male lying on the ground, with an apparent gunshot wound. They also observed a black firearm and several spent casings on the ground near the victim. The officers then noticed two black males fleeing from the scene.
While one officer stayed with the victim to await medical treatment, the other chased the fleeing suspects. The pursuing officer gave a detailed description of the suspects and requested additional units to assist. Soon afterwards, both suspects were located and detained. Several witnesses were located at the crime scene and provided officers with positive identifications of two suspects, who were then placed into custody.
Raymond Harris, 23, of Quincy, and Jack Ford, 23, of Boston, were arrested on the scene and charged with assault with intent to murder and unlawful possession of a firearm.
The victim was transported to Massachusetts General Hospital for treatment for a non-life threatening gunshot wound to the leg.

A nice night

Beacon Hill has often been referred to as a small village. Everything that one needs can be found within a five-minute walk from one’s home.
Besides residents’ having the benefit of living in an historic district with its many charms and a few not so charming features, such as brick sidewalks on an icy winter morning, the stores on Charles Street add a character that makes the Hill a unique neighborhood.
This Thursday night, from 5 to 8 p.m., more than 20 stores will offer a summer stroll. Similar to the holiday stroll held in December, shop owners will open their stores to all, with refreshments and special offers.
The only difference between the two strolls is that the weather should be much more pleasant than what we experience in December.
The window displays with the many one-of-a-kind antiques or truly distinctive gift items are worth strolling down to see.
We hope many residents will take the time to stop by these stores that play such a vital part in keeping our neighborhood one of the most desirable in Boston.