New students arriving
Dear Editor:
It is fall on Beacon Hill and time to welcome new residents with some important reminders! 75% of all rental apartments in Boston change hands in early September. So to you, new neighbors – welcome to the wonderful world of Beacon Hill! We hope you are here because you love our historic neighborhood, beautiful streets, wonderful trees, our period buildings and quaint brick sidewalks, which lead you easily to all of Boston. We hope you love Beacon Hill because it’s quiet, beautiful and historic. It has been maintained by generations before you-all of whom have kept it this way by attending to and protecting our buildings, sidewalks, trees and dare I remind you – garbage. So to you, having joined us, a suggestion about attending to your refuse as well!
Now that you have an apartment here, this includes taking responsibility for what you put into it and what you take out of it. And if you decide to leave your garbage on the sidewalk unsorted, it means that our landfills are unnecessarily filled up 10 times faster than they should, which does not bode well globally for future generations and that means eventually your children in specific. It also means your unsorted trash in black and white plastic garbage bags are torn open by those looking for returnable bottles and they spew out all your decaying debris which leads to rodents rushing in and well you do know how this all goes downhill very quickly- excuse the pun…
But if you take care of your refuse by recycling, which is your legal and planetary responsibility, you will have 1) much less stinky garbage in your apartment and 2) done your fair share by recycling and lowering your carbon footprint! More on that later…
By separating your recyclables into a large CLEAR trash bag- most all your paper, metal, glass, plastics, even those cardboard pizza boxes, and those thousands of beer bottles can be and should be recycled (https://www.boston.gov/departments/public-works/recycling-boston for what goes where). If you put these recyclables in one big CLEAR bag and smelly refuse in another smaller (dare I suggest in a covered container) you will use two containers yes, but your apartment will smell so much better that you will not need to go out midweek and dump all your stinking unsorted trash/garbage into the trash cans on Charles Street which is illegal, fills up our street containers and leaves a bad impression on people visiting Beacon Hill.
So by doing what the city of Boston requires you to do by law, you will be not only the fulfilling your responsibility but also making your life easier! And be law abiding! And environmentally responsible! This is a no brainer. And so dear new fellow residents, we are happy you’re here and we hope that you will take care of Beacon Hill as we have. It is a very special place and we would like to keep it that way.
Ivy Boxwood
Proud to be recognized
Dear Editor:
It has been our great privilege to present and perform yet another spectacular series of free orchestral concerts at the DCR’s Hatch Shell and in the neighborhoods of Boston this summer. Thank you to all who attended, performed with us, or made our programs possible through a donation to our organization this season.
The Boston Landmarks Orchestra is proudly celebrating its 15th anniversary in 2016 and we could not be more pleased with the tremendous feedback we have received from our education and performance partners, from ecstatic children and adults who attended our concerts, and the press. We couldn’t agree more with The Boston Globe’s Jeremy Eichler affirmations in his review of our August 11 concert: “there’s simply no substitute for vibrantly delivered live performances in public spaces” and that “musically and institutionally, the Landmarks Orchestra continues to thrive.”
And we are so proud to be recognized by WGBH Arts Editor Jared Bowen as “a treasure for the City of Boston.”
The Boston Landmarks Orchestra
The case for charter schools
Dear Editor:
The Boston City Council’s recent vote against Question 2 to lift enrollment caps on public charter schools is based on the false assumption that voting for it would harm public education.
A Yes vote on Question 2 would allow the state to approve additional charters in the state’s lowest performing districts, including Boston, in a measured and strategic way, allowing for charters to grow where they are most needed and ensuring fair access to high quality public schools.
Charter schools are nonprofit, public schools that provide parents with choices outside their local districts. (http://www.doe.mass.edu/charter/about.html)
Charter students are public school children; their teachers are public school teachers; their parents are residents and taxpayers in the communities where they are located. When parents choose to send their children to charters, they are deciding where they want their public education dollars spent.
Communities actually see an increase in education funding because the state provides more aid to school districts that lose students to charters. Since 1998, the state has provided more than $1 billion in additional aid to these communities. Boston charters are closing the achievement gap between low-income African-American and Latino children and affluent, white children. Yet, under the current cap, Boston is frozen to new charters. With 12,000 children currently on waitlists for Boston charters, a Yes vote on Question 2 would ensure high quality public education options are available to Boston children.
Marc Kenen
Massachusetts Charter Public School Association