CAPTION: Governor-elect Deval Patrick (at right) and Museum of African American History executive director Beverly Morgan-Welch celebrate the bicentennial of the meeting house.




He spoke the words of Abolitionist Frederick Douglass, who was born in a slave cabin in Maryland in 1818 and, later working as a field hand, experienced most of the horrifying conditions that plagued slaves in America before escaping and becoming a leading abolitionist in Massachusetts.

They were the words Douglass spoke more than 150 years ago to abolitionists during an anti-slavery meeting at the center of an active and organized black community, the African Meeting House on Joy Street: “Has [Boston] yet to learn that the time to assert a right is the time when the right itself is called into question and that the men to assert it are the men to whom the right has been denied?”

This time, though, the words were spoken by the first black person ever to be elected governor of Massachusetts. And, they were read before hundreds of people attending the kick-off of the 200th anniversary celebration of the Museum of African Meeting House, held December 6 at the Tremont Temple on Tremont Street.

Governor-elect Deval Patrick simply took his turn among other prominent leaders in the African American community, who one at a time walked up to the podium, read the words of Beacon Hill abolitionists Douglass, Lewis Hayden, William Lloyd Garrison and Sergeant William Carney, and quietly returned to their seats.

The evening program was packed with a welcome by Boston Public Library President Bernard Margolis, a tribute by Mayor Thomas Menino, spirited musical performances and presentations about the history and significance of the meeting house. It was led by Beverly A. Morgan-Welch, executive director of the Museum of African American History.

credit: Courtesy photo

Willow Street’s Kate and Will Santoro, age 2, took advantage of a recent morning’s pleasant weather with a walk along the Charles River.

After plans to erect two 875-square-foot signs on a Cambridge Street façade were denied by the Beacon Hill Civic Association and the city’s Board of Appeal, the Commonwealth Avenue-based sign company Sponsor Spot filed suit against the city last week.

Arguing that the decision infringes upon his First and 14th Amendment rights, Sponsor Spot co-owner Damien Jacob said, “The city is serving as a landlord to conglomerates like Clear Channel and JC Decaux.” He called the city hypocritical, pointing to a flashy streetscape advertising display planned for the Theater District.

The vinyl signs affixed to 9 Bowdoin Street, which houses Red Hat, would cover almost all of the building’s exposed brick, Jacob said. A standard billboard measures 672 square feet, nearly three-quarters of the size of the signs Sponsor Spot proposed. The Beacon Hill Civic Association’s Zoning and Licensing Committee and the Board of Directors voted unanimously earlier this year to reject the proposal.

For months, some residents studying Suffolk University’s proposal to build a dormitory at 20 Somerset Street wanted to learn more about the other bids submitted to the state last year for the purchase of the former Metropolitan District Commission building. But until last week, they had yet to see the bids.

The state Department of Capital Asset Management, which handled the sale, had been reluctant to release the data because it contained private information about the bidders’ financial status, according to state Representative Marty Walz. However, Walz, who challenged this assertion, was finally able to get the documents last week.

The three developers that submitted proposals for the property all submitted a base price but each added amounts for additional square footage should zoning variances allow it. All proposals included extra amounts for developing the surrounding plaza.

But beyond that, the bids were presented in such different ways that comparisons are difficult to make, and final analyses will most likely show that the purchase prices offered are more similar than different.

Weston Associates, which submitted the proposal with Suffolk University, and Trammell Crow Residential proposed demolishing the existing nine-story building and constructing taller ones. Trinity Financial submitted a proposal only to renovate the existing building but indicated an interest in building a larger one.
Weston Associates, who with Suffolk offered $19 million for 20 Somerset Street, proposed to demolish the existing structure and construct a 31-story, 320,000 square foot building to contain street level retail, a subterranean gymnasium, a four-floor student center and dormitory rooms for 790 students. The proposed purchase price is $60.00 per square foot.

Trinity Financial offered $3.5 million to acquire the 70,000 square foot historic building, which it would renovate and convert to use as a residential property with 53 units of housing. The proposal expressed interest in the possibility of building beyond the scope of the existing property, whereupon it would pay a rate of $50 per additional square foot developed.

For $5.5 million, Trammell Crow Residential would also demolish the existing building and construct a new 11-story building with 100 residential units and 4,700 square feet of retail space with three levels of underground parking. It also proposed two additional plans, one at 16 stories with four underground parking levels and another at 21 stories with three parking levels, for which they would pay an additional $42 per gross square foot.

According to sources familiar with the development market, it is standard policy for developers to bid higher on larger buildings because the increased value would result in a greater return.

Both Walz and John Achatz, president of the Beacon Hill Civic Association, said they had not had time to study the data to determine how much Suffolk had offered to pay and if other options may exist.

Make recycling work

It is refreshing to see Boston officials looking to other cities for solutions to problems. The city that everyone seems to be shuttling to and fro for answers is Denver, the former home of the new transportation and public works czar, Dennis Royer.

The recycling experts in the city — Jim Hunt and Susan Casino, from the city’s Office of Energy and the Environment and from the recycling division of the Public Works Department respectively — have been looking to Denver as they consider how to make Boston’s recycling more effective. They have brought back a few ideas, and they are encouraging residents to improve their recycle habits. Beacon Hill residents have a long way to go before we are doing our part.

This is a good effort at this time because Bostonians who regularly recycle have become frustrated with the situation we now have.

The blue bins are too small. Large roll-out bins employed by some larger apartments solve the capacity problem, but don’t work efficiently along some streets because they must be tugged between parked cars before they can be hoisted and emptied by the trucks’ fork lifts.

One interim solution is for residents to get two blue bins from the city. That’s okay if you’ve got the room to store them.

Hunt and Casino have plans for test runs of new bins in both high-performing neighborhoods and low-performing neighborhoods. Beacon Hill, they say, is low-performing compared to West Roxbury or Roslindale. They speculate that Beacon Hill, like other downtown neighborhoods, has a higher number of short-term residents who aren’t as interested as the more settled folks in West Roxbury or Roslindale in neighborhood and civic activities, including recycling.

Perhaps. In any case, recycling is of great benefit to the city. It saves the city $3 million annually in diverting waste from landfills, said Hunt. The city also makes some money, especially on white paper, and it has instituted a recycling program in the public schools that contributes to the bottom line.

The city has taken several other small steps to improve recycling. It has increased the number of days residents can get rid of hazardous waste and yard leavings. Right now residents have to separate paper from other recyclables, but Hunt and Casino intend eventually to institute a “single stream” program where all recycled materials can be mixed. The city also has composting bins available, but those might not mean much to this neighborhood’s residents, most of whom don’t have outdoor space.

The city can’t change the recycling program to make it much easier for people until 2009, when a new contract will be signed for trash pickup.

Meanwhile, even a small increase in recycling from Beacon Hill residents and their apartment and condominium buildings would make a great impact.

It’s only a good habit, and it can be easily learned.