Suffolk to look elsewhere for expansion by By Suzanne Besser
The first round of talks about Suffolk University’s proposal to build a dormitory at 20 Somerset Street came to an abrupt end early this year when Mayor Thomas Menino announced he wouldn’t support one on Beacon Hill. Consequently the university went back to the drawing boards.
Last week Suffolk began a new round of planning — one, though, that will not include talks about a dorm on Beacon Hill. Vice President John Nucci filed an Institutional Master Plan Notification Form Renewal with the Boston Redevelopment Authority Wednesday, said, “This reflects what we’ve heard loud and clear from Beacon Hill, in that it proposed no new development on Beacon Hill.,” he said. The task force made it clear that it would support a dorm in the Ladder District or in Downtown Crossing. This plan signals a clear move by us in this direction.”
The Institutional Master Plan process gives Suffolk the chance to engage in a dialogue with the city and the university’s neighbors regarding its current facilities and plans for growth and change. Future development, senior administrators say, will occur within a reasonable walking distance from its campus, outside of the non-expansion zone established on Beacon Hill, and among five neighborhoods: The Ladder Blocks area, the Bromfield/Tremont Street area, New Chardon/New Sudbury Street area, the Bullfinch Triangle area and the Court Street area.
The university intends to go ahead with the purchase of the property at 20 Somerset Street and will rely on the planning process to determine its use.
Suffolk has engaged Chan Krieger Sieniewicz and VHB, urban planners, to lead the planning process. BRA planner Gerald Autler, who has overseen the task force process to date, plans to add new members who represent all other neighborhoods affected by the university’s potential growth. He hopes to have the appointments made this week so that the task force can continue its work.
Food for thought at zoning and licensing by By Suzanne Besser
There was little doubt at the Beacon Hill Civic Association zoning and licensing committee meeting Wednesday evening that Beacon Hillers are well fed, but just how was the subject of debate.
A grocery store, pizza place, tavern and proposed bakery/café all appeared before a room full of committee members and neighbors to ask their support on matters dealing with zoning relief and licensing permits.
Jordan Tobin, one of the owners of The Upper Crust pizzeria which rents space in the Lincolnshire building at 20 Charles Street, applied for a #36A conditional use permit for take-out and a change in the building’s legal occupancy to include a restaurant with take-out — a change that should have been obtained when the pizzeria took over the premises from The Juice Guys six years ago.
But before the committee was willing to support that application, they asked Tobin to correct its rooftop ventilation system that neighbors say emits excessive noise and odors, making some of their apartments difficult to live in. “We want to be good neighbors, and we are addressing the noise issues,” said Tobin, who attributed much of that problem to impacts caused by scaffolding used during the recent facade restoration.
But the odor problems proved far more complicated. He said he is caught in a three-way dispute between Raymond Cattle, the building’s developer which still owns enough units to control the condo association, and Bin 26, the adjacent restaurant that owns Upper Crust’s unit and recently installed a much larger ventilation system.
“You must all work together to resolve the problem,” said Bill Wilson, who owns two units at 15 River Street, one of which is directly above the restaurant. “The pervasive smell of pizza has been in our unit since we bought it six or seven months ago. We have had an ongoing issue with the developer. Nothing has been done about the odor. Since January 28, the fan is louder than before.”
In the end, the committee voted to legitimize the take-out issue, subject to the applicant signing a standard agreement that includes the ventilation issue. Chairman Tom Clemens said he planned to ask the Beacon Hill Architectural Commission, the mayor’s and city councilor’s offices to work together to resolve the odor issue.
Next on the agenda was The Hill Tavern at 228 Cambridge, which wanted to modify a previously approved design for an outdoor dining area to allow the installation of a 4-foot-long, 7-foot-wide non-retractable canopy over the patio. The committee reacted positively to the plan, which owner Peter Culpo said was to increase the ambiance of the outdoor seating. “I kind of like the idea,” said Linda Cox of Chestnut Street. “It will give it a Parisian feel.” Culpo smiled, saying he was even trying to get Parisian chairs to accommodate an estimated 35 diners at eight or nine tables.
The restaurant got the go-ahead, but conversations that followed the meeting led Clemens to ask Culpo not to install at this time the nylon sidewall curtains he planned to drop from the canopy in times of rain and high winds.
Next up was Virgil Aiello, owner of Deluca’s Market, who requested zoning relief to expand his grocery into the Branch Street ell at the rear of the dry cleaners at 17 Charles Street, which currently contains two apartments. Aiello’s plan involves increasing the ell’s height from 15 to 24 feet and adding a mansard roof: The current basement space would be lowered about five feet to accommodate additional storage and trash, the first floor space would be used for sinks and equipment needed for food preparation, and the third floor would retain one apartment.
Neighbors and committee members had many objections, most centering on the increased height of the building, which they thought was too bulky and would negatively impact the streetscape as well as their views. They wanted to know what hardship drove his need for an increase in floor space.
“The hardship is operating a business and meeting the competition,” said Aiello. “It is difficult to maintain the type of business needed to satisfy the needs of our customers.”
“I am very mixed about this,” said Paula O’Keeffe of Chestnut Street. “As Virgil knows, about five times a week for 35 years I have shopped there. But I think the [proposed] mansard roof on top of the ell would be too solid and would block views. But, on the other hand, I would like to support Virgil.”
O’Keeffe soon found herself chairperson of a subcommittee which will work out some of these issues with Aiello, and action on the zoning relief necessary for construction and change in use was tabled until a later meeting of the zoning and licensing committee.
Last on the agenda was a proposal for a new café and bakery called The Spotted Apron at 326 Cambridge Street, where the Paris Creperie is now located. Speaking in front of a mouthwatering display of photographs of pastries they would sell in the shop, owners Danielle Fishbein, a Mount Vernon Street resident and pastry chef, and her business partner Rodrigo Tomas talked about their vision of creating high-end neighborhood bakery where café foods such as quiches, panini and empanadas and speciality coffees would be available all day. Except for traffic and parking concerns expressed by Lindall Place neighbors, the concept was enthusiastically supported by those in the room —with a big exception.
No one supported their idea of serving sweet wines, port and champagnes paired with desserts to the after-dinner crowd — an idea which requires a wine and beer license and which Tomas believes is important to the venture. “We want a neighborhood business that you are happy with and that is financial viable for us,” said Tomas.
The beer and wine license was a no-go for the bakery, not because of the owners’ concept but because it could be easily transferred. “Everybody in the neighborhood would embrace the concept of a neighborhood bakery,” said Temple Street resident Ben Norton, “but the real problem is that the license stays with the location when your business goes south or you decide to move to another location.”
And that is something the committee and neighbors opposed. They approved the request for permits needed to open the restaurant and sell take-out food, but overwhelmingly opposed the request for a wine and beer license.
Progress with lights on Cambridge Street by By Karen Cord Taylor
The seemingly never-ending project on Cambridge Street saw some progress this week.
The electricians at Mass Bay fixed a broken cable and now the street lights on the north side of Cambridge Street are working.
About half the lights in the median are still not working, but John Lepore, who manages the Cambridge Street project for Mass. Highway, said that Boston street lighting has gotten their work order to NStar. He said he didn’t know what the city has scheduled with Mass Bay and NStar. Lepore said that some of the working lights stay on 24-hours. A city official as late as last Tuesday still maintained that the city has nothing yet to do with the lights.
At Grove Street, the electricians faced a problem switching from the old system of traffic lights to the new system. But Lepore said the Boston Transportation Department met with him and the electricians, and they have worked out a solution that will allow them to test the equipment before they can make the switch. Lepore said the lights have to work properly when they make the switch to the new system. “What everyone doesn’t want is to risk losing the lights in the middle of the work day,” he said.
Lepore said NStar has been very helpful. They are now just waiting for the electricians to finish their work.
All but three of the mast arms for the traffic lights were erected this week. Best Electric also pulled all the cables that connect the traffic signals to City Hall. Verizon has to do work on the telephone lines before the cables can be hooked up, however. The crosswalk paving was refreshed too.
“Everyone has been a huge help,” Lepore said. “It was a good week.
The cold weather didn’t keep fans from flocking to a press conference at City Hall Plaza featuring John Travolta. Travolta greeted fans while promoting his new movie, Wild Hogs, and his $10,000 donation to the Boston Police Department.
Trash, not parking, is Beacon Hill residents’ concern by By Karen Cord Taylor
CAPTION: Dennis Royer, chief of public works and transportation, is greeted by Jeannette Herrmann, chair of the Beacon Hill Civic Association at a recent public meeting sponsored by the BHCA and Beacon Hill Business Association.
CREDIT: Karen Cord Taylor
The city’s new Chief of Public Works and Transportation Dennis Royer, came to Beacon Hill expecting to hear about parking and traffic woes.
Instead, about 40 neighbors expressed their frustration, anger and disdain about what they perceive as the city’s neglect in picking up the trash that lines our curbs.
“We’re pretty passionate people about the trash on the Hill,” said Peter Begley, whose trash committee called for the meeting with Royer and the community. “It’s a big problem. We’ve allowed trash to become an accepted condition on the Hill.”
Begley’s committee, a part of the Beacon Hill Civic Association, is also connected with the Beacon Hill Business Association. The two neighborhood groups sponsored the meeting together.
Royer did not promise that the trash problem would be solved any time soon. “We’ve got to get to the curb,” he said. “Some of the time the cars have to be moved.”
Royer ultimately hopes to institute a system whereby, during one time period, cars are ticketed and towed, trash and recycling is picked up and the street is swept. “That’s a major change,” he said. “We have to pick areas and start making these changes in pilot programs.”
That idea seemed to be accepted as a reasonable approach by the crowd, but several residents said there were other frustrating trash problems, the primary one being that there are so few trash barrels in which to put street trash.
“We’d pick it up, but we then have to have somewhere to put the trash,” said Begley.
Residents also complained that the trash barrels that do exist around the neighborhood are always overflowing.
Royer said it was expensive — $2 a barrel for each time they were emptied — for the city to empty trash barrels, and he didn’t want any more of them. To solve the problem of too much trash to handle in the barrels the city now puts on Beacon Hill streets, Royer said he would rely on new technology, which would take time to develop. He said he had great hopes for the BigBelly solar trash compactors, which are now installed on Newbury Street and around Faneuil Hall Marketplace. These trash compactors save money by reducing the number of trips the city must make to empty them, but their cost is $3600 a unit.
Royer suggested that the city persuade businesses to buy them, with the promise of having their names printed on the trash compactor. The idea that advertising would be on the street trash compactors did not go over well with some attendees.
The BigBelly maker’s president, James Poss, attended the meeting. He said that his company, seahorsepower, will soon introduce a new, smaller compactor that might work at some locations on Beacon Hill.
Residents complained about the trash that the city’s trash collection contractor leaves behind and the fact that the city starts an effort such as the small green machines or hiring the person who swept Charles Street, but then the effort disintegrates. One person pointed out that the city has tools to address some of these problems but there is no follow up or enforcement.
Royer agreed that “there is a certain level of service you should expect.”
He also said he was concerned that Boston be clean partly because it hosts so many tourists, who contribute 25 percent of the state’s revenue. If the city can be clean for the residents and its cleanliness helps its tourism industry thrive, Royer called that a win-win.
Trash solutions already in the works
After last week’s neighborhood meeting with Public Works and Transportation Chief Dennis Royer, City Councilor Mike Ross helped work out some plans to improve the trash situation on Charles Street, which was one location identified as having particular problems.
One step toward cleanliness, according to Ross’s office, is that the Public Works Department has assigned short-term crews to clean the street by hand.
It is unclear why mechanical street cleaning stopped along the street, but Public Works has agreed that it will resume as regularly scheduled, said Ross.
Most important to residents and business owners, the PWD has agreed to restore trash containers on Charles Street at certain locations. Ross said his office will work with the Beacon Hill Business Association to determine where the restored locations will be.
Over the past few years, businesses were asked by the city to empty trash receptacles in front of their store, reported Joe Green, the business association’s vice president who deals with cleanliness issues in the commercial zones. Ross said he believed that unless a business were a convenience store or served take-out food or drinks, that a business should not be responsible for emptying the city’s trash containers and that he would clarify the policy.
A few years ago we riled city officials when this column asked if Boston were truly the dirtiest city in America.
The answer to the question is not easy one to answer, but Beacon Hill residents must think so, given the numbers of neighbors who turned out to meet Dennis Royer and express their exasperation last Tuesday night. Royer is the man whom in September Mayor Menino brought in to be the chief of the city’s Public Works and Transportation departments.
He got an earful about the dirt and grime caused by sloppy trash pick-up, a dearth of trash barrels along the sidewalks, news boxes that collect debris and go untended, and the litter that seems to line every curb.
People went away appreciative that Royer had come, but not entirely satisfied. This is only dirt, after all. It is a problem that surely can be solved.
The whole thing caused us to consider the factors that make Boston so dirty. Such cities as New York, San Francisco and Chicago, which surely must contend with some of the same problems as Boston, appear cleaner — at least in most neighborhoods.
What causes the dirt here?
Nowhere to throw away a coffee cup is surely one of the factors, since trash containers are few and far between.
The fact that in downtown Boston lots of us walk. We don’t seclude ourselves in our cars, where we can throw that coffee cup on the floor mat.
The increasing number of dogs, whose owners leave little baggies in the gutter or around tree pits — and whose urine smells waft from the sidewalks in hot weather.
The smokers who have been moved outside where they drop their cigarette butts in the gutter rather than tidily stashing them in ashtrays.
Free publications that stay in doorways for days. Even the paid publications stay in the doorways. (We understand that this newspaper is one of those free publications, but we also know that we have far more calls asking us to deliver more newspapers than we have calls asking us to reduce delivery. Residents tell us firmly that they want our publication hanging on their door knobs or left in their vestibules. We don’t know how welcome other free publications are.)
City trash barrels that are not emptied frequently enough, causing trash to spill over onto the sidewalk.
The fact that we’re slobs.
As we look at this list we wonder — Chicago, San Francisco and New York must face the same conditions. They can’t be that different from Boston. But for years they seem to have done a better job.
What are they doing that works? What can we learn from them?
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