CAPTION: Red lines indicate streets where more traffic is expected in option C.
Blue lines indicate roadways where traffic is expected to decrease.
Despite reduced traffic on Storrow Drive, the traffic signals in option B and C are expected to create back-ups greater than they are now.






Four general options exist for replacing the crumbling Storrow Drive Tunnel between Arlington and Clarendon streets.

But maybe not for long.

Two of the options back up traffic on Storrow Drive to intolerable levels. At the same time these options push more cars onto Charles Circle, Charles Street and Beacon Street in front of the Hampshire House.

“There are lower volumes of traffic [on Storrow Drive], but major bottlenecks,” said transportation planner Tom Lisco about those options.

He also said some of the options cause traffic to back up to unacceptable levels as westbound traffic comes off Storrow Drive at Charles Circle.

“This system will overload no matter what we do,” said Tony Pangaro of Charles Street.

The bad news about traffic was discussed at last week’s meeting of the Storrow Drive Tunnel Project’s transportation and landscape advisory committee. The state’s Department of Conservation and Recreation has been holding these meetings for about a year and a half in preparation for dealing with the tunnel problem.

Traffic studies projected out to the year 2030 show that options B and C caused more problems than option A, in which the tunnel would be reconstructed as is, or D, in which roadways in both directions would be buried.

The problems with B and C primarily come down to one thing — traffic signals. In option B, there are signals at both Arlington and Berkeley streets, enabling pedestrians to cross without having to go over a footbridge. This scheme has an additional advantage, in some advocates’ eyes, of making Storrow Drive more like the parkway the original roadway was intended to be.

Option C proposes a tunnel carrying the westbound lanes and traffic signals for traffic in the eastbound direction.

Ironically, while Storrow Drive backups increase at critical hours in B and C, the number of cars actually decreases, since traffic forecasters believe drivers will take other routes — through Back Bay and Beacon Hill — to avoid the traffic lights and backups.

Participants were grim about the situation.

“It’s about quality of life, quality of the parks and how long it’s going to be a mess,” Pangaro complained.

Once again, participants urged DCR officials to explore new ramps with the Mass Pikc. “As part of this [solution], can’t we adopt changes to the Mass Pike,” asked Jeannette Herrmann of South Russell Street. “Ramps would have a huge influence on the options. I can’t imagine proceeding on a further analysis without ramp studies.”

The Beacon Hill Times gets its information from John Lepore, Mass. Highway’s project manager, and from direct observation.

Plantings: You may have seen the yellow tape along the median. That signifies that workmen have removed the top layer of gravel in the median in preparation for the installation of the irrigation system, which was scheduled for last Saturday.

Because of the weather Lepore plans no planting during this week. However, he expects to schedule it next week.

Traffic lights: Everything at the Joy Street intersection is wired. But new pedestrians lights had to be ordered because those designated for Joy Street had to be installed at Grove Street, since the first ones installed at Grove didn’t work.

Brick patching: nothing yet. It will depend on weather.

The thriving Esplanade Association elected three new directors to its board at its annual meeting on Wednesday. Rich Lucas, Karin Dumbaugh and Hans Vaule (above, from left) will serve terms ending in 2010.

Directors that were re-elected are Jim Duane, Sarah Reinstein, Deb Rosenbloom and Steve Wolf.

Current directors are Fritz Casselman, Roseann Colot, Robert Duboff, Herb Nolan, Jeryl Oristaglio, Margaret Pokorny, Ellen Rooney, David Solomon, Sandra Steele and Jim Whitters.

The association will name officers at the first meeting of its new board.

CAPTION: Susan McWhinney-Morse (left) talks over plans for the upcoming national conference with Frank Mead and Sally Brewster. The three are part the original group of Beacon Hillers who founded the Village.
CREDIT: John Besser




In 2000 a small group of friends with one thing in common — they all wanted to stay put in their Beacon Hill homes as they aged — got together to figure out just how to do that.

Now, just seven years later, the Beacon Hill Village, — the vehicle they created that not only allows them to stay in their homes but also allows 400 other people over fifty in the Back Bay, Beacon Hill and West End to do so as well, has become so successful that people from all over the country and abroad want to know how they can do it too.

At the end of the month, about 250 of them will be in the neighborhood finding out. Many are coming from New England and the East Coast, but others are coming from the Midwest, California and one as far as Australia. They are part of more than 3000 people who have contacted the Village for information since it attracted national attention in the media, with feature articles published in the New York Times, Time Magazine and the AARP magazine, as well as segments produced by CBS and NBC.

They’ll attend “The Building Blocks: How to Make Your Neighborhood into a Village,” a sold-out two-day conference co-sponsored by Beacon Hill Village, MIT AgeLab and Mass General Hospital, which kicks off Sunday, April 29, with wine, cheese and conversation at the Village’s new offices at 74 Joy Street.

On Monday at the Schepens Eye Research Institute’s auditorium in Charles River Park, the conference attendees will hear a day of talks by experts in the aging field, including MGH President Peter Slavin, who will talk about building partnerships with community hospitals, and MIT AgeLab Director Joe Coughlin, who will discuss aging and technology.

Village board members will talk about their own organization, explain how it was founded and give tips on operations, member services, programs, funding and grassroots initiatives.

On Tuesday, the conference will focus on diverse and creative alternative models to the Village and feature panel discussions by representatives of innovative programs all over the country.

“The Village is not a model you can franchise,” said Judy Willett, executive director. “The concept is brilliant because of its simplicity, and the core of it all is offering services and health care in the home. We can successfully run it this way here and meet the needs of our group of people. But there are many ways to skin the cat, and creative ways [for people to stay in their homes] are being developed around the country.

The Village was a unique grassroots effort from conception to actual formation. It is based on three operating principles according to Susan McWhinney-Morse, a founder and current chairperson. First, because every conceivable service existed in Boston, there was no need to reinvent them. Second, instead of hiring personnel to consolidate the services, they would be a referral service. And, third, they would never own property, since the whole point is for people to stay in their own home.

“We have created a mechanism to take care of ourselves and we control it,” she said. “We set the pace, the policies and that is what is so exciting.”

It offers enormous diversity to its members and provides everything that a full retirement community can, said Willett. Services are offered to help set up home offices, pay bills, do errands and provide transportation. They sponsor seminars, exercise programs, trips, cultural and social events. Healthcare, home health services, and wellness programs are available. To do this, it partners with MGH, HouseWorks Inc., and Rogerson Communities. Annual membership fees are $580 for individuals and $780 for households, with some services included and others available on a fee-for-service basis.

“We tapped into a really big issue, and our solution made sense to people and to the professional community who now realize that people want to stay in their homes,” said McWhinney-Morse. “It really is a fabulous way to be an older person.”


SIDEBAR
How it all happened
Temple Street resident Susan McWhinney-Morse, who raised her family here, remembers first thinking in the early 1990s about having to leave Beacon Hill for a retirement community when she and her friends grew old.

“I remember laughing with my reading group and talking about buying the former Peter Faneuil School on Joy Street so that we could all stay on Beacon Hill forever,” she said.

By the end of that decade McWhinney-Morse, always a leader, decided to do something about it. She contacted her friend Nancy Meyers Coolidge, and the two invited ten others to a meeting in Coolidge’s living room.

“And then we all sat around and looked at each other,” McWhinney-Morse said. The individuals all agreed they didn’t want to move out of the city to a retirement community but did want all the services such communities provide.

“But there we were, ‘wandering in the wilderness,’ not knowing in what direction to head,” said McWhinney-Morse. In the room besides herself and Coolidge were David Arnold, Sally Brewster, Sue Bridge, Rachel Claflin, Woody Ives, Frank Mead, Elizabeth and Robert Owens, Robert Perriello and Jack Curtin, all of whom still live on the Hill.

The twelve spent six to nine months ‘in the wilderness,’ she said. They talked with groups who provided care for seniors. They became a tax-exempt organization. The Harvard Business School set them up with in its community action program to help them develop a business plan.

Rogerson Communities gave them space in Beacon House on Myrtle Street and recommended they hire Judy Willett as executive director. “Having agreed on what we had to do and having this top notch director fall into our laps, we decided it was time to come out of the wilderness,” said McWhinney-Morse.

They did their homework. They called themselves “Beacon Hill Village, a virtual retirement community.” They published brochures with attractive photographs of elderly people enjoying services and activities, hired an assistant for Willett, checked the voting lists and population figures, sent out mailings to 700 individuals, did focus groups, sponsored a meeting, raised $600,000 from their neighbors, and, all in all, found their idea to be well received. Seventy people paid the membership fee to join.

“So, two years after our first meeting in Nancy’s living room, we officially opened our door,” said McWhinney-Morse, “and then fell flat on our faces.”

There were two problems they had not anticipated: Most people had no idea what a “virtual retirement community” was. And they were plagued by ageism. People simply didn’t want to consider themselves “old.”

The founders, by now calling themselves the board of directors, redefined themselves by changing their look and their marketing strategy. They printed a new brochure, eliminated all photos of “old” people and dropped the membership age to 50. They called themselves “a nonprofit organization that enhances the lives of people 50 and over.” They invited friends to their homes to tell them about it.

And it all began to come together.

If all goes according to plan, Beacon Hill residents will have a totally renovated, multi-use Phillips Street Park for their enjoyment by the summer of 2008.

Angie Murray, project manager of design and construction for Boston Parks and Recreation, and Claire Couric Batchelor of CBA Landscape Architects, met with approximately 20 residents Tuesday night to get community input for improvements to Phillips Street Park, an area that occupies .13 acres of land and is situated on Phillips Street between Garden and Anderson streets.

Each attendee at the meeting was given an information sheet that revealed some very good news: Mayor Thomas Menino has approved the project and recommended a budget of $400,000 for the restoration project. Murray said she was “very hopeful” that the project would be approved by the Boston City Council.

At the outset of the 75-minute meeting, Murray and Batchelor asked residents what they considered the “positives and negatives” about the current condition and layout of the park, which has two levels. Residents were also asked for their suggestions for the renovations.

“I like the multi-levels and I think any ramp that you put in will be welcomed by people,” said Kate Enroth, Brimmer Street. “I think what I would like to see at the park would be a place to go for lunch or sit down for 30 or 40 minutes – perhaps moving the tables to the upper level so it looks inviting for people to come in as well.”

Cambridge Street resident Phyllis Browne said she has lived near the park since 1979. “I’ve seen the park go through a lot of incarnations,” said Browne. “I think it has an incredible amount of potential. I like the higher gates. I like the stateliness of it. I like the two levels. One thing I do notice about that park is that it is an amphitheater. I have told people to not say anything private in that park because everybody can hear it.”

Browne added that “it’s really important that whatever we do, we target people so that it is a multi-use park, so a lot of people are using it during the legal hours that it can be open.”

Steven Greenberg, executive director of Boston Center for Jewish Heritage at Vilna Shul, and Robert Whitney of the Phillips Street Park Association, brought forth the idea of giving the park a historical component whereby plaques would highlight the historical significance of the neighborhood.

The negative issues concerning residents included incidents of late-night drug-dealing in an isolated corner of the park, dim lighting, strong odors of dog waste and drainage problems.

Whitney, whose Phillips Street Park Association has been in existence for two years and has lived adjacent to the park since 1989, said his group’s goal has been to “try to increase the use of the park by everybody, kids and families, and make it an inviting space for everybody.”

Whitney seemed excited by the city’s plans to renovate the park, calling the project “a great idea.”

“We’ve been working with the Parks Department for about a year, hoping that they could have a meeting like this,” he said. “We’re very optimistic. We’re very pleased with the amount of money [that has been earmarked for the project]. We had thought the amount would be significantly less I think they can do a great job, get a lot of great trees and plantings and do some good structural reworking of the facility.”

“That people who are for dogs and people who don’t want to have this place a complete dog park were having a conversation that was very level was good ,” said Murray. “I think Phillips Street Park will be a multi-use space. I think dogs will be allowed on a leash, as the law states, and co-mingling with people.”

Batchelor, whose firm has designed renovations for the nearby Myrtle Street Playground, the Clarendon Street Playground in the Back Bay and approximately a dozen other parks in Boston, called the Phillips Street Park “a wonderful space” which could be “a gem for the city of Boston and for Beacon Hill in particular.”

“I’m very happy with the way the meeting went,” said Batchelor. “I think a lot of people brought very imaginative ideas and they were good listeners as well.”

It was City Councilor Michael Ross who initiated the renovation project after visiting the area and determining he was “pretty disappointed” with the physical condition of Phillips Street Park.

“I approached the Parks Department and through the budget office I was able to earmark some money to get the ball rolling,” said Ross. “These renovations are exactly what I wanted and this is what we’re going to need to do to bring back and restore this park. I not only support the renovation project; I want it to happen.”

Contribute to the YMCA on the Greenway

Taking a hopeful and practical step, the YMCA has scaled back its plans for a new facility on the Greenway and has decided to embark on a new capital campaign to raise the $35 million it needs for what promises to be a gathering place for families in the North End, Waterfront, Downtown, West End, Charlestown and Beacon Hill.

The Beacon Hill Times believed so strongly in the project that a year and a half ago the newspaper promised to donate $1,000 toward it — if the Y revived the plan. We sent the check off on the same day we wrote this editorial.

We urge readers to contribute money to this project too. It will complement the offerings Hill House has for families. It will cover up unsightly ramps along the Greenway. It will be one more amenity that will keep young families in the city.

Write your check now and send it to the YMCA of Greater Boston, Maura Lynch, Development Office, 316 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA 02115. Put in the notation “Greenway” so it will get into the capital fund.

No votes for legal immigrants

City Councilor Felix Arroyo and others are pushing an idea that would allow legal immigrants to vote in municipal elections. City Councilor Mike Ross has signed onto the proposal. According to news reports, Arroyo said legal immigrants are already paying taxes and authorized to be here, so they should be allowed to vote.

Wrong. There is one easy step immigrants can take to be able to participate in making decisions in our city. They can become citizens. Voting is a privilege Americans should hold dear. For those Americans lucky enough to be native-born, it is a birthright, For those from other countries, that privilege must be earned. It should not be given out to those who are not committed to the community. Citizenship demonstrates that commitment. Once immigrants have gained citizenship, we welcome them wholeheartedly into our voting booths.

Support for Mike Ross

Although he hasn’t officially announced it, Mike Ross has decided to run for a fifth term in the Boston City Council. He has no opposition at this point but would probably easily be re-elected anyway. He is popular with his constituents. He has a lot of interaction with voters, since he or a member of his staff is at most neighborhood meetings, and he is quick to respond when someone needs something.

His presence on the city council reminds us of how different that body is now from the embarrassment it was in the 1970s, ’80s and even into the ’90s. In general, despite our opinion expressed above, one now looks upon it as a dignified group of leaders where discussions vet ideas that are worth considering.

Some people naively maintain that those who prepare themselves for a life in politics are somehow lesser beings than those who prepare to be doctors, lawyers or business executives. That’s a curious notion, given how important our elected officials are to our way of life and its quality. We would think that an electorate would want candidates who prepared themselves for the work of representing us as seriously as any other professional would.

Ross, 34, has done an excellent job preparing himself for a career in politics. He worked as an employee at Boston City Hall when he was in his 20s. He earned an MBA from Boston University and will graduate from Suffolk Law School in May. He’ll represent us better having educated himself widely.