CREDIT: Times photo
CAPTION: Neighbors say vagrants camping out in this construction site are using building materials to break into their apartments.




Residents of a Phillips Street property say their units have been broken into several times by vagrants camping out in a building under construction in a hidden courtyard at 28R Phillips Street.

The neighbors, some of whom live alone, say they regularly see homeless individuals entering the four-story brick building to spend the night there after the construction workers depart, leaving the door and windows unlocked. After their units have been broken into, they say they have spotted construction materials left in the building’s courtyard stacked against their own wall, leading them to believe the vagrants have used it to access their apartments through the windows.

Inspectional Services Department requires all buildings under construction to be locked when not occupied in order to insure the safety of anyone trespassing on the property or entering the building, according to spokesman Lisa Timberlake.

But, the property’s owner denied that his workers are leaving the building unlocked. “I have been there four or five times recently and found it locked,” said Eric Stevens of Gainsborough Street. “The [neighbors] should call police if they are bothered by vagrants.”

The property in question made national news last year when local and state historic preservationists cried foul at the demolition of the building, known as the Coburn House. It is considered the last remnant of a once thriving 19th century enclave of African American residences known as Coburn Court. ISD granted Stevens permission to renovate and rehabilitate the existing building. The exterior walls were determined to be unsafe and had to be reconstructed with a new foundation and walls. Stevens agreed to keep the building shape and footprint identical to the original home.

He anticipates the building will be completed in about three months and be put on the market at that time.

CAPTION
#1 Chinatown residents Malcolm, age 5, mother Leslie, and Eleanor Davol, age 7, enjoyed looking at the art on display.

CAPTION
#3 For the first time ever, part of West Cedar Street was closed to accommodate the many artists displaying their work this year.

CAPTION
From left, Colby Ko of Cambridge, Jack Henry Delano of Hancock Street, Zack Farkas of Cambridge and Owen Morgan of Watertown set up a table for their origami creations.

CAPTION
#4 Some of the 41 musicians who volunteered for the event, providing a harmonious background for participants. Cellist Ivy A. Turner owner of Ivy Associates, Inc. organized the players.

CAPTION
Phillips Street resident Camille Sanborn, age 8, at left, and Mount Vernon Street resident Rebecca Isaacson, age 7, along with Maggie Fleck, age 4, sold homemade lemonade, cookies, brownies and chocolate dipped strawberries to raise $190 for the Hill House outreach fund. Rebecca and Camile hand-squeezed ten pounds of lemons. Maggie and her mother Eileen McCormack, who live on West Cedar Street, baked cookies. Camille’s sister Grace, age 4, helped too.

In the background is sculptor Chris Williams’s bronze and steel bear.


Artists honored for outstanding work

Five artists took first-place honors at Beacon Hill’s 17th annual Art Walk on Sunday, June 3.

Providence artist Daniel Semeraro took first place for his line and dot abstracts. Another first-place winner was photo-montage artist Leslie Starobin from Needham Heights. The Charles Street UPS driver, Michael Compton, who lives in Cambridge, took a first for his streetscapes in oil and watercolor. Brooklyn artist Shawn Fields, whose parents-in-law live on West Cedar Street, earned a first for his small portraits and landscapes. The fifth first-place winner was Roxbury artist Kate Sullivan, who creates graphite renderings of railroad engines and street scenes.

Second place honors went to Carol “Coco” Berkman, Catherine Meeks, Joe Trepicccone, Kathryn Lloyd-Compton, Marie Picard Craig, Michelle Kenner, Nancy Colella, Susja Lucas, Virginia Hartley and William O’Keefe.

Artists earning third place awards were Anne DeVillemejane, Dan Robertson, Gary Blau, Jan Zarembu, Joan Brancule, Juni Van Dyke, Claudine Lesk, Mary Buergin, Michael Berger, Piper Bolduc, Teri MacMillan and Tina Watson.



Winners of the First Annual Window Decorating Contest

The Beacon Hill Business Association joined in the fun of this festive day by hosting a window decorating contest. Shoppers could vote on their favorites and enter to win a great raffle prize. Twenty-five shops entered the contest and the competition was stiff. All of the winners showed great creativity and put together beautiful, eye-catching, clever displays.

First prize went to Holiday, which displayed “The Art of Dressmaking.” Second Place was awarded to Charles Street Supply, which used painters’ clothes and bricks to simulate an “art walk.” Third Place went to Blackstone’s of Beacon Hill’s “One if by Land, Two if by Sea.” The garden and beach-themed window was perfectly executed. An honorable mention also went to Four Preppy Paws which proudly displayed “puppy art.” (Think paws as paint brushes.)

A plan to add a new handicapped elevator at the MBTA’s Park Street station is getting a lot of attention. MBTA officials have already begun meeting with a variety of agencies and citizen groups as they attempt to design an elevator that will work for everyone.

According Andrew Brennan of the MBTA, the plan to add a new accessibility elevator at the Park Street station is part of an agreement with the Boston Center for Independent Living (BCIL), an advocacy group for people with disabilities.

Under that agreement, the T will be updating five stations — two in Cambridge and three in Boston — including the Park Street station.

However, the timeline for construction of the five stations is still being worked out.

“Park Street is accessible today,” said Brennan of the need for a new elevator at the station. “But if you wanted to ride the Green Line, it would be a little difficult to get there. You would have to ride three different elevators.”

Brennan said the new elevator at Park Street will offer direct elevator service to the Green Line from Boston Common. Additionally, the new elevator will have the added benefit of offering a second means of access the Park Street station when the older, existing elevators at the station eventually need to be replaced, which is also part of the T’s continuing improvement plan.

Brennan and other T officials recently met with the Boston Landmarks Commission in an advisory capacity to let the committee know of their intentions. However, a formal proposal for the new elevator hasn’t been filed with the commission. The BLC and several city and state agencies, as well as the state legislature will all have to approve the project and designs before it can begin.

“The plan is to begin construction work on the five projects we’ve agreed to with BCIL by next year (spring or summer of 2008),” said Brennan. “But whether or not the Park Street station breaks ground then is still being determined. Once we have a firm idea on design and cost of the five projects, timelines will be set according to how we decide to bid and group those projects.”

Brennan said the Park Street elevator project and its design all will be thoroughly vetted in public before moving forward.

“There is a fair amount of environmental reviews and approvals that are needed before this project can begin,” said Brennan. “The Landmarks Commission has approval authority, as does the Federal Transit Administration, because we’re using park space, it will have to be reviewed by the (state’s) Executive Office of Environmental Affairs. Because the land is in an historic park, Massachusetts Historical Commission will have to review it, and since there is a real estate transaction taking place between the city and the MBTA, the city’s parks department and Boston Redevelopment Authority will also have to look at the project. There will be many, many avenues for public participation in this one.”

Additionally, Brennan said that the T’s design consultants have already begun meeting with the Friends of the Boston Common and the Friends of the Public Garden, with both groups weighing in on the design of the elevator and head house.

Brennan said cost of the project also has not been determined as yet because the design has not been finalized. However, the project will be undertaken as part of the MBTA’s ongoing capital program and will utilize MBTA capital funds, including federal transit money.

The Beacon Hill Times follows the progress, or lack thereof, on Cambridge Street through direct observation and interviews with the project’s supervisor John Lepore.

Progress during the week of June 4 - 8

Traffic signals: no work. Best Electric did some minor repairs on old equipment.

Irrigation system: KeySpan damaged a copper pipe while they were working in front of Charles River Plaza. While they fixed it once they realized what had happened, it is an example of how easily the irrigation system can be damaged. At this point the Mass Highway people are there to supervise and identify damage. Once the job is finished, there will be little supervision over utility companies and their digging.

Trees: Several are already damaged by trucks, and apparently by people ripping branches off. Three in the median that look as if they are dying will be replaced.

Street paving: In preparation for this, the utility companies have been raising the castings. That’s why it is hard to drive down the street. NStar’s contractor raised that company’s castings one night. He filled the hole by taking loam from the median and topping it off with what Lepore called “Home Depot-style cold patch.” Then he put Lepore’s barrels over the castings. With this loam and cold patch, the newly paved street would fail. Once NStar learned of the problem, they sent the contractor back to do the job right. Again, disaster is averted, but what about the future?

CAPTION:
Elaine Cidzik examined damage on a car window on her way to meet a client on West Cedar Street.

CREDIT: Tory Glerum




When Jeff Zikowski went over to get his Ford Tempo last Monday morning on Hancock Street, he was upset to see a window had been smashed. Nothing had been taken.

Curious, the Temple Street resident took a walk around the Hill the next morning and found that seven other cars had smashed windows.

It seemed to him that there were similarities. The affected cars were all old, according to Zikowski, who speculated that vandals may have targeted cars without alarm systems.

The police say they had only two reports of cars vandalized in the same manner as Zikowski’s. One report was his, and the other was on Irving Street from an Irving Street resident. By Thursday, the Times received word from Eileen McCormack of West Cedar Street that her car’s window had also been broken and various items had been moved around inside, as if the vandal were looking for something to steal.

Otherwise the car break-ins were the usual variety — cars parked on the flat of the Hill with attractive items stolen from inside, said Community Services Officer Tom Lema.

Lema said that GPS systems were the most popular target for thieves.

Stop focusing on the needs of cars

Vehicular traffic congestion causes severe problems for downtown residents. The traffic brings noise, smells, pollution and aggravated drivers who make life hazardous for pedestrians.

That’s why a study considering whether to temporarily remove the ballfields on the Boston Common to expand the Boston Common Parking Garage should be nixed.

That’s why the very able people at the Massachusetts Convention Center Authority should instead spend their time and money investigating how to expand other modes of transportation to accommodate the visitors who would otherwise drive their cars. It’s time for all this city’s entities, public or private, to put cars at the bottom of their list of priorities. So many of Boston’s problems, whether it is cleanliness or frustration, can be traced to the car. It is time to create new ways of getting around.

For the garage, it’s the old problem: If you build it they will come. Nothing should be built that attracts more cars. Moreover, everything that is built or changed from now on should give drivers other options besides cars.

The current exercise that Back Bay businesses and residents are going through on the Storrow Drive tunnel rehab highlights the traffic challenges we face. The Storrow Drive tunnel advisory committee is facing the unpleasant fact that Storrow carries far more traffic than was intended and that the future necessary construction will cause severe back-ups. That’s unpleasant for the neighborhood and a time-waster for drivers.

MCCA Executive Director James Rooney said he is not advocating for an expanded garage, but he wants to explore the idea since it was suggested in the study led by Senator Dianne Wilkerson about whether the state should keep running the Hynes Convention Center as well as the new Boston Convention and Exhibition Center.

Morever, Rooney wants to make more money from the garage, since its $5 million in annual profits replace taxpayer dollars that subsidize the two convention centers. Perhaps he could raise the rates in this garage, one of the lowest priced, as well as one of the best run in the city.

Rooney has many options that could be investigated to bring people into the city — a shopper’s shuttle from suburban town centers, expanded commuter rail in which trains run so frequently and fast that no one would think of driving, free commuter rail and T rides. Drivers don’t pay a fee to drive into Boston on Route 93, so why should those taking commuter rail be required to do so?

At this point, as Rooney himself points out, it can be almost as expensive to come by rail from some towns as it is to drive.

Other cities have recently put new strategies in place that change the priority cars have had. London charges a fee for cars entering a central zone. New York leaders are considering such a move. Paris is trying an experiment with free bikes. Leaders of our relatively small city are always defensive — is Boston really world class? If London, New York and Paris are the examples, we won’t be until we start dealing with the car where it should be dealt — at the end of the line in transportation. Let’s start right here by eliminating this study.