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 18-22
Traffic signals: Supposed to begin work yesterday or today.
Plantings: Irrigation is complete and functioning. Some planting was done this week, median should be finished over the weekend.
Street paving: Been pushed to June 30 because of a steam leak near 100 Cambridge Street.
Property still vacant after eight years by Colleen Walsh
The neighbors are past the point of frustration with the luxury brownstone on their block that has sat empty and in a state of disrepair for years.
Though the chain link fencing around the home has been removed, the front stairs fixed and the entryway refurbished, a wooden board still covers a basement window and a large piece of concrete sits idly in the front yard of 18 Brimmer Street.
Construction began at the property more than seven years ago, only after the owner, Zouhair Hassan, had to post a performance bond and was threatened with receivership if the work wasn’t completed in a timely manner. Over the years, the project has incurred violations from the city’s Inspectional Services Division as well as various changes of contractors and architects.
“As far as I know from walking [around] the front and the back, there has been no work done in a long time, and no interior work,” said Stephen Jeffries, who lives at 12 Brimmer Street and is fed up with the lack of progress. “I cannot remember the last time I saw workers there.”
It seems Hassan is able to do just enough to keep ISD at bay. About a year and a half ago he was charged by the agency with securing the property and making it safe. According to Gregg Donovan of GA Donovan Management, whose company worked at the site, that work was completed.
“I haven’t been over there in about a year and a half,” said Donovan. “I was only contracted to do the outside work, to do the list that the city had to get done,” which included the front stairs, a security system, and a rear fence.
City Councilor Mike Ross said he learned from ISD that the owners were out of compliance with a court order that requires them to have the building secured and fitted with an alarm system, which they have done, but also file a yearly engineering report, which they have not.
"It is my desire to see them use this breach of the court order to tighten the scope of the order to go beyond the simple filing of engineering reports and having an alarm and a secure building but to take it a step further and require that this is put on a pathway to becoming a functioning building in our community."
According to ISD there are no current violations open on the property. “We asked the owner to secure it and he has done that,” said Lisa Timberlake, spokesperson for ISD.
Jeffries admitted that the quality of work, when done, seemed to be high, but he took issue with its pace.
“The work that he does appears to be pretty good work; the rate at which it happens appears to be less than glacial.
“If I thought he was going to sell it for a reasonable price I’d make him an offer myself. We could easily get a bunch of neighbors together to buy it and fix it because [they] are sick and tired of having this unsightly mess here.”
Ross, who has worked with the owner in the past in an effort to get the work completed, is frustrated with the lack of progress at the home.
“To have this eyesore plaguing this community seems unfair and it seems that there should be some sort of law against it,” said Ross. “We are going to do our best to continue to try and get this owner to do a better job…this is unacceptable.”
Sometimes it just doesn’t pay to be a Good Samaritan. Or, does it?
Steven Sherman Horowitz of Lynn said he was on his way to work June 15 at WBIX (1060 AM) in Boston last week when he stopped at his local Bank of American branch. While there, he checked the balance in his account. It was zero. Not good.
He also discovered an ATM card lost by or stolen from a previous banker. He put the card in his pocket, thinking he would deal with it later.
At lunchtime, he decided to go the bank branch in Charles River Park to print out his bank statement to see just why it had hit rock bottom. He tried to use the business ATM machine but his card didn’t work, so he went out to the ATMs on Cambridge Street. But, his card didn’t work there either.
So he went inside the bank to report the problem. A customer service representative came out, tinkered with the machine and verified that the card would not work. So, he changed the PIN number on the card. Horowitz then printed out his statement and hurried on his way, thinking it unusual that the employee had not asked for identification.
Later that evening, he looked at the statement. Miraculously, it showed he had $10,000 in the bank. He looked again. He checked one pocket and found his card. He checked the other pocket and discovered the lost card he had meant to turn in. Ooops!
He immediately called the owner to report the lost card. No answer. He then turned over the card to the Nahant police.
The next day the cardholder, a Nahant resident who asked that his name not be used, called Horowitz to thank him for turning in his missing card. After hearing that its PIN number had been changed, he headed to the bank for a new one. He got it, but can’t say for sure if he was asked for identification at the time. He then printed out his balance. Ooops! $1,000 was missing from his account — withdrawn on June 15.
Bank of America’s fraud division told him the episode closely resembled the modus operandi of a huge ring that can be traced all the way to Russia. They said it involves millions of dollars stolen. They told him to stop talking about it.
Now he wonders what he has gotten himself into.
Horowitz, too, wonders what he got himself into. He said he knew nothing about the withdrawal. “Obviously the whole transaction was videotaped,” he said. “It’s either going to be me or not going to be me,” he said.
Besser to return to Civic Association by Jacqueline G. Freeman
credit: J. Freeman
caption: Suzanne Besser will begin work as the executive director of the Beacon Hill Civic Association on July 23.
Suzanne Besser will return to the position of Executive Director at the Beacon Hill Civic Association — a job she held from 1999 to 2004 — effective July 23.
Besser is eager to return to the civic association, which has undergone several changes in recent years. “I look forward to again helping resolve quality of life issues here,” she said.
Since Besser left, the office at 74 Joy Street has been completely renovated and a lot of the board members are new. “In some ways, I feel like I am coming home to 74 Joy Street, but this time it is to a newly renovated building and a board of directors filled with new people, energy and initiatives.”
Before moving to Boston with her husband John, Besser ran her own association management company, served as executive director of the Farmington Valley/West Hartford Visitors Bureau, chaired the Connecticut Tourism Association and worked as a correspondent for the Hartford Courant.
For the past four years, Besser has served as a writer and editor for the Beacon Hill Times.
The Bessers have four grown children and five grandchildren and live on Acorn Street.
Two more options for Storrow team to consider; Option B3 eliminates westbound Berkeley St. entrance by Karen Cord Taylor
Deadline approaching for Storrow decision
After almost a year and a half of public meetings and subsequent advisory committee meetings about how best to reconstruct the Storrow Drive tunnel, participants are still wondering: What do we do now?
That was the only consensus after a presentation on Wednesday night detailing the effects of two more variations for dealing with the crumbling tunnel between the Clarendon and Arlington street exits.
As things now stand, the Department of Conservation and Recreation, the state agency that owns the road, has set a deadline of July 30 for filing its Draft Environmental Impact Report, in which it will identify the option it prefers. It has four primary options to consider, including repairing or rebuilding what is there now, putting the entire road around Arlington Street underground, or constructing the entire roadway above ground. The primary options have several variations.
But as things now stand, the traffic and landscape advisory committee members are supposed to submit individual letters to DCR by July 13. With the committee’s next meeting scheduled for July 18, members complained they will have had no chance to discuss the options before those letters are due.
So Nancy Farrell of Regina Villa Associates, who is running the public process for DCR, has said she will try to schedule a meeting for June 28. Those interested in the discussion should contact Nancy at nfarrell@reginavilla.com.
With some advisory committee members still not satisfied with the proposed solutions to fixing the deteriorated Storrow Drive tunnel between Clarendon and Arlington streets, designers went back to the drawing board.
On Wednesday they presented the implications of building the two new variations they had unveiled at a previous meeting.
Option B3, which eliminates the tunnel, but depresses the roadway in both directions has major disadvantages. It eliminates a westbound entrance in the Back Bay, forcing local drivers wishing to head west on Storrow Drive to get on either at Charles Circle or Charlesgate. It also provides no exit for eastbound drivers at Arlington, forcing them off at either Clarendon Street or Charles Circle. Finally, it adds little useful green space to the Esplanade, since the 29,700 square feet gained are cheek by jowl with fast-moving traffic. With a new 12-foot wide footbridge crossing over depressed traffic lanes, pedestrians would still not encounter a park-like setting until they are well off the bridge and into the Esplanade.
On the plus side, the pedestrian bridge can be wider than the current one and start at Beacon Street at grade level thought a projection of green space. Traffic backups on Storrow Drive would not change significantly from the current conditions. Beacon Street traffic would increase, but Clarendon Street traffic next to the playground, would see only a small increase. It would take longer to build — three and a half years — than it would take to repair the existing structure, but less time than option D’s configuration, which buries both tunnels. Its $150,000 maintenance cost in one of the lowest, as is its construction cost, estimated at about $65 million.
The other variation, Option D3, builds tunnels in both directions, with a net gain of about 26,000 square feet of usable parkland for the Esplanade and a graceful pedestrian connection between the Public Garden and the Esplanade. When finished, it would allow for 25 more trees than the area now contains. It would also preserve a westbound entrance to Storrow Drive at Berkeley Street. Residents of Beacon Street between Arlington and Berkeley streets and on Beaver Place, who now endure ear-grinding traffic if they venture onto roof decks, would benefit more than most. They would have relative peace and quiet, hearing only slower vehicles entering and exiting Storrow Drive.
Option D3’s major drawbacks are construction time and cost. It would take more than four years to build, compared to two and a half years repairing the existing configuration. Maintaining it is estimated to cost about $600,000 annually. Estimated construction costs are $135 million compared to $52 million for repairing what is there now.
The legislature should move promptly to give Boston and other cities the option of increasing the meals tax by 1 percent, as Mayor Menino has proposed.
Although usually it does not seem wise to dedicate revenue to specific uses, in this case Menino’s plan to use the funds generated by this tax to relieve property taxes seems reasonable.
Massachusetts residents have a relatively small burden of total taxes compared to other states relative to their income. But we are 8th among states in property taxes per capita. Raising one tax that will affect big spenders more than modest ones and visitors as well as residents also seems reasonable.
Residents will barely notice the increase. If you spend $100 on a dinner for two at the Beacon Hill Bistro, your tax will be $6 instead of $5. With such a small change, restaurants in this neighborhood should not lose any business.
Visitors coming from other major U.S. cities and other states in New England will still be pleasantly surprised to find that Boston’s meals tax is well below Chicago’s, Atlanta’s or New Hampshire’s.
We urge Speaker DiMasi to put this effort high on his agenda.
Settling in
After listening to several presentations over the last nine months by Dennis Royer, Boston’s newish chief of public works and transportation, the city’s worriers have come to believe this dirty city might become cleaner after all.
Royer said he expected to hear complaints about Boston’s infrastructure, which has been in bad repair for many years. Instead, what he has heard from every neighborhood is forget the infrastructure. First clean up the place.
So that has been his focus.
He has put new trash barrels and a few Big Bellies throughout the city. He has continued the practice begun last fall of towing cars on street cleaning day and has heard only praise, not criticism, for the towing. He has instituted cleanup days for many neighborhood commercial centers when street fixtures get a coat of paint and the place gets scrubbed. He is trying to figure out a way to deploy his cleanup team where it is needed most.
The place already looks better than it did last year at this time. Keep it up, Mr. Royer.
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