This week, Ginger Lawrence is back at her home on Beacon Hill, tending to her garden and getting ready for summer. But just a few weeks ago, she was doing something she never would have thought herself capable of – installing sheetrock as part of a team of volunteers in a Katrina-ravaged New Orleans home. Lawrence, who recently retired from a job that had nothing to do with construction, was part of a volunteer group organized by her church. She was in New Orleans for less than a week, but she hopes she made a difference, and the experience definitely made an impact her life. And now she wants others to know that anyone can do what she did.
“If someone like me can help with rebuilding, anyone can help with rebuilding. And here’s so much more to be done. If you think it’s too late, it’s not too late. There are still monumental problems,” Lawrence says.
Lawrence says you don’t need to have particular skills to be able to help – she admits to having “zero” skills in the way of construction and homebuilding. Nor do you have to have a deep connection with the New Orleans area or a specific reason for wanting to volunteer. Lawrence had been to New Orleans once before but didn’t really see anything beyond the French Quarter. All you have to have, she says, is a willingness to dig in and help.
“Habitat for Humanity and most denominations have programs in New Orleans so there are many organizations looking for new volunteers can find something for anyone to do,” she says. “I decided that instead of wringing my hands about a lot of things going on in this world, I would do something.”
Lawrence didn’t know what to expect when she signed up several months ago for this excursion, an effort of seven volunteers from the Church of Our Savior and All Saints Church in Brookline. The group worked through the Episcopal Diocese of New Orleans and was assigned to help rebuild a home for a family with nine children. The home had been nearly destroyed, and since the hurricane, the family had been living in a tiny garage near the home.
She says she was appalled that so many people are still living in these conditions, nearly three years after Katrina. Driving through the New Orleans area, Lawrence saw huge tent villages under the interstates, blocks and blocks of homes with just one or two houses that had been rebuilt, and a general lack of a cohesive rebuilding effort.
“There is a tremendous amount of work that has been done, but if you travel around … you are mostly struck by the widespread scope of what still needs to be done,” she says. “The extent of it is really hard to comprehend unless you go down and see it.”
Every volunteer effort helps, though, Lawrence says. This is why she is encouraging anyone who has considered volunteering with the relief efforts to do so. By the time she left New Orleans, the home her group had been working on was not finished, but steady progress had been made.
“At one point we were in the house working and the mother and father came in and were hugging each other,” she says. “They were picking out paint colors and looking ahead. The hopefulness of people is really impressive.”
The people she met are hopeful, she says, as well as grateful for the support. And, she says, they don’t want to be forgotten.
“I think it is safe to say that all of us who went on our trip would be delighted to go back,” she says. “Doing something productive for others is a great feeling.”

Beset by rising expenses, primary among them the runaway cost for gasoline, Boston’s cab drivers are pushing for a far hike.
If granted, the fare hike will cause Boston’s rates to be among the highest for a short ride in the United States. However, taxi industry experts claim the rates must be raised because the cost of doing business in Boston is among the highest in the nation for cab drivers and medallion owners.
Cab drivers across the nation have watched their profits virtually disappear during the past twelve months as fixed costs for repairs and for fuel have gone through the roof. The situation in Boston is no different. In fact, the situation here, according to cab drivers, is worse.
If approved by the police department, which regulates and enforces the price for a ride in Boston as well as the bevy of city ordinances governing the industry, the cost of a 4-mile ride will go from $11.55 to $16.70.
Cab drivers are attempting to raise the rate by 50 percent with the starting fare increasing from $2.25 to $2.75.
By and large, Boston’s cab drivers are recent immigrants. Mixed in with that group are long time cab drivers and medallion owners who have seen the price for a medallion go from about $50,000 in 1980 to $250,000 today.
Also, cab drivers work extraordinary hours, enormously long and tiring shifts of 12-to16 hours, with many cab drivers working nearly around the clock. Many work those hours seven days a week.
In addition, cab drivers, for the most part, do not drive energy efficient automobiles. A large part of the Boston cab fleet are Ford Crown Victoria’s. In city driving diminishes efficiency with the Crown Victorias averaging less than 10 miles per gallon.
Full-time drivers can make $600-$800 a week with rainy weeks preferred over sunshine and perfect weather.
A medallion cab can be leased for $77 per shift. Add to that the cost for gasoline, and cab drivers operating in Boston need a minimum of $150 to meet the expense of running the cab they’ve rented or own. In fact, ownership implies even higher expenses as the interest payments for the loans taken out to own a medallion must be met monthly.
The first six to eight hours of a shift for Boston cab drivers is the time when they accumulate enough cash to pay for the rental of the taxi and for the fuel. After that, the rest is theirs to keep.
One of the vicissitudes of driving a cab is that on many nights there is not much more on the street than the first six to eight hours gets you.
During this time when consumers are not eating out as much or shopping as much causes a decline in cab fares, as does tourism to Boston, which is down slightly over last year.

Brian Fair of Harpoon is seen loading kegs of Harpoon beer into the Sevens on Charles Street last Thursday afternoon.

A representative of the Beacon Hill Civic Association presented the position of the neighborhood body on Suffolk’s proposed 20 Somerset Street project last week, highlighting some of the concerns that are giving residents pause as Suffolk enters the final phase of the project.
Speaking on behalf of neighborhood residents, Ania Camargo said that, while not unequivocally opposed to the project—a combined art school and classroom building--the neighborhood wanted Suffolk to adhere to certain guidelines to ease concerns.
Chief among the concerns expressed by Camargo was the continued discrepancy between Suffolk’s enrollment and Suffolk’s available student housing.
“It’s very desirable for students to team up and live in apartments in [Beacon Hill],” said Camargo, citing the fact that this option is often easier and less expensive than living in a dorm. The general academic space at 20 Somerset would only make Beacon Hill even more attractive as an area for students who wish to live off campus.
As such, Camargo said it was vital that Suffolk have a specific plan for increasing housing capacity. Currently, Suffolk’s institutional master plan calls for additional housing for up to 50% of the student body (which will be capped at 5,000 full time equivalent students), but locations for much of that housing is currently only speculative. That leads to the other concern that future housing could be built on Beacon Hill, said Camargo.
Suffolk Vice President John Nucci said that the University was in lock step with the BHCA on the housing issue, and is not only actively seeking out space for more dormitories (new dorms were recently opened at 10 West Street, and more are coming at the downtown Modern Theater), but has proposed a series of non expansion pacts that would preclude putting more residential space of Beacon Hill. Task Force member Ellen Salerno also pointed out that there is legislation pending that would severely limit student access to off campus housing.
In fact, Nucci said that it was the strong resistance to the construction of a dorm at 20 Somerset Street that led Suffolk to pursue, at the request of residents, the construction of an academic building in the first place.
In addition to Suffolk’s housing shortfall, Camargo also said that the BHCA is concerned with the capacity and the size of the proposed building, which, while not exceeding the height of the previous building, has about 60% more square footage and a larger footprint.
“It’s much more than an art school,” said Camargo of the building, which will house the New England School of art and design along with a significant amount of general academic space. “It’s a massive concentration of square footage in Beacon Hill.”
Suffolk has previously pointed out that the move to 20 Somerset Street would shift students away from “residential” Beacon Hill by allowing the closure of the Fenton Building on Temple Street for academic purposes. However, Camargo said that the BHCA would prefer to see academic space moved off the Hill entirely, and suggested that Suffolk’s own facility at 73 Tremont Street could be utilized for such a purpose. “By having classrooms [in 73 Tremont Street], you could help shift that center off of Beacon Hill.”
However, Alex Krieger, an architectural consultant for the University, has said that the layout of 73 Tremont, particularly the columns that support the structure, make it difficult to utilize for academic purposes. In addition, the Task Force and the University have already outlined other uses for 73 Tremont, including the expansion of the library and the consolidation of leased space, according to Greg Gatlin, Suffolk’s public affairs director.
Ultimately, Nucci said that there seemed to be little discrepancy between the concerns of Beacon Hill residents and the wishes of the University and the Task Force. “There’s a lot of common ground here; we may disagree about the extent to which certain concerns are being met, but if one had been sitting here for the past year, I think you would have seen a lot of these basic concerns being addressed,” said Nucci, a sentiment that was echoed by several Task Force members.
The 20 Somerset building is currently undergoing article 80 review by the Boston Redevelopment Authority as part of the University’ institutional master plan, and the BRA is taking public comments on the project that will factor into its final ruling. BRA representative Gerald Autler said that he hoped to move forward to schedule a hearing on the project at the BRA’s June meeting.

The Honorable Michael E. Capuano, Representative, Eighth Congressional District, District of Massachusetts (left), is congratulated by Suffolk University President David J. Sargent upon receiving an honorary doctor of laws degree from Suffolk University Law School in a commencement ceremony recently held at the Bank of America Pavilion in Boston. Looking on is Suffolk University Law School Associate Dean Marc Perlin.

Senator Kennedy’s choice

Senator Ted Kennedy has decided to opt for the most aggressive possible procedure to attack the deadly glioma growing in the parietal lobe of his brain. If the operation, conducted at Duke University Hospital earlier this week, is a success, it will be followed by radiation and chemotherapy.
Those are the fundamentals. This is the reality.
Senator Kennedy is going for it, so to speak. He is not interested in simply fading away or submitting to the cancer growing in his brain.
He is taking the route many of us would choose to take, that is, he has chosen to attack the cancer attacking him.
The attempt to rid himself of a form of brain cancer that tends to kill at least half the people with it during the first year explains a lot about the patient.
He wants to be here very badly. He does not want to die or to call it quits. He is fighting for his future.
Those of us with family members or friends who have suffered from cancer, and who have died, understand perfectly the senator’s desire to fight on in order to keep the Grim Reaper at bay.
At 76, Senator Kennedy is showing the type of courage that is not easy to summon.
In the privacy of his own thoughts, he is made angry by his condition. He is also scared and terrified. After all, when he stripped of his position and his affect, he is just a man struggling to find a way to remain alive.
We admire him for his fight. We wish him the best.
His full recovery and return to his seat from Massachusetts in the US Senate would be an inspiration to us all.

The joys of the Esplanade

Beacon Hill residents have two back yards that among the most unique and extraordinary in any city of the United States. Boston Common is fabulous. The Esplanade is something unto itself.
If you were out this weekend, as we were, and if you strolled along the length of the Esplanade on the Boston side of the Charles River, as we did, well, what frankly is there to say that all of us don’t already understand?
Indeed.
Running, biking, sunning oneself on a blanket, walking, reading the Sunday newspaper in the shade of an old and trusted tree, working on your laptop, sailing on the river, well, it doesn’t get much better than it did at the Esplanade over the weekend.
Is it any wonder Beacon Hill residents are absolutely terrified about the repairs about to be made on the Storrow Drive tunnel and how that work is going to inevitably disrupt our perfect world.