The fine for parking within ten feet of a Boston fire hydrant with a late penalty charge is up but remains a bargain compared with the cost for a barrel of oil.
A barrel of oil is about $145 while parking too close to a fire hydrant with a late fee is now at $133.
The new higher fees went into effect July 1. The cost for illegally parking too close to a fire hydrant went from $75 to $100 and the late fee rose from $25 to $33, proving that virtually nothing remains the same forever in the city.
At least twelve categories of fines have been raised in Zone A – the area of the city comprised of the waterfront neighborhoods and demarcated by Massachusetts Avenue.
Beacon Hill and Back Bay, obviously, are Zone A areas.
While technology has almost outpaced our capacity to deal with it, the venerable, old tradition of hand written tickets – now generated by small hand held computers – remains the one city of Boston municipal function that works more efficiently than all the others put together.
Beacon Hill and Back Bay residents will attest to the lightning like ability of a parking ticket to appear on a windshield in a matter of a minute or even less when one is illegally parked for whatever reason in this neighborhood of the city.
In fact, if other municipal functions like police, fire and inspectional services could operate with the same level of efficiency, a miracle would be achieved.
Fines were raised also for those parking in a taxi stand. That has gone from $30 to $50. The late penalty has risen from $10 to $16.
If you park in a fire lane the fine has risen from $40 to $100 and the late penalty has gone from $13 to $33.
Parking on a sidewalk is Walmart cheap by comparison to parking in front of a hydrant or in a fire lane. That fine has gone from $40 to $65 with the fine rising from $13 to $21.
Parking in or on a crosswalk has been changed from $40-$85. The late penalty of $13 has been changed to $28.
Feel like parking on a handicapped ramp? Don’t. That fine has been changed from $50 to $100 with a late penalty going from $16 to $33.
Snow emergency parking violations remain tame. It has gone from $35 to $45. The late penalty has risen from $11 to $15.
Commercial vehicle fines for parking overnight have more than tripled rising from $6 to $21with the late penalty going from $6 to $21.
If you park more than one foot from the curb, the fine has gone from $20 to $35. The penalty has risen from $6 to $11.
For those of you parking your automobiles and whose registrations are not valid, the fine will be $40 up from $20. The late penalty has gone from $6 to $13.
If you park and do not have a valid inspection sticker showing you will be fined $40 up from $20. The late penalty of $6 has been raised to $13.
And last, if you parking for the purpose of performing non-emergency repairs to your automobile you will pay a $40 fine, up from $20. The late fee has gone from $6 to $13.

Therese Minton, Carolyn Morey and Andrea Clagett enjoyed the Nichols House Museum’s annual Spring Fete on June 5. About 130 members and friends attended the event at the Boston Athenaeum which raised $55,000 to help support museum preservation efforts and ongoing projects.

Neighborhood children enjoyed a visit from New England Aquarium, last Wednesday at the Myrtle Street Playground. About 50 neighborhood kids were on-hand to meet hermit crab, snails, starfish and a horseshoe crab up-close.

ACHIEVEMENTS
Remington Pope, a sophomore at The Governor's Academy in Byfield, MA, has been named to the Honor Roll for the second semester.

Alexandra Demeter received a MA in Applied Psychology from Fairfield University in CT at the school’s commencement ceremonies in May.

Teryn B. Weintz, Myrtle Street, has accepted the role of Director of Development with Hands On Disaster Response, a non-profit disaster relief organization based in MA. Weintz plans to implement her recent and previous professional experiences within local non-profit organizations to take Hands On to its next strategic fundraising level of operation so that more volunteers can help with more disaster relief efforts. But before she does that, she will be in Cedar Rapids, Iowa for a week in early July, assisting with clean up efforts there from the flooding.

At the Newton Country Day School of the Sacred Heart 128th Prize Day ceremonies, Sister Barbara Rogers, Headmistress, honored Beacon Hill resident Nicole Hatton of Irving Street. Hatton, a sophomore, received a Red Ribbon that denotes an average of B+ and above with no grade below a B-.

Madison E. Gilmore, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. R. Curtis Gilmore, and Cristina E. Hughes, daughter of Estela Matta‑Hughes, have earned honors at Phillips Exeter Academy for the spring semester.

A good model for downtown neighborhoods

It is difficult to imagine that an agreement that has its genesis on Beacon Hill with Suffolk University and the neighborhood about the future, is an exact replica of all future agreements to follow for universities in Back Bay and further out by Cleveland Circle.
The recently struck agreement between Suffolk University and the Beacon Hill Neighborhood Association is exactly what is needed between the city and Boston College, which has just purchased the former Cardinal’s chancery and residence and all the land with it with a dream of placing college dorms on it.
And even if that wasn’t the dream, the recent to do between the city and Boston College about the purchase by the college of a major apartment building at 2000 Commonwealth Avenue, presumably to be used as a residence for students, is exactly the type of occurrence that cannot happen between Beacon Hill and the neighborhood because of the agreement that was signed between Suffolk and the neighborhood.
That agreement, which was hammered out over many months and with overview from city hall, was the brainchild of Suffolk University Vice President John Nucci and the Beacon Hill Association.
This agreement is going to serve as the model by which all other agreements are going to be modeled when it comes to limiting the impact of student populations in neighborhoods where density is thick and space is limited.
We suspect that in the future, even Boston University will be forced to negotiate after the fashion of Suffolk with the neighborhood.
What is at stake here is controlling growth, which is inevitable.
It is also about saving neighborhoods from being overrun by students.
The presence of a university in a neighborhood by itself is not a problem. The problem comes with expansion and raised sensitivities about longtime residents in the neighborhood who see the area changing and who yearn to have it remain a neighborhood instead of a student playground or residence.
What Nucci and others have done with long and hard negotiations, is to create a matrix to work from.
Suffolk and the Beacon Hill neighborhood have defined where the university can go and where it must remain. Even the number of students on Beacon Hill at the university has been capped for the next ten years.
These types of conditions, arrived at after intensive negotiation are what the future holds for every university in Greater Boston.