CAPTION: Ruby Door owner Tracey Weiss hangs a wall sconce in the space into which she has expanded her shop. She will now carry furniture and larger home decorating items as well as her jewelry and small accessories. Weiss is among several Charles Street shop owners who are moving, expanding or starting new businesses.

We’re in a recession—and we’re not just whining. Business owners are wary, with some Charles Street merchants complaining about lower sales figures over the past couple of years.
Nevertheless, the retail spaces on Charles Street are all filled, except for one, and that’s about to get a new tenant. And over the past couple of months, one business has changed hands and some merchants have actually expanded.
Tracey Weiss, for example, has moved into the retail space next door to her Ruby Door showroom. This has allowed her to feature bigger pieces such as furniture and lamps, some old, some new, to her jewelry and accessories lines. The space was formerly occupied by Ilex flowers and then Wish Splash. When Wish Splash left, Weiss didn’t like having an empty space next to her, so she snapped it up herself. Look up the next time you’re around DeLuca’s Market to see for yourself her new window display. With a window above the street level, the bigger items attract more attention to the shop than the smaller ones did.
One storefront changed hands, but not uses. The Zoots dry-cleaning company ran into trouble, but its Charles Street location was transferred to Anton’s, a stable company with more than 40 other Massachusetts locations.
Brownstone Insurance left its location at the corner of Revere and Charles street, but Amy Bailey, who, with her husband Stephen owns the building and lives in it, reported last Friday that Baranzelli Silk Surplus will move into the space from its location across the street. No word yet on what will go into Silk Surplus’s current space.
Bailey has other news too. Several months ago she bought the Beauty Mark from Rebecca Pimentel and now is expanding her beauty services to include facials.

FAR problems beset Core de Vie
One new shop is open and will soon have a sign, but isn’t yet completed. Business owners Mark and Ellen Comerford, who live on Beacon Street in the Back Bay, have run into sticky problems mostly having to do with a basement they dug out. Core de Vie, their fitness-wear shop and exercise studio has undergone a six-month renovation project in the space that used to house Mario Ratzki Oriental Rugs.
First, the Comerfords were unaware of the recently instituted groundwater regulations when they began the digging, but now they may have to put in a recharge system, which helps maintain the groundwater levels so that foundations do not rot.
Second, although their permit allows them to use the basement for storage, they now understand that it could be an attractive space in which to offer “wellness” services such as facials and massages.
But using the space for these services means that the property, which includes the one-story building on Charles and the four-story building on River Street would exceed Beacon Hill’s allowed floor-area-ratio of two. FAR, as it is known, is the ratio of the square feet of floor space to the square feet of the lot area. On Beacon Hill theoretically one could build two stories on the whole lot or four stories on half the lot. Most Hill buildings exceed the current zoning. FAR trips up many renovations in downtown Boston.
“I’d never heard of FAR before,” said Ellen Comerford. “I don’t know yet what we’re going to do.”
Tom Clemens, who chairs the Beacon Hill Civic Association’s licensing and zoning committee, has been working with the Comerfords. He said he’d like to see the matter resolved, but in a way that doesn’t set a precedent of allowing owners who inadvertently—or purposely—exceed the allowed FAR to occupy the illegal space. Recent cases indicate that the Board of Appeal and the courts don’t look favorably upon such situations either.
In this case, Clemens said the neighborhood wants the services and items the Comerfords are offering. But the civic association generally does not support expansions of spaces, partly because larger spaces may attract chains, which would dramatically change the character of the street.
He said he could support a variance from the Board of Appeal that would apply to the Comerford’s business only, and that once they leave the space, the new basement space would revert to storage. The Board of Appeal has not commented on whether that arrangement is acceptable.
Clemens cautioned business owners and homeowners to consult the civic association before undertaking a substantial project. He and his committee usually know far more than most architects or contractors about what is allowed, and they can save prospective remodelers aggravation, time and money when it involves variances.
Good arguments for variances can carry the day. “But it’s easier to make those arguments up front than after the fact when the neighbors are all upset,” he said.

A development firm is pushing a bold vision to demolish the Government Center Garage, building in its place an ambitious mixed use development that would combine restaurants, hotels, and shopping with residential units.
In a second public meeting held with members of the Boston Redevelopment Authority, representatives from the Raymond Company presented details of its proposal to the public, including an outline of how parking concerns would be addressed.
“This is a unique opportunity,” said Ted Raymond of the Raymond Company and Bullfinch Congress Holdings. According to Raymond, the company wants to get started “quickly,” and will look to have all their approvals in place by the time the lease for the current tenants occupying the top floor offices expires in January 2010.
If the approvals are not in place by that point, said Raymond, the project would be delayed indefinitely as the company would then look to find another tenant who would likely require a long term lease.
A big part of the appeal of the demolition, according to Raymond, would be destroying a structure that currently acts as a “wall” between Bullfinch Triangle, the North End, Faneuil Hall, and Beacon Hill, which all converge on the site. Getting rid of the garage would help to join neighbors in much the same way as the removal of the central artery, said Raymond.
Of course, destroying the garage means destroying hundreds of parking spaces, and what to do about the loss of those spaces was one of the main topics of concern at last week’s meeting. According to Raymond CEO Steve Kasnet, the development would soften the loss of the spaces during construction by keeping some of the spaces open while the project was in the process of being built. The completed project, however, would still likely have fewer spaces than the current garage.
The developers said they are considering several different possibilities for parking on the site, and that community input would be a crucial part of the decision making process. Kasnet pointed out that the excellent public transportation access made fewer spaces palatable, especially given the fact that the current garage often does not operate at anywhere close to capacity.
Preserving a Boston-like “character” is also key, according to Raymond. Rather than a huge high-rise or a single massive structure, the development will have an urban, neighborhood feel. The development, it is hoped, would be extremely pedestrian friendly.
A third meeting will be held in August to discuss more specific issues related to parceling on the site.

Summer is in full swing and children are enjoying a number of organized activities in camps and programs that provide sports and educational opportunities. Here are three Beacon Hill/Back Bay groups that are making it a fun-filled summer for kids in the neighborhood:

Hill House
The Hill House, Boston’s Backyard in the City, offers three camps, Kiddie Camp (3-5 years old), Sports Camp (5-10 years old), and Summer Day Camp (5-10 years olds).
Tere Carmona is the director of Kiddie Camp that runs from 9:30 to 12:30 p.m. Jonathan Batista is the director of the Sports Camp that runs from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Katie McCabe is the director of the Day Camp that also runs 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. The camps are in the seventh year of their existence.
Approximately 115 boys and girls are attending weekly sessions of the camps, according to Ashley Glesser, program associate at Hill House.
Hill House is winding down another successful youth baseball season that it organizes in coordination with the North End Athletic Association (NEAA).

The Learning Project
Andy Gallagher, director of school advancement at the Learning Project (grades kindergarten through six) on Marlborough Street, said the school’s Summer in the City program is concluding its four-week session this week under the direction of Suzanne Bates, a kindergarten teacher at the school.
About 20 boys and girls (kindergarten to third grade) are participating in the Summer in the City camp weekdays, from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. “In the morning children in the program take trips to discover some of the places that we overlook in the city like the Frog Pond, the Top of the Prudential, the museums, and some of the kids’ concerts in Copley Square,” said Gallagher. “In the afternoon after lunch, the children have arts and crafts and playtime in our kindergarten space in the First Baptist Church.”
The second-year program experienced an increase in enrollment this year. “Last year was our first year and it jumped up in enrollment this year,” said Gallagher. “We hope it continues to grow next year.”
The Learning Project will start its new August Scholar program July 21 for boys and girls (grades five and six).
“The program is free and it is designed for kids who might not have many summer opportunities available to them,” said Gallagher. “We’re aiming for between eight and twelve participants for our first year.”
Fourth-grade teacher Kristina Royal and two other teacher/counselors will work with the students in the program. The students start with breakfast and spend three hours working on mathematics and science. After lunch, the students receive sailing lessons from Community Boating.
“The program is designed for kids who might need a little help on their academics for the summer,” said Gallagher. After lunch, the students will receive sailing lessons from Community Boating.
The three-week program runs from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., but students have the option of continuing from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. at Hill House.
Gallagher said Learning Project Headmaster Michael McCord has been very supportive of the summer programs at the school.

Kingsley Montessori School
Kingsley Montessori School has two ongoing “Summertime at Kingsley” educational programs. Children from age three to kindergarten (ages 5-6) enjoy a half-day pre-school program at Kingsley’s pre-school facility on Fairfield Street. Each of the theme-based sessions runs for two weeks.
Children entering grades one through five attend a program (9 a.m. to 4 p.m.) at the school’s elementary campus on Exeter Street. Cori Rotsko, coordinator of extracurricular program at Kingsley, said there are four different electives per session ranging from creative arts and music to mathematical thought.
“We also have Wednesday field trips to such places as the Puppet Showplace Theater, a Charles River sightseeing tour, Franklin Park Zoo, Museum of Science, Millis Farm, and the new Tomb Exhibit in Allston,” said Rotsko.
Kingsley Head of School Renee DuChainey Farkes oversees the programming at the school.

Let’s get green before we turn black and blue

When you call for a cab to your home in the city, and the cab arrives at your front door, you step out of your home and climb into a Crown Victoria that used to be a police car. The Crown Victoria is spacious, huge, really, and at this point, out of touch with the times.
So much so, that cab drivers spending 12-16 hours a day behind the wheel are doing so in large part to pay for gasoline.
In the immortal words of the late great American humorist and satirist Will Rogers: “We are the only nation driving to the poorhouse in an automobile.”
Indeed.
It isn’t just cab drivers driving to the poorhouse in their business vehicles, but it’s also all of us.
In this instance, Boston’s cab drivers are especially at risk because the cars they drive to earn their living are so inefficient –way beyond the colorful words and meaning of Rogers’ great quotation.
In this weekend’s Boston Globe, there was a wonderful Op-Ed piece calling for Boston’s cab fleet to be scrapped by its owners and replaced with hybrid vehicles for a number of reasons.
First, hybrid vehicles would provide cab drivers with much better mileage and giant savings for gasoline purchases.
Second, hybrid cabs meeting the flow of about 16 million tourists into our city would create the impression of Boston as a truly Green city, with a truly Green cab fleet – and that this, by itself, would raise Boston’s image in the eyes of the world, let alone in the eyes of those of us who take cabs from our homes into the city.
The thought projected in the Op-ed is especially prescient because the city’s cab drivers, beleaguered by rising prices for fuel, have asked for fair increases that would make Boston the most expensive city nationally to take a cab.
Giving the fair increases to subsidize the rising price for fuel is the wrong way to go – although the cabbies need fare increases to survive.
What is necessary is for the cab industry to begin doing away with the Crown Victorias and to begin integrating their fleet with hybrids.
This can be achieved by the city with the mayor advocating for a bank or a number of local banks making low-cost purchase loans available to cab owners to purchase hybrid vehicles.
Conservation, these days, like survival itself in the changing marketplace, is expensive.
Looking Green and becoming Green are the way to go, but this can’t be achieved without major incentives.
In the meantime, the Crown Victorias driven by our cabbies will burn fuel almost as fast as they put it into their tanks, giving credence to Rogers’ immortal words that we are driving to the poorhouse in our cars.