CAPTION: City Councilor Sal LaMattina and City Council President Mike Ross dining at BiNa on the Common.

Less than three weeks after the City Council held a public hearing to explore the possibility of bringing a new outdoor dining options to the Boston Common, two well-established restaurateurs and siblings opened a new seasonal café in the park.
Babak Bina and his sister Azita Bina-Seibel, owners of the Boston restaurants Lala Rokh, Bin 26 Enoteca and BiNa Osteria and gourmet food stop BiNa Alimentari, opened BiNa on the Common, across from the AMC Loews movie theatre at the corner of Boylston and Tremont streets, on July 10. The café, a modest cart and grill that will remain open through the fall, weather permitting, serves a full breakfast menu, including baked goods, granola and yogurt, juices and coffee, as well as lunch items, such as made-to-order hamburgers, grilled panini sandwiches, Italian specialties and non-alcoholic cocktails. The hours of operation are 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday, and seating is limited to 10 tables, with a total of 40 seats.
The site was home to an outdoor café operated by Emerson College and subleased from the Boys & Girls Club since 1996, but it was put out to bid for a short-term lease last month after the college formally bowed out of the agreement to accommodate a new tenant.
Over lunch at BiNa on the Common with City Council President Mike Ross last Tuesday afternoon, City Councilor Sal LaMattina said, “It’s a welcome addition to the Boston Common. I hope more people take advantage of it. It’s a good start, and I hope one day, there’s a permanent addition to the Common.”
Ross said the café already appears to be a new center of activity on the Common, adding, “This was done quickly, thanks to Emerson making room for it. Imagine the possibility of an establishment with an eight-year contract and permanent infrastructure.”
On June 18, the council’s Committee on City and Neighborhood Services, chaired by LaMattina and including fellow committee members Ross and City Councilor Bill Linehan, held a hearing to discuss bringing new outdoor dining options to the Boston Common. Ross suggested at that time that the current site of BiNa on the Common be restored and entered into a long-term lease of no less than eight years.
In December of 2008, the Special Committee on the Boston Common, consisting of LaMattina, Ross and Linehan, submitted a report that addressed the future of the Boston Common, regarding its maintenance and physical infrastructure, public safety and financial opportunities and challenges. The report recommended opening a new outdoor café on the Common as one way of revitalizing the area, citing the success of the Shake Shack, a year-round take-out eatery with outdoor dining that operates in New York City’s Madison Square Park. The committee members, accompanied by Antonia Pollak, commissioner of the Parks and Recreation Department, which has jurisdiction over the Boston Common, and other city officials, visited the Shake Shack during a trip to New York earlier last year.
Meanwhile, Babak Bina is pleased with the location of BiNa on the Common, a short distance between Lala Rokh and Bin 26 Enoteca on Beacon Hill and BiNa Alimentari and BiNa Osteria on the edge of the Theatre District.
“I hope to elevate people’s perception of the Common,” he said. “We want tourists to walk away with a gourmet experience.”

CAPTION: The Vilna Shul at 18 Phillips St.

In the face of serious illness, longtime Beacon Hill resident Deborah Finn found a good neighbor in the Vilna Shul, the self-described “center for Jewish culture” and the city’s last remaining immigrant-era synagogue located on Phillips Street.
Finn, who is scheduled to undergo treatment for a malignant lymph node at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) next month, was in the process of assembling a support group to help her handle her day-to-day chores under the guidance of eHope, a Portland, Maine nonprofit that helps critically ill people build personal Web-based networks of friends, family and coworkers to assist them, when she learned MGH wouldn’t sponsor the initial meeting due to hospital policy.
“I felt kind of frustrated that MGH didn’t have an open-door policy that helps them get through the stress of surgery,” Finn said. “There’s a lot more to recovering from cancer and surgery than what the healthcare professional provide.”
As a technological consultant for nonprofits and fellow Phillips Street resident, Finn was acquainted with the Vilna Shul and asked its executive director, Steven Greenberg, to sponsor her initial support-group meeting. Greenberg readily agreed to her request, noting that the Vilna Shul has provided a place of solace for area hospital patients and their families who stumbled across it in the past.
“The building is here as a tourist site and cultural center,” Greenberg said. “Many people have prayed here…and that provides comfort. If it can also be used by other organizations and provide a little caring and holiness in this type of [medical] situation, our doors are open.”
Besides exemplifying the generosity of the Vilna Shul, it is Finn’s desire that her story will inform others of the valuable service that eHope provides people facing serious illness and perhaps prompt hospitals to reexamine their policies.
“I hope that by working with eHope, it will illustrate to healthcare professionals that you can draw on a community for support to help with parts of the recovery that aren’t strictly related to surgery.”
At the Vilna Shul, Greenberg points to a statue of an eagle located above its archway, which he said is not only symbol of patriotic pride, but also a reminder of the adage, “To be a good Jew, you must first be a good citizen.”
“During the day, we’re always available as a spiritual place, and we’ll do the best we can to accommodate support groups and other organizations in the evening,” Greenberg said. “When you’re going through a difficult time, a spiritual place can be helpful, and we’re happy to be that place.”
For more information about the Vilna Shul, visit www.vilnashul.com. To learn more about eHope, visit www.ehope.nu or call 207-856-7340.

A 31-year-old man allegedly assaulted police officers, firefighters and EMTs with a syringe at his Myrtle Street apartment after a neighbor found him lying unconscious on the floor, according to Boston Police.
On Tuesday, July 14, at approximately 11:35 p.m., a resident of 132 Myrtle St. discovered water leaking into her apartment from the ceiling and proceeded upstairs to find out where the water was coming from. She went to the apartment directly above hers and noticed the door was wide open. After she yelled into the apartment several times without getting a response, she entered the apartment and called out the occupants’ name. She then heard water running from bathroom and proceeded in that direction, where she observed the occupant of the apartment lying on the floor with the tub overflowing. She also noticed several uncapped hypodermic needles strewn about and immediately called 911 for assistance.
Area A-1 officers arrived soon arrived at the residence, where Boston firefighters and EMTs were already on the scene and calling out for officers to assist them on the fifth floor. Officers learned that while they were attempting to render care to the unconscious male, he awoke and took hold of an uncapped hypodermic needle, holding them at bay. Officers quickly responded to the fifth floor apartment and placed themselves between the needle-wielding man and the first responders. They ordered the suspect to drop the needle several times, but he refused. The suspect then held the hypodermic needle in a threatening manner while taking an aggressive stance. The officers ultimately charged towards the suspect and wrestled him to the ground in order to place him into custody.
Ivan Melnychenko was arrested on the charges of assault by means of a dangerous weapon (hypodermic needle).

Suffolk prosecutors, State Police and Boston Police are investigating a possible connection between a incident in which a woman was assaulted and robbed on the Charles River Esplanade shortly after midnight on July 14 and three previous attacks.
According to a statement released by Suffolk County District Attorney Dan Conley’s office, the woman, whose name and age were not released, was assaulted and robbed as she was on foot alone near the Massachusetts Avenue footbridge shortly after midnight. State Police responded to the scene and spoke to the woman, who had called 911 from a Good Samaritan’s cell phone. The woman reported she had not been sexually assaulted.
The woman described her assailant as an African-American male in his 30s with a shaved head and a muscular build, wearing a black tank top and black sweatpants.
Three unsolved attacks on the Esplanade during the summer of 2007 and in South Boston in the summer of 2006 had striking similarities to the latest attack, authorities said.
On July 29, 2007, at about 3:30 a.m., a 20-year-old woman was abducted at knifepoint on Beacon Street and forced to walk to the Esplanade, where she was raped and robbed.
On June 16, 2007, shortly after 11 p.m., a different 20-year-old woman was raped while jogging at the Esplanade on a footpath near the Massachusetts Avenue bridge.
On July 29, 2006, at about 3 a.m., a 30-year-old woman was raped the area of Joe Moakley Park.
The victims in these three incidents described their assailant as a clean-shaven African-American male in his mid-20s to mid-30s, between 5 feet 8 inches and 5 feet 10 inches tall. The suspect was described as having a medium to large build and a bald head.

CAPTION: The fence that the state’s Department of Conservation and Recreation erected around the Teddy Ebersol’s Red Sox Fields on the Charles River Esplanade last month.

The state’s Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) has committed to holding a public meeting to solicit comments about the operations of the Teddy Ebersol’s Red Sox Fields on the Charles River Esplanade in the near future.
According to DCR spokesperson Wendy Fox, the meeting would bring Commissioner Richard Sullivan and other DCR staff together with stakeholders to discuss concerns, including new signage and a 6-foot steel fence that DCR erected around the baseball and soccer fields last month amid public controversy.
While Fox didn’t provide a time and place for the meeting, she said, “We’re interested in having people come so we won’t schedule it in the middle of vacation season.”
Fox added that DCR might schedule an additional public meeting in regard to the fields, depending on public input at the first one.
State Rep. Marty Walz said, “I want to ensure that DCR holds a public meeting at a time when we can maximize attendance so that those who are interested in the Esplanade have an opportunity to participate and have their views expressed to DCR.”
On June 16, Walz sent a letter to Sullivan of the DCR in which she outlined constituents’ suggestions for increasing public usage of the fields, including the need for more accurate signage and an additional gate in the fence, improvements to information on DCR’s Web site concerning the fields and the possibility of expanding hours of availability for the facility.

The photo above shows a city locale that has undergone a drastic transformation in recent years. To find out where it was shot, read the Times next week.
The photo that appeared in the July 14 edition was of Stuart Street between Charles Street South and Tremont Street, which is now the location of the State
office building.