On Feb. 20, the Purple Lotus Quartet’s Haiti benefit concert at Old West Church attracted a huge crowd, including residents of Beacon Hill and the West End. Many concertgoers said they had never seen the beautiful interior of Old West Church before. At a packed reception after the concert, nearly 100 people stayed to enjoy lively conversation, wine, cheesecake and other treats.
Many audience members expressed their amazement that amateur musicians could play on such a high level.
“What a truly wonderful concert, delightful spirit, and thrilling evening on Saturday,” one concertgoer said. “I am already looking forward to the next concert. The Purple Lotus Quartet really blossomed.”
The concert proceeds and donations to the Purple Lotus Quartet’s Partners in Health fundraising page www.tinyurl.com/haitiPLQ currently total $4,655, and people are still clicking through to make additional donations. The proceeds were hand delivered to Partners in Health Thursday.

The Boston Parks & Recreation Department was approached last week by a third party interested in transforming the long-abandoned building on the Boston Common known as the “pink palace” into a restaurant, sources said.
Kathy Sidell Trustman, owner of the Metropolitan Club in Chestnut Hill, the Met Bar & Grill/Met Burger Bar in Natick and Dedham and a future restaurant at the former location of Joe’s American Bar & Grill on Dartmouth Street in the Back Bay, hopes to open the Met Burger Spot in the former “men’s comfort station,” located near the park’s tennis courts and ball fields.
The owners of the Shake Shack, a year-round take-out eatery with outdoor dining that operates in New York City’s Madison Square Park, and local restaurateurs Jeffrey Mills and Arianna Sacks also previously expressed interest in opening a restaurant at the location.
Meanwhile, the Parks & Recreation Department has endorsed Mayor Thomas M. Menino’s legislation that would authorize long-term leases for the pink palace and the Duck House on the Back Bay Fens. The bill now must receive approval from the City Council before it can be voted into law at the state level.
In December of 2008, the Special Committee on the Boston Common, composed of City Council President Mike Ross and City Councilors Bill Linehan and Sal LaMattina, submitted a report that addressed the future of the Common and included a recommendation to open a new outdoor café on the park, citing the success of the Shake Shack in New York.

The devastating Haiti earthquake motivated Kingsley Montessori School students Max Aboko-Cole, Charlotte Russell, and Julianna Kiely to conduct a fundraising relief effort to support the country's wounded and homeless residents. Through bake sales held in Kingsley's Early Childhood and Elementary buildings, students raised more than $900, which they elected to donate to Partners In Health, a global non-profit organization committed to improving the health and well-being of people living in poor communities. For more information, visit www.kingsley.org.

After determining that an excessive number of parking spaces were designated for visitors, the Beacon Hill Civic Association (BHCA) Traffic & Parking Committee has asked the city to review its current visitor parking policies and provisions in the neighborhood.
“There seems to be a disproportionate number of visitor parking spaces on the Hill,” committee chair Steve Young said, adding that 142 spaces were designated for visitor parking in the neighborhood per a 2002 study. “The city’s policy includes no set number or location for the spaces, although they tend to [position] them close to corners.”
The committee has asked the Boston Transportation Department to reduce the total number of visitor spaces in the neighborhood, as well as to limit the number of visitor spaces to two in any one location. (From three to five visitor parking spaces are now grouped together in some parts of Beacon Hill). If the city makes the requested policy change and doesn’t add any additional visitor parking spaces, Young said it could result in a 30-percent reduction in visitor parking spaces in the neighborhood.
The committee also asked the city to review and clarify its policies regarding use of parking spaces by vehicles with resident spaces.
Young said the city agreed to make reductions to visitor parking spaces on Mount Vernon Street, and to review the committee’s other concerns.

The Mayor’s Office of Consumer Affairs and Licensing (MOCAL) held a public hearing last week regarding the French Library Alliance Française of Boston’s proposal to resume its outdoor Bastille Day celebration in the Back Bay this summer.
The French Library has requested a one-time entertainment license for instrumental music, vocal music and amplified sound for an event on Marlborough Street between Berkeley and Clarendon streets on Friday, July 16, between 6 and 11 p.m. (Live music would stop by 10 p.m.).
In response to concerns raised by the city and the Neighborhood Association of the Back Bay (NABB) following the last Bastille Day celebration on Marlborough Street in the summer of 2007, the library has agreed to reduce the capacity for the ticketed-event to 2,000 from 3,200 and, in an effort to deter loitering, to install a fence along Marlborough Street and develop a security plan with the Boston Police Department. Other issues that the library pledged to address include noise levels and prompt trash removal following the event.
In a letter to MOCAL Director Patricia Malone, State Rep. Marty Walz wrote, “I support the French Library’s annual celebration of Bastille Day returning to Marlborough Street provided that the license includes the same conditions that were included in MOCAL’s June 27, 2007, decision and four additional conditions presented by [NABB] at the Sept. 27, 2007, meeting and in its Feb. 10, 2010, letter to you. It is my understanding that the French Library has agreed to these conditions. I also support NABB’s request that MOCAL schedule a follow-up hearing the fall of 2010 to evaluate the event.”
Other elected officials who voiced their support the event included all four at-large city councilors – Felix Arroyo, John Connolly, Stephen Murphy and Ayanna Pressley – and City Council President Mike Ross.
“I am thrilled to see that the Bastille Day celebration will return to the Back Bay,” Ross told the Sun. “I also applaud the French Library for addressing the concerns of abutters, so visitors and neighbors alike can enjoy the event.”
At the hearing, Jim Hill, chair of the NABB Licensing Committee, also voted on behalf of the organization not to oppose the event. “From a neighborhood point-of-view, we’re very pleased with how the library is engaging neighbors this time around,” Hill told the Sun.
Several neighbors also spoke in favor of the event at the hearing, although one direct abutter opposed it.
Meanwhile, Malone said the city would likely hand down its decision on issuing the entertainment license in early March.

After relentless persecution by her fellow students apparently led to the suspected suicide of South Hadley High School freshman Phoebe Prince in January, a new bill, sponsored by State Rep. Marty Walz, chair of the Joint Committee on Education, is taking unprecedented steps to combat bullying and cyber-bullying at schools throughout the state.
“The bullying and cyber-bulling in some of our schools is heart breaking,” Walz said. “The legislation I drafted is more comprehensive than any law in the country and should result in safer schools and more respectful learning environments.”
Bullying as defined by the legislation is: “the severe or repeated use of a written, verbal, or electronic communication, or a physical act or gesture, or any combination thereof, by one or more students directed at another student that has the effect of: causing physical or emotional harm to the other student or damage to his or her property; placing the other student in reasonable fear of harm to him or herself or of damage to his or her property; creating a hostile environment at school for the bullied student; infringing on the rights of the other student at school; or materially and substantially disrupting the education process or the orderly operation of a school.” Prevention of cyber-bullying, or bullying using e-mail, text messages and other technology and electronic means, is also included in the legislation.
Unlike other anti-bullying legislation enacted throughout the country, Walz’s bill isn’t limited to district schools. It also covers private and parochial schools and charter schools. The bill also addresses bullying at non-school-related locations and online, such as on Facebook, if the bullying is determined to affect the school environment.
Another distinction is that Walz’s bill heavily focuses on prevention by mandating anti-bullying curriculum for every grade, which is unprecedented nationally. Every school statewide is also required to develop a bullying prevention and intervention plan.
Walz’s bill also focuses on prevention by mandating that appropriate instruction for children in each age group on bullying prevention be incorporated into a school’s curriculum. Every school statewide is also required to develop a bullying prevention and intervention plan.
In an effort to stop bullying when it occurs, the new legislation requires all school staff members to promptly report bulling and for a school principal or designee to investigate the matter and take appropriate disciplinary action.
The bill received a favorable review from the Joint Committee on Education last week and is expected to go before the Senate next week and then on to the House of Representatives for its approval in the coming weeks.