Pictured left to right are Mary George, John Sears and Mary Scudder

Beacon Hill Village (BHV) hosted its first “Valentines and Victuals” brunch on Sunday Feb. 12, at the Hill House in Beacon Hill. More than 60 members enjoyed a delicious brunch donated and served by the Paramount Restaurant. BHV extended its gratitude to its sponsors – including The Paramount, Hill House, Whole Foods and Starbucks – for warming the hearts of so many members on Valentine’s Day weekend.

We know a lot about how small businesses succeed in a city and it has little to do with parking, large footprints, national reach or good traffic flow.

Instead, we know that the more doorways to a variety of businesses in a block, the happier shoppers are. We know that businesses on commercial streets with many doorways on each side are more successful than those on streets where shops are located on only one side of a street. We know that patrons on foot typically spend more than shoppers coming by cars. We know that clever, unique small businesses will do better in an Internet world than the national chains. We know that neighborhood shops need shoppers who are tourists and nearby workers, not just residents, to succeed. According to retail consultants, certain ground floor uses—restaurants, groceries, card shops, gift shops, toy shops, clothing shops, hardware stores, drug stores and even dry cleaners—draw crowds and banks and real estate and insurance offices don’t. And “nothing draws a crowd like a crowd,” as P.T. Barnum once said.

So how do we keep drawing crowds? Especially, how do we keep drawing crowds to our neighborhood business districts, which are vital to our quality of life and to our city’s economic success? How do we enrich our home-grown businesses rather than line the pockets of national chains?

We can learn from the success of other cities.

Other places have limited the size of businesses and the length of their storefronts. They have made banks and offices a conditional use or limited their numbers along a street. And most effectively, they say, they have imposed “formula business restrictions” to make sure their districts have an abundance of local businesses, which, coincidentally reduces the threat of banks.

The first two tactics are often deployed together, and they are sometimes wrapped up in the third tactic, which is by far the most popular. The term “formula business” essentially means a chain store, franchise, bank or office with multiple locations.

Places as diverse as San Francisco, Nantucket, and Fredericksburg, Texas, have used such a restriction. You can read all about this tool at http://www.newrules.org/retail/rules/formula-business-restrictions.

Meanwhile, you might like to know how a local town, Concord Massachusetts, has applied formula business restrictions. A 2011 zoning amendment limits the number of formula businesses to 10 within the West Concord Business and Village Districts. Any such business, even if there are fewer than 10, requires a special permit. The zoning amendment’s purpose would seem to apply to most Boston neighborhood business districts. “The purpose . . . is to maintain the unique, small-scale, small-town character and quality of life . . . by preserving the individuality and distinctive appeal of the . . . districts” says the amendment. I couldn’t have said it better myself.

It gives the town the means to promote a diversity of uses and to oversee a landlord’s decision that might or might not benefit the town. Marcia Rasmussen, director of planning for the town, said the town did not impose the same zoning on Concord Center because all but one of the buildings is locally owned, and landlords agreed that chains, and in particular, a Citi-Bank, were a detriment to their property values.

I asked Randi Lathrop, deputy director for community planning for the Boston Redevelopment Authority, about such zoning for Boston. She said several things of interest.

She disagreed with me and the retail analysts and consultants I have interviewed about banks. She maintained that they do create vitality in a neighborhood. She said putting them on the second floor creates problems in handicap access. She said some neighborhoods need banks. I agreed that some neighborhoods need banks. But downtown Boston neighborhoods are not those neighborhoods.

She did not seem familiar with formula business restrictions, and it apparently has not been applied in Boston anywhere.

Lathrop said such zoning suggestions would have to come from a neighborhood with strong support on both residents and businesses. So, neighborhoods, if you want to maintain “the unique, small-scale, small town character” that Concord so aptly describes, you need to get familiar with such zoning and urge it on the BRA.

Camargo, who cited “family health reasons” as the reason for her decision, said she would continue to serve on the BHCA board and remain involved in district projects.

“I can’t work at the same level and do a good job,” Camargo said, “but I’ll still be very involved. That’s not changing.”

BHCA President Steve Young said, “No one could bring more dedication, competence or time commitment to the BHCA and Beacon Hill community than Ania has given as president and chair of the association. It has been and still is a pleasure to work with her, although as anyone who knows her will understand, a bit exhausting at times. The BHCA and Beacon Hill neighborhood are fortunate to have her.”

BHCA Executive Director Suzanne Besser said Camargo’s replacement would be determined by the Nominating Committee, which is now beginning to recruit new board members and officers.

The Nominating Committee will submit its recommendations to the board at its April meeting, and the entire slate will be voted on during the BHCA’s annual meeting on May 21, Besser said.

“The Teddy Ebersol Fields are a unique experience for any player,” said DCR Commissioner Edward M. Lambert Jr. “A warm summer day in the heart of the city, surrounded by other young athletes is the kind of experience DCR hopes sticks with kids and encourages them to return again and again to recreation and the outdoors as they grow.”

Named in memory of an avid young Red Sox fan, Teddy Ebersol’s Red Sox Fields are a great gift to those who love youth activities. The fields are named for Teddy, the son of Dick Ebersol, former chairman of NBC Sports, and actress Susan St. James. Teddy died in a plane crash shortly after the Red Sox’s 2004 World Series victory. Ebersol Fields stand in honor of Teddy and is a testament to all those who love youth athletics.

The Teddy Ebersol’s Red Sox Fields are open for youth soccer, youth baseball, adult softball and T-ball Facilitities include three baseball fields, an adult softball field, one T-ball field and several general use or soccer fields. Lights also allow night games to be scheduled. (A small additional electric fee for use of lights is required). The fields are open for permitted uses from Tuesday through Sunday from April until November.

Any youth soccer, youth baseball or adult softball teams are allowed to request a permit for use of the Teddy Ebersol’s Red Sox Fields by calling DCR at 617-727-1199 ext. 403, or going online to http://www.mass.gov/dcr/parks/metroboston/ebersol.htm.

Teddy Ebersol’s Red Sox Fields are one of 24 locations where DCR provides athletic fields (for softball, baseball, soccer, basketball, and tennis) for public use. Fields are located in East and South Boston, Cambridge, Belmont, Dorchester, Everett, Hyde Park, Jamaica Plain, Mattapan, Milton, Nahant, Quincy, Revere, Somerville and Waltham. A list of locations and sports permitted at each, as well as a permit application form, is available online at http://www.mass.gov/dcr/recreate/fields.htm.

Only by working together can the neighborhood prove to the Board of Appeal that operating a bank at that location the BHCA believes that it is detrimental to the neighborhood. It is important that as many of us as possible attend the hearing. Please make every effort to come and join with other residents to oppose the change in use.

With a dream of writing a book detailing the stories behind Boston’s abundant public sculpture, Gallo’s comprehensive guide is now very much a reality. “There hasn’t been a book like this in 75 years,” said Gallo, who worked on it for six years, conducting his research by sifting through Massachusetts Statehouse archives, newspaper articles, books, and the Internet.

Unlike other books on Boston’s statues, “Boston Bronze and Stone Speak to Us” is inviting and lively, much like the statues themselves, which seemed to come alive with the animated way Gallo described them. “This book is not just stagnant statues, they speak to us, and you have to listen to their whispers,” he said.

In college, Gallo minored in history and art, two consuming passions that were suppressed because he had to work and make a living. When he moved to Lincoln Walk about seven years ago with his wife, Gallo reveled in the art and history surrounding him.

“I was walking through the streets and saw all these monuments, and I realized I “I was walking through the streets and saw all these monuments, and I realized I didn’t know much about them. So I looked at old books and the photos were horrendous. The photos were black and white, and the text was boring…I got into it out of ignorance,” he reflected.

But Gallo’s encounters with monuments he lived amongst but knew nothing about is no foreign feeling to a great majority of Bostonians. People walk the Freedom Trail, perhaps out of a sense of obligation, but the journey is meaningless unless there is an understanding of its significance, and the statues that are meant to help portray that.

“Boston Bronze and Stone Speak to Us” is an exciting guide that informs readers of not only what they’re seeing, but why it’s important. “I tried to make my book colorful and meaningful for people who come. Newer statues emit feeling, while older statues are rigid, and I want people to know the history of why that is. I added maps and put stars to reflect the pages of where statues are, and broke everything up into neighborhoods so you can take these sections and not be overwhelmed by the city of Boston,” Gallo said of his work.

Speaking in between sips of hot chocolate at Caffe Paradisio on Hanover Street, Gallo dissected some of the sculptures in his book, piecing together art and history with each animated word. Gallo’s favorite statue is Paul Revere, and not just because of the gallant way he sits atop his horse in the North End. “Like myself, he was an entrepreneur,” Gallo started. “He made all the bells in New England, and so many different buildings still have them. He was also a patriot, and I, too, love my country.”

A botanist by trade (he works at Plantscape Designs, Inc.), Gallo gives life to plants. So it is no wonder that he is fascinated with statues expressing lifelike qualities. “The twisted aspirational monuments, the ones that are contorted in different ways are the monuments that have real life. They’re scattered all throughout Boston. I particularly like the Hungarian Freedom Monument where the Stamp Act occurred. It’s a beautiful twist with the mother and father, and the other one is the Aspiration of the Great Spirit in front of the Museum of Fine Arts. It’s an Indian looking upwards and it represents what they believed in, which is nature and the power of multi-gods,” he said.

“When you see a modern one [statues], it’s inspiring, it’s alive. A lot of the sculptures incorporate characteristics of what the city was moving towards and personalities of who they’re after, like mayors,” Gallo added.

Symbolism is another praised characteristic of the sculptures and statues. And with Boston being one of the oldest cities in the United States, you can expect that there are no vapid monuments without representation.

“Quest Eternal on Boylston Street is a 700 ton monument of a naked man stretching. It symbolizes the aspiration of Boston for the time period when the Prudential Center was the tallest building. It was Boston’s first 50-story building, and the statue symbolizes development. Boston became a modern city whereas before it was more Gothic,” Gallo said.

But who were the sculptors erecting these progressive, symbolic statues, and where did they come from? The answer, Gallo divulged, lies in a city with deeper history than Boston’s cobbled streets could ever know—Rome, Italy.

“Rome has a direct influence on American sculpture,” Gallo said, who admits to Rome being his favorite European city. “Rome also has a direct influence on Boston. There’s a connection between Boston sculptors and Florence and Rome, and can be seen in MFA (Museum of Fine Arts).   The Democratic donkey on School Street was done in Florence. There’s just so much,” he said.

Speaking in between sips of hot chocolate at Caffe Paradisio on Hanover Street, Gallo dissected some of the sculptures in his book, piecing together art and history with each animated word.

“These things, although they’re monuments, have an influence on people, on architects, on mayors, to build and have an aspirational freedom and forward movement,” he said.

Like the monuments, Gallo also possesses a yearning to move forward, and will do so by creating more books. “I want to get to a second edition and put in more monuments that are coming up in Boston. I enjoy telling others the significance of monuments with respect to the history of Boston, and telling it through photography and art. But I want everything to flow. Harbor Fog, by Ross Miller, was too contemporary for first book. It’s a monument of granite stones from original wharfs, and in center are LED lights that blink off and on in different colors to represent harbor lights, and mist comes out to simulate fog, so when you’re walking, it seems like you’re walking through the harbor. It’s things like that that I’m going to be putting into the second book.”

Gallo would also love to extend his reach to Washington D.C. and New York City, which are cities he believes lack a colorful guide to their monuments. Even still, nowhere else in the country has monuments like there are in Boston, according to Gallo.

“Everything done in Boston was later done in other cities,” he said. “Boston is a European city. What people don’t understand is the reason why Boston was the most successful plantation is because of the harbor…It became an international trade center.

John Winthrop saw the importance and value of the deep waters of Boston Harbor, knowing the wharfs would be the stimulus for mercantile trade. If Gallo were to create his own statue, it would be placed in the location of Boston’s early success, and it would be a remake of Paul Revere.

“The Paul Revere statue is mythical, historical, and patriotic. I would put it where the Long Wharf Marriott is. Historically, that’s what I would do, in a more dynamic form,” Gallo said.

Gallo’s enlightening guide to all of Boston’s monuments serves as a way for people to look at statues not with empty eyes, but with a twinkle that can only come from knowledge of the history behind them. And if there is one thing Gallo knows, it’s Boston’s history.

“Boston is America, America is Boston” is Gallo’s trademarked phrase. “The concept of America started in Boston,” he said. “It was the first city to have churches and selectmen and towns. You had all these firsts. That statement has a lot of scholarly meaning.”

Although Gallo himself is not a scholar, historian, or artist, he is an educator for all of the above. “And that’s why I wrote this book,” he said.

“Boston Bronze and Stone Speak to Us” is available on Gallo’s website pdiplants.com/BBSweb/, local bookstores in Boston, and Boston’s Historical Society.

By eliminating Saturday delivery and by laying off 100,000 postal employees and shuttering thousands of post office facilities, the loss could be cut by $4 billion or more.

That’s some cost savings or debt savings, whatever one chooses to call it.

But what about next year and the year after that? How does the US Postal Service return to profitability?

It doesn’t and it won’t until the entire model by which it is run today changes.

That is likely not to happen until it fully collapses under the weight of its mismanagement but mostly because the times have changed but the US Postal Service never changed with them.

At first blush, this sounds much better than Draconian cuts that would have affected all public transit users in Boston’s neighborhoods and the cities and towns served by the MBTA in the Greater Boston nexus.

However, when you think out the situation clearly, you come to understand that this 25% increase in fares won’t be the last and that without dramatic systemic changes in how the MBTA runs itself, we should all prepare ourselves for a series of increases before this decade is at an end.

The MBTA has spent itself into near insolvency through a combination of mismanagement, endemic waste, over-financing and by paying wages, health insurance and pensions that are clearly, incontestably unsustainable.

In fact, MBTA wages and pensions need a wholesale change or literally nothing is going to help it out of the bad money pit which it is wallowing in.

Also in need of change is the MBTA’s debt load. Everything about it is worse than the US car industry was when it went bankrupt in 2007.

If only the MBTA could have gone bankrupt then it would have already renegotiated all its public and private debt, something it will absolutely need to do if anything about its sustainability is going to change.

Raising the fares 25% is, frankly, an outrage.

It is an outrage for those of us who use public transport and who rely on public transport in place of an automobile.

Ridership is at its highest point ever and yet the debts accrued by the MBTA everyday are rising at a much faster pace than ridership.

Until this inequity ends, until the leadership of the MBTA and state officials step in to reorganize its debt and requirements that cannot be met, nothing is going to change except for the fare.

Breaking and Entering – Residence

02/08/12 – Between 8 a.m. and 6:58 p.m., an Irving Street resident reported the front door of her apartment was forced open and a laptop and computer software were removed.

Larceny/ Shoplifting

02/12/12 – A Charles Street boutique reports unknown person(s) stole a woman’s beige cashmere sweater from the store between 12:30 and 1:15 p.m.

Incidents

Feb. 7

74 Mt. Vernon St. – Towed Motor Vehicle

65 Martha Road    Threats to Do Bodily Harm

Feb. 8

65 Martha Road      - Investigate Person

100 Pinckney St.   Vandalism

33 Irving St.  – Breaking and Entering, Residence, Day – Force

52 Beacon St.        Breaking and Entering, Residence, Day – Force

Feb. 9

Cambridge Street – Dangerous or Hazardous Condition

136 Mt. Vernon St. – Investigate Person

Feb. 10

14 Anderson St. – Breaking and Entering, Residence, Night – Force

Feb. 11

1 Charles St.  – Larceny, Non-Accessory from Vehicle, $200 & Over

70 Phillips St.  – Assault and Battery with a Dangerous Weapon – Other

Feb. 12

53 Charles St. – Larceny, Shoplifting, $200 & Over

Last Thursday, Hill House families and neighbors enjoyed cookie-decorating, holiday crafts and face-painting by Pizzazz the Clown. Children with freshly painted faces, courtesy of Pizzazz the Clown.

Perhaps you’ve been following the trials (liter­ally) and the tribulations of a tycoon named Ronald O. Perelman. Perelman, in case you don’t know, is the chairman of the board of Revlon, Inc. He is also the head of MacAndrews & Forbes, a company that owns a lot of other companies. Coincidentally, Perelman is one of the most frequent users of America’s court system, tying up judges and enriching lawyers. (As a member of a family with several lawyers, I want to thank quarrelsome people like Perelman for putting the food on our table.)

Perelman is a handful. He fought with his four ex-wives. He is now married to his fifth wife—we can probably guess how that will turn out. He sued a deceased ex-wife’s invalid father and lost handily. He’s now in a court battle with a former colleague.

Ron Perelman’s life and litigation are the stuff of soap operas. Despite his wealth and his apparent love of being married, he’s not a good catch. Friends and family members say he is not a nice person.

And a nice person, all you lovers out there, is what you need if you want to be happily married. It’s my St. Valentine’s Day message.

It’s not just me who thinks that. I polled some of my most happily married friends—five couples who have been married for five to 48 years from four dif­ferent states. (If I didn’t poll you, it’s not a reflection of what I think of your marriage. I just limited my sources.)