ACA wants more from Great Scott Taco Bell
Anthony D'Isidoro
ACA wants more from Great Scott Taco Bell (Jeff Sullivan, The Bulletin: September 28, 2023)
The Allston Civic Association (ACA) met on Wednesday, Sept. 20 with representatives from Cantina Hospitality, which is looking to set up a Taco Bell Cantina at the former location of Great Scott on 1222 Commonwealth Ave. in Allston.
Great Scott was an iconic music venue that closed down durng the pandemic and was unable to reopen due to issues with the building’s landlord. Representatives from Taco Bell said they want to turn the location into a “hip” area for getting quick food. The restaurant will have counter service and they are planning on having a beer and wine license with service, along with a proposed 3 a.m. closing time for food and 1 a.m. for alcohol (3:30 a.m. for food on weekends).
Representative Jim Rooney said they want to pay tribute to the history of the building’s former concert hall as well as incorporating local artists into the building as much as the group’s business plan allows.
“We understand the local connection to local artists,” he said, adding they have been put in contact with local artist Nick Grieco. “We want to incorporate that into the scheme of the restaurant, from the ‘now hiring’ signage, all the way into the interior of the building. We respect the history of Great Scott; we understand the importance of it to the neighborhood, and we would never do anything to damage that history in any way.”
Rooney said Grieco will also help them design an interior mural specific to the neighborhood.
Representative Tom Miller said they were taking comments from residents into consideration from a recent abutters meeting.
“They wanted local involvement on the unique murals that go into every one of these (restaurants),” Miller said. “we’re working on that.”
Miller added that the Cantina model includes adapting to its local surroundings and blending in with the community.
“Each one of these cantinas is different and is designed to fit in with the local area,” he said. “If you visit the two different stores in Brookline, they are different; the South Boston location is different and these will be different than those other ones. This, because of its location and the history of its location, is going to have a stronger connection to Allston, Great Scott and the artist community.”
Upland Architect Bob Medeiros said the design and the atmosphere of the restaurant will cater to a younger crowd.
“The Taco Bell of today isn’t the Taco Bell we all grew up with,” he said. “The Taco Bell today is high energy, it’s a hip vibe; it offers the option for folks who are seeking some quick food to fit their needs, too”
The response from residents was generally positive, but some felt more could be done. For example, the main connection to the arts the team proposed was an interior and/or exterior mural designed by a local artist.
“The wall space for a local artist is fantastic, but is there any chance that some wall space could be permanently dedicated to reminding people who the prior tenant was of the space?” asked ACA President Tony D’Isidoro.
“I think that’s a possibility,” said Miller.
“I would ask that maybe you and the neighborhood kind of present us with some ideas that we could present to our franchiser, but I think we would be more than willing to recognize the history there, without a doubt,” Rooney said.
Resident and candidate for Boston City Council District 9 Jacob deBlecourt said he feels there could be more in terms of art and music in the space.
“Well I’m appreciative of the gallery wall, but truth be told, like a lot of mom and pop shops are offering gallery walls. For a larger franchisee of Taco Bell, there’s probably a little bit more we could be doing. Maybe we could dedicate a small space in the store for maybe one person to do an open mic night or something like that and, in addition to that, looking into maybe creating a fund for artists in the neighborhood.”
deBlecourt added he felt the gallery wall was a good start.
“As much as it is appreciated, it’s obviously not a replacement for all that Great Scott was able to offer to the neighborhood,” he said. “So I’m hoping we could think collaboratively to do more for the artists in the neighborhood.”
Miller said they would consider it.
“The business model in the past hasn’t really involved live entertainment, but that’s something we’ll talk about and figure out if it’s something we can incorporate and something to make more long-lasting connections with the artists in the community,” he said.
Resident Sirine Mansouri said Taco Bell is currently capitalizing off of alternative musicians in their promotions and advertising.
“I think if we really want to lean into this idea of a hip Taco Bell, we should be cognizant of the area it’s taking up,” she said. “Especially where there was a great loss of the Great Scott. I think we can do and should do more than a corner in the Taco Bell.
Small mom and pop organizations have managed to do that, so I think we can ask a little bit more from Taco Bell.”
Resident Richard Meinke agreed.
“I know it could be tough with the business model to support live entertainment, but I think we could come up with more,” he said.
Resident Bob Pessek said he felt other folks in the neighborhood could use a boost too.
“Give the artists a fund if you want, but also hold some money back for the people who make you successful, the people who work in your shops, the cooks and the dishwashers,” he said. “There are a lot of immigrants in our community, and a lot of them work like hell doing menial jobs. There are so many venues and avenues to take some of your money to help the folks who really run things here.”
To see the whole meeting and keep up with the ACA, go to http:// www.allstoncivicassociation.org
Whitney Sands
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Anthony D'Isidoro
Anthony D'Isidoro
Enterprise Research Campus Update #9 (Week of October 2, 2023)
September 29, 2023
As the Enterprise Research Campus (ERC) project continues, we will provide project notifications that outline upcoming and impactful activities, including a map of the area for reference.
Residential/Hotel
- Bulk excavation and concrete operations on site will continue.
- Preparation continues for installing the first of two tower cranes
On Tuesday a crane will be on site to set the base of the crane.
A 1,000-yard concrete placement is planned to take place on Thursday for the tower crane foundation.
A start time of 5:00am is planned to accommodate this large-scale pour.
The first of two tower cranes will be set up over a weekend in the coming weeks.
- Concrete crews will be working this Saturday, September 30th, starting at 9:00am.
Laboratory and Office Buildings
- Bulk excavation of the site continues.
- Crews continue to line the site foundation with stone and pour mud mat.
- Work will take place this Saturday, September 30th, starting at 9:00am.
Crews will be relocating the wheel wash station and stock piling soil inside the hole.
Greenway
- This section of the site is currently being used for laydown space until crews mobilize in the coming months.
Treehouse Conference Center
- Crews have mobilized operations as construction begins.
- Preclearing and soil remediation operations will begin Monday, October 2nd.
Soil will be hauled out via rail at Beacon Park Yard.
Building Mock-Ups
- Work is nearly complete on the first two of five visual mockups.
CONTACT US
If you have any questions or concerns, please email us at constr...@ercallston.com or call us at (617) 892-8972.
Anthony D'Isidoro
Harvard Construction Mitigation (Week of October 2, 2023)
September 29, 2023
The Western Avenue utility crossing roadway work is finalized and is extending onto Kresge Way. This work will continue into fall 2023 and is being coordinated with University operations.
Kresge Way Temporary Relocation
As part of Harvard’s infrastructure improvements in Allston, the University has extended thermal piping and electrical/telecommunications duct banks from the District Energy Facility across Western Avenue to Kresge Way, the main driveway into the HBS campus. An interim drive further west off Western Avenue has replaced the original drive.
Western Avenue Utility Crossing
The utility crossing at Western Avenue is complete. Final restoration will be coordinated with the completion of the Kresge Way thermals in November.
Kresge Way and Extension of Thermal Pipes and Electrical Duct Bank
- Foundation work for the guard shack will begin.
- Work on the thermal pipes is ongoing.
- A section of Kresge Way has shifted west away from the Soldier’s Field Garage.
- An interim temporary parking attendant’s booth on the shifted section of Kresge Way is operational.
- Construction is being phased in smaller segments to minimize impacts to visitors, pedestrians, bicycles, and vehicles.
- During project hours, Monday through Friday from 7AM to 3PM (at times may extend to 6PM), the work will generate noise due to the presence of work crews and the use of construction equipment.
Enterprise Research Campus (ERC)
- The ERC development team continues bulk excavation of the Residential/Hotel and Laboratory sites.
- Trucks may begin lining up at 6:30am however, work will not begin until 7:00am.
- Work will take place on Saturday, September 30th.
- The Treehouse Conference Center has mobilized their operations.
Preclearing and soil remediation operations will begin Monday, October 2nd.
- The Residential/Hotel and Conference Center sites will truck soil to the Beacon Park Yard.
- Trucks will transport the soil from the site to the rail yard via a private haul road.
- On Thursday, October 5th crews will begin placing concrete at 5 am for a tower crane foundation.
The first of two tower cranes will be installed over a weekend in mid/late October.
- Work on the building mockups continues by Hague Street.
92 Seattle Street
- Street signage is in place to help prevent construction vehicles from cutting through the Allston neighborhood.
- Mini pile drilling inside the building has been completed.
- Demolition of a concrete slab will continue.
175 North Harvard Street
- Selective exterior abatement will continue.
- The building demolition is planned to start October 16th.
- Project trailers remain occupied in the 201 Western Avenue lot.
- The MBTA bus stop in front of the building has been relocated closer to South Campus Drive.
- Interior abatement has been completed.
210 North Harvard Street
- The building construction will demobilize on Saturday, September 30th.
Tenant buildout will continue through June 2024.
25 Travis Street
- As part of a roof air handler upgrade, a crane will be set up and operating in the lot behind the building on Friday morning, October 6th.
CONTACT US
6:00 am – 6:00 pm
Construction Mitigation
Hotline: (617)
496-0857
Email: mitig...@csl-consulting.com
For After-Hours Emergencies
Harvard Operations
Phone: (617)
495-5560
Anthony D'Isidoro
Allston Yards Construction Update
September 25, 2023
INFRASTRUCTURE (Roadway and Utility Work)
Everett and Arthur Reconstructions
- Everett Street: Working on preparing roadway for final paving which is anticipated for mid-late October Preparation includes raising structures and preparing pavement transitions. Private utility (National Grid and Eversource) work is occurring within Everett and Braintree Streets, separate from the Allston Yards project.
- Arthur Street: Top course pavement scheduled for the night of Thursday October 5th. Activity this week will include work required for preparation of top course paving, including raising structures, installing message boards, and patching binder course pavement.
Future Guest Street Extension
- Construction of the hardscape area on the south side of Guest Street is progressing, including installation of the bike lane, pavers, and concrete sidewalks. Specific activities include installation of the structural soil (for trees), gravel base for bike lane, crushed stone base for pavers.
BUILDING A (Residential Building with new Stop & Shop Grocery Store)
- Concrete and wood frame structural construction complete. Exterior building work ongoing including window, roof, and façade installation. Project completion (residential and retail) anticipated for Spring of 2024. Construction activities anticipated through that date.
CONTACT US
For any questions regarding the updates above, please contact Dave Pellegri at dpel...@nedevelopment.com or
at 617-610-8906
Anthony D'Isidoro
Anthony D'Isidoro
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Anthony D'Isidoro
A Cappella Feast
Hosted and Curated by Vocal Revolution and VocaMotion
Show starts at 1PM
Vocal Revolution (host chorus) is the men’s performing chorus of the Greater Boston Chapter of the Barbershop Harmony Society (BHS). One of New England's premier a cappella performing groups, VR has won multiple adjudicated contests, including 17 Northeastern
District Championship titles, as well as the second-season championship on WGBH’s “Sing That Thing!” competition. Since chartering in 1970, our chorus has constantly remained dedicated to its mission of contributing to our community through high-quality performances
and support of music education.
VocaMotion (host chorus) is the newest chorus of the Greater Boston Chapter of BHS. The chorus was formed to create a space for treble-voiced singers of all gender identities to come together in barbershop harmony. VocaMotion is an ambitious ensemble, whose
members value individual growth as singers and artists, as well as the joy and fulfillment of creating beautiful a cappella music together.
Herter Park Amphitheater
1175 Soldiers Field Rd, Allston
Anthony D'Isidoro
We are so proud and grateful for your service to our country and your commitment to public service.
Executive Director
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Anthony D'Isidoro
David Strati
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/allstonbrighton2006/CAEPwgevxbfbQSCGQ07Cbq25ivmJ6avYFNGcyY_xUTuTPHRqUPw%40mail.gmail.com.
Whitney Sands
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/allstonbrighton2006/CAFqoyEHHxRBCnQgSUkOgKTEXqU8vvqNi1tste9Fh_Ftr4jYd%3DQ%40mail.gmail.com.
Anthony D'Isidoro
Ribbon Cutting at BGA's Outdoor Garden
Please join Boston Green Academy and all the partners and friends who have made our new Outdoor Classroom Possible as we Cut the Ribbon to Celebrate our new Out Classroom
DJ, Beverages, Snacks, Tour the Freight Farm
Parking in the lot off of Cambridge St.
We hope to see you there!
RSVP: www.hugbga.com/rsvp
Email Contact: Andrea Kunst (aku...@bostongreenacademy.org)
Anthony D'Isidoro
ERC focuses on resiliency and homeownership (Jeff Sullivan, The Bulletin: October 5, 2023)
The Harvard Enterprise Research Campus (ERC) Advisory Group met virtually last week to discuss more in depth the things residents of Allston and Brighton want to see at the site.
The project is designed to rezone much of Harvard’s property in Lower Allston. The location is sited in Lower Allston on much of the land bordered by Western Avenue in the North, Stadium Road to the West, Cambridge Street to the south and the Charles River to the east. Phase A of the project is already approved, which encompasses about 14 acres of the land area, and Phase B isn’t far behind.
The meeting last week was focused on what residents and members of the advisory group (who are also residents of the neighborhood) want to see in the area. WXY Urban Planner Bahij Chancey said this was one of many upcoming public processes being held to get as much neighborhood input as possible. He said topical workshops with more focused areas are coming next, with three focus groups centering on transportation and mobility, land use and economic development, and open space and connectivity, respectively, will be meeting in the next few months, coalescing with another advisory group meeting before or at the end of the year.
Residents focused on resiliency open space/greenspace and transportation during the meeting.
Resident Barbara Parmenter said she wanted to see more greenspace allotment. She said there has been a great deal of open space, but pointed out that while all greenspace is open space, not all open space is greenspace.
“I mean, open space can refer to concrete plazas and so I’m really focused on greenspace,” she said. “I think the plaza in Phase A is going to be lovely but it’s not a greenspace per se. So I’d just like to see substantially more greenspace within this area… with lots and lots of trees. With climate change, to cool the city we’re going to need a lot more trees.”
Livable Streets Alliance representative Abby Jamiel said she wanted to see more connections to the waterfront over Soldiers Field Road, as well as more emphasis on east-to-west multi-modal greenway connections. The plan currently has a greenway going from North Harvard Street to Soldiers Field Road, but she said that’s not enough. She said the Alliance hears from a lot of residents that most of the greenway connections only run north to south and feel that more east-to-west greenway connections are needed.
“More of what we need for every day access is east-to-west, and not necessarily a bike lane that goes east to west that connects to a greenway along the water, that’s great and beautiful, but rather we want to see what it looks like when people are commuting to have a greenway in the center of the neighborhood,” she said. “We talk a lot about how that sort of experience is probably a lot more convincing to get people out of their cars.”
In terms of transportation, the first big topic was of parking, and parking garages. The participants agreed that more parking garages are not wanted, as more space for cars can induce more drivers and more congestion, which increases travel times for road users, as well as increasing air pollution.
Resident and Charlesview Community Executive Director JoAnn Barbour said she wanted to see more input on transportation from residents outside the community, as many commute through the ERC to get to their jobs from other locations.
“This is not just about Allston, it’s also about the connections down from Watertown and Cambridge and we need to pay attention to a broader area in terms of mobility and who’s coming in and what they’re coming in to do,” she said. “We need to incorporate opportunities for those communities to come and work with us too.”
Resident Karen Smith said she wanted to see accommodation for residents who live here as well, making sure that little trips for errands, groceries or other small necessities don’t need to take place by car.
“Because I keep thinking in my own life I could probably be in my car less, but I just don’t make it happen,” she said. “And I love to walk, I’m happy to get out and walk. I’ll stop at the supermarket, but I’ll need some way of getting those heavier bags back to my home without my car.”
Resident Bryan Chou said he wants to make sure that the community benefits from the offices and labs that are coming into the neighborhood and that the knowledge and expertise doesn’t stay cloistered in those buildings.
“One of the big opportunities to having Harvard on this side of the river is having this unlimited knowledge base that comes with it,” he said. “We see in Kenmore and Kendall Square all these big box buildings with labs and really educated people come into those neighborhoods, but that wealth of knowledge is never really shared. It never spills out of the siloed buildings that they occupy. So how do you connect the community with this knowledge and bring that to the public realm?”
For more information on the project as a whole and to keep up on upcoming meetings and workshops, go to https://tinyurl.com/4ah8wbc7
Boston Bulletin, October 5, 2023:
Anthony D'Isidoro
Enterprise Research Campus Update #10 (Week of October 9, 2023)
October 6, 2023
Please note, no work will occur on Monday, October 9th in observance of the holiday. As the Enterprise Research Campus (ERC) project continues, we will provide project notifications that outline upcoming and impactful activities, including a map of the area for reference.
Residential/Hotel
- Bulk excavation and concrete operations on site will continue.
Soil is being hauled out via the site haul road to rail at Beacon Park Yard and being trucked out simultaneously.
- The first of two tower cranes is targeted to be erected October 13th-15th.
This three-day operation will take place entirely within the site.
Work hours plan to be extended:
Friday: Afternoon into the night
Saturday: 5:00am-7:00pm
Sunday: 7:00am- until completion
The crane components will arrive on numerous trucks.
Some pieces will be required to be delivered on off hours due to their size.
- Excavation crews will be working this Saturday, October 7th starting at 9:00am.
Laboratory and Office Buildings
- Bulk excavation of the site continues.
- Crews continue to line the site foundation with stone and place concrete mud mat.
- Rebar work will begin in preparation for the mat slab placement.
- Waterproofing work will begin on the foundation.
Greenway
- This section of the site is currently being used for laydown space until crews mobilize in the coming months.
Treehouse Conference Center
- Crews are planning to start preclearing and soil remediation operations.
Soil will be hauled out via rail at Beacon Park Yard and trucking simultaneously.
Building Mock-Ups
- Punch list work on the two laboratory mockups will continue.
Anthony D'Isidoro
Harvard Construction Mitigation (Week of October 9, 2023)
October 6, 2023
The Western Avenue utility crossing roadway work is finalized and is extending onto Kresge Way. This work will continue into fall 2023 and is being coordinated with University operations.
Kresge Way Temporary Relocation
As part of Harvard’s infrastructure improvements in Allston, the University has extended thermal piping and electrical/telecommunications duct banks from the District Energy Facility across Western Avenue to Kresge Way, the main driveway into the HBS campus. An interim drive further west off Western Avenue has replaced the original drive.
Western Avenue Utility Crossing
The utility crossing at Western Avenue is complete. Final restoration will be coordinated with the completion of the Kresge Way thermals in November.
Kresge Way and Extension of Thermal Pipes and Electrical Duct Bank
- Work continues on the hot water and chilled water valves.
- A section of Kresge Way has shifted west away from the Soldier’s Field Garage.
- An interim temporary parking attendant’s booth on the shifted section of Kresge Way is operational.
- Construction is being phased in smaller segments to minimize impacts to visitors, pedestrians, bicycles, and vehicles.
- During project hours, Monday through Friday from 7AM to 3PM (at times may extend to 6PM), the work will generate noise due to the presence of work crews and the use of construction equipment, including a vacuum truck.
Enterprise Research Campus (ERC)
- The ERC development team continues bulk excavation of the Residential/Hotel and Laboratory sites.
- Trucks may begin lining up at 6:30am however, work will not begin until 7:00am.
- Work will take place on Saturday, October 7th, on the Residential/Hotel site.
- The Treehouse Conference Center is planning to begin preclearing and soil remediation operations.
- The Residential/Hotel and Conference Center sites will haul soil to the Beacon Park Yard in addition to trucking soil.
- Trucks will transport the soil from the site to the rail yard via a private haul road.
- The Residential/Hotel site is planning to erect the first of two tower cranes October 13th-15th.
This three-day operation will take place entirely within the site.
Work hours will be extended:
Friday: Afternoon into the night
Saturday: 5:00am-7:00pm
Sunday: 7:00am- until completion
- The Laboratory site will begin rebar work in preparation for the mat slab placement.
- Punchlist work will be completed on the two Laboratory mockups by Hague Street.
92 Seattle Street
- Street signage is in place to help prevent construction vehicles from cutting through the Allston neighborhood.
- Demolition of a concrete slab will continue.
175 North Harvard Street
- Selective exterior abatement will continue under containment.
- The building demolition is planned to start October 16th.
- Project trailers remain occupied in the 201 Western Avenue lot.
- The MBTA bus stop in front of the building has been relocated closer to South Campus Drive.
- Interior abatement has been completed.
210 North Harvard Street
- Landlord construction has been completed.
Tenant buildout will continue into June 2024.
25 Travis Street
- As part of a roof air handler upgrade, a crane will be set up and operating in the lot behind the building on Friday morning, October 6th and October 20th.
Anthony D'Isidoro
267 Western Ave, Allston
We'll be pouring something for everybody at OKTOBERFEST (Saturday 10/7), so check the ✨ full lineup ✨ below and get your steins readyyyy 🤪
.
🍁 Oktoberfest (Märzen) - Malty, amber, & toasty
🤖 Robot Crush (American Pilsner) - Classic, crisp lager w/ Citra hops
😎 Living Easy (Blonde Rice Lager) - Pale & crisp w/ light grain notes
👨🏭 Welder of Elders (Italian Pilsner) - Bold pilsner w/ Noble hops
☕ Just Right Oatmeal Stout (Oatmeal Stout) - Malty, smooth, & creamy w/ notes of espresso and dark cocoa
🐰 Hop Hop (Session IPA) - Light and hazy, packed with hop juiciness
👻 A Year With Dr. Nandu (American IPA) - Punchy pale ale w/ Centennial, Mosaic & Citra hops
🌲 Boreal Kingdom (NEIPA) - Hazy w/ notes of citrus, tropical fruit and pine
🌾 Grisette (Grisette) - Light bodied small saison with floral, spicy notes
🏝️ Passionfruit Sour Planet (Fruited Sour) - Tangy & light, with plenty of passionfruit
🍋 Lemonatti (Lemon Wheat Beer) - Light, crisp, hazy, tart ale
🍒 Cherry Berry Seltzer (Hard Seltzer) - Red, sour & fruity with Andean blackberry flavors
🍍 Pineapple Tang Ginger Seltzer (Hard Seltzer) - Tart w/ tropical fruity & a twist of ginger
.
Anthony D'Isidoro
95-year-old WWII veteran Bill Chase receives diploma from Brighton High School (Mike Sullivan, CBS Boston: October 6, 2023)
BOSTON - A 95-year-old World War II veteran gets his wish. He is the latest graduate of Brighton High School.
Bill Chase left school early to join the merchant Marines. When he was old enough, he joined the Navy. Chase saw action during World War II, and his time overseas left him disabled. When he came home, he had six children, but he never finished school.
"Although he was very successful in the construction business, one of his regrets was that he wasn't able to complete his formal education," said Chase's son Bill Chase Jr.
Chase is currently being treated at the VA Hospital in West Roxbury. His family reached out to the school district and told them his wish was to finally become a graduate. This week he received a diploma at his bedside.
Robert
Santiago and Ed Flynn present Bill Chase with his diploma from Brighton High School CBS Boston© Provided
by CBS Boston
To make this happen, school administrators worked with Boston City Council President Ed Flynn and Veteran's Affairs Commissioner Robert Santiago. Chase will soon be included on a wall of names in the school that highlights World War II veterans who graduated from Brighton High.
"We have a space for it. There is a space under the C," said Andrew Bott, Principal of Brighton High School. "No final exam. To leave school early and serve in WWII, it's a remarkable life. To live to the age he has, that's all the exam you need."
"So, the ironic thing is my high school reunion, my 50th high school reunion, is coming up this year," said Bill Chase Jr. "It's his first."
Anthony D'Isidoro
The Sunday Bazaar: 2023 Season
Brighton Bazaar
Sunday, October 8, 2023, 11:00 am – 5:00 pm
It's time for our next monthly Sunday Bazaar! On October 8th, over 100 small local businesses are popping up at the Brighton Elks Lodge from 11am-5pm to sell art, vinyl, vintage, & more!
The Sunday Bazaar is free to enter!
326 Washington St, Brighton
Anthony D'Isidoro
Boston College buys Mount Alvernia High School campus in Newton for $40.5 million (Tonya Alanez, Boston Globe: October 4, 2023)
Boston
College buys Mount Alvernia High School campus in Newton for $40.5 million (bostonglobe.com)
People
walked toward the entrance to Mount Alvernia High School.JESSICA RINALDI/GLOBE STAFF
Boston College has bought the property that long housed Mount Alvernia High School’s campus and convent, 23 prime acres directly across the street from its Newton campus, for $40.5 million, property records show.
The sale was completed Tuesday, fewer than four months after the Catholic girls school for grades 7 through 12 closed its doors for lack of enrollment.
Mount Alvernia, founded and owned by the Missionary Franciscan Sisters of the Immaculate Conception had been at its location at 790 Centre Street since 1972. The school’s first class of eight students graduated in 1939 from another location on Manet Road.
Efforts to reach the sisters for comment on Wednesday were not successful.
Boston College Law School is located across the street from the bucolic campus. Freshman dormitories are also located on the property.
A BC spokesman said the Franciscan nuns reached out to the Jesuit-run university about buying its campus.
The sisters “reached out to Boston College, with which they have maintained close ties for more than 85 years, with the goal of keeping the property in the hands of a Catholic educational institution,” Jack Dunn, a college spokesman, said in a statement issued Tuesday.
The college “intends to use the property for educational and administrative purposes,” according to the statement. Dunn declined to expand on the specifics when reached by email Wednesday.
The
purchase includes the land and campus buildings for the all-girls Catholic high school on Centre Street. JESSICA
RINALDI/GLOBE STAFF
The announcement that the school would close came out of the blue and shocked students, parents, and alumnae who demonstrated and started a petition to save the school.
Mount Alvernia’s closure came amidst several similar announcements from Catholic high schools in Brighton, Cambridge, Newton, and Fall River who said they were closing, due largely to weak finances and enrollment declines.
Last spring, 11 aging Franciscan sisters were living in the convent next to the school, down from 25 in 2018, and enrollment at the school had been shrinking for 15 years, the nuns told the Globe.
The Newton sisters considered their options and determined that holding on to the Centre Street site would be too costly going forward.
“The high school and Sisters are financially interdependent on the Centre Street property, which the Sisters maintain,” according to a letter from the Missionary Franciscan Sisters of the Immaculate Conception. “Thus, continuing here is financially unsustainable.”
Early on, Newton Mayor Ruthanne Fuller had expressed an interest in possibly acquiring the property for the city. She said she reached out to the Franciscan sisters but never heard back.
On Wednesday, Fuller gave her blessings to the change of ownership.
“Mount Alvernia High School has been a wonderful neighbor to our Newton community for the past 85 years,” Fuller said in an emailed statement. “We learned from
Boston College officials yesterday of their purchase of this important parcel across from the Boston College Law School campus. We look forward to hearing more about their future plans for the 23-acre property.”
Anthony D'Isidoro
Anthony D'Isidoro
ABHC’s Transportation and Mobility Committee (TMC) is a group of community members and local organizations who work to improve how we all safely, reliably and affordably walk, roll, bike, drive, and ride around Allston-Brighton. Since 2016, we have worked together with the City and the Commonwealth to improve safe, reliable and affordable transportation and mobility. More information about our work HERE: https://docs.google.com/document/d/15SsctAZpvQuOrvJCDRah7h-vp6becb_N/edit#heading=h.gjdgxs
Meetings are open to the public to listen.
2nd Thursday/month, 6-7:30pm
Join Zoom Meeting
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Meeting ID: 836 9783 1807
Passcode: ABHC
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Email Contact: Jonathan Lee (jonath...@abhealthcollab.org)
Anthony D'Isidoro
Anthony D'Isidoro
“The data confirms what we already know,” Skipper said. “Our buildings are safe, but many are in terrible condition. Replacing or updating all of the building systems across our aging facilities would cost billions of dollars every year.”
The overall building score is a weighted average of the other four scores. The modernization score is triple weighted and the facilities condition and energy efficiency scores are double weighted.
Scores range from 0 to 100,
The most heavily weighted component of the overall building scores is the “modernization score,” which evaluates whether the building meets modern standards, how difficult it would be to renovate the building, and how costly renovations would be compared to replacement.
|
School Name |
Overall Building Score |
Facilities Condition Score |
Modernization Score |
Space Sufficiency Score |
Energy Efficiency Score |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Boston Green Academy |
41 |
26 |
53 |
38 |
41 |
|
Lyon High School |
38 |
33 |
53 |
27 |
24 |
|
Lyon K-8 School |
37 |
19 |
64 |
22 |
22 |
|
Baldwin Early Learning Pilot Academy |
35 |
23 |
51 |
44 |
18 |
|
Winship Elementary School |
34 |
27 |
45 |
40 |
21 |
|
Edison K-8 School |
32 |
30 |
45 |
31 |
16 |
|
Brighton High School |
30 |
31 |
26 |
28 |
37 |
|
Gardner Pilot Academy |
28 |
20 |
43 |
22 |
18 |
|
Horace Mann School for the Deaf Hard of Hearing |
23 |
4 |
36 |
42 |
14 |
|
Hamilton (Bais Yaakov) |
21 |
29 |
27 |
29 |
0 |
Source: BPS Facilities Condition Assessment as of Oct. 10, 2023
Anthony D'Isidoro
The Fat City Band
Friday, October 13, 2023, 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm
The Fat City Band is a 7 piece, high energy, swing, jump blues, New Orleans stlye R&B band. Fat City has a 40+ year legacy both locally & nationally, and has shared the stage with some of the all time greats of the industry. James Brown, B.B. King, and Ray Charles to name a few. Prepare for lots of great energy & audience engagement!
Now in our 5th decade, The Fat City Band has had the good fortune to be able to write, record, and perform our own unique style of Blues, Roadhouse Rock, Jazz, and New Orleans Style R&B for all our fans and friends alike from coast to coast and beyond.
Although some of the faces have changed over the years, we remain committed to one idea... Music Should Be Fun!
Band Website: https://www.facebook.com/fatcityband2021
Anthony D'Isidoro
Witchy Wanda's Spooktacular Halloween Show!
Saturday, October 14, 2023, 1:30 pm - 2:30 pm
Witchy Wanda's Spooktacular Show is great fun for kids and parents! Join us for some Halloween festivities and don't forget to wear your costumes! Come peep some leaves at the Herter Amp.
Come back at 6 pm for our free outdoor movie event, HOCUS POCUS!
Herter Park Amphitheater
1175 Soldiers Field Rd, Allston
Outdoor Movie Night - Hocus Pocus (1993)
Saturday, October 14, 2023 @ 6:00 pm
Join us for our FREE October spooktacular "walk-in" movie series, screening Hocus Pocus (1993, rated PG, 96 min.) Note earlier start time of 6 pm. Free popcorn & hot cider!
NOTE - There is no pre-show music for this event. Movie will start as soon as it gets dark (approximately 6:00 pm).
Anthony D'Isidoro
Anthony D'Isidoro
OAKtoberfest hits Oak Square Y (Hannah Heilman, The Bulletin: October 19, 2023)
Hundreds kicked off this year's OAKtoberfest in Oak Square, Brighton. PHOTO BY HANNAH HEILMAN
This past Sunday, Oct. 15, hundreds of runners in neon orange t-shirts hit the pavement to participate in the Oak Square YMCA’s 11th annual ‘OAKtoberfest,’ a 5K run and food tasting event that kicked off the start of ‘Together We Move,’ a month-long, city-wide wellness initiative.
With more than 300 people registered to run, the race began at 10 a.m. in the bright morning sun. Police escorted runners through the streets of Brighton as dozens of community members stood on the sidelines cheering them on, waving posters, clanging cowbells and clapping in support.
“I think it’s very typical of Oak Square that when we have an event like this, everybody comes out,” District 9 City Councilor Liz Breadon said, after taking some time to cheer on runners at the start. “We have one of our seniors who’s come out, and she’s celebrating her 90th birthday, and then we have all the kids in strollers, so we have the whole lifespan come out to support this event.”
The runners were treated to a lot of food and not an inconsiderable amount of beer after the race. PHOTO BY HANNAH HEILMAN
Not long after sending the runners off, bystanders began cheering again as first-place winner Colin Cernik, 29, made his way to the finish with a time of 14 minutes, 58 seconds. Immediately following his win, he told the Bulletin, between deep breaths, that he felt “good, a little tired, but good – happy.” Second place went to Alex Healey with a time of 15 minutes, 13 seconds.
Amidst continued cheers as runners finished, bystanders began calling out, “that’s the first female,” as Bronwyn Shields, 26, made her way toward the finish – unaware that she was in first place – with a time of 22 minutes, 22 seconds. Kristin Villanueva finished right after Shields, with a time of 22 minutes, 23 seconds.
Shields said she was still surprised some time after the race.
“I have never won anything, and I was shocked when I found out I won” Shields said. “I’m a very casual runner, just doing it for fun…But this is such a fun event. I was here last year, ran it, and then definitely signed up to do it again this year…And the YMCA is great. They put on a good event – it’s organized, they have good music, and the food’s amazing.”
Following the race, runners made their way to the Y’s parking lot where several Allston-Brighton restaurants like American Flat Bread and Rail Stop served appetizers as an in-kind donation. Notch Brewery provided beer, making it an official Oktoberfest, as per the German tradition. And Karate Show, a local band, played covers like the Beatles’ “Come Together,” to round out the afternoon.
This run kicked off the start of a 30-day initiative led by the YMCA of Greater Boston called ‘Together We Move.’ Now until Nov. 12, Y’s across the city will host events that boost community engagement and wellness, and fundraise for various programs.
“I’m a Y kid,” City Councilor At-Large Ruthzee Louijeune, who was also in attendance, said. “It’s incredibly important, the Y invests so much in our young kids when it comes to early education; when it comes to swimming lessons; when it comes to so much, and so it’s important that we support our Y and we support folks getting healthy and being healthy and winning 5Ks.”
Funds raised from OAKtoberfest will go toward offsetting the cost of programs like Livestrong, which provides aid to cancer patients, and Healthy Living, which focuses on physical activity classes.
“I wanted to say thank you,” YMCA Executive Director Kerry Jackson-Lee said to everyone in attendance. “By supporting the Y, look around you, you’re supporting your neighbors. Everyone that is here at the Y, it doesn’t matter their ability to pay or not, we raise these funds to offset the cost so that everyone has the accessibility to join the Y.”
To volunteer, donate or get involved at the Brighton Y, visit
www.ymcaboston.org/oaksquare.
Brighton Farmers Market brings everyone together (Katie Krom, The Bulletin: October 19, 2023)
The Brighton Farmers Market is coming into the home stretch of its season this fall. COURTESY PHOTO
On Wednesday, Oct. 11, community members from Brighton and the surrounding areas came together for delicious food, drinks, and beautiful art. Some people quickly grabbed what they came for and left, while others studied each tent, spoke to the vendors, and enjoyed their purchases on the lawn.
There were about a dozen stands last Wednesday including Drive-By Pies, Stillman Quality Meats, Sherman & Cherie’s Beezy Bees, Bliss Point Meadery, and Corrine’s Creations. The stands had everything ranging from quality meats to fruits and vegetables, alcohol, and art.
The owner of Stillman Meats, Kate Stillman, was working her stand, and said she has been working with her company for more than 20 years and attends the Brighton Farmers Market every year.
Stillman Quality Meats is a woman-owned Butchery in Hardwick, Massachusetts. Her family raises grass-fed and pasture-raised animals so her customers can get a taste of how great the meats are when purchased from conventional sources. She has beef, pork, lamb, chicken, turkey, and fresh eggs.
Stillman said that her favorite parts of attending farmers markets are the one-on-one interactions with her customers.
“Stillman does a lot of things; we have a retail store front, we ship, and we do mail order,” Stillman said. “Farmers markets are a good low-cost model for farmers to directly sell their products to consumers. I don’t have $10,000 in infrastructure.”
Across from Stillman Quality Meat’s was Sherman & Cherie’s Beezy Bees stand. The stand had honey, chapsticks, balms, and even bee pollen laid out. The company is owned by a husband and wife, and has been around since the early 2000s.
Ellen Clark was at the stand and said that she has been helping out with the company since the beginning. This was her first farmers market, and was surprised with how much business she had gotten.
“This farmers market is really cool. I have worked at many farmers markets in the heat and it is very uncomfortable. This one is under trees, and is really a nice facility.”
Clark explained that one of her favorite parts about working for Beezy Bees is the amount of knowledge she has learned about bees and learning how much honey is actually good for you.
“You definitely want to buy pure, unadulterated honey, from your area because all of the nutrients and nectars in here are the antihistamines for the pollen that you see,” Clark explained. “If you have allergies, the honey from your area will counteract it. In stores you have no idea where the honey is coming from. Normally the honey that you get is just pure sugar.”
She explained that Bee Pollen has many benefits for women and is something new that has recently come on the market, but cautioned consumers to research it before use. Bee Pollen comes from pollen that is on the bee and falls off of the bee on the way into the hive. Clark said that it is very potent but can help and cure many things.
“You only take a little teaspoon,” Clarke said. “You put it on your yogurt or on an apple. But look it up, and you’ll be back for some of that stuff. There are so many amazing benefits that come from the different parts of the hive.”
If you walked down two stands last Wednesday, you would’ve reached Bliss Point Meadery. Tim Evans sat at the stand and had been working for Bliss Point Meadery since June of 2023 and said the company has been doing farmers markets for two years now.
“Jeff Venuti is the owner and has been doing fermentation for over 15 years,” Evans said. “He has done wine, cider, and mead. Today we have different types of mead here. Mead is made from fermenting honey.”
Evans said that he found Bliss Point at a wine festival because I really enjoyed mead. He applied to work with them, and has enjoyed it ever since.
Evans said that his favorite part of farmers markets is meeting all of the amazing people.
“I have met a lot of different types of people from different walks of life,” Evans said, “people who have started their own business and people who work on the farm for their family. I’ve met a lot of different people, like Fran over there.”
Evans said that they will definitely be attending more farmers markets.
Finishing the loop was Corrine’s Creations. Corrine’s stand included key chains, prints, and mugs – all painted by her. She was painting a new piece at her stand while she sold art.
Corrine explained that she sells art through her Etsy shop, around the city at craft fairs and at many stores outside of Boston.
“I have always been into art as a kid,” Corrine said. “When quarantine happened, I really started to get into art. I had so much free time during quarantine so I started selling my work a lot more. I am a graphic designer full time, but eventually I want this to be a full-time job.”
Corrine said her favorite part about working at farmers markets is the amazing food, but also seeing peoples’ reactions to her work.
“Watching people look at my pieces makes my heart nice and warm, and makes me happy,” Corrine said, “even just people asking me questions and telling them about my work. I used to work on a farm in New Hampshire, so coming to these farmers markets really makes me feel at home. I love how they bring the community together and allow people to meet each other and make connections.”
The Brighton Farmers Market will be wrapping up on Oct. 25, so get while the getting’s good. It is a great spot to discover local businesses, connect with your community, and eat some really great food.
Boston Bulletin (October 19, 2023):
Anthony D'Isidoro
Anthony D'Isidoro
Anthony D'Isidoro
In the Allston-Brighton city council race, a tale of two progressives (Danny McDonald, Boston Globe: October 18, 2023)
In
Alston-Brighton city council race, two progressives face off (bostonglobe.com)
In
Allston-Brighton, Jacob deBlecourt (left) and Liz Breadon, two progressives, vie for a spot in the city council race.GLOBE
STAFF
In Boston’s northwest corner, a unique political narrative is unfolding this election season. Here, in Allston-Brighton, a two-term progressive incumbent who became the first openly gay female councilor to be elected in the city’s history, is facing a challenger who claims to be even more reform-minded.
Nowhere else on the Nov. 7 municipal ballot is such a dynamic playing out. Indeed, the District 9 race may hinge on a central question: What does it mean to be politically progressive in the Boston of 2023?
“I personally don’t feel like there are two progressives, I feel like there’s one progressive in this race,” said Jacob deBlecourt, the 25-year-old challenger who describes themselves as nonbinary and is looking to oust Councilor Liz Breadon.
Breadon, a 64-year-old immigrant from Northern Ireland, says her record speaks for itself.
“My votes consistently reflected the votes of a progressive. I very rarely take a position that’s not a progressive position,” Breadon said during a recent interview at a Brighton breakfast nook. “I really don’t understand where he’s coming from.”
DeBlecourt disagrees. During a recent interview at an Allston coffee shop they pointed to Breadon’s recent vote in favor of $3.4 million in grants for a controversial police intelligence gathering operation, the Boston Regional Intelligence Center, or BRIC.
Critics have raised concerns about potential civil liberties violations and racial profiling by the BRIC, which maintains the city’s gang database. But supporters noted it shares information among law enforcement agencies, helps combat gang-related crime and terrorism, and provides emergency responses.
DeBlecourt took to social media recently, saying on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, “If we are serious about transparency, justice and accountability, we need to abolish the BRIC.”
Breadon acknowledged that it was a “difficult vote” and that she had vacillated on whether to support the grant funding.
Ultimately, she said, while there are concerns about BRIC’s gang database, there are other current threats to American democracy that BRIC could help combat.
Allston-Brighton is geographically isolated from the rest of Boston, hemmed in by the Charles River to the north, Brookline to the south, and Newton to the west.
It’s a neighborhood that has been home to droves of students and young professionals for years, partly because of its proximity to a number of colleges, including Harvard University, Boston College, and Boston University. A report by the Boston Planning & Development Agency this year estimated that nearly 30 percent of Allston residents — more than 6,800 people — are currently enrolled in an undergraduate program, well above the citywide average of 11 percent.
Additionally, there are significantly more renters in the district, based on data that shows owner-occupied units comprise only 13 percent of the residences in Allston, and 22 percent in Brighton, well below the citywide average of 34 percent.
DeBlecourt, who shares a four-bedroom, one-bathroom apartment on Commonwealth Avenue in Allston with three roommates, has appealed to fellow renters as part of their pitch to voters — noting their bedroom doubles as “their living room, office, and campaign headquarters.”
“That’s how so many people in the neighborhood live,” they said.
DeBlecourt has accused Breadon, a homeowner, of failing to acknowledge the challenges faced by renters and being out-of-touch with the housing needs of many residents in her district. DeBlecourt said that the rent control home rule petition passed by the city council earlier this year does not do enough to help tenants.
The policy, which Breadon voted for, would limit annual rent increases to 6 percent plus inflation, as measured by the consumer price index, with an overall cap of 10 percent in high inflation years. Small owner-occupied properties such as triple-deckers would be exempt. DeBlecourt said the cap could still translate to a rent increase that would price many people out of the Boston rental market.
“It’s not doing enough to protect the people it’s designed to protect,” deBlecourt said.
Breadon acknowledged that many advocates supported a lower cap.
“The 10 percent was sort of a compromise position in a way,” she said, noting that many landlords didn’t want any cap at all.
Breadon listed housing as the biggest issue in her district and said she understands the issues facing renters, having rented for years before becoming a homeowner in 2002. She railed against absentee landlords, whom she said “are using our neighborhood as a cash machine.”
“I’d love to get to a place where they’re held more accountable,” said Breadon, who lives in Brighton’s Oak Square with her spouse. She said universities should offer more student housing.
DeBlecourt, a self-described “policy nerd” who grew up in southern New Jersey, said their parents were social workers, which imbued them with the importance of public service. DeBlecourt moved to Boston in 2016 to attend UMass Boston, earned a degree in political science and stayed. Most recently, they worked as the communications and policy director for at-large Councilor Julia Mejia. During that time, according to deBlecourt’s campaign literature, they helped craft legislation that led to better language access for residents, created the Black Men and Boys Commission, and worked to establish a law that allows residents to sell certain types of food made in their home kitchens.
In a nod to Allston’s rodent problem, deBlecourt has touted the “ratform,” a policy platform that includes recommendations for trash disposal, increasing the number of trash pickups, and the creation of a city “rat czar.” The campaign has circulated posters featuring cartoon rats protesting deBlecourt’s candidacy.
“I really care about this community,” said deBlecourt, adding that the people who make the neighborhood the best “are the ones who are at the greatest risk of being displaced.”
There is a substantial money gap in the race. Breadon had $38,000 in her campaign coffers, while deBlecourt had $2,000 as of the end of September.
However, deBlecourt said “we’ve raised enough” to campaign on the issues.
Breadon grew up in rural County Fermanagh. Her father was a farmer and her mother was a nurse. While the Troubles started when she was 10, she said her experience differed from many who came of age during Northern Ireland’s long, violent conflict. In a place where religion underpinned violence for decades, Breadon describes herself as “an oddity in a sense, I walked to my own drum.” While she was raised Protestant, her family ran a country store, where she interacted daily with Catholics. She went to school with Catholics and graduated from what is now the University of Ulster, where she studied physical therapy and health service management.
Breadon said that when she became aware of her sexuality in her 20s, she found that she “wasn’t free to be myself.” That, she said, drove her politically to the left, leading her to campaign for nuclear disarmament in the 1980s.
It also was one of the factors that led her to leave her homeland.
“You don’t fit in, you go and find your own tribe,” she said.
That journey landed her in Boston in 1995. She was first elected to the council in 2019, then cruised to re-election two years later.
In addition to housing, Breadon ticks off transit and climate change as two major issues facing Allston-Brighton. She cited concerns about the urban heat island effect in the district and recent rains that have at times flooded basements and the Green Line.
She touted her work on behalf of Brighton High School which helped renovate five science labs and proved to be a “game-changer” for the school.
“I still feel I have a lot more work to do,” she said.
Anthony D'Isidoro
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Anthony D'Isidoro
Anthony D'Isidoro
October 13, 2023 at 6:30 pm
Our students deserve world-class facilities that are capable of nurturing all of their potential—from athletic fields to art studios to new labs like the ones we’re cutting the ribbon on today. As biotechnology and the life sciences continue to grow and play a pivotal role in the strength of our economy, it’s essential that our students have hands-on opportunities to engage with STEM and develop the skills that will empower them to succeed in the green economy. Grateful to join Brighton High School for this celebration and thank you IQHQ for your support and commitment to Boston and our young people.
Anthony D'Isidoro
Mayor Wu celebrates opening of Boston Green Academy’s new outdoor classroom (Maggie Scales, Boston Globe: October 17, 2023)
Wu
celebrates opening of Boston Green Academy’s outdoor classroom (bostonglobe.com)
Boston Green Academy's new outdoor classroom was presented at a morning press conference
Tuesday.JONATHAN
WIGGS/GLOBE STAFF
Mayor Michelle Wu and Boston Public Schools Superintendent Mary Skipper celebrated the opening of Boston Green Academy’s new outdoor classroom with a ribbon cutting ceremony on Tuesday.
The outdoor classroom is complete with raised garden beds, outdoor furniture, and a hydroponic farm that grows plants without soil, in the school’s lawn along Warren Street in Brighton. At the ceremony, the beds were lush with red, purple, and yellow flowers and plantings.
“This is an example of why Boston Public Schools are destined to be great,” Skipper said. “These students are the ones who are going to craft our city and BGA gives them the opportunity to do that.”
The academy’s outdoor classroom and garden is the first of 10 new outdoor classrooms to be implemented across BPS, all funded by GrowBoston, the city’s office of urban agriculture. GrowBoston and BPS partnered with Green City Growers, a company focused on transforming underutilized spaces into biodiverse food production landscapes, according to a press release from the city. The new gardens give students the opportunity to learn about gardening as a part of Wu’s Connect, Learn, Explore initiative, which aims to expand access to quality education, safe housing, robust health care, and healthy and affordable food for children.
Boston
Mayor Michelle Wu met with students and others after cutting the ribbon.JONATHAN WIGGS/GLOBE STAFF
Wu said students who are involved in “outdoor nature work” do better in school, and that connecting through teamwork in the academy’s outdoor classroom, they will benefit students.
“We put so much emphasis on what is in those textbooks, but what is important is how to be connected with each other,” Wu said.
Alex Jacobson, the academy’s coordinator of green careers and civic engagement, said it is one of the only schools to have a class on “career and technical education” geared specifically at careers that relate to the environment. The class exposes students to careers in botany, landscape architecture, and landscaping, Jacobson said.
“Students like giving themselves a break and coming outside where they’re able to do labs and experiments for science, psychology, and for a math class to learn how flowers grow,” Jacobson said. “We want a space where we aren’t just learning from a PowerPoint, but we are learning from actual experiences.”
Gabriela Torres, a senior at the academy, said lessons about the environment and sustainability are weaved throughout many of the classes she takes.
“In my classes we’re trying to learn different ways to help the environment,” Torres said. “We learned about solar ovens in my physics class, for example.”
Alanis Mercado, a senior at the academy, said she appreciates how by maintaining the outdoor classrooms, students are able to create a new home for animals and insects.
“We have a beehive,” Mercado said. “It really shows how much we care about the environment and creating a home for animals.”
Skipper said the academy’s outdoor classroom and garden was funded by a $100,000 grant from GrowBoston.
Boston Green Academy senior Ariday Mejia spoke at a morning press conference where their was a ribbon cutting
for
the new outdoor classroom.JONATHAN WIGGS/GLOBE STAFF
In addition to the academy, GrowBoston will fund outdoor classrooms for 10 other BPS schools: Maurice J. Tobin, Dudley Street Neighborhood Charter, Winship Elementary, Mather, Martin Luther King Jr. K-8, Ellison Parks Early Ed, Franklin D. Roosevelt K-8 Upper Campus, Lee Academy Pilot, Roger Clap Elementary, and William Ellery Channing Elementary.
There are also 79 other schools across the state that have garden programs, according to Shani Fletcher, director of GrowBoston.
“To be living here right now is a challenge, living on a planet with climate change,” District 9 city Councilor Liz Breadon, said. “So I am really appreciative of the opportunity . .
. I commit to continuing to partner with it and you folks.”
Anthony D'Isidoro
The Baldwin school has seen a significant increase in enrollment - many new families are new to the US.
The library staff reached out to Liz to see if she had connections to Target, as they want to create a toy store for the children to "shop" in after they meet their reading goals.
Anthony D'Isidoro
Enterprise Research Campus Update #12 (Week of October 23, 2023)
October 24, 2023
As the Enterprise Research Campus (ERC) project continues, we will provide project notifications that outline upcoming and impactful activities, including a map of the area for reference.
Residential/Hotel
- Bulk excavation and concrete operations on site will continue.
- The first of two tower cranes has been erected and is operational. It is designed to move or “weathervane” in the wind.
- Work will take place on Saturday, October 21st.
Crews will be working within the site foundation.
Laboratory and Office Buildings
- Bulk excavation and concrete operations on site will continue.
- Rebar work is ongoing in preparation for the mat slab placement.
- Waterproofing work continues on the site foundation.
- Work will take place on Saturday, October 21st.
A large crane will be assembled on site.
Due to the size of the crane a 12-hour workday is needed.
Crews plan to begin at 6:00am and work until 6:00pm.
This crane will remain onsite through February and will support the mat slab placement.
Greenway
- This section of the site is currently being used for laydown space.
Treehouse Conference Center
- Bulk excavation of the site will begin Friday, October 20th.
Soil will be transported via intermodal trucks via the site haul road to Beacon Park Yard.
- Work will take place on Saturday, October 21st.
Crews will be excavating and hauling soil within the site to Beacon Park Yard.
Work will begin at 9:00am.
Building Mock-Ups
- Jersey barriers and site fence for the Residential/Hotel mock-ups will begin to be installed on Monday, October 23rd.
- Punch list work on the two Laboratory mockups will continue.
Anthony D'Isidoro
Allston Yards Construction Update
October 23, 2023
INFRASTRUCTURE (Roadway and Utility Work)
Everett and Arthur Reconstructions
- Everett Street: Working on preparing roadway for final paving which is anticipated for early November. Preparation includes raising structures and preparing pavement transitions. National Grid work is occurring within Everett, Old Everett, and Braintree Streets, separate from the Allston Yards project.
- Arthur Street: Top course pavement completed on October 17th. Striping installation and traffic signal work will occur this week, both requiring work within the roadway, but not roadway shutdowns.
Future Guest Street Extension
- Construction of the hardscape area on the south side of Guest Street is progressing, including installation of the bike lane, pavers, and concrete sidewalks. Specific activities include installation of the structural soil (for trees), gravel base for bike lane, crushed stone base for pavers.
BUILDING A (Residential Building with new Stop & Shop Grocery Store)
- Concrete and wood frame structural construction complete. Exterior building work ongoing including window, roof, and façade installation. Project completion (residential and retail) anticipated for Spring of 2024. Construction activities anticipated through that date.
CONTACT US
For any questions regarding the updates above, please contact Dave Pellegri at dpel...@nedevelopment.com or at 617-610-8906
Anthony D'Isidoro
Anthony D'Isidoro
West End House Boys & Girls Club
105 Allston St, Allston
Anthony D'Isidoro
https://home.color.com/vaccine/register/cataldo?site=brighton-brazilian-womens-group
Anthony D'Isidoro
Chestnut Hill Reservoir Bird Walk
Allston-Brighton Birders
Saturday, October 28, 2023 @ 9:00 am
We’ll meet at the eastern side of the reservoir, at Gate A (the parking lot on Beacon St) at 9am and wait until 9:10 to begin the walk. Bring binoculars, cameras, and/or field guides if you have them! Otherwise myself and other attendees can share binoculars and guides. If anyone has a spotting scope to bring, that would be incredible and much appreciated.
Check the weather beforehand and dress accordingly - the southern side of the reservoir gets quite windy. Rain date: Sunday, October 29th
Accessible via T (Chestnut Hill Ave stop on the B line, Cleveland Circle on the C line, and Reservoir on the D line.) and the 86 bus. There is parking.
Sarah Iwany
Anthony D'Isidoro
There is a permanent kiosk located in the lobby at Boston Police District D-14 located at 301 Washington Street, Brighton 02135. The kiosk can be accessed 24/7.
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Anthony D'Isidoro
ACA prefers full post office (Jeff Sullivan, The Bulletin: October 26, 2023)
A rendering of the proposed development project
that could host a new post office in Allston. COURTESY PHOTO
Earlier this month, District 9 City Councilor Liz Breadon announced that a letter of intent has been agreed upon between the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) and Eden Properties, the developer for the site of the former post office at 25-39 Harvard Ave. The USPS post office and distribution center at the Harvard Avenue site was closed in 2019 after it was discovered that a nearby tree’s roots had been impacting the building’s wall and creating a structurally unsound building. The USPS declared the post office suspended and started the public process that could determine whether or not the area still needs a post office.
Critics of this move pointed out that since the public process to close a post office permanently is so arduous that there have been cases where a post office has been in this kind of limbo and under suspension for 30 years, at least in one case. This made a lot of residents nervous, especially when the USPS opened a couple of temporary post offices to gauge resident interest and, according to residents and Breadon’s office at the time, didn’t do a good enough job publicizing those temporary offices, possibly creating the appearance of a lack of demand.
After several articles in this paper and others, Breadon’s Policy Director Wayne Yeh – who had been working on this issue since Breadon got into office – announced that there was a distinct possibility that a retail post office could be placed at the 25-39 Harvard Ave. site. Earlier this month, Breadon said she was very happy to say one step of many in that process has been made.
“I was delighted to learn of this important step in the reestablishment of the Allston Post Office,” said Breadon in a press release. “Allston’s immigrant communities, small business owners, and elderly population rely on the services that the Post Office provides. I am in strong support of the reopening of the Allston Post Office and look forward to input from community members and leaders in Allston as BPDA (Boston Planning and Development Agency) review of this project nears completion.”
A retail post office branch still offers a lot of the same services as a full post office, but does not handle distribution and many other services.
At last week’s Allston Civic Association (ACA) meeting, president Anthony D’Isidoro said this was a good step in the right direction. However, there is always room for improvement.
“It’s a major first step in realizing the replacement of the post office up in Allston, and as satisfying as that is and how much of a positive development that is, the fact remains that we’re coming up on four years without a post office in Allston,” he said. “I have said before and I do not hold back because that’s the responsibility I have as president of the ACA, that why it’s taken this long is as much of a punch in the gut as anything else. I always say that I’m sure if something like this had happened in Newton or Wellesley or Cambridge or even Kendall Square when they had to move their post office because of development – they moved it in four or five months at Kendall – but this has been going on because it’s Allston. It’s who we are and where we’re at.”
D’Isidoro said he wants to make sure the USPS doesn’t just leave a room with a defacto drop off mailbox. While the retail site won’t have trucks coming in to collect and then distribute the mail (though residents will be able to drop off packages and letters), he wants to make sure that it is still a full-service post office.
“It’s not just about packages and stamps, but also passport services, PO boxes…we have to make sure we at least have a full-service retail operation, and that still has to be worked out,” he said.
D’Isidoro also pointed out that relying on developers, no matter how good intentioned they may be, leaves open the possibility of litigation against a decision of the Zoning Board of Appeals, which could delay or stop the project outright.
“So there are many variables here that still need to be overcome,” he said.
Project developer Noah Maslan reviewed the project, including the retail post office and a housing development on the property. It’s about 170 units of housing with some other commercial and community space allotted. Maslan said they wanted to include more community space so as to be able to offer concerts for residents.
When asked about the structural integrity of the building in relation to the tree that caused the downfall of the old post office building, Maslan said they would be working to make sure that does not happen again.
“One of the benefits of our plan is that there is a separate retaining wall inside of the current post office building,” he said. “So the intent here – and our building is set off 10 feet from that – our intent here is to build a new retaining wall right up against it. I had heard that was part of the issue and currently inside the post office the entire wall is fortified with scaffolding now because it was deemed to be structurally unsound.”
Resident Bernadette Lahey said she had some concerns around construction vehicles and where they are going to go during the project. She pointed out there are four other projects in this project’s vicinity.
“If there are three or four projects in the area, how is the traffic going to flow?” she asked.
Maslan said they would be working with the Boston Transportation Department (BTD) as well as putting together a construction mitigation plan with the city, but said it’s difficult to predict with other projects since they have their own internal timelines.
“Part of it is we can’t necessarily predict the Jack Young (another project) construction. I mean those projects were approved many years ago,” he said.
D’Isidoro said there are several other projects coming down the line, like the state’s plan to replace the Franklin Street pedestrian crossing and replacing or rehabilitating the Cambridge Street Bridge.
“So not only do you have development projects like Allston Square, 449 Cambridge St. and others in the mix, but also these state projects,” he said. “This is something we’ve alerted the BPDA of. In some sectors of the community, sometimes a neighborhood community construction mitigation plan might be better than just doing it by project.”
For more information on the project itself, go to https://tinyurl.com/5n9aunww
Boston Bulletin (October 26, 2023):
Anthony D'Isidoro
Anthony D'Isidoro
Kiwanis Club of Allston Brighton Meeting
Thursday, November 2, 2023 @ 12:00 noon
Kiwanis International is a global community of clubs, members and partners dedicated to improving the lives of children one community at a time.
Please join us.
Stockyard Restaurant
135 Market St, Brighton
Email Contact: Bill Margolin (wehb...@aol.com)
Anthony D'Isidoro
DCR reviews Artesani Parking Lot improvements (Ariane Komyati, The Bulletin: November 2, 2023)
More than 40 community members from the Allston Brighton area attended a meeting regarding Artesani Parking Lot improvements via Zoom. The Oct. 25 meeting was hosted by the Department of Conservation & Recreation (DCR) and discussed initial design concepts/improvements to the Artesani Parking Lot. The parking lot is located off of Soldiers Field Road in Lower Allston and is adjacent to the Artesani Playground.
The proposed improvements are part of the Herter Park Master Plan. Key components of this plan include addressing accessibility, stormwater management, green infrastructure, and utility upgrades. Further meetings will be held regarding the Master Plan of the park, but the Oct. 25 meeting focused on the lot. Goals for improvement include “reconstructing the Artesani Parking Lot to be parallel to Soldiers Field Road, reclaiming valuable open space between the parking lot and the river for additional picnic grounds, event lawn expansion and stormwater infrastructure, which will provide great environmental benefits to the Charles River,” explained Project Manager John Cavanaro.
Cavanaro discussed the current site conditions of the Artesani Parking Lot – no main entry signage, insufficient traffic calming measures, poor paving conditions, poor drainage, erosion, and poor access management.
“This creates traffic and speeding in and out of the facility. With the master plan, we looked at coming up with a plan to align the parking lot more centrally to the Everett Street intersection,” he explained. The present-day site was described as an outdated, flat lot of asphalt.
The proposed plan for the parking lot consists of a compact, split lot design with 232 parking spaces with a large, center landscape island for stormwater management. “One thing that’s really nice about this [the proposed design] is that we are providing less asphalt and more greenspace,” said Bryan Zimolka of Nitsch Engineering. “The great thing is the existing lot is 232 spaces, and we are able to redesign it and maintain the 232 spaces.” Zimolka also presented the enhanced pedestrian and bicycle access, improved stormwater management, upgraded electrical infrastructure, and electric vehicle (EV) accommodations. Boat trailer access and storage during the Head of the Charles regatta was also discussed.
Meeting attendee Galen Mook asked what percentage of the parking spots will be reserved for EV charging stations.
“The amount of planned EV-ready spaces is approximately 10 percent of the total parking spaces provided,” Zimolka responded.
“Could you explain stormwater management? How you plan to prevent flooding, use rainwater for watering greenery, etc?” asked meeting attendee Patricia Centola.
DCR representatives said they are looking to improve greenery and stormwater infiltration at the site in order to reduce the regular flooding of the lot
Resilience Specialist Jessica Wala presented the proposed stormwater and utilities design. She spoke to meeting attendees about issues with the current stormwater management, which include bad water quality, flooding, and poor drainage.
“There’s a number of reasons why this is happening – poor grating in the area, stormwater not making its way to the catch basins, and the low elevation of the parking lot,” she explained. “Stormwater in the parking lot currently discharges into the Charles River, and there’s no treatment before it discharges. The EPA has issued a total maximum daily load of pollutants to the Charles River. The City of Boston and the DCR needs to treat that water before it makes its way to the river. That will continue the work of improving the water quality of the river.”
Collecting and treating runoff water from the parking lot through Green Stormwater Infrastructure (GSI), overflowing treated water to existing outfalls, raising the grades of the parking lot and catch basins, and increasing inlet capacity of the drainage are some of the solutions designed to fix the parking lot’s stormwater issues. Infiltration basins, bioretention basins and vegetated swales (rain gardens) will collect, treat, infiltrate and slow down stormwater through GSI. Wala also discussed how elevating the Artesani Parking Lot can efficiently reduce current and future flooding through 2050.
Danielle Diselets, the Lead Landscape Architect, discussed other green elements of the proposal including trees, shrubs and other herbaceous plants that are native to Suffolk County planted around the parking lot and bio-retention basins. Red maple, sycamore, swamp white oak, buttonbush, silky dogwood, arrowwood, sweet pepperbush, swamp milkweed, butterfly weed, goldenrod, blue flag iris, and blue joint grass are some of the many native plants Diselets said she is considering. She also presented proposed site lighting, which will potentially include solar poles and collectors.
After the presentation, there was allocated time for comments, questions and concerns from community members. Allston community member Harry Mattison had concerns about connecting pedestrian/cyclist paths being too narrow and becoming too crowded. “I’m surprised you can’t find an extra five or ten feet to give us a safe and comfortable path,” he told the DCR.
Cavanaro responded that the DCR is being mindful of how much asphalt they use. “We can’t design these paths as roadways,” Cavanaro told Mattison.
“Can you speak on how many inches of rain the GSI at the parking lot will retain and manage?” asked Dira Johanif. Wala responded that they are still in the early phases of the design process, but “at minimum” it will infiltrate or treat the first inch of runoff in the systems.
“Regarding flooding, please do not forget Herter Garden. There are three or four plots that are impacted and underwater when there is heavy rain and flooding,” remarked community member Eleanor Jewett.
Towards the end of the meeting, DCR’s Director of Transportation Engineering Jason Santos provided an update on the Everett Street Intersection project.
“Currently, as many of you know, there are no controlled crossings across Soldiers Field Road. This project will fix that. There will be multiple crosswalks and a new bump out to shorten the length getting across the road,” stated Santos. The intersection project will also have ADA compliant ramps. The project will go out to bid in November.”
The public comment period is currently open for the Artesani Parking Lot Improvements Project. To submit a comment, visit www.mass.gov/forms/dcr-public-comments. The deadline to submit is Nov. 10.
Boston Bulletin (November 2, 2023):
Anthony D'Isidoro
Brighton Branch of the Boston Public Library:
After today’s morning's story time (10:00 am), take a stroll over to Hobart Park and help plant brand new shade trees to help keep the park cool during the summer months. Enjoy a warm drink and cool conversations at 12:30pm at 85 Hobart Street.
Anthony D'Isidoro
Boston Landing Events:
Boston Landing Toy Drive
November 1-December 2, 2023
SPREAD THE JOY OF THE HOLIDAYS!
The Boston Landing Community is ready to spread some holiday cheer this season by donating toys to the kids at Franciscan Children’s! Providing passionate, personalized, family-focused care for children with special health care needs, Franciscan Children’s helps each child find the courage to reach their full potential.
Look for a donation box inside each of our participating retailers. Look for the big wrapped box!
Anthony D'Isidoro
President’s Report ~ Rosie Hanlon
- Welcome and introductions
- Committee Update
By-laws
Holiday Lights
Membership
- Brighton Marine Veterans Dedication Event 11/8/23 @ 5:30pm
- Presentation by the Strategy Group: 22-24 Pratt Street ~ a 322-unit transit oriented residential development, transforming an industrial site along the turnpike and rail lines.
- Treasurer’s Report ~ Alicia Yeh
- D14 Community policing update ~ Frank Hughes
- Community/Business Development ~ Frank Mendoza (Mayor’s Office)
- Allston Village Main Streets ~ Alex Coracchini
- Brighton Main Streets ~ Kelly McGrath
Anthony D'Isidoro
Boston’s Latin Quarter Film Screening
Anthony D'Isidoro
Allston Yards Construction Update
November 6, 2023
INFRASTRUCTURE (Roadway and Utility Work)
Everett and Arthur Reconstructions
- Everett Street: Working on preparing roadway for final paving which is anticipated for mid-November. Preparation includes raising structures and preparing pavement transitions. National Grid work is occurring within Everett, Old Everett, and Braintree Streets, separate from the Allston Yards project.
- Arthur Street: Top course pavement completed on October 17th. Pavement striping completed 10/26. Signage installation and minor temporary improvements will be on-going through early November.
Future Guest Street Extension
- Construction of the hardscape area on the south side of Guest Street is progressing, including installation of the bike lane, pavers, and concrete sidewalks. Specific activities include installation of the structural soil (for trees), gravel base for bike lane, crushed stone base for pavers.
BUILDING A (Residential Building with new Stop & Shop Grocery Store)
- Concrete and wood frame structural construction complete. Exterior building work ongoing including window, roof, and façade installation. Project completion (residential and retail) anticipated for Spring of 2024. Construction activities anticipated through that date.
For any questions regarding the updates above, please contact Dave Pellegri at dpel...@nedevelopment.com or at 617-610-8906
Anthony D'Isidoro
CONSTRUCTION SAFETY ORDINANCE
The City of Boston announced the implementation of the Safe Construction and Demolition Operations Ordinance. This ordinance builds on the city’s goal of ensuring all construction and
demolition operations in Boston are conducted in a manner that protects the health, welfare, and safety of workers and the public.
Beginning December 1, 2023, the ordinance will require construction and demolition sites in Boston seeking a permit with the Inspectional Services Department (ISD) to:
- implement a project-specific Site Safety Plan
- submit a Site Safety Plan Affidavit,
- implement a Site Safety Monitoring Plan that includes Site Safety Orientations,
- Pre-shift Safety Meetings, and a Site Safety Coordinator on larger projects.
In addition, permit applicants must identify potential hazards and implement a plan to protect workers and the public. Click here for more information.
Noncompliance of the ordinance may result in a violation, stop work or up to a $300 fine.
Anthony D'Isidoro
Vacancy in Boston-area lab space climbs to ten-year high (Dana Gerber, Boston Globe: November 10, 2023)
Vacancy
in Boston-area lab space climbs to ten-year high - The Boston Globe
A view of the life sciences building being constructed at 66 Galen Street in Watertown on Sept. 21, 2022. As vacancy
rates in the area's lab space continue to rise, Watertown may be well suited for a recovery down the line, said Jeffrey
Myers,
a research director at real estate firm Colliers.SUZANNE KREITER/GLOBE STAFF
As local biotech companies slash jobs and face dwindling investments, it appears that the long-red-hot real estate market for life sciences space in the area is continuing to follow a similar downward trend.
Lab space vacancies in the Boston area hit a ten-year high in the third quarter, reaching an 11.7 percent availability rate, according to a report released Thursday by real estate firm Colliers. This represents more than five million square feet of unclaimed space, up from just 300,000 square feet of available space on the market in 2021. The demand from companies looking for space has dropped from about eight million square feet in 2021 to about two million square feet today.
“More companies these days are finding themselves concerned with stretching out the money they have, increasing their runway for operations, than they are about going out and leasing extra space for growth,” said Jeffrey Myers, a research director at Colliers.
The rising vacancy rates, Myers said, are an issue of supply outstripping demand. A wave of projects that launched construction a few years ago when inventory was tight are now opening into a market that suddenly has little need for them.
“The market needs more space,” Myers said, “but just not as much as is currently being built.”
The properties struggling the most, Colliers found, are the newest ones to come on the scene, with 30 percent of the space in buildings completed this year yet to be leased, compared to just 0.1 percent of space in new buildings that opened in 2020 and 2021.
With plenty more construction still underway — such as Harvard’s new Enterprise Research Campus in Allston — vacancy rates are expected to continue to mount through next year, said Myers. But that doesn’t mean there is diminished demand: There has been an 11 percent increase in occupied inventory over the last four quarters, Colliers reported, thanks in part to tenants locking down space prior to a building’s completion.
“The market’s not dead,” Myers said. “There are opportunities for leasing. It’s just not as strong as it was before.”
And in a market where many corners of the region have ample lab space, some geographies are faring better than others.
Consider Boston: Citywide, there is an 11 percent vacancy rate for life science space — far higher than its historical average — but that figure drops down to 2.3 percent in Allston/Brighton and swells to 14.7 percent in the Seaport.
Cambridge, home to the life science hotbed of the Kendall Square neighborhood, has a vacancy rate of 9.9 percent — lower than that of either Boston or the suburbs, though the highest for the city in almost a decade.
Farther-flung areas are saddled with the most empty space, with a 13.2 percent vacancy rate in the suburbs, though close-in Watertown and Somerville are well-positioned for a recovery “in the long haul,” said Myers.
The conditions right now make for a strong renter’s market, Myers said, with more firms able to afford rent in neighborhoods that they could not previously. Sublease inventory, too, is growing, making up about 40 percent of all available space as companies try to offload space they are stuck with under a long-term lease but no longer want. The subleasing inventory fastest to come off the market, Myers added, “are the spaces in the urban core,” meaning fewer renters are being pushed out into the suburbs.
“If you’re a tenant right now, and you’re in the market for space, you have options where you didn’t before — that’s not a bad thing,” he said. “You really don’t want to have a market where there is no opportunity for companies to grow and to locate in, and be able to reasonably afford to do so.”
The real estate flux comes as a number of once-high-flying biotech firms have shrunk their workforces in recent months, including Biogen, Sage Therapeutics, and Takeda, all in Cambridge.
The job reductions are part of a broader cooldown in the life sciences sector as venture capital investments drop and regulatory developments — such as President Biden’s move to allow Medicare to negotiate with drug manufacturers over prices — send shockwaves through the industry.
Anthony D'Isidoro
Hello Everyone,
Greg Reibman, President & CEO, Charles River Regional Chamber:
"Did you see the headline on Monday's Wall Street Journal editorial?
Don’t
think for a minute that other states and regions aren’t using our high taxes, our traffic, and all our other challenges against us when they make their case for why employers should move there instead of here."
Tony
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
‘You can’t cure cancer when you’re sitting in traffic’: The MBTA poses a problem for Mass. Competitiveness (Kara Miller, Boston Globe: November 10, 2023)
The
MBTA is a liability for Massachusetts competitiveness (bostonglobe.com)
Passengers
wait for a Red Line train to roll to a stop in the Kendall station.LANE TURNER/GLOBE
STAFF
If you were riding the Red Line head to toe on May 16, 2022 — from Alewife to Braintree — it would have taken you under 54 minutes, on average.
By October 16, 2023 — 17 months later — that same commute would have taken you close to 80 minutes.
But if 25 extra minutes tacked onto your commute seems stressful, it gets worse. In May 2022, the average wait on the platform was just under 6 minutes. By October 2023, it had surged to 11-and-a-half minutes.
No one who rides the MBTA these days would be surprised by these numbers. But remember: This is the Red Line, which runs through the heart of Boston’s innovative core. And after the T announced a year of rolling shutdowns on Thursday, things seem certain to get worse before they get better.
For a state itching to herald its technological prowess — think AI reshaping tech, biotech, and medicine — workers’ inability to quickly get to offices, labs, hospitals, and universities has become an issue of competitiveness.
“It’s a huge problem,” says Beth O’Neill Maloney, executive director of the Kendall Square Association. She notes that “one of the hallmarks of Kendall Square” is in-person collaboration, and painfully long commutes discourage that.
“The slowdowns on the T — especially the Red Line, but the Green Line, too ... is a real challenge for anyone who lives, works, studies, or plays in Kendall Square,” she says. “And Kendall Square is really a driver of the life science community right now that’s driving the Massachusetts economy.”
Sascha Hernandez, who has worked in biotech for six years, believes the commute has “never been as bad as it’s been this past summer and fall.”
Biotech workers, she noted, “are not like other white-collar workers. Those of us in lab-facing roles are required to work in person every weekday and often on weekends. I don’t have the luxury of Zooming in to meetings on a Friday.”
Hernandez points out that the Red Line was never great for her, but its deterioration has proved untenable. “I bought my house in Woburn under the assumption that ... buses would connect me to a rapid rapid transit system. I accepted my current position imagining I would be a strap hanger again, not begging my husband for a ride at least once a week because I got stranded.”
Though most white-collar workers spend less time in the office than they did pre-pandemic, single-occupancy vehicle trips into Kendall Square have jumped nearly 25 percent in the last four years, according to the Cambridge Redevelopment Authority. Meanwhile, public transit use “has plummeted to 27 percent of total commuters,” from 38 percent in 2019.
Maloney has known people whose commute from Alewife to Kendall — just five stops — takes an hour or more. “It’s not OK that you’re living in Cambridge, and it takes you over an hour on the Red Line to get to your lab or office in Kendall Square.”
One reason for that is how many trains run every day. Jarred Johnson, chief operating officer of TransitMatters, notes that the Red Line ran about 200 daily trips in May 2022, but just over 120 trips by October 2023. “It’s not only about how fast trains go. It’s the extra time waiting for a train to come,” he says.
So how does this affect our competitiveness?
“You can’t cure cancer when you’re sitting in traffic,” Maloney says. “If we can’t help people get over the challenges of transportation, especially combined with housing prices... how do we attract and retain folks here?”
Beth
O’Neill Maloney, executive director of the Kendall Square Association.COURTESY OF BETH
O’NEILL MALONEY
Briah Cooley gets on the Red Line at Quincy Center and rides the T nine stops to her job as a clinical researcher at Mass General Hospital. She says it generally takes her about 40 minutes, and it’s “super, super slow” between JFK and Broadway. This past summer, when she moved to her current apartment, the Red Line shut down every weekend.
“I lived in St. Paul, Minnesota,” she says. “We have a light rail there, and it was pretty consistent, even with snow and ice. I think that’s the most frustrating thing about coming to Boston and it being known as a tech and innovation hub.”
Other cities, apparently, are aware of how frustrated Boston commuters are. As the Globe’s Jon Chesto recently reported, when a Massachusetts delegation visited North Carolina’s Research Triangle — which vies with Boston for tech, biotech, and finance jobs — our notoriously bad commute came up. “As I was walking off the stage,” recounted Jim Rooney, CEO of the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce, “the guy from Raleigh said, ‘I tell them all about your traffic.’”
Johnson says that New York will soon institute congestion pricing, aiming to thin traffic and encourage subway ridership by charging drivers who drive on non-highways in Manhattan below 60th street. Seattle is also building out its transportation infrastructure.
Both Johnson and Maloney say the Red Line’s slowness particularly hurts those with less money — like doctoral and postdoctoral students, who may be starting families and thinking about where to put down roots. And it impacts hourly workers in retail and hospitality, many of whom serve customers in the tech sector. For both groups, longer commutes can mean lost wages and steeper childcare costs.
Having people come into offices “is critical for the vibrancy of our community,” says Maloney, who adds that when tech workers don’t commute, that has obvious effects on nearby shops and restaurants. “If folks are only in three days, it’s tough to maintain the vibrancy that we’ve built over the last 15 years.”
Alexander Jones, a project manager at a large pharmaceutical company in Kendall, rides the T three times a week from Alewife. He purposefully decided to live on the Red Line and feels fortunate that he has the flexibility to go home at off-peak hours.
“Sometimes it’s so packed that there’s no room to get onto the train at rush hour,” he says. Still, he’s optimistic that the T will get faster.
Nearly everyone I spoke with expressed hope that Phillip Eng, who became general manager of the MBTA in April, can turn things around. Joe Pesaturo, director of communications at the T, notes that “Eng has made it clear that providing T riders with reliable and more frequent service is paramount, and the multiple closures along the Red Line next year will allow the MBTA to remove all of the line’s speed restrictions much faster than it would be accomplished by only working on selected nights and weekends.”
In the meantime, though, the commute can sting — and some people are thinking about leaving.
Hernandez, the biotech worker, says coming in from Woburn can take more than 90 minutes. “Every time I have to wait 17 minutes for a train to arrive, or I miss my bus because my train slows to a crawl between Central and Harvard, I start to question whether deciding to work in Cambridge was the right choice.”
Asked whether she’d leave the area, she notes that she’s seen “a decent number of coworkers move down to North Carolina, but their partners had more career flexibility.”
Cooley, the clinical researcher, said Thursday that she’d like to move out of Greater Boston “because the T is getting worse.” She noted that every Red Line train she was on this week was delayed, due to “a broken train or broken signals.”
She’s thinking of heading to Washington, DC, which has a Metro she loves.
A
southbound MBTA train inched toward North Quincy on Oct. 25.LANE TURNER/GLOBE STAFF
Anthony D'Isidoro
Allston I-90 Multimodal Project Task Force Virtual Meeting
MassDOT
Tuesday, November 14, 2023, 6:30 pm – 8:30 pm
Register for this meeting: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZwsce-tqTMsGNxsqYpVhezzBq7WdTotUkeN#/registration
-
USDOT Grant Application Update
-
Cambridge Street Bridge
-
Franklin Street Pedestrian Bridge
-
Southside Buffer Path
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Central Transportation Planning Staff (CTPS) Modeling
-
Lincoln Street Noise Barrier
Email Contact: I-90A...@dot.state.ma.us
