OCTOBER 2020 FREE COVERING THE FENWAY, AUDUBON CIRCLE, KENMORE SQUARE, UPPER BACK BAY, PRUDENTIAL, LONGWOOD, AND MISSION HILL SINCE 1974 • VOLUME 46, NUMBER 10 • OCTOBER 2 - OCTOBER 30, 2020 Mission Hill Will Add Community Garden concern among many residents that VOTING INFO enough open space isn’t being preserved in this neighborhood.... Maintaining TIMELINE some open parcels while agreeing to the • OCT. 24: LAST DAY TO REGISTER TO development of others, was discussed among the residents at length.” VOTE. Visit www.RegistertoVoteMA. MHHM OF COURTESY PHOTO com. You’ll need a valid Mass. driver’s The short block of Gore Street, license or ID card. formerly Gore Avenue (the name connects to 17th-century land held by • OCT. 28: LAST DAY TO REQUEST A John Gore, no relation to the former vice MAIL-IN BALLOT. Request it online at www.MailMyBallotMA.com. If president) was radically altered in the you vote by mail, you can follow the late 19th century by the subdividing progress of your ballot at www.sec. of Caroline French’s estate. Wood- state.ma.us/wheredoivotema/track/ frame multifamily buildings went up trackmyballot.aspx. on tightly constricted lots; the idea of public produce gardens didn’t gain wide • OCT. 17-30: EARLY VOTING acceptance until the 20th century. • NOV. 3: VOTE IN PERSON. All voting Last year the City’s Grassroots sites will follow CDC and state public program, which supports gardens health guidelines. If you normally and open space, awarded the project vote at Morville House or Symphony $62,000. MHHM also applied for CPA Towers, you’ll vote instead at The future site of the Gore Street Garden funds but was unsuccessful. According Matthews Arena on St. Botolph BY ALISON PULTINAS innovations include planting beds for to MHHM’s chair, Betty Commerford, the Street. long with residential gardeners to “time share” plots and group needs to raise several thousand construction on Tremont, Parker share produce. dollars more to meet its budget. Dona- EARLY VOTING and Terrace streets, there’s a The City’s Department of tions from individuals are welcome (con- Sat-Sun, Oct. 17-18 | 11am–7pm new public greenspace coming Neighborhood Development (DND) tact [email protected] for details). Went- FENWAY PARK (USE GATE A ENTRANCE) Ato Mission Hill. A small City-owned lot conducted multiple meetings in 2017 to worth Institute has also committed stu- DEWITT CENTER on Gore Street, formerly the site of a review requests for proposals for nine dent labor for building the raised beds. 122 DEWITT DRIVE, ROXBURY six-family building razed in 1982, will be vacant lots in the neighborhood. Of those Delle Avenue resident and garden Mon-Fri, Oct. 19-23 transferred to the nonprofit Mission Hill parcels, 6-8 Gore St. is the only one to committee member Bob Francey BOSTON CITY HALL Health Movement (MHHM) for a future be retained as green space. As Kara and volunteer landscape designer • Mon–Wed–Fri = 9am-5pm community garden. The official closing is Verrochi, a garden committee member, Laura Feddersen from COGdesign will • Tue & Thu = 9am-8pm scheduled to take place this month. The wrote to the Community Preservation coordinate the construction process, Sat-Sun, Oct. 24-25 | 11am–7pm Public Facilities Commission, chaired by Act Committee in 2018, “Having attended expected to begin this fall. SHELBOURNE CENTER GYMNASIUM ISD Commissioner Dion Irish, voted on all of the DND meetings, there is strong Alison Pultinas lives in Mission Hill. 2750 WASHINGTON STREET, ROXBURY Sept. 16 to convey the property to MHHM. MARGARITA MUNIZ ACADEMY GYMNASIUM 20 CHILD STREET, JAMAICA PLAIN MHHM’s garden committee, with Mon-Fri, Oct. 26–30 help from COGdesign, a nonprofit EVEN WITH FEWER STUDENTS, MOVE-IN BOSTON CITY HALL providing technical assistance, has JUNK PILES UP ON CALUMET STREET ALISON PULTINAS PHOTO: • Mon–Wed–Fri = 9am-5pm worked on the plans since 2017. Students • Tue & Thu = 9am-8pm Daniel Janowiec and Anthony Boudreau— from Wentworth’s Co+build community You can also return your mail-in building program, based at the Center for ballot at any early voting site. Community and Learning Partnerships— contributed designs for raised beds and DROPBOXES feedback on an irrigation system. Deposit your mail-in ballot at any The garden will have native shade dropbox up plantings and blackberry bushes along to 8pm on Nov. 3. All boxes listed here its borders. The design includes new are already open: fencing, infrastructure for managing g Boston City Hall, main entrance stormwater, and pervious surfacing g Central Library, Copley Square for the pathways. Community support g Parker Hill Branch Library, 1497 for the project has encouraged MHHM, Tremont Street, Mission Hill said Director Mary Ann Nelson. Given g Roxbury Branch Library, 149 the strong interest in local food, Nelson Dudley Street, Roxbury said, MHHM plans to rotate plots to new Staggered dates spaced out college move-ins this year, but Sept. 1 still saw g Jamaica Plain Branch Library, 30 gardeners every three years so that a large number of students moving to the area. Move-in and move-out trash South Street, JP more neighbors can participate. Possible accumulated at 226 Calumet Street on Mission Hill. Making Sense of the Massachusetts Ballot Questions BY MARY ANN BROGAN owners and independent repair facilities starting in 2022. It would not apply to presi- no candidate received 50 percent of the votes ith early voting starting in October through an app. Beginning in 2022, repair dential elections or municipal elections. in this round, the process would be repeated 17, The Fenway News provides facilities would be able retrieve information Currently, Massachusetts voters choose until a candidate won a majority of votes. some background on this year’s from and send commands to a vehicle for their candidates by plurality; whoever re- This method ensures the winning candi- statewide ballot questions. maintenance, diagnosis, and repair. ceives the most votes wins. In an election date has the broadest appeal to a majority of W Opponents contend the bill would leave with multiple candidates, a winner could voters. It eliminates situations where some- QUESTION 1 car owners vulnerable to access by cyber- amass only 20 percent of votes, and still body holds office when, in fact, the majority Question 1 would require car manufactur- predators. If needed, prior to its taking effect win—as we saw last month in the Democratic did not vote for them. If ranked-choice voting ers to make vehicle-repair data transmitted in 2022, the state legislature would have an primary for the fourth congressional district. is approved, it would go into effect in 2022. wirelessly available to third-party shops, such opportunity to tweak the language to ensure Under ranked-choice voting, votes would Opponents of ranked-choice voting say as your own neighborhood auto mechanic. that repair shops only get access to relevant be counted in a series of rounds. You would that it could lead to voter exhaustion. They “Telematic” systems, now in 90 percent of diagnostic and repair information. Advertise- have the opportunity to rank all candidates believe voters just don’t want to go to the ef- cars, collect information during vehicle op- ments opposing this question are funded by in order of your preference. If one got more fort of ranking candidates, especially if there eration that can notify you of looming parts a trade association of auto manufacturers, than 50 percent of the votes in the first round, are more than three. Some opponents think or system failures. Currently, only manufac- while ads supporting it are largely funded by they would win the election. If no candidate that making the process of filling out a ballot turers and their authorized dealers have ac- vehicle maintenance businesses. reached 50 percent, then the candidate with more complicated, even if ever so slightly, cess to this information. An initiative passed the fewest votes would be eliminated. In a could increase wait times at polling places. in 2012 oppened access to diagnostic infor- QUESTION 2 second round of counting, the tally would Maine was the first state to pass ranked- mation to anyone who wanted it, including Question 2 would change the way Massa- no longer include votes for the eliminated choice voting, several Massachusetts cities, owners, but it didn’t account for the wireless chusetts votes, implementing ranked-choice candidate. Voters who made that candidate including Cambridge, already have it in place. technology now in use. voting in primary and general elections for their first choice would have their votes redis- Mary Ann Brogan lives in the East A yes vote would give access to diag- statewide offices, as well as congressional, tributed to their second-choice candidate. If Fens. nostic and repair information both to vehicle state legislative, and district attorney offices, 2 | FENWAY NEWS | OCTOBER 2020 AROUND THE NEIGHBORHOODS: DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATION BY ALISON PULTINAS BU, NU Faculty Wrestle With Teaching Owners of Building on Mission Hill’s oston University's Learn from Anywhere (LfA) hybrid model has teachers on campus talking to nearly empty classrooms while simultaneously teaching ‘Fraternity Row’ Win More Bedrooms Bremote learners. Those attending in person are, of course, wearing masks. There nother absentee landlord has won president of the Community Alliance. are challenges in recreating the typical give-and-take of seminar discussions. For more bedrooms on Mission Hill. The In his words, the addresses on nearly larger lectures, it might be a bit easier, as they usually involve less participation, but owners of 190 Calumet St., a recently all of the 11 form letters “read like a hit in smaller classes the interaction between online students and those in the classroom Abuilt two-family building at the top of the hill, parade of absentee property investors can be technically complicated.