Residents Join Fight Against Line 3 Pipeline
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THURSDAY, FEBruary 18, 2021 PUBLISHED EVERY THURSDAY SERVING BACK BAY - SOUTH END - FENWAY - KENMORE Residents join ONLY DAYS REMAIN TO SEE THE HATCH LIGHTSHOW fight against Line 3 pipeline By Lauren Bennett Minnesota protest against the pipeline for protection of treaty Efforts to stop the Enbridge rights of Native American tribes Energy Line 3 oil pipeline (which in an area of Minnesota where runs from the Alberta tar sands the pipeline is proposed to be through areas of the Midwest) expanded. The pipeline also replacement project have ramped poses a number of environmental up in recent weeks, including concerns, activists say. support from right here in Bos- Jackie Royce, a Boston resi- ton. dent and a member of many of Local organizations like the local environmental groups, said Boston node of 350.org, Moth- that these organizations have ers Out Front, the Sierra Club, “stopping pipelines as a high pri- and others have advocated for ority.” the creation of jobs in renewable Many have compared the energy and to stop gas pipelines Line 3 pipeline to the Keystone and leaks in Greater Boston for XL pipeline, which was recently years, but now, national atten- stopped by the Biden adminis- tion has been placed on Line 3 PHOTO COURTESY GARDEN CLUB OF THE BACK BAY/STEPHANIE FLETCHER in recent weeks as activists in (LINE 3 PIPELINE , Pg. 6) The fun winter light show at the Esplanade Hatch Shell – ‘Hatched: Breaking through the Silence’ by Maria Finkelmeier and her team – is on display nightly from 5-9 p.m. only until Feb. 21. The multi-sensory experi- ence is like no other on the Esplanade, and is only available for a few more days. Here, a couple and their dog Crite Park gets a start with ventured out in last weekend’s winter weather to enjoy the nightly show. nomination for $250K CPA grant Johnny: Long-time resident John By Seth Daniel we will remain committed until our work through the funding The Friends of Crite Park have and it’s complete. Then wait until Jones passes after battle with cancer taken one step in the right direc- you see what the programming Cleaners (now Utopia), and at a insisted, “I go by Black.” tion to completely change the By Alison Barnet will be like then.” library table reading newspapers. Likeable, interesting, and hon- landscape and programming for Crite Park is not more than a John Jones, 74, passed away He also volunteered at the food est, Johnny, as he was known, Crite Park in the South End with brick wall stopover with some earlier this month after a long pantry at Union United Method- knew the South End well, having a $250,000 Community Preser- overgrown, and some dead, trees battle with lung cancer. ist Church. grown up here from age 7. He vation Act (CPA) grant awarded at the zenith of West Canton, Those from the neighborhood He was born on Martha’s told great stories about people to them last Thursday. Appleton and Columbus Ave- will miss seeing him sitting on Vineyard and may have been a of the past (and sometimes the The grant is still contingent nue. Named after the late, famed a bench outside the South End Chappaquiddick Indian, as his upon approval by the City Coun- African American painter Allan library, at Sparrow Park or Sarni family claimed, but John always (JOHNNY, Pg. 2) cil in March, and the signature Rohan Crite of the South End, of the mayor, both of which are the park had seen better days expected. when the Friends began working Cheryl Dickinson, president in tandem with the Ellis South of the Crite Park effort, said they End Neighborhood Associa- Old South Church recommended to receive $150,000 were overjoyed by the grant, but tion, Councilor Ed Flynn, Crite’s it is only Phase 1 in what is now widow and a number of other CPA grant from city to help defray costs of tower repairs a five-phase project. partners with the goal of making By Dan Murphy at the next project,” said Rev. there anyway,” Rev. Taylor said. “I hope people are patient it more of a destination and less Nancy S. Taylor, “but this was a “We pulled some stones out and with us because it’s going to take of a stopover. Old South Church has been surprise that wasn’t on the list.” saw that steel infrastructure was time due to funding,” she said. The Phase 1 funding will cover recommended to receive a The church first learned that rusting, which is literally pushing “We are working vigorously to the cost of demolishing the brick $150,000 Community Preser- masonry in the tower was crack- stones out and cracking them on do this as quickly as we can so it’s wall that’s currently there, getting vation Act grant from the city, ing last year, she said, during an three corners.” ready to go further. Phase 2 may rid of the dead trees, transferring which will pay a portion of the inspection of the building man- To remedy the situation, the not have all the furniture in place some of the unwanted plantings cost to make emergency repairs dated every five years due to its individual stones in the tower yet, but we can bring lawn chairs to the Southwest Corridor Park, on its 246-foot tower. significant height. will be removed at the corners, and still have our programming. “We have a 20-year building “The tower failed inspection The key to our message now is (CRITE PARK, Pg. 2) plan, and we’re always looking so we knew we had to go up (OLD SOUITH, Pg. 5) PAGE 2 THE BOSTON SUN FEBRUARY 18, 2021 editorial USE COMMON SENSE WHEN DRIVING Perusing through the police reports these days makes it apparent that the winter season is here -- and with it, the usual array of traffic incidents and accidents. Although we have not had any of the big blizzard-type of winter events this season (at least so far), we now are in a period of a stormy weather pattern that is sending us small snow & ice events that in reality are even more treacherous than big storms. The number of auto accidents seems to be inversely proportional to the size of the snowfall. It’s as though motorists think, “This isn’t too bad,” and then proceed to drive too fast for the conditions. In addition, we would remind our readers who have all-wheel drive vehicles that four wheels on ice are just as useless as the two wheels of a rear-drive vehicle, if you know what we mean. In other words, ice is ice is ice, regardless of what kind of vehicle you may be driving. So during this upcoming period of stormy weather, if you do have to be out on the roads, please drive SLOWLY. There is no such thing as exercising too much caution in wintry weather A NORTH POLE HURRICANE Residents in Texas and along the Gulf Coast have become accus- tomed in recent years to a seemingly-endless onslaught of devastating JOHNNY (from pg. 1) hurricanes barreling up from the Gulf of Mexico. Hurricane Harvey a few years ago dumped more rain and caused present): Lucille Banks, Anna Bank of New England more flooding than any weather event in the region’s history. Bobbitt Gardner, Allan Crite. He and didn’t want to be However, even with the hurricane season long-over, this part of the remembered Owen’s barbershop, arrested. So he spent the nation is being subjected to a weather event that has knocked out the Sonnabend’s pawnshop, going to night in a tent—“I loved region’s power grid, leaving millions of residents without in the dark dances at Tremont Methodist it.” and without heat. Church, and he loved “dives” He lived on Greenwich But instead of coming from the south, this latest force of nature like Handy’s and the Party Café. Park, getting evicted has surged from the north thanks to a dip in the polar vortex from Raised on West Canton Street when the house was sold, the Arctic. The result has been a cataclysmic storm that has crippled by an aunt by marriage, he went and in recent years on W. the entire region. to local schools, the Rice and Newton Street. It was on It’s one thing to be without power amidst warm weather, but quite Franklin (later Mackey), then to W. Newton Street that he another to be without power when the temperatures are dipping to the Timilty and Brighton High, died, stressed out appar- near-zero. where he graduated. His very ently after being relocat- Climate change is not simply about global warming -- though it’s first job was at Knight Drug, at ed during IBA’s renova- true that the earth’s average temperature has continued to climb year- Camden and Washington Streets, tion of the block. after-year for the past decade. a job Mel King helped him get. A neighbor has sug- Climate change also is about extreme weather of the sort that gested a memorial foun- wreaks havoc in unexpected ways. He worked at Harvard as crew The Texas power grid was completely unprepared for the near-ze- chief of Facilities and Main- tain or bird feeder at the ro temperature conditions that have struck that part of the country, tenance for 26 years and also Library Park in memory worked at banks. of Johnny feeding the John Jones, 74, passed away this month with the result that millions of people are facing a dire, life-threaten- after a long battle with lung cancer.