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COVERING THE FENWAY, AUDUBON CIRCLE, KENMORE SQUARE, UPPER BACK BAY, PRUDENTIAL, LONGWOOD, AND MISSION HILL SINCE 1974 • VOLUME 46, NUMBER 12 • DECEMBER 1, 2020 - JANUARY 8, 2021 Mission Hill Playground Redesign Process Begins The middle playground equipment on the middle terrace. designed by artist Ross Miller, the “Rose of terrace of the With the additional funds, the lower ballfield Venus Fountain,” was a Browne Fund project Mission Hill is now included. The RFQ also specifies that in 2004 and was envisioned as a year-round Playground, “integration of the proposed changes with the sculptural piece with theatrical nighttime with Mission existing artwork [are] to remain.” lighting. However, in response to a query, Church (the Defining what qualifies as public art Kristina Carroll of the Mayor’s Office of Arts Basilica of can be complex and personal; is it the artful and Culture said the piece was not voted into Our Lady of archway at the Tremont entrance that seems to the City's public art collection by the Boston Perpetual frame a view of the Prudential tower and the Art Commission. Project Manager Chatfield Help) in the railings along the stairway that mimic designs said it would be renovated or replaced. Kyle background. in the church façade? The elegant splash pad > PLAYGROUNDS on page 2 REP. PRESSLEY ADDRESSES

PHOTO: MARY ANN BROGAN ANN MARY PHOTO: PROTEST OVER E LINE CUTS PHOTO: ALISON PULTINAS PHOTO: Last month, U.S. Rep. BY ALISON PULTINAS are included within the site boundaries for the Ayanna Pressley spoke at t was a small meeting for a big project: playground renovations. a rally protesting proposed Abigail Chatfield, the Boston Parks and Surprisingly, no interpretative services cuts in service on the E Recreation Department’s project manager were offered at the Nov. 5 meeting. Paper branch of the Green Line. The for the upcoming capital improvements surveys, in English only, were available for MBTA has propsed dramatic to Mission Hill Playground, also known as the public to fill out across the street at Lily’s service reductions across I Pasta, at the library, and online on the Parks Sheehy/Smith, led a Zoom meeting on Nov. the system as it scrambles 5. This was the first of three meeting for a Department website. On the website, follow to plug a projected budget redesign of the significant green space next to the link from park information to design and deficit of hundreds of Mission Church on Tremont Street. construction projects. A video recording of the millions of dollars created by During the meeting, just seven commu- meeting is also on the website, although the the pandemic induced drop nity members spoke, including Mary Alice chat was apparently not recorded. in fare revenues. See article Sandy, a teacher from the Tobin Elementary The expansive scope of the project at the bottom of this page. School on Smith Street. Landscape architects seemed to surprise participants. Parks Kyle Zick and Danielle Desilets from Kyle Department Chief Engineer Rob Rottenbucher Zick Landscape Architecture presented an announced that the City had received word 2020 Election Results Unoffical vote totals by ward/precinct overview of the park’s history and their initial the day before that an additional $400,000 review of the current conditions. would come from a state grant, bringing the 4/5 4/6 4/7 4/8 4/9 4/10 5/2 5/2A 5/10 10/1 10/2 10/3 10/4 10/5 10/6 10/8 21/1 The park, built in 1915, was a creation total anticipated budget to almost $3 million. TURNOUT (proportion of registered voters) in Mayor Curley’s administration based on All three levels of the playground are now an earlier plan by the Olmsted firm. In 1931, included in the project—a change from the % OF VOTERS 59.5 52.7 51.9 43.2 38.4 40.2 59.2 59.4 53.9 63.4 53.4 51.0 57.4 55.1 57.9 62.0 38.4 the Parker Hill Branch Library was built on initial proposal advertised in April. PRESIDENTIAL ELECTORS a portion of the park. The parking lot behind The City’s request for qualifications the library, used primarily by Tobin School (RFQ) described the targeted elements BIDEN/HARRIS 788 652 698 543 360 192 871 603 827 581 492 478 924 630 719 1,171 652 staff, and the driveway leading to the parking as the passive terrace on Tremont Street, TRUMP/PENCE 100 105 68 104 398 13 85 76 149 57 57 57 193 59 73 101 82 lot are still part of the designated parkland and named for Dr. John Sheehy in 1972, and the QUESTION 1 (Right to Repair) YES 653 537 567 457 255 130 729 497 704 383 389 395 663 544 559 945 869 • THU, DEC 3, 6:30PM: The BPDA hosts a public meeting to discuss changes in the Kenmore Sq. Redevelopment Project proposed by the NO 168 166 174 122 95 50 192 157 236 167 124 166 219 137 186 253 270 CIVIC developer. See ad on p6 or the Calendar for sign-in details. QUESTION 2 (Ranked-Choice Voting) • TUE, DEC 8, 6:00PM: Fenway Quality of Life Alliance hosts a virtual YES 545 496 502 423 231 136 695 464 639 323 359 355 614 508 562 877 882 meeting for a brief update on Dr. Erica Walker’s 2019 Fenway noise AGENDA study. See listing on p10 or www.FenwayCommunityCenter.org. NO 272 207 239 168 113 45 232 181 301 189 148 149 266 175 185 313 267

Outrage, Protest Greet Plan to End E Line MBTA PLANS TO Service at Brigham Circle, Cutting 5 Stops ELIMINATE 55 BY MARY ANN BROGAN would affect essential workers who live in Mission Park, those who BUS ROUTE s COVID-19 has wreaked havoc on our physical and work in Sherrill House, at the VA Medical Center, at Hope Lodge MBTA plans to eliminate mental health, it has also affected the economic health of Cancer Center and at the North American Indian Center. Councilor the 55 bus route between the MBTA. Michelle Wu expressed concern for veterans who live at New England the West Fens and Copley The MBTA expects a shortfall of $575 million Center and Home for Veterans, located at Government Center, who Square. An MBTA vote in this fiscal year, and ridership that has dropped to a quarter of rely on the E branch to take them to medical appointments at the VA A facility at Heath Street. on the proposed change pre-COVID levels. The transit agency has threatened to reduce the scope of services because of decreased ridership and soaring Jim Evers, president of Boston Carmen's Union, Local 589, is scheduled for Dec. 7. deficits. It has joined the ranks of major cities such as New stressed the fact that Mission Hill is one of the city’s most transit- Previous attempts to stop York and Los Angeles, which face similar circumstances as a dependent neighborhoods. Scott Page, a Green Line delegate from the the elimination by residents consequence of the pandemic. Carmen’s Union, reinforced that point at a system-wide hearing on and customers seems to have When the MBTA announced its plan to end service on the E Nov. 19, stating that the E-line branch cuts through some of Boston’s gotten nowhere. Refer to branch of the Green Line at Brigham Circle instead of Heath Street, most diverse neighborhoods. On the Carmen’s Union website, op-ed in the October Fenway residents and city officials reacted with outrage. The proposed change Evers also stated that the union will push for a moratorium on any News, where Conrad Ciszek would leave a gap of five stops and 0.8 miles for commuters. additional cuts that would affect essential workers. eloquently describes his use Within two days of the announcement, a rally was organized While the MBTA argued that increased service on the 39 bus of the bus to get from Copley at Heath Street station. It took place on Nov. 11. About 50 residents would fill the gap left by the shortened E Line route, residents argued to the East and West Fens. attended the rally, including disabled veterans, city councilors, that the 39 is one of the busiest bus routes and it might be difficult to While walking is not an issue representatives from the North American Indian Center and U.S. practice safe social distancing without both options. Representative Ayanna Pressley. The proposed cuts would shrink or eliminate a lifeline for many for the young and healthy, Pressley pointed out that “transit justice is racial justice” and residents who depend on the E branch of the Green Line. The MBTA the bus has been a necessity reminded residents that when services are cut with the intent of being has conducted meetings throughout November to present the issues for the elderly and disabled. temporary, those changes often become permanent. City Councilor and plan to the public. The public can submit feedback online at Any changes made on Dec. Kenzie Bok called it “nothing less than a death spiral” because MBTA.com/forging-ahead. A final systemwide meeting will take 7 will likely go into effect in people will stop taking the MBTA, which will lead to more cuts. place on Dec. 2. March 2021. City Councilor Matt O’Malley called it a “needlessly cruel” plan that Mary Ann Brogan lives in the East Fens. 2 | FENWAY NEWS | DECEMBER 2020

Like Other College Papers, Huntington News to serve. “Faculty are fine, but staff members? We can’t even talk to Must Choose Censorship or Financial Woes the maintenance facilities division. We can’t talk to housing, we can’t BY HELEN SNOW in no way affiliated with Northeastern liaison Hannah Bernstein. That talk to RAs, res-life, anybody,” said hen the posters started University.” One student told the decision has guaranteed the paper’s Bernstein. showing up around the school paper that “When I first saw [a ability to criticize the administration Administrators are quick to Northeastern University poster], I wasn’t sure if it was real or without threat of censorship, and thus point out that these challenges are campus, many students not, but honestly, if it was, I wouldn’t fulfill what staff members feel is one the best training a young journalist hadW to do a double take. “You pay be surprised.” The posters went of their most important functions. could receive from the real world, $67,800 to go here. Why not an viral, attracting thousands of likes on “I think [becoming independent and they’d be right—non-transparent even $70 ,000?” they read. “Tired Reddit. was] a very good idea,” said Jonathan administrations and uncooperative of having no place to study? Your Soon, this story was splashed Kaufman, director of the journalism sources are the daily woes of many donation could add one more seat in across the front page of the school school at Northeastern. “I think it’s journalists. Some journalism-school Snell!” Emblazoned with the typical paper. It’s one of many critical and important for student publications administrators even draw a straight Northeastern red and black, they controversial stories that the paper, to have that freedom to write about line back to their own days at their matched perfectly with the other The Huntington News, has been a range of issues, and sometimes college newspaper, where they “Giving Day” promotions that had reporting in recent years, and it’s the they’re writing positive articles, and faced similar problems. “When I see been emblazoned across entire walls kind of story that the university might sometimes they’re writing negative what The Huntington News is going of the school for weeks. not want making the rounds. articles.” When student publications through, it reminds me a lot of what The school’s advertisements For many years, The Huntington remain affiliated with their school, I went through as editor-in-chief of had been controversial—many felt News felt pressure not to publish they often have a hard time my [independent student] newspaper, that it was in bad taste for the school negative stories about Northeastern— maintaining editorial independence, and I think they’re handling it well,” to so blatantly ask for more money the paper’s primary funder at the and many have struggled against said Kaufman. “It’s frustrating, and from students and parents who were time. So, in 2008, the Huntington pressures from administration to I get that, but I also think that it’s… still paying tuition. Maybe that’s why News, which formerly operated like become PR mouthpieces for their good training.” students so easily assumed that any other club on campus, established schools. But facing tight competition, these new posters were simply more itself as an independent paper. But becoming independent universities have been forcefully tone-deaf advertisements from the “Literally everyone at The Huntington leads to a new set of challenges. The guarding their reputations, generating school. It was easy to miss the text at News just packed up and left, and we Huntington News soon found that it increased tensions between the bottom of the posters stating that took all of Northeastern's equipment had a difficult time reporting on the universities and their papers. And “This website and related posters are with us,” said board of directors’ campus community it was supposed > HUNTINGTON NEWS on page 6 PHOTOS: PULTINAS ALISON > PLAYGROUNDS from previous page Sheehy Terrace. Zick and his colleague did not elaborate on the Both the landscape architects and issues with the fountain. Community Alliance community members observed that the of Mission Hill President Gary Walling ballfield is walled off from the playground pointed out that it was the only aquatic terrace; there is no connection without walking playground in the neighborhood and gets a lot through the driveway alongside the Tobin. of use in the summer. However, what happens Gary and Cindy Walling mentioned the worn- in the spring and fall? Sandy, the Tobin out slope alongside the stairs. While this area teacher, said the poles can feel like they are in was intended as a grassy sitting area in 2004, the way when children are playing. it has more often been used as a playing field Both Sandy and Maggie Cohn, a former for games of tag. The Wallings commented director of Mission Hill Main Streets, were that ironically, Mission Hill, a neighborhood of involved with the 2004 improvements and hills, has no sledding slopes.Could the redesign spoke at the Nov. 5 meeting of how much be an opportunity to create one? thought went into the renovation process. City Project manager Chatfield shared that the Councilor Kenzie Bok said the park was the Kyle Zick Landscape Architecture is currently heart of the Mission Hill community and has working on a master plan for another Boston a wide mix of users. Bok said the redesign park, Ringer Park in Allston. The firm also deserves a robust process with creative on-the- produced the redesign of Adams Park in ground strategies for community involvement. Roslindale Square and the 2017 Franklin Park Sandy shared ideas from students, includ- Entrances and Pathways, Phase V. ing a rock-climbing feature. The park shares a The design team’s initial assessment of tall stone wall with the church, which seems to the playground was that everything will be organically incorporate pudding stone outcrop- evaluated for adherence to accessibility and pings. She noted that the wall has a historic safety codes, because standards have changed gate that students gravitate toward. Even more in the last 15 years. They noted that the tantalizing now, there are glimpses through the playground equipment has served its time and gate of the new preschool play yard that Mis- needs replacing. Zick conducted an outdoor sion Grammar, the parochial school next door, lighting audit with a light meter; the area has created behind the Basilica. behind the library was the darkest and could Older students, both from the Tobin and present a safety concern. Mission Grammar, use the public playground The date for the December meeting daily. Sandy liked the many benches in the has been scheduled for Dec. 15 at 6pm. For middle terrace and the bench circling a tree questions and comments contact the project that an entire class can fit around on the manager at [email protected]. The historic gate in the wall the church and the playground share. Alison Pultinas lives in Mission Hill. WANT FRIES WITH THAT TREE? Mission Hill Could Get Addiction Treatment Ctr. ALISON PULTINAS They received historic tax credits Estes of The Boston Globe, wrote in

PHOTO: STEVE WOLF n November, Mission Hill’s for their renovation of the property September of this year that state Community Alliance heard a and low-income tax credits to open a officials suspended certification of the remote presentation about a future facility specifically for elders of low- to Landmark facility “after inspectors addiction treatment center at 63 moderate-income. However, bankruptcy discovered that employees were locking Parker Hill Ave. at the corner of Fisher has threatened their operations, and dementia patients in their rooms I the State’s Executive Office of Elder to enforce a quarantine aimed at Avenue, currently the location of an assisted-living facility near the top of Affairs has ordered the facility to cease controlling the spread of COVID-19.” the hill. enrolling new clients more than once Giovanucci could not state how The presenter was William due to multiple safety violations. A 2018 many residents currently live at Giovanucci, a partner with Haskell report by the state listed occupancy as Landmark at Longwood. The future House LLC, one of the corporations 89 residents, including 17 in a dementia operation would be named Landmark linked to the ownership of the special-care unit. Recovery Center, a brand of for-profit Landmark at Longwood property. During the meeting, Giovanucci’s treatment programs with locations Haskell House was the historic name role with the current and past in Kentucky, Oklahoma, and other for the New England Baptist Hospital management of Landmark at states. Seven more are in development, nurses’ residence, which was purchased Longwood was not clear. However he is apparently taking over failed Restaurants continue to struggle from the hospital to be remodeled for now promoting the plan to convert the nursing home facilities. A director with pandemic restrictions, but Tasty assisted living. site to an addiction center, which, in his of Landmark’s facility in Louisville, Burger has found an unusal income Giovanucci’s and Cliff Boyle’s words, is a more financially lucrative Kentucky, took part in the call and stream: a pop-up Christmas tree corporation, Simsbury Associates, business plan. described how clients with working- shop on the corner of its West Fens which is associated with the Landmark Questions from Mission Hill class jobs with generous insurance site. Weston Nurseries plans to keep chain, opened Landmark at Longwood, residents focused on the assisted- policies benefitted from the month-long the shop open through Sunday, Dec. also known as Landmark Senior living clients and the current owners. inpatient recovery program. 13 (assuming supplies last), Weds- Living, almost 20 years ago. An investigative journalist, Andrea Alison Pultinas lives in Mission Hill. Fri, 4-8pm and Sat-Sun, 10am-8pm. FENWAY NEWS | DECEMBER 2020 | 3

PERCENTAGE OF % OF POSITIVE TESTING RATES TOTAL NUMBER POSITIVE TESTS TESTS FOR PER 100,000 AREA TESTED (CUMULATIVE) CURRENT WEEK RESIDENTS Back Bay/ Beacon Hil/ West 31,273 3.4%​ 4.7% 56,122.2 COVID UPDATE End/ Downtown/ North End COVID rates continue to rise in Boston and might spike in the coming weeks as a Fenway 54,902 1.5% 1.2% 100,319.8 result of Thanksgiving travel. Some area colleges, including BU, told students who went home for the holiday not to return to campus but to complete the semester Mission Hill /Roxbury 28,559 6.9% 9.9% 66,220.7 remotely. These data are from Boston Public Health Commission as of Nov. 25, 2020. (See page 6 for a list of area locations for getting tested for exposure.) CASES: RACE/ETHNICITY ANALYSIS KNOWN CASES % OF CASES Asian/Pacific Islander 995 4% Black/African American 6,245 27% MASCO Receives Award for Latinx/Hispanic 7,556 33% White 6,332 28% National Guard Flexibility BY KELLY GARRITY Other 1,772 8% n November month, the Longwood Medical Area’s (LMA) Medical Academic Total Boston Cases with Race/Ethnicity Identified 22,900 and Scientific Community Organization (MASCO) received the Patriot Award, Of 26,160 cases in Boston, 87.5% include data for race/ethnicity a recognition from the Department of Defense’s Employer Support of The Guard and Reserve. I MASCO, a nonprofit community organization, was established in 1972 to DEATHS: RACE/ETHNICITY ANALYSIS KNOWN DEATHS % OF KNOWN DEATHS address traffic and parking problems in the rapidly-developing LMA. Today, Asian/Pacific Islander 59 7% MASCO consists of 16 members and four associate members, ranging from Black/African American 312 34% hospitals and museums to religious and educational facilities. MASCO continues to facilitate transportation in the LMA, as well as coordinate sustainability, Latinx/Hispanic 102 11% access and emergency preparedness efforts. White 406 45% According to the ESGR website, the Patriot Award “reflects the efforts made to support citizen warriors through a wide-range [sic] of measures Other 27 3% including flexible schedules, time off prior to and after deployment, caring for Total Race/Ethnicity Identified Deaths in Boston 906 families, and granting leaves of absence if needed.” Of 906 deaths in Boston, 100% include data for race/ethnicity Jefferey Brown, an operations coordinator for MASCO and infantryman in the Massachusetts National Guard, nominated MASCO, and specifically MASCO’s vice president of operations, P.J. Cappadona, for the award. “In the private sector, there are some companies that do a lot better than others,” said Brown. “I was surprised and grateful to Jeff for the nomination,” said Cappadona in an email. “I’ve been working with Jeff for just over a year, but it’s been a year PRESERVATION-FUND GRANT where requests for his participation with the National Guard have been far more than he expected, due to the events we have seen over the past several PROCESS GETS A FEW TWEAKS months. Jeff’s experience in the Guard has helped tremendously with the role he BY ALISON PULTINAS of the award to be used for an assessment plays in emergency management and planning for MASCO and the LMA, and I’ve he 2021 competitive round for of building conditions, if one hasn’t been always wanted to be nothing but supportive of that part of his life and career,” Boston’s Community Preservation completed in the last ten years. In addition, the Cappadona said. Act grants has begun. The three- City will actively recruit large architectural By nominating Cappandona, Brown recognized that support and the year-old Community Preservation firms to provide pro bono professional support he has received from MASCO as a whole. Committee (CPC) charged with decision planning to assist with some projects. “MASCO reworked their policy so [that] when I have to take time off when T Application deadlines have also changed. I’m called up, it’s similar to paid time off,” said Brown. MASCO’s military leave making met in October and again on Nov. 23. This round, there are changes to the process In order to give the City’s Department of benefit allows Brown and other employees in similar situations to take up to 17 and an adjusted timetable. Neighborhood Development adequate time paid days off a year to fulfil their military duties. This time alloted for military CPC staff, working with Meghan to review and to coordinate with the state leave has no impact on the employee’s other paid time off. Aldridge and Emme Handy of the City’s Department of Housing and Community Brown nominated Cappadona after a hectic year for members of the Treasury Department, created a framework Development's annual schedule for public Massachusetts National Guard, which required Brown to spend significantly of funding tiers that sets draft limits on the subsidy requests, housing proposals had the more time away from work than he would have to in an average year. In a typical individual grants for open space and historic earliest deadline, at the end of September. year, Brown would have taken around 15 to 20 days off to fulfill his commitments preservation. For example, only one open Those agencies then give their own as an infantryman. In 2020, he has been activated for over 50 days, in addition space project can receive between $750,000 recommendations to the CPC. If the state fails to his regularly scheduled duties. This has included activations this spring at the and $1 million (the maximum amount). to approve a proposal, the City will also hold Boston Hope Field Hospital in the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center, this Among historic preservation projects, $2.5 back. June during Black Lives Matter protests, and in November for the presidential million in grants can be spread among five Total suggested allocations, reflecting election. large projects that receive up to $500,000 past practices, will yield approximately At one point, Brown said, he only had 45 minutes’ notice before he had to each. The framework has suggested tiers for 50 percent for housing and no less than 20 report to his armory. One of Brown’s activations even happened while he was mid-sized and small project as well. The draft percent each for open space and historic in the middle of a meeting. “MASCO has been really good about rolling with the tiers were shared with eligible applicants in preservation. The remaining 10 percent will punches this year,” said Brown. October in time for the Nov. 13 deadline. provide funding flexibility for final reviews in Part of what motivated Brown to nominate Cappadona was how Staffer Thadine Brown announced that 75 January and February. understanding Cappadona was in this situation. “He told me to take the rest of requests for preservation grants were received The CPC recommendations won’t the day to figure everything out,” said Brown. by the deadline. become final until the committee reviews all “My immediate reaction was, ‘okay’ and ‘we got this,’” said Cappadona, At the November meeting, committee applications from the three programmatic in reference to Brown’s mid-meeting activation. “In my job as vice president of member Carol Downs said members wanted areas. All CPC meetings are public and operations for MASCO, I manage and monitor transit in the LMA on a daily, and to avoid losing the “secret sauce” of the review listed on The City of Boston’s public notices sometimes hourly, basis, and one of the key components of my job is to be able process if guidelines for applicants and tiers of calendar. Three meetings in December are to quickly change tactics if the situation requires me to do so. I view this moment funding were overly prescriptive. scheduled to discuss housing applications. as within the scope of that work; a situation presented itself that changed Sally Zimmerman of the CPC staff Weekly meetings in January will focus how we would be working for the near future, and based on the planning and described another change specifically for on the open space/recreation and historic conversations we had previously with Jeff, we knew how to quickly adapt so small historic preservation projects. The preservation applications. there was no loss in service for the LMA or MASCO members,” Cappadona said. program will now allow up to 15 percent Alison Pultinas lives in Mission Hill. Kelly Garrity is a student at Northeastern University. Meeting Offers View of Progress on Charlesgate Park BY RUTH KHOWAIS Cleaning the water of floating trash, sewage, Emerald Necklace Conservancy President Karen n Nov. 19 the Charlesgate Alliance presented a plastics, and phragmites has been an ongoing issue. In Mauney-Brodek spoke about “The Big Picture.” Currently, meeting on Zoom, attended by over 80 people, August the WaterGoat pilot project was launched. The one cannot travel from the Esplanade to the Emerald to update the public on the Charlesgate Park Muddy Water Initiative, a grassroots educational and Necklace. A larger goal for this project is eventual Restoration Project. The last update was in June advocacy group for stakeholders focused on climate reconnection of the Esplanade and Charlesgate. Mauney- atO the Emerald Necklace Conservancy’s annual meeting. resilience and stormwater management, received Brodek reminded the audience that even though it is In 2017, the Charlesgate Alliance formed to improve $12,000 from the State to purchase a “WaterGoat,” hidden, the Muddy River does flow directly into the the quality of Muddy River water, activate the site which is not a live goat but a trash-collecting net that Charles. Since the state’s Department of Transportation with new uses, reconnect the three park systems and will help clean the river near the point where it joins the plans to replace the Bowker Overpass (it connects the neighborhoods across Charlesgate, and celebrate Charles. With the help of volunteers, the pilot project has Fenway and Storrow Drive above the Mass. Pike) and Charlesgate. 2019 saw short-term improvements: successfully reduced levels of trash in the water. has begun the design phase for reconstruction, Mauney- lighting repairs, replacement of railings first designed by During the meeting, co-designer of the restoration Brodek said this is an opportunity to daylight the river Olmsted, and the addtion of movable chairs. project, urban landscaper Marie Law Adams, spoke and free up parkland by converting existing culverts. Currently, a playground and dog park are proposed about soil management. Since the Back Bay and Fenway The restoration project has the support of elected and are in the design stage. Another proposed project neighborhoods sit on filled-in marshland, said Adams, officials, including City Councilor Kenzie Bok, State Sen. would remove two non-structural walls that block access the plan proposes keeping as much of the soil as Will Brownsberger, and State Rep. Jon Santiago. to the area. The Charlesgate Alliance is looking for possible on the site and incorporating it into the project. To volunteer with the alliance or learn about the matching funds to supplement grant money it has been She said that the soil volume can be managed on site. restoration plan, contact charlesgatealliance.org or awarded for the removal. In July, the group received a The architects are also working on a plan to address facebook.com/charlesgatealliance/. grant for new trees from the Red Sox. stormwater drainage from the Bowker Overpass. Ruth Khowais lives in the West Fens. 4 | FENWAY NEWS | DECEMBER 2020

† Remembering David Scondras ¢ EDITOR’S NOTE: Our last issue carried a short Road and Westland Avenue. Scondras became notice of David Scondras’s death. The Fenway the leader of the Symphony Tenants Organizing News board, however, knew that the paper need- Project (STOP), formed to protect tenants and ed to present a more complete picture of someone fight the City’s official narrative that they were who looms so large in the Fenway’s history. The burning down their own homes. Mounting a Serving the Fenway, Kenmore Square, Audubon Circle, upper Back Bay, lower introduction below, adapted from a remem- sophisticated research effort, STOP developed Roxbury, Prudential, Mission Hill, and brance by East Fens resident Mat Thall, creates a model for identifying where fires would occur Longwood since 1974 some context for the extraordinary comments and helped Attorney General Frank Belotti indict FENWAY NEWS ASSOCIATION BOARD OF DIRECTORS submitted by friends, neighbors and colleagues and convict 33 people in an arson-for-profit Mary Ann Brogan • Steve Chase that you’ll find on page 5. We owe Helen Cox spe- conspiracy. Helen Cox • Mandy Kapica • Ruth Khowais cial thanks for collecting these comments. In 1983 Scondras made a tough decision Alison Pultinas • Steve Wolf The outsized impact Scondras had on the to work for change from “inside the system,” EDITOR: Kelsey Bruun Fenway of the 1970s continues to reverberate deciding to run for city council from the newly DESIGN/PRODUCTION MANAGER: Steve Wolf today, not simply in institutions like Fenway created District 8, which includes the Fenway WRITERS: Alison Barnet, Mary Ann Brogan, Health and the Fenway CDC, but also in the and Mission Hill. He won, then spent five terms Will Brownsberger, Helen Cox, Tracey Cusick, form of hundreds of people he worked with and on the council pushing through measures to José da Silva, Taylor Driscoll, John Engstrom, inspired. Many remain leaders in the neighborhood and city today; protect tenants from condo conversions; generate linkage funds Stan Everett, Lisa Fay, Marie Fukuda, Elizabeth others have become leaders elsewhere. Thhey represent a key part for affordable housing from commercial development; and enact Gillis, Katherine Greenough, Steve Harnish, of Scondras’s legacy to the community and the world. one of the first gay-rights and antidiscrimination ordinances in the Parker James, Shraddha Kakade, Ruth country—all while his office delivered an unprecedented level of Khowais, Shirley Kressel, Kristen Lauerman, BY MAT THALL constituent services. Joanne McKenna, Jiancheng Mo, Letta Neely, Susan Povak, Michael Prentky, Camille Platt, avid was a lifelong activist and reformer who occupied After 10 years in office, David returned to “private life” in Alison Pultinas, Mallory Rohrig, Matti Kniva roles as community organizer, tenant organizer, statistical 1994. Initially focusing on gay-rights issues, including as leader Spencer, Susannah Sudborough, Mat Thall, Dresearcher, politician, teacher, and writer over his 74 years. of the newly formed Boston Human Rights Foundation, he moved Chris Viveiros, Steve Wolf He changed the Fenway, the City of Boston, and the global war increasingly into AIDS activistim, an issue that had become intensely PHOTOGRAPHERS: Steve Chase, Patrick against AIDS. A passion for social and economic justice and LGBTQ personal: his beloved partner Robert Krebs had become infected with O’Connor, Matti Kniva Spencer, Steve Wolf rights inflamed him throughout his life. HIV. Thus was born Search for a Cure (SFAC). CALENDAR: Ruth Khowais, Alison Pultinas, Raised in Lowell, David attended Harvard College, where he Initially SFAC operated as an advocate for easier access Steve Wolf had his first brush with institutional homophobia when the univer- to promising treatments and a translator of complex scientific PROOFREADERS: Mary Ann Brogan, Steve sity pressured him into seeking psychiatric “help“ as an openly gay information to people with HIV. By the late 1990s SFAC was Chase, Ruth Khowais, Alison Pultinas student. Settling in the Fenway after graduation, he deepened his working in India and in East Africa, and David was doing things like BUSINESS MANAGER: Janet Malone involvement in antiwar and civil rights work. He worked to establish persuading Harvard Business School to develop the financial and DISTRIBUTION: Della Gelzer, Aqilla Manna, the neighborhood-focused and LGBTQ-supportive Fenway Com- logistical plan for a massive AIDS-treatment program for the country Lauren Dewey Platt, Reggie Wynn munity Health Center, initially run out of a basement on Haviland of Malawi. The Fenway News is published monthly Street. He was a driver in the fight against the Fenway Urban Renew- After nearly 40 years in the Fenway, David and Robert moved by the Fenway News Association, Inc., al Plan, organizing the plaintiffs in a lawsuit that ended demolition of to Cambridge, where Robert, an architect, redesigned the Victorian a community-owned corporation dedicated historic housing stock and ultimately changed the way federal urban house that the couple operated as a B&B to help fund SFAC. The 2008 to community journalism. If you would like to renewal operated nationally. recession, however, cut other funding to a trickle, and David, facing volunteer to write, edit, photograph, lay out, In 1973 a rash of mysterious fires struck buildings on Symphony declining health, wound down the organization. distribute, or sell advertising on commission, please contact us at The Fenway News, PO Box 230277, Astor Station Boston, MA 02123 [email protected] An Inspector Walks Into a Polling Station... www.fenwaynews.org BY ALISON BARNET But in my humble position as inspector—that’s what they call poll hen Massachusetts started early voting a couple workers who sit at the check-in table—there should also be signs SUBSCRIPTIONS $30/YEAR of years ago, I naively thought computers would that say How to check in. They would instruct people to first give ($20 FOR LIMITED INCOME) process the ballots. But when I went into my polling the name of their street, then the street number, their last name ©2019 FENWAY NEWS ASSOCIATION, INC. place to work at six in the morning, early voting and then their first name. Amazing how many people come up to W the table and give their names first, even their first names. envelopes were piled high—literally to the ceiling. Although I “Comforting the afflicted and wasn’t one of those who stayed—there’s a reason I’m now part- It’s always been a problem, but with face masks it’s become downright confusing. afflicting the comfortable.” time—other poll workers were stuck working on them until 3 a.m. The founders of The Fenway News adopted This year, on Nov. 3, my warden was rightly concerned “Hi. What’s your address? Did you say Columbia? Sorry, I this motto to express their mission of when by 2 p.m. the mail-in ballots hadn’t been delivered. Early can’t find it. Oh, is it maybe Columbus or Cumston?” exposing and opposing the dangers the Voting ballots, yes, but those were nothing compared to maybe “Did you say 430 or 37?” neighborhood faced in the early 1970s— thousands of mail-in ballots. He didn’t like the thought of “What’s the name again? Crowley or Rowley?” rampant arson, predatory landlords, working until 3 a.m.—or longer! Who would? “Tim or Tom?” and a destructive urban renewal plan. If All of this is a variation on social distancing. the original motto no longer fits today’s It interests me that with all the news reports of the mail-in Fenway, we remain committed to its spirit count getting higher It’s quite a relief when couples come in together: same of identifying problems and making our and higher and, in address, same last name. neighborhood a better and safer place to live. Guest Opinion some cases, poll Some people, young men, in particular, look similar to workers working each other while wearing masks. Sometimes I wonder if people into the next day or even the next, poll workers as people weren’t are sneaking in, trying to vote twice, but when I check off their > FREQUENCY < named or interviewed. Or did they look too exhausted? Reports names, I see they’ve never been there before. The Fenway News reaches distribution made it sound like it was nothing, just counting. In reality, But I’m not complaining; it’s always an interesting day and sites on the Friday closest to the first of envelopes have to be opened and names and addresses entered later I’ll look down and see the patriotic sticker still affixed to my each month. Our next issue in two books and then put through the scanner, just like when shirt: Inspector Alison. will appear on Friday, January 8. voters come in. We’re not paid enough for all those hours. Alison Barnet lives in the South End. She is the author of > DEADLINE < Zillions of signs are posted at polling places: Vote here, Your Once Upon a Neighborhood, A Timeline and Anecdotal History The deadline for letters, news items, voting rights, How to mark your ballot and signs in other languages. of the South End of Boston. and ads for our next issue is Friday, January 1. Readers, We Need Your Help! ven under the best of circumstance, making ends opportunity. To move forward on either will require When you’re meet has always challenged The Fenway News. And money. Which brings us to you, dear reader. who would call 2020 We’ve launched a locked out, Ethe best of circumstances? GoFundMe campaign with a Even before the $25,000 goal (about 10x what call us. pandemic, which forced our annual fundraising letter APRIL WWW.feNWAYNeWS.oRg 2020

WWW.FENWAYNEWS.ORG APRIL 2009 | fRee FREE

“Comforting the afflicted and afflicting the comfortable” COVERING THE FENWAY, AUDUBON CIRCLE, KENMORE SQUARE, UPPER BACK BAY, PRUDENTIAL, LONGWOOD, AND MISSION HILL SINCE 1974 • covering the Fenway, Kenmore Square, upper BacK Bay, prudential, lon

gwood area & miSSion hill Since 1974 volume 35, numBer 4 Questions About Water VOLUME 46, NUMBER 4 • APRIL 3–MAY 1, 2020 We Come Not to Praise McDonald’s... april3-30, 2009 Quality Swirl as Muddy us to suspend printing a Fenway groups Slams CORONAVIRUS & THE FENWAY nets). We’ll use what we raise River Dredging Begins p plan to Shift The last few weeks have turned arkways to State everyone’s lives upside-down. links to resources for help and by J h Whether you’ve lost your income or On ighway volunteer opportunities— ball d ON PULTINAS Defenders of the f ept. are just looking for ways to occupy • Other emergency resourcesPAGE for 1. enway’s e permitting for future construction. f ALIS necklace parkland—under siege asmerald e O: your time at home, we’ve got that instead, DCR be given sufficientC fundinga asks cash-strapped residents appear

HOT College and the city have gone forwardmmanuel with to maintain the parkways and bridges properly. P resources and coverage of some of in a box on their leasing agreement at r PAGE 6. “the h the biggest local changes: • Stay sane for potentially weeks of Field—now find themselvesoberto fighting Clemente on a new ighway department has the wrong kind of mindset for taking care of a park,” says • This issue of the paper will appear sheltering in place with ideas and front. Governor Deval Patrick’s transportation- richardson. online only. resources on reorganization proposal would transfer PAGES 6, 7, 8. Park advocates have gained some support • Area restaurants offering takeout oversight of parkways and bridges, such as the • The Mission Hill Fenway in a legislative amendment offered by senator need your support! Neighborhood Trust has extended agassiz bridge, from the state’s Department s SEE PAGE 2. onia Chang-Diaz, who last fall defeated then- • The Fenway Cares initiative its grant-application deadline to Mass Ave Lock of Conservation and r ecreation (DC senator Dianne Wilkerson. Chang-Diaz would highway Department. Open-space advocatesr) to the April 30. See ad on halt the transfer. PAGE 2. lf have strongly objected to the move and found O local state r See R support from local legislators. ep- eLAted Lette MWI founder Caroline Reeves calls the ve w resentatives b R e oN PAge 4 Muddy River “the string on which the Emerald T yron their annual Earth Day event. s though it supported e rushing, Jeffrey s Necklace is strung.” Her advocacy in the last in the Clemente battle, the emmanuel’s position anchez, and m have likewise opposed the transfer.arty a Walz 18 months has created a partnership with In another Muddy River-related project, HOTO: Conservancy, a park advocacymerald group, n opposes the Parcel 12 development at Massachusetts P ecklace urge community residents to contact sdvocatesenator the New England Grass Roots Environment to wipe out the debt and (we physical paper, we’d run up Avenue and Newbury Street Extension moves the parkways transfer. Conservancy President ...but to bury it. Pictured above are the signs from the West Fens landmark, left steven b Fund and also raised private funds. Last Julie Crockford says “ addour and representative Joseph ahead this spring. Samuels & Associates in a dumpster after the restaurant closed last month (the view is west toward the Wagner, co-chairs of the J August, State Rep. Jon Santiago secured a nor’s i understand the gover- will alter the Newbury Street on-ramp to Triology development). The closing clears the way for a propety swap scheduled to desire to be more efficient in overseeing sition to the transfer and tot supportC to express the Chang- oppo $12,000 local earmark that will help pay for roads. b - the turnpike, moving it to the west. Some of take place this month between the Red Sox and the Abbey Group, developers of the ut our parkways were designed as part Diaz amendment. BY ALISON PULTINAS the environmental consultants required for the of the park, not to carry commuters efficiently. the work will be as close as 39 feet from the Landmark Center on Park Drive and the pricey Landmark Square apartments on Longtime contributor Jon Ball serves on permitting process and for the Florida workers im ne impaired waterbody.” That’s riverbank. The design adds six new storm catch Peterborough Street. The Sox gave up the McD’s parcel in exchange for a parking agine if the highway department decided the Fenway News board of directors. Initiative (MWI) has raised funds to install a to install the device. lot on the southwest corner of Yawkey Way and Van Ness Street, directly opposite Park Drive had to meet efficiency standards, the official nomenclature for the WaterGoat, netting to catch floating debris, that basins and widens the grass median between like having a breakdown lane. Muddy River. The label refers to the A professional waste-removal company Newbury and the ramp. According to their the ballpark. McDonald’s fans, meanwhile, will have to walk to Kenmore Square. will be installed upstream from the Ipswich will be hired for the first year of this three-year pollutants and traits that affect the March filing with Conservation Commission, “and worse,” Crockford continues, “the Did Pop Culture’s Vampire Street bridge near Fenway Studios. City and pilot program. state hasn’t shown they would even save any waterO quality—“DDT, E. Coli, Oil and Grease, state approvals are nearly complete, and the “a 36-inch outfall to [the] Muddy River, which Swoon Lead to Latin Scare? ‘Dissolved Oxygen, PCB in Fish Tissue, Total The Muddy Water Initiative has brought collects all drainage at this site, will see a net- m oney by doing this. l Boston Conservation Commission voted to together a professional advisory board that are already not being maintained,ots of our highwaysand now Phosphorous, Taste and Odor, and Turbidity,” reduction in impervious cover.” approve it on March 18. WaterGoat is the brand includes biologist Ellen Faszewski of Boston Water, Water Everywhere: Main Break this would really be a taking of parkland and according to engineering firm VHB’s I-90 ramp name for a Florida manufacturer’s product University and Lucy Kumpf of the Charles At its April 1 online hearing, the l application to the Boston Conservation Com Conservation Commission will review the imiting of public access. l that’s in use in five states. Round buoys keep River Watershed Association. MWI has also lose. We just refurbished theook upper what pathway we could mission, submitted for a hearing on April 1.- proposal for the ramp reconfiguration. Also Gives Riverway a Sunday Soaking the net afloat; anchors secure it on both sides of partnered with the Colleges of the Fenway, along [ Those ingredients make for a toxic mix. the riverbank and can be locked in place. Fish on the agenda is a discussion about new by Christine Pafumi avenue] louis Pasteur. t offering a spring sustainability course 25 feet of the road, so it could fallhat’s under within As Spring 2020 brings an assortment of Muddy and birds can easily dive beneath the net. MWI regulations related to the Boston Wetlands Old f open to students from all five schools. The aithful in the f an River endeavors, whether the pollution problem Protection Ordinance, which Mayor Walsh but the intersection of b enway? not quite, y claims would go through b control of the highway department. Would hopes to get it in the water early this summer. Colleges of the Fenway will also host a virtual rookline a which is responsible for providing waterWs C, they maintain a park asset like that?” can be solved isn’t clear. Some fear that it will signed on Dec. 23. riverway resembled a smaller versionve and of the get worse. Caroline Reeves of the Muddy Water Environmental Forum on April 14 in place of and sewer service to the city of b s A March 5 draft of the new regulations a substantial debt with our famous geyser, sending water over four stories ymphony united n Initiative has called the Muddy River the most hope) begin creating a more including about 1,020 miles of wateroston, mains. President b eighbors is posted on the City’s website and open for high according to onlookers. arbara simons echoed Crocker’s polluted tributary emptying into the Charles WITH STUDENTS AWAY, THE TURKEYS WILL PLAY 125 St. Botolph St. the c F public comment. The ordinance gives the ommission reports that it has replaced apprehension, saying “Parkways should be L sunday morning a 48-inch water approximately 17 miles of pipe per year over River. O Conservation Commission power to adopt more part of the park, not of a highway system,” E W main erupted, flooding the roadway at the According to its announced schedule, V the past 30 years. says s TE extensive wetland protection, including inland intersection. t imon. “t S he boston s his winter, despite all the the Army Corps of Engineers (ACE) Phase 2 and coastal-flood resilience zones that currently Commission responded to theewer break and quickly.Water “i have to commend the crews for the snow, the footpaths along a Muddy River Flood Mitigation work mobilizes HOTO: good work that they did, responding right cleared nicely. i gassiz road got P do not exist in City regulations. The commision “the good news is that it was on a away,” b s a highway department going in May. The multimillion-dollar project also could extend protection for riverfront areas sunday morning,” said t agley said. “ to do that? Or might they decide to route sometimes large mainsit takewas asome large time main, to andshut primarily involves mechanical dredging in 13 beyond the current 25 feet. director of communicationsom for bagley, the bs deputy trucks through there?” Worse, she says, the down. areas of the 3.6-mile-long waterway, beginning “ “proposal happened under cover. We only Rumors about vampires among the On Feb. 10 of last year, if you are going to have a break like that,WC. at at Leverett Pond in Brookline. The contractor is reporter Milton Valencia quotedBoston Joe Globe Orfant, a very busy intersection such as that, the best “Once it’s shut down we go to work to found out when the Conservancy told us they’d student body at Boston Latin School repair the water main, and we were in good Charter Contracting Company. former chair of the Conservation Commission, time to have it is on a s heard of this change. “ got so out of control last week that unday morning and not shape for m The Boston Parks Department’s phragmite as saying “I don’t think we think a lot about the a Monday morning during rush hour traffic.” onday mornings commute. t the fenway Civic a the headmistress, Lynne Mooney Teta, mowing and future landscape restoration will was good.” hat opposed the Clemente dealssociation, as a taking which of wetlands resources in Boston.” it was not the 48-inch main that broke had to send a notice around to faculty, take place in conjunction with the federally but rather a smaller main that set that off. there was some roadway damage, public access, has also slammed the current staff, and parents debunking them. Zara Zsido, a local environmental activist, which the bs funded ACE project. The cutting started last would agree. In 2013 she was part of a group a WC temporarily restored to proposal. a letter to the s “I seek your cooperation in redirecting ccording to bagley. s allow traffic to keep moving after the break tate l year and will cease when the ACE work begins. that demonstrated against the ACE Phase same system, the gate hadince to it beis partshut of down the to Joint Committee on t egislature’s your energy toward the learning objec- was contained. t ransportation from It is most important that the mowing be done 1, which eliminated mature trees along the the large main as well, which takes some time. he damage will need to be fCa President b tive of the day,” she chided. Vampires repaired. ill richardson recalls that in the summer after the reeds flower but before Muddy. The protest did not seem to make a “historically, issues with b have become a major component of Emboldened by a deserted Northeastern campus and sparse traffic on Ruggles there was some sporadic loss of water oston parkways seeds develop. difference to decision makers, who allowed pressure and some residents were without some causes for main breaks can be have been addressed through a collaborative popular culture since at least the rise Street, a band of wild turkeys took command of a berm overlooking an NU parking the age of a pipe, vibrations from traffic, or The community-driven Muddy Water the cutting of more than 200 trees, primarily saintly printer. But the days water service throughout the day. process between the DC of Marilyn Manson and the “goth” cul- lot next to Ruggles Station for some quality foraging. Despite warnings from robust website. other factors. a r, the community, and to create room for construction vehicles and lthough age was not the cause the City of b ture he represents. The huge success elected officials, the fowl displayed a brazen disregard for social distancing. “the good news is nobody got hurt,” in this case, according to b oston Parks Department.” t staging areas for the work on the waterway. bagley said. “We didn’t get any claims come letter argues that the proposal threatens thishe of the movie Twilight in 2008 is another of the break is undeterminedagley, and still the undercause ACE plans, presented at a Feb. 27 public in for flooding or property damage or anything community involvement, especially during indicator of this phenomenon. New Group, Fenway Cares, Forms to Meet Virus Crisis investigation. > MUDDY RIVER like that.” Christine Pafumi is a graduate student in BY STEVE WOLF on page 4 journalism at Emerson College. Boston Water and oving at lighting speed to residents, the network aims to serve as a Sewer Commission respond to the coronavirus resource for people needing help, looking Fresh Truck. The mobile market typically employees emergency, six neighborhood for reliable information, or wanting to struggled to direct Audubon travels to neighborhoods poorly served CirCle organizations have agreed to volunteer to help neighbors. households. Normally, each carton would water away from Condos sold formM a “hyperlocal” mutual aid network by supermarkets to sell fresh produce—in At A have cost $25, but Bok’s office covered On March 27, three condos were sold at an auctionuCtion held at 910 Beacon St. in Audubon “We’re acting more as a conduit,” essence, it’s a farmers market on wheels. affected areas and information clearinghouse in the Aiyer says, to connect residents with the cost of the ones that didn’t go to St. Circle, near the Sol Azteca Restaurant. About 25 people assembled under a tent in front After restaurants closed for everything and get traffic Fenway. Within a week, Fenway Cares resources and each other. For example, Cecilia. Volunteers followed public-health of the property, and one long-time resident commented that this was the first property but take-out orders, wholesale distribu moving again after completed its first project, working with it can direct a resident to specific City- or guidelines, wearing disposable gloves auction she’d ever seen in Audubon Circle and probably a sign of the poor economy. tor Katsiroubas Brothers donated a sub a smaller pipe’s Developed by Norman Levenson of Copley Management in 2004, the building was new District 8 City Councilor Kenzie Bok to get State-sponsored programs, provide up - and staying six feet from each other and more than 300 boxes of fresh produce stantial supply of its unsold produce. - 617-247-9779 failure caused dates on citywide initiatives, and direct carton recipients. construction and contains seven floor-through units. Unit 7, the two-bedroom penthouse, - Physical-distancing requirements had a 48-inch water distributed to households across the volunteers to specific activities designed sold for $500,000; unit 2, also a two-bedroom, sold for $485,000; unit 1, a one-bedroom, forced Fresh Truck to suspend its regular After the sponsors announced main to erupt at neighborhood. to help their neighbors. The founding Fenway Cares’s formation to their sold for $248,000. The upper level condos were originally priced at $776,000. Only one schedule, and the governor’s shutdown of the corner of the Jaya Aiyer, community organizer at groups hoped “to take advantage of networks, more than 40 residents signed buyer said he planned to live in the unit. “non-essential” business further threat Riverway and the Fenway CDC, said Fenway Cares will connections we have in the community” ened operations. The deliveries on March > FENWAY CARES Brookline Avenue. address both public health and economic combined with their knowledge of re - on page 3 Keeping a community when they’d overlook that are Al Gore—no 24 helped Fresh Truck win designation as VAmpire H impacts of the emergency on Fenway sources available to help residents ride Former Vice President Al Gore joinede—V Mayorisits bThomasoston M. Menino, at the Boston Latin - an essential business that can keep work lAtin sCHool residents. Organized by the CDC, the out the pandemic. School on March 30 to announce the membership of the Boston Climate Action Fenway Community Center, Operation ing to deliver fresh food to distressed - Leadership Committee, a 21-member group representing a broad spectrum of the Within a week of the initial orga households during the pandemic. PEACE, Fenway Civic, the Fenway nizing call on March 17, Fenway Cares community charged with charting Boston’s collective response to climate change. The - Alliance, Grace City Church, and individual volunteers jumped into action to help In all, more than 190 households mayor also announced that $6.5 million under the American Recovery and Reinvestment received 25 pounds of fresh produce distribute produce provided through FenwayCares@ Act will help implement Renew Boston, a public-private partnership that will boost energy each, and St. Cecilia took another 125 FenwayCommunityCenter.org efficiency and alternative energy services for residents and businesses. cartons, many of which went to Fenway (617) 446-3949

> NeWSLINe over, and we need to pay down 1975 1986 1998 2007S on page 3 2020 paper going requires the Family-owned and -operated. that debt. At the same time, Hyperlocal since 1974. community’s help. The Fenway 40 years and counting. the pandemic has forced us to News began in 1974; we hope— WE’RE COMMUNITY-RUN AND COMMUNITY-FOCUSED. READ US? SUPPORT US? LOVE THE Lockouts  Master Key Systems take a long look at how we strengthenNEIGHBORHOODS our pitiful WE COVER? digital THEN JOIN USand IN SECURING believe—that THE PAPER’S FUTURE.you want to see the paper survive and High-Security Key Systems presence (although we do plan to print again). thrive as much as we do. So please support our GFM drive. So. We’ve got one big problem and one big —THE FENWAY NEWS BOARD OF DIRECTORS Mailbox Keys Keys Made by Code Door Closers  Deadbolts

IN CASE YOU EVER WONDERED, THIS IS WHAT A RED ALERT LOOKS LIKE. FENWAY NEWS | DECEMBER 2020 | 5 † Remembering David Scondras ¢ I am so sad to hear the news of had a wake-up call that year as a During the 1980s, when our state and I knew David when we were boys David’s passing. Together we enacted middle-class white boy: the destitute city districts overlapped, his advice in Lowell in the late 1940s and early the first rental-protection and anti- elderly mugging victim who was was crucial as I made decisions on 1950s. His mother’s family owned a displacement law for poor people in told Medicaid wouldn’t cover her the first gay rights bill and the state’s grocery store on the first floor of the Boston—when most politicians and the “cosmetic” jaw surgery since she response to the AIDS crisis. David tenement I lived in, on the corner of media were against poor people’s right could still manage to eat; the trans leaves us saddened yet so appreciative Suffolk Street and Broadway across to housing. David fought for social and prostitute beaten by police, with only and so much better. from the Western Canal. We attended economic justice and never backed her word against that of three cops; BYRON RUSHING, FORMER STATE religious school together at the down. Rest in peace, my friend. the uninsured person with AIDS left REPRESENTATIVE Transfiguration Church on Saturdays. RAY FLYNN, MAYOR, 1984-1993 on the street to die; a troglodyte city He was also whip-smart and would go councilor whose campaign workers I got to know David as an organizer on from “the Acre,” historic home of David had greatness in him. He was threatened to drag my boyfriend for the Massachusetts Tenants the Greek immigrant community in original, charismatic, a great mind and me behind their pickup...David’s Organization and later on the staff of Lowell, to Harvard. who thought outside the box. When I outside-the-box thinking often the Fenway CDC, two organizations DAVID SPEROUNIS, CHILDHOOD FRIEND think of the Fenway, he looms large. reminded me of the quote attributed that sometimes seemed to be BETTE KEVA, JOURNALIST, FORMER EDITOR to RFK: “Some see things as they are extensions of David’s city council David had an indelible impact on my OF THE FENWAY NEWS and say, ‘Why?’ I dream of things that office—or maybe the other way life, as he did on the lives of so many. never were and ask, ‘Why not?’” around, as we worked together so He was a wild man, a gifted strategist, David Scondras was a remarkable FRENCH WALL, CAMPAIGN VOLUNTEER, closely in the fight for affordable and a natural leader. I met him in 1975 progressive politician. When he won LEGISLATIVE AIDE housing and to protect tenants. David shortly after I moved to the Fenway. an uphill battle for City Council, hired great folks to work for him and He was central to my initiation in representing the Fenway, tenants When it came to building coalitions, possible. He was also funny, generous, was constantly generating ideas for community organizing, LGBTQ were his political base and the city’s there was nobody any better, quirky, proudly gay, and gave us four legislation or programs or for new rights, and community development, real estate industry his outraged especially when it came to [including] volumes of a wonderful biography ways to win allies to our cause. and his first city council campaign opponents. a cross section of cultures. that chronicles some of that history. I BOB VAN METER, FORMER ORGANIZER, PAST was my crash course in election field As a City Council member, MEL KING, FORMER STATE REPRESENTATIVE, will miss knowing that he’s out there DIRECTOR OF THE BOSTON OFFICE OF LISC operations. I’m 3,000 miles away and he mastered the “inside-outside” FORMER MAYORAL CANDIDATE making the world better and so much in a completely different career—urban approach. He hired community more interesting. David Scondras was the James Michael planning and higher education—but organizers on his staff, continued to Ours was the only city council office NIKKI FLIONIS DIRECTOR OF MISSION SAFE Curley of District 8. Although David’s those Fenway-nurtured, Scondras- help build grassroots movements, and with a “foreign policy” and became AND LONGTIME EAST FENS RESIDENT politics were the polar opposite of influenced values and spirit still guide served as the voice and chief ally of the City’s greeter of foreign officials. Curley’s, he had all the passion, me. We will miss him. Boston’s tenants—a majority of the Our office staff was a collaboration of David Scondras was one of the most political savvy, and brilliance of the CHRIS TILLY, FORMER FENWAY ACTIVIST, city’s population—on the council. He young citizens, senior citizens, and complex, interesting people I’ve former mayor. In David’s heyday as CHAIR OF THE UCLA PLANNING DEPARTMENT was also the first openly gay member of interns who together came up with ever met. We all know his political city councilor for the Fenway, Mission the City Council and became a stalwart ideas for improving the city as well as and educational activism, but he Hill, and the Back Bay, he knew Lack of effective treatments and voice for LGBT equality. for helping people—now commonly was interested in and excited about everyone, made it his business to stay bureaucracy slowed studies of David could be goofy, sardonic, called “constituent services.” For everything! I have memories of his in touch with his constituents, and promising therapies in the early days brilliant, funny, and angry, which example, a young man called our office forays into Kirlian photography, focused intently on their needs. David of the AIDS pandemic, leading to made him charming—and sometimes around Christmas one year asking making avgolemono soup, and having was gentle when he needed to be, but the birth of ACT-UP. David saw the unpredictable—but he was always for help. He told us that he had AIDS, camp-outs on the Edgerly Road he also had the capacity to become a need for a confrontational approach, strategic, and he never wavered as an was homeless, and was selling sexual playground. He was so unique and passionate messenger of truth and and but he also understood the value of activist for social justice. services to survive. He wanted to get energetic! insisted on justice when fighting for opening dialogue between affected David lived a fulfilling life. He clean and get off the street. David KARLA RIDEOUT, ACTIVIST AND LONGTIME the neighborhoods and constituents community members and researchers. was a working-class kid from Lowell used his influence to get this man into FENWAY RESIDENT he represented and for the city he This led to the birth of Search for a who went to Harvard but never a rehab program, find a home, and loved so much. I’m sure he’s already Cure. David’s training as a scientist forgot where he came from. He was secure a small job. Some congressional It was a total shock to learn of David’s campaigning for the rights of his enabled him to ask key questions, constantly causing what the late John offices today don´t do as much as that death! It seemed impossible that fellow angels. We miss you, my friend. and his political skills allowed him to Lewis called “good trouble.” city council office did. May David rest someone so dynamic, so creative could BARBARA BURNHAM, FORMER EXECUTIVE develop friendships with key players PETER DREIER, MAYOR FLYNN’S in peace, and may Robert be comforted have died. David loved being Greek! DIRECTOR OF THE FENWAY CDC at the NIH and several companies. His HOUSING ADVISOR, PROFESSOR AT by knowing that things are a little He loved pushing the envelope! He activism greatly enhanced community OCCIDENTAL COLLEGE better because they were together. loved making things happen...and I met David [while] fighting for justice. education and helped shape thinking GARY DOTTERMAN, so he did! In the Fenway. On the city about the structure of studies and As a Boston City Councilor David David was committed to an inclusive CITY COUNCIL STAFFER council. In health care. In ways too getting experimental medications won passage of ordinances expanding democracy, He represented his district numerous to enumerate. to those in need as expeditiously as protections againt evictions and condo on issues that affected the whole city, David—Thank you for the rollicking David made a difference!!! What possible. He was a great thinker and conversions. However, I feel his work and his successes changed our society. rollercoaster ride you gave us over else need be said? Except that we shall great soul, and will be sorely missed. ought to be most remembered for his David made a difference. several decades as your inventiveness, miss him for years to come. KEN MAYER, M.D., HARVARD MEDICAL sweeping human rights ordinance FELIX ARROYO, FORMER CITY COUNCILOR wit, and curiosity contributed to ROSARIA SALERNO, FORMER CITY SCHOOL FACULTY MEMBER, MEDICAL that established protections against AND FORMER MAYORAL CANDIDATE creating several new layers to the COUNCILOR, FORMER MAYORAL CANDIDATE, RESEARCH DIRECTOR AT THE FENWAY discrimination in employment, Fenway’s ongoing identity as a AND LONGTIME FENWAY RESIDENT I got to know David through Elaine INSTITUTE housing, and many other areas based community of joy seeking justice. on sexual orientation, gender, race, Noble, with whom I had worked at Your warmth and vulnerability were I miss David. What an impact he David never realized he had been an and religious preference. In organizing Emerson College, along with Irene special gifts from on high. I wish you had on who I am—our intense, inspiration to so many. His middle passage of the ordinance, David Alinsky. This was in the early 1970s, much peace, my friend. successful work to end arson-for- name was social justice; it was human combined his passion for including and Irene was inspiring all of us, BOB CASE, ACTIVIST, profit’s devastation in the Fenway; our rights; it was love thy neighbor. To everyone with his political strategy as was her late husband, Saul. In LONGTIME FENWAY RESIDENT conversations with a Nobel laureate quote civil rights leader John Lewis, of building the biggest possible an era when issues of race, of sex, and a tremendous musician; and our America needs many Davids “to make constituency...David was probably the of sexuality and gender (and, later, Not many people know that David was witness to human rights abuses in El trouble; to make good trouble.” smartest person I ever met. He had an language, careers and culture) were by training a mathematician. In the Salvador and subsequent work to stop HELEN COX, CHAIR OF THE SCONDRAS intense passion for helping the most all reforming, David’s inspiration mid-1990s, he and I often got together Reagan administration complicity STEERING COMMITTEE, LONGTIME FENWAY dispossessed of people. He was my and irony contributed to all of our to discuss problems that interested in the regime’s terrorist attacks on RESIDENT mentor and my friend. community—which, we previously us. During one of those sessions, its people. I can sum up my years as JACK HALL, SCONDRAS CAMPAIGN MANGER, would have called “communities.” the phone rang. He picked it up, and David’s legislative director with this CITY COUNCIL STAFF DIRECTOR We learned to work and share with David and Robert were my neighbors next thing I heard was “Hey, Dapper! quote from him: “Government is about each other in ways that transcended on Edgerly Road, where we owned How are you?” That was the start of a sharing, more than anything else in I probably met David around 1971 those boundaries. David’s success, adjoining rowhouses. They were good lengthy and animated conversation, the world...The issue is very simply during the protests against the his grace, and his readiness to ask neighbors, sociable, political, and perhaps a half-hour long. do you or don’t you agree that we’re Christian Science Church’s demolition rather than dictate solutions were both generous—before they built their own Albert “Dapper” O’Neill, served a family? If we’re a family than we’ve of the neighborhood under the BRA’s inspirational and pragmatic, warm, house, they let me use the lot as a on the council with David and got to make sure we take care of each urban renewal plan. I had made and welcoming to many opinions once garden. I served as campaign treasurer had a reputation as an old-school, other.” a film about urban renewal in the thought polarizing. when David ran for city council. grandstanding Irish-Catholic JACK MILLS, ACTIVIST, COUNCIL Fenway and was excited to meet the Just a few months ago Irene GALEN GILBERT, NEIGHBOR politician, and “politically incorrect” wonderful, dynamic people who STAFF DIRECTOR Alinsky died. Now, with David gone as in the extreme. When David finally were doing all sorts of interesting well, we cherish what we learned from David loved the people he worked and hung up, I said, “David, I thought community work. David was a cyclone David Scondras was one of my most them all the more, and look forward to lived with. He loved his neighborhood you two hated each other.” David of political and intellectual energy reliable allies on the Boston City a future with the culture they helped and his district. It was evident in the responded, “No, Jon. The truth is amidst us all. He was never cynical Council. We co-sponsored many policy create. way he looked at and spoke to you that we always understood that we were or defeatist about our fight against initiatives, including the South Africa JOE BECKMANN, FORMER AIDE TO STATE REP. he cared. He combined his aptitude the only council members who huge financial and political forces at divestment ordinance, the assault- ELAINE NOBLE, RETIRED EMERSON FACULTY for numbers with a passion for actually believed what we said and work to destroy our wonderful urban weapons ban, creation of the Human people to make change. He used the weren’t there just to make business neighborhood. His positive “can-do/ Rights and Arson commissions, rent David Scondras was a brilliant, power of love to be one of the fiercest connections. And I’ll tell you another why not?” attitude kept the energy control and many other progressive visionary leader. His local impact champions of social justice this city thing: If Dapper had been born 30 level high for years way beyond my measures. In 2013, he even supported alone was staggering, and I doubt has ever seen. years later, he’d have been on our side.” residency in the Fenway. my campaign for mayor of Boston. He many people realize how much they MICHAEL KING, FORMER MATH STUDENT JON BALL, MATHEMATICS INSTRUCTOR AT JOHN NEWBY, FILMMAKER was a friend of the working people owe to him, as it’s easy to take for OF DAVID’S, DIRECTOR OF THE SOUTH END UMASS BOSTON, FORMER FENWAY RESIDENT of Boston and a champion of human granted the structures he put in place TECHNOLOGY CENTER David’s 1983 city council campaign rights. He will be missed. to keep our community safe and David founded, helped build, or was exhilarating, a turning point in CHARLES YANCEY, FORMER CITY COUNCILOR healthy and housed. I will always be David taught us all what it means to engaged with organizations that are Boston politics as Mel King became AND FORMER MAYORAL CANDIDATE grateful to David for waking me up be an “activist.” From his prescient today the backbone of the Fenway the first person of color to make the to the opportunities for community commitment to equality to his neighborhood and its commitment mayoral run-off, and David became I will always remember David as one impact that each of us is presented on leadership on the front lines of the to diversity in every way, including the first openly gay person—and of the most creative and challenging a daily basis. He made the most of his AIDS crisis, we have lost a true Fenway Health Center, Fenway democratic socialist—elected to community organizers and politicians. opportunities, and in his honor we champion. Community Development Corporation, the city council...In his office I Even before he drew me into his work should each do the same. MIKE ROSS, FORMER DISTRICT 8 CITY and The Fenway News. David was learned that democracy could be an in the Fenway, I remember marching BRIAN CLAGUE, MUSICIAN, LONGTIME COUNCILOR brilliant, caring, and often way ahead antidote to wealth’s privilege. I also with him in one of the first gay pride FENWAY RESIDENT of the rest of us in seeing what was parades—which he helped invent. 6 | FENWAY NEWS | DECEMBER 2020

> HUNTINGTON NEWS from page 2 there are some serious challenges that COVID-19 Cyclists Union Brands Its New HQ student newspapers are facing for the The Boston first time, challenges emblematic of TESTING SITES Cyclists Union’s those facing the journalism industry as new office at a whole. “I think that the entire industry The City of Boston lists four 1419 Tremont is going through a shift that makes testing sites easily accessible to St. in Mission a lot of people feel uncomfortable,”

Fenway and Mission Hill residents. ALISON PULTINAS PHOTOS: Hill (across from said Lauren Smart, faculty advisor at You don’t need to have symptoms the Rosbury The Daily Campus at Texas’s Southern to get a test. In fact, the City now Crossing Methodist University. “[Student papers] encourages anyone to get a test stop on the become a microcosm of that.” to help develop a clearer picture of Orange Line), Like many local papers, school how widely the virus has spread. sports new papers are finding it hard to stay signage. Note afloat. “The [Huntington] News’s DIMOCK CENTER the sculptural becoming independent in 2008 meant • 45 Dimock Street, Roxbury bike rack on we had no funding coming from the • Mon-Fri, 10am-12pm the sidewalk university. We were instantly left to • Appointment required; call (617) with the word find our own office space and [to pay] 442-8800, ext. 2683 “Mission” and for printing costs and equipment,” said • Notes: Check with your health local landmarks Charlie Wolfson, editor in chief of The insurance plan to learn how along the top. Huntington News. much of the cost it will cover. The paper was left to fend for WHITTIER STREET HEALTH CENTER itself, and soon it was deep in debt. • 290 Tremont Street, Roxbury But finally, after almost a decade, the (a block from the Orange Line’s Snowy Halloween at Mission Park paper started to turn things around. It Roxbury Crossing stop) PHOTO: PULTINAS ALISON stopped renting its own office and now As if 2020 • Mon-Fri, 9am-2pm; Sat, 9am- works out of various rooms in Holmes hadn’t held 12pm Hall when there are no classes. It cut enough • (617) 427-1000 down on printing, and staff fundraised surprises, a • Free tirelessly, asking alumni and parents surprisingly for money. As of January 2019, the FENWAY HEALTH mild paper was finally out of the red. • 161 Park Drive (Holy Trinity November Other independent student Orthodox parking lot) may cloud the papers haven’t been so lucky; some • Mon-Fri, 8am-12pm memory of have re-affiliated with their school or • Appointment required; call (617) our record- drastically cut down on printing. Many 927-6000 setting face an impossible choice—do they • Free October snow re-affiliate with their school and risk and an unusal losing editorial freedom, or do they BRIGHAM & WOMEN’S HOSPITAL Halloween. maintain their independence in the face • 75 Francis Street (LMA) of overwhelming financial difficulties, • Appointment required; call (617) and risk losing everything? 732-5500 for schedule and Helen Snow is a journalism insurance coverage info student at Northeastern University.

Emily Brown, Bok’s director of to reflect the goals discussed in the BOK SEEKS SIMPLER ZONING THAT policy and communication, said that the hearing. COULD BOOST AFFORDABLE HOUSING councilor would craft a draft ordinance Alison Pultinas lives in Mission Hill. BY ALISON PULTINAS the data is apparently not tracked. n November 10, the Other area communities, including Virtual Public Meeting City Council’s Planning, Cambridge and Somerville, have begun Development, and implementing zoning overlays that Transportation Committee create as-of-right, automatic zoning discussedO a request from Councilors approval for deeply affordable housing Kenzie Bok and Matt O’Malley to proposals. Kenmore Square consider options to give zoning relief If the City were to add an to 100-percent-affordable and deeply overlay amendment to the zoning affordable residential projects in code, the details and nuances of what Redevelopment Project NPC Boston. projects would be included could be Bok’s and O’Malley’s opening controversial. District 9 Councilor Liz Thursday, December 3 Zoom Link: bit.ly/KenmoreSqDec3 remarks focused on the city’s housing Breadon said she supported mixed- 6:30 PM Toll Free: (833) 568 - 8864 crisis for low- and middle-income income developments. Another speaker Meeting ID: 160 665 1938 households and the potential delays for asked if developers building for new projects that face overly restrictive households that meet 70 percent of AMI zoning, lengthy design review, or even could qualify. Project Description: lawsuits, as happened this year in A home-rule petition that Mayor Article 80 Public Meeting to review the proposed Notice of Project Jamaica Plain with a large development Walsh signed last year to incorporate Change (“NPC”) for the Kenmore Square Redevelopment Project, which proposed by the Pine Street Inn. Boston’s Inclusionary Development was submitted to the BPDA by Related Beal, LLC (the “Proponent”) on “The COVID-19 pandemic has Policy (IDP) into the zoning code has November 2nd, 2020. As approved in November of 2018 by the BPDA underscored what we’ve long known similar goals. Under current practice, Board, the Beacon Building was originally contemplated to include to be true—housing is public health,” only developers of buildings with 10 or said Councilor Bok in a press release. more units that need zoning relief or approximately 125,000 square feet of office space and approximately “We need housing for all our residents that build on City-owned land have to 20,500 square feet of retail space. to make Boston a more equitable city, set aside a portion of onsite units as and removing the delays and barriers to income-restricted. They can also meet With the November 2020 NPC, the Proponent has proposed a revision building more 100 percent and deeply the requirement by building income- to the programming of the Beacon Building to now include affordable projects is a step towards restricted units offsite, or paying into housing for all.” the IDP fund. approximately 127,700 square feet of lab/research and development The panel, including Boston When and if the legislature acts space and approximately 8,560 square feet of retail space. Planning and Development Agency favorably on the home rule petition, housing policy director Michelle the Boston Zoning Commission would McCarthy and deputy director for establish new regulations promoting regulatory planning and zoning Bryan inclusionary development of income- Glascock, convened to discuss current restricted housing that would apply practices and potential options, regardless of any need for zoning including how existing zoning overlays relief. However, the mayor’s petition work. Glascock said that if a project does not set percentages or outline mail to: Aisling Kerr is already as-of-right (meaning it the specifics of an overlay amendment. Boston Planning & Development Agency Close of Comment needs no changes in zoning) there Those details would be worked out One City Hall Square, 9th Floor Period: is really no need for a community through a three-step procees involving Boston, MA 02201 12.11.2020 process. Tim Davis, deputy director the BPDA, the City Council and, finally, phone: 617.918.4212 of policy development and research the Zoning Commission. The approach email: [email protected] at the Department of Neighborhood that O’Malley and Bok propose would Development, said that abutter also require approval by the Zoning challenges affecting affordable housing Commission but would not require a BostonPlans.org @BostonPlans vote of the legislature. units happen maybe once a year, but Teresa Polhemus, Executive Director/Secretary FENWAY NEWS | DECEMBER 2020 | 7

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT A LOT HAPPENED IN OUR NEIGHBORHOODS SINCE THE LAST ISSUE, INCLUDING... ACNA Weighs In on 819 Beacon Street Proposal It should come as no surprise that several local institutions figured The Audubon Circle Neighborhood Association (ACNA) and area residents have given prominently in a Globe article on efforts to diversify the boards of some of Scape CEO Andrew Flynn a lot of feedback, but are they being heard? The public comment Boston's biggest cultural institutions, spurred by events this year that laid letters for the project at 819 Beacon St.—a partnership between Boston Children’s Hospital bare for white Americans the way that structures of racism and Scape—uniformly endorse replacing a surface parking lot with housing, but the scale lie embedded across American society. On a list of 12 high- of the project and the current plan for small furnished apartments has raised plenty of profile cultural institutions, five call the Fenway home. criticism. The review process for the proposed 500-plus-unit complex hasn’t ended, and whether ACNAmembers get their wish for a smaller development remains uncertain. That list cited the racial make-up of the groups’ boards Quoting from an October seven-page letter to BPDA project manager Eddy Carmody, IC MI and trustees. Of the Fenway institutions, the Gardner ACNA’s priorities for the project are: Museum ranked as the most diverse, with 29% of 1. Reversing the proposed ratio of studios to one-, two-, and three-bedroom units, so that representation by people of color. (tied with the Amerian studios account for no more than 25 percent of units. Y Repertory Theater). The MFA was close behind, with 23%, 2. Reducing the number of units and overall size of the building by 50 percent and signficantly improving the design and massing of the building. followed by Handel + Haydn Society (11%), the BSO (10%), and 3. Barring undergraduate students from living in the building, unless they live with their Huntington Theater (8%). Far ahead of the pack at 73%, the Museum of parents. African American HIstory has the only majority-nonwhite board in the 4. Setting minimum lease agreements at one year in length, excluding executive suites or list. a The American Association of Retired People (AARP) awarded short-term-stay units, and making no agreements with educational institutions. Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative a $10,000 Community Challenge 5. Barring the City from issuing resident parking stickers to building residents. grant to create “an intergenerational dialogue series held via Zoom.” 6. Assuring that the number of IDP (project-related affordable) units meets or exceeds the City’s goals and are built in the Fenway. AARP chose 184 applications across the U.S. out of more than 2,800 7. Making adequate space available onsite to accommodate drop off/pick-up and loading/ submissions. a Setting aside its very white board, the Huntington did unloading demand from the building. get a chance to display its staff's talent at Downtown Crossing. The area’s 8. Devising a more robust set of public benefits. business improvement district tapped several cultural institutions walloped The Boston Civic Design Commission gives its first feedback December 1. Undoubtedly, by the pandemic and paid each to decorate a vacant storefront, using a there will be follow-up subcommittee reviews. theme of its own choosing. Huntington created a window cleebrating New Simmons Enters the Online Degree Race Year's Eve, "for obvious reasons,” as assistant props master Justin Seward In late October, Simmons University announced the launch of CompleteDegree@ told the . "Everyone wants to put 2020 behind us." a Joslin Diabetes Simmons, an online undergraduate program geared toward adult learners. Beginning in Center and Beth Israel Lahey announced that they’ve begun hashing May 2021, Simmons will offer online undergraduate degrees in communications, business out a plan to move Joslin under the BI umbrella. Geographically, the management, computer science and social work. The program will include live, face- to-face discussions, small group discussions and activities, interactive coursework, and move makes sense, since Joslin sits right between Beth Israel’s west mentorship from faculty and staff. and east campuses (the latter, of course, is the former New England Deaconess hospital), but the announcement describes the plan as the Berklee Student Wins Film-Scoring Scholarship logical outcome of decades of collaboration on research and treatment. Current Berklee student Xiyue “Diana” Lizhao of Beijing has been named the recipient a The Globe's annual list of the 100 biggest women-led businesses of the annual BMI Film Scoring Scholarship, awarded each year to a student selected by Berklee’s Film Scoring Department based on musical ability, financial need, and potential in the commonwealth included some familiar local institutions. The for career success. Oscar- and Grammy-winning composer Ludwig Göransson and Mike rankings, based on multiple factors including head counts and revenue Steinberg, executive vice president at Broadcast Music, Inc., presented the scholarship in a levels, put Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in the pole position. Following Zoom celebration. Lizhao is a double major in film scoring and contemporary writing and along were Children's Hospital (#4), Brigham & Women's (#6), Simmons production and is also taking filmmaking and film-industry courses through New York University (#19), and Whittier Street Health Center (#77). a Speaking University to further understand the art form. of Whittier Street, the health center has begun operating a Monday- Boston Cannabis Board Approves Boylston Street Shop Friday food pantry, and anyone can use it. The organizers prefer that Boston Cannabis Board commissioners approved Redi, a marijuana store that will set up you call (617) 989-3152 to schedule visit, but they’ll accept walk-ins. shop in the Little Steve’s Pizza space—despite opposition from Berklee College of Music. a Pandemic casualty #1: First Night—whose footprint normally includes Redi will be owned by Cypress Tree Management, which has pledged not to sell prerolled the MFA, Berklee Performance Center, and Hynes Convention Center— joints. The Board was impressed by plans for security and line management and several has abandoned all live events in this year of plague. It will mix a telecast employee benefits. In addition to this license, Redi still needs a Zoning Board of Appeal a waiver from a city rule mandating a half-mile between every marijuana establishment, as on NBC10 and affiliates with live streaming at firstnightboston.org. another store has been approved a few blocks away. It must also still complete the state Pandemic casualty #2: No Beanpot tourney this year. All four schools licensing process. in the crosstown tourney, including Northeastern and B.U., agreed to BSO Scores Three Grammy Nominations scrub the February event. a If you’re keeping track at home, you can add the Guitar Center to a long list of retailers that have declared bankruptcy The Boston Symphony Orchestra’s latest recording on the Deutsche Grammophon label, Adès Conducts Adès, received three Grammy nominations for Best Classical Instrumental as a result of the pandemic. Drawn by the Fenway's concentration of music Solo, Best Classical Compendium, and Best Contemporary Classical Composition. The education and musicians, the retailer operates in both the East and West album, released on Feb. 28, consists of world-premiere recordings made live at Symphony Fens. It said the public won’t notice any difference, with operations— Hall in 2016 and 2019. including sales and staff salaries—continuing as normal while it tries to Local Colleges Set Varied End-of-Semester Travel Rules shed debt and add new investors. b Due to COVID-19, Fenway-area colleges approached Thanksgiving travel cautiously this year: • The School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University told students who chose to TRASH & RECYLCING go home for Thanksgiving, “you cannot return to campus and instead must finish the semester remotely.” PICK-UP SCHEDULE • Similiarly, Boston University and Emerson College told students who traveled for the • BACK BAY: Monday and Thursday holiday not to return after the holiday. • FENWAY: Tuesday and Friday • Northeastern allowed students to come back to campus but imposed a strict testing protocol for those who did and allowed students to finish the semester remotely if they • MISSION HILL: Tuesday and Friday preferred.

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617.267.0900 | fenwayhealth.org COMM-641 8 | FENWAY NEWS | DECEMBER 2020 Work Begins to Add to Boylston’s ‘High Spine’ Work on Scape Boylston—a midrise apartment building with a black-box theater—has shifted into higher gear as Suffolk Construction prepares to raze the 1252-1270 block of Boylston Street. Suffolk Construction, the

PHOTO: STEVE CHASE contractor, must finish asbestos remediation inside the building before demolition can begin. Fencing went up around the building last month, closing the sidewalk in front. In the parking lane the contractor built a foot-high temporary sidewalk with reflective striping and traffic cones on the street side and thermoplastic crosswalks connecting back to the sidewalk at both ends. On November 10 the project went before the Boston Landmarks Commission because of the age of the existing structure. The commission discussed the site's significance to Boston LGBTQ history, specifically the period 1969-1988, when the 1270 Club was open. The Boston Ramrod also operated in the block during that period and beyond. Commissioner John Amodeo requested that the Scape team follow up with The History Project, an independent LGBTQ archive, for suggestions on documenting and preserving that aspect of the site's history.

Lawsuits Challenge Samuels’s Air Rights Project BY ALISON PULTINAS which would generate shadow because the development qualified as already been approved “as of right.” t the end of a four-hour impacts on historic resources, a Planned Development Area project Work on the project started virtual hearing on Oct. 27, including the Commonwealth Avenue reviewed under Article 80 of the in mid-summer. Utility work and the Zoning Board of Appeal Mall. The commission’s approval came zoning code. excavation started on terra firma (ZBA) took up the last after the Massachusetts Department However, the core argument of on Newbury Street Extension and agendaA items, five identical requests of Transportation board voted to the complaint is that the project’s the Boylston Street site on athe grouped together under the heading approve the plan on March 23. two towers will be taller than stated other side of the Mass Turnpike; “interpretation.” Other lawyers were also present in those documents as well as on contractors are also working directly Abutters to the 1001 Boylston during the Oct. 27 hearing. Attorneys the building permits. That argument from the turnpike. According to St. air rights development at Jill Meixel and Vincent Pisegna, of appears to be based on what is being the project updates from Suffolk Massachusetts Avenue and Boylston Krokidas & Bluestein, represented built on the rooftops. Construction, as of the third week Street had filed appeals to the ZBA in Arthur Ullian of the Eliot Hotel, Boston’s building code allows of November, workers had already the summer “seeking a determination and Thomas Butters represented rooftop structures as long as they begun installing building foundations that the Inspectional Service Kensington Newbury Street LLC and take up less than 33 percent of a from under the bridge that carries Department (ISD) erred in issuing the KRT Holdings, the owners of 361 roof’s square footage. However, Massachusetts Avenue above the building permit in July.” Abutters are Newbury St. and 100 Mass. Ave. All Tymann contended that the amenities turnpike. challenging the issuing of the permit are co-plaintiffs in the case against planned for the roofs of both the When interviewed, Tymann said because of apparent unapproved ISD. 20-story office building and the there has been no response yet from height increases. After a brief question-and- 14-story hotel at 1001 Boylston the City’s law department. He called Attorney Benjamin Tymann of answer session, ZBA chair Christine exceed the 33 percent criterion. And the review process technically flawed Tymann, Davis & Duffy, represented Araujo referred the complaint to the he claimed that despite the separate and said city and state agencies two of the aggrieved parties, city’s law department. Other ZBA areas of jurisdiction, appeals analyzed the wrong project heights condominium owners Paul Lewis and members did not ask any questions. opposing the issuing of building for their shadow impacts. Tymann Dr. Sean Doherty of 360 Newbury St. Araujo was adamant that permits can be raised with the ZBA. said that instead of 298 feet tall, the Lawsuits have been filed in Suffolk documents from the BPDA process Goulston & Storrs attorney office tower will be 322 feet and the Superior Court, but there has not yet that the three attorneys wanted to Kevin O’Flaherty, representing hotel’s height on Newbury Street been a hearing. The Massachusetts discuss—the Preliminary Adequacy developer Samuels & Associates, Extension will be 176 feet, instead of Historical Commission’s sign-off on Determination, the Certificate of asserted that when the BPDA 158 feet. the project is also being questioned, Compliance, and linkage fees—did documents and the building plans Alison Pultinas lives in Mission given a controversy about the height, not fall under ZBA jurisdiction are handed off to ISD, the project has Hill DREDGING CONTINUES AT TWO SITES ALONG THE MUDDY RIVER PHOTO: PULTINAS ALISON The number of construction zones in the neighborhood continues to increase—but not just for new buildings. Weekday shutdown of Agassiz Road will continue for two years, due to the federally funded cleanup of the Muddy River. Dredging started in October across from Simmons University on the Fenway. According to the most recent update from Jennifer Flanagan, the Army Corps of Engineers project manager, Charter Company, the contractor, is removing 140 cubic yards of sediment per day—digging one to eight feet into the river’s center channel. Later in the winter, the amphibious excavator will move to the site of the former Evans Way Bridge and along the Fenway across from the MFA. In late November, another Charter Company team started dredging at a second location, on the Riverway (shown in this photo). The update describes the site as being near Beth Israel Hospital, but to be more specific, the work is across from Vining Street in Mission Hill. Pedestrians and cyclists must reroute themselves to the Brookline Avenue side of the river for the duration of the Muddy River Project’s Phase 2. Charter will periodically close one outbound lane on the Riverway to accommodate the haul trucks carrying off dredged material. The trucks will carry the sludge to the “Central Processing Facility” on Agassiz Road next to the Duck House, where it gets mixed with stabilizers that will harden and compact it. Trucks then deliver it to the Pine Avenue landfill in Niagara Falls, New York, which is operated by Republic Services. If an in-state facility were to be used in the coming months, Flanagan said it would be the Lynn Landfill. FENWAY NEWS | DECEMBER 2020 | 9

[ IN MEMORIAM \

BY STEVEN BURKE of the faculty of the Berkshire Music ast Fens resident Florence Dunn, Florence Dunn Center in Lenox. She entertained New England Conservatory, where she Achievement Award from Choral Arts known as “Flossie,” died on Oct. at private parties and had been an earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees. New England. 12 at Sherrill House. She resided in organist in several churches. Flossie While at the conservatory, she was Flossie was an accomplished pianist the East Fens for more than 60 years. also participated in concerts with the E appointed Dean of and organist and sang in A talented musician, educator and Boston Symphony Orchestra and the Women and Resident the choirs of The Church Tanglewood Chorus. For more than 40 a loyal Red Sox fan also known for her Head. Later, she of the Advent, Old South excellent clothes and large hats, she years, she was associated with the Apollo received the Alumni Church, and Trinity Glee Club. summed up her own life by saying, “I’m Award, recognizing Church. For 21 years, she living the dream!” Flossie is survived by two nieces in her for distinguished was a beloved elementary New Mexico and Connecticut. Due to Flossie was born in North Adams service by the Alumni school music teacher in the and grew up in Williamstown. She COVID-19, a service is planned for a later Association. In 1977, Brookline Public Schools. date. graduated from Williamstown High she received a Lifetime Flossie was a member School in 1940 and went on to the Steven Burke lives in the East Fens.

IN PANDEMIC, KAJI ASO’S ‘SPOT OF BEAUTY’ EXPLORES A NEW MEDIUM works by Kaji Aso, several haiku, senryu and “zen conversation” Dragon is Born and poetry. Senryu and haiku have the same Stars on the Other Side, structure: three-line poems with 17 syllables accompanied by Linda written in a five/seven/five syllable count. Papatopoli, pianist, However, they focus on different themes—human playing Francesco Paoli activity (senryu) versus nature (haiku). “Zen Tosti’s “Sogno,” and conversation” poetry invites the poet to make the tenor voice of Kaji sense of nonsense. Poetry themes range from Aso. This is followed nature, changing seasons, darkness of winter by other artists and and whiteness of ice to COVID. students of the studio “Where will I be,” addresses the discomfort presenting works of of wearing masks and the uncertainty of it. nature and calligraphy, Some of the poetry alludes to more introspective including Katherine themes of “unsettled symphonies” in the mind Schloss, Michiko while memories of baking with King Arthur Imai, Leslie Ann Eliet, Flour and making jam bring a welcome lightness. and Takahiro Miyao. Artwork presented in the different sections Music for subsequent ranged from still lifes to landscapes, including art sections included comets and the universe, seasons and reflections “Goldberg Variations: of nature in the Fenway and along the Charles. Aria” by J.S. Bach with Wall hangings of ceramic and stone were also Christy Liao on piano, part of the mix. Rural scenes near and far, and BY MARY ANN BROGAN music by Sarah beaches and boardwalks stir a yearning for ABOVE: Pond Study #216 by aji Aso Studio Institute for the Arts Tenney composed for renewed travel. Urban scenes of Kenmore Square Leslie Ann Eliet; BELOW LEFT: at 40 St. Stephen St. was founded original artworks, and Fenway Park embellished a familiar feel in Rock Around the Clock-2 by its namesake, artist Kaji Aso, in and “Time-Space- the fourth and final section of the presentations. by Deborah Cake; BELOW 1973. It has been well loved and usd Human” composed Kaji Aso Studio is supported by a grant from RIGHT: Comet Neowise by by residents of the Fenway for many years. At by Mikko Sato. the Boston Cultural Council and the City of Lainie Senechal. All images the institute, classes are available in painting The poetry Boston’s Arts and Culture COVID-19 Fund. courtesy of Kaji Aso and poetry. Kaji Aso even hosts a tea ceremony, sections included Mary Ann Brogan lives in the East Fens. Studio’s YouTube. which is available to the general public. KIn previous years, the studio has mounted a year-end exhibit at the Prudential Center. For obvious reasons, however, this year the exhibit was hosted virtually instead. The exhibit is available to view on YouTube, and it is well worth a visit. It features alternating presentations of visual art and poetry, with three poetry and four artwork components. There is a plus side to this virtual presentation, as the art slides feature musical accompaniment, allowing the viewer a multimodal sensory experience of the visual punctuated by sound. By contrast, each poetry reading—with just the sound of the poet’s voice—showcases the music and cadence of the voice. The first artworks presentation features

On Nov. 19, Boston Lyric Opera’s mounted two concerts Close to the in the MFA parking lot, limiting audiences for each to 50 socially distanced spectators. Left: the “BLO Street Music, Yet Stage” before being opened for the concerts; below: Distanced: Chelsea Basler performs. Street Stage Calls at theMFA

in some of the hotel’s bedrooms. Square restaurant. Its “artisanal nightmare for the company. Initially, EATS BEAT With the beds out up to six diners soft pretzels” (crunchy outside, staff members moved into the > A story in the Globe’s “Food” section can share dinner in each, with deep croissant-like inside) took off just CEO’s house in Maine to create a focused on a COVID-inspired dining cleanings between bookings. a year ago after landing on Oprah bubble (talk about working from twist. Uni, the sushi restaurant at > The same issue of the paper Winfrey’s annual list of favorite home!) before eventually relocating the Eliot Hotel run by chefs Ken included a profile of Eastern things. According to the profile, the to a Waltham space better suited Oringer and Tony Messina, has Standard Provisions, a spin-off pandemic has pushed sales even to industrial-scale packing and created “semi-private dining suites” of the currently closed Kenmore higher, which created a logistical shipping. 10 | FENWAY NEWS | DECEMBER 2020

CALENDAR

Tuesday and Thursdays or homebound residents. Pick up at 165 Family Theatre hosts a live performance Thu, 12/10 & Tue, 12/15 Park Drive. For inquiries or to volunteer, of this beloved children’s classic on Zoom. LIFEBOAT FOOD PANTRY . 4-6pm. please contactDecember Jasmine Vargas at 4pm. Free, but registration is required at FLU SHOTS AT FENWAY HEALTH. During jvargas@ Free, fresh food available to Boston fenwaycdc.org or (617) 213-2295. wheelockfamilytheatre.org/ducklings. the pandemic, your annual flu shot is more residents with food insecurity; sign up important than ever. Schedule yours by at bit.ly/lifeboatbostonregistration. Thu, 12/3 Mon, 12/7 calling Fenway Health at (617) 926-000. HOWARD ZINN MEMORIAL Boston Temple 7th-Day Adventist FIRST THURSDAY. The Gardner Museum • The 2020 Fenway Health will hold pediatric flu LECTURE Church, 105 Jersey Street. has resumed free entry on Thursdays, at Boston University takes place clinics at 1340 Boylston St. on Thu, 12/10, Wed, 12/2 & 12/16 3-9pm. Reserving tickets in advance is on Zoom. This year it features renowned 5-7pm and Tue, 12/15, 7-9am. The CDC author and advocate for racial justice recommends that children 6 months and FENWAY FAIR FOODS. required at tnew.gardnermuseum.org. Fair Foods welcomes Ibram X. Kendi. Register at https:// older get flu vaccines. Call (617) 926-000. community residents to get a bag of fresh Sat, 12/5 trusted.bu.edu/s/1759/2-bu/19/1col.asp fruits and vegetables for $2. Home deliveries Tue, 12/15 “MAKE WAY FOR DUCKLINGS.” Wheelock x?sid=1759&gid=2&pgid=9699&cid=18 are prioritized for immuno-compromised 203&dids=478&bledit=1. 5pm. BOSTON WARD 4 DEMS HOLIDAY PARTY. • Massachusetts Historical Society pres- 6pm. Join fellow Democrats from Back COMMUNITY ents an online lecture by Joshua R. Bay, Fenway, and the South End for some meetings Greenberg. BANK NOTES & SHINPLAS- (virtual) holiday cheer. Email ward4dems@ TERS: THE RAGE FOR PAPER MONEY for Zoom information. THU, DEC 3: gmail.com Boston.gov for more information. IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC discusses the • Kenmore Square Redevelopment Project TUE, DEC 8: 10,000 distinct bank notes in circulation virtual IAG meeting. 5pm. Use www. • Fenway CDC hosts action hours for the prior to the Civil War, and how ordinary zoomgov.com/webinar/register/WN_ Coalition for a Truly Affordable Boston, a American handled this complex system. HidLR9olQeyZBT6kDuCM2w or call @ THE CENTER network of community groups working to 5:30pm. Register at https://18308a.black- (833) 568-8864 and enter meeting ID 161 improve the City’s Inclusionary Develop- baudhosting.com/18308a/Bank-Notes- During the pubic health emergency, 727 6690 to join. Contact Aisling Kerr at ment Policy, which requires private devel- and-Shinplasters-The-Rage-for-Paper- the Fenway Community Center (617) 918-4212 or Aisling.Kerr@Boston. opers to include just 13 percent affordable Money-in-the-Early-Republic. has shifted to virtual activities. gov for more information. housing in new buildings. 12pm. They Wed, 12/9 Find links for all activities at • Kenmore Square Redevelopment Project will be making calls to the mayor and fenwaycommunitycenter.org. public meeting. 6:30pm. Use www. BPDA Director Brian Golden, signing a The Jewish Arts Collaborative and the MFA • Monday, Dec 7 at pm: VOICE & zoomgov.com/webinar/register/WN_ petition, and posting about the campaign present an ONLINE CELEBRATION FOR THE JUSTICE. On the first Monday of n3n2SrbFRSaK3oVjptPYYQ or call (833) to social media. Join via computer go to FIRST NIGHT OF HANUKKAH with music, every month, share your voice with 568-8864 and enter meeting ID 160 665 https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85907318858 talks, crafts and candle lighting. More your neighbors and work toward 1938 to join. Contact Aisling Kerr at (617) ?pwd=b3ZyZGlSV0M1YVRCMWFraXp information at www.jartsboston.org. racial justice, one step at a time. 918-4212 or [email protected] ZRFAvQT09 4:30pm. • Wednesdays at 6pm: GUIDED for more information. • Fenway Quality of Life Coalition presents Thu, 12/10 MEDIATION. Fenway residents & • 220 Huntington Avenue virtual an update on the Fenway noise report licensed instructors Pallavi and public meeting. 6pm. This is the first completed last year. Meeting followed by MassArt Art Museum (MAAM) and Vaibhav lead you in reducing public meeting for the proposed Q&A. Find the link at https://fenway- the MassArt Illustration Department stress, improving emotional redevelopment of the Midtown Hotel. communitycenter.org/calendar/. present NOODLE & DOODLE, a free health, and practicing self- The National Development team will compassion. TUE, DEC 15: virtual music drawing event featuring share its vision for the project and live performances by Jess Collins of • Wednesdays at 8pm: TRIVIA NIGHT. hear community feedback. Use www. Join the 2nd Community Meeting on the Set Fire and Eric Waxwood of Sugar Noncompetitive fun with neighbors zoomgov.com/webinar/register/WN_j_ project to renovate Mission Hill (Smith- Blood Jinx. 6:30pm. Register at https:// and friends. W383ShSSmm9578myC-rw or call (833) Sheehy) Playground. Join the meeting on the massart.zoom.us/meeting/register/ • Thursdays at 8pm: GAME NIGHT. 568-8864 and enter meeting ID 161 015 computer at bit.ly/Missionhillplayground2 tZArde2rpz8pGtcTCTHl_A_x_ Play Drawful and other online 9471 to join. Contact Nupoor Monani or access by phone by calling (301) 715-8592 yE0Y92zvbLs. games, all suitable for all ages. at (617) 918-4425 or Nupoor.Monani@ and entering ID: 864 7429 4334.

One community, one purpose. Let’s stay strong to keep Boston healthy.

If you see a Northeastern community member not following COVID-19 guidelines,

NORTHEASTERN.EDU/PROTECTTHEPACK PLEASE CALL / 617.373.TIPS