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FREE SPECIAL COVERING THE FENWAY, AUDUBON CIRCLE, KENMORE SQUARE, UPPER BACK BAY, PRUDENTIAL, LONGWOOD, AND MISSION HILLEDITION SINCE 1974 • SPECIAL PRINT EDITION • DECEMBER 2020/JANUARY 2021

As many readers know, The Fenway We’re back in print after an this year; we think our communities WHY A SPECIAL News suspended printing when the anonymous donor made us an offer need a news source run by and for pandemic hit Boston last March. we couldn’t refuse: to pay the cost of residents. In the meantime: EDITION OF Most of our distribution points had a one-time-only print edition centered > Read us the first Friday of each closed, which was part of the reason, on an expanded version of the tribute month at www.FenwayNews.org. THE FENWAY but we’d also lost a lot of money, like to the late David Scondras we ran > Follow us on Facebook. every other print paper in the US, and online in our December issue. > Support us at www. gofundme. NEWS? needed time to rethink our finances. We hope to return to print later com/f/save-the-fenway-news. City’s New Clean-Energy Plan: What to Know Before Jan. 11 Deadline BY LESLIE POND power of a large group of customers to Your electricity service will continue as ommunity Choice Electricity (CCE) negotiate a better price on a product — usual, and Eversource will continue to is a City of Boston program with similar to purchasing in bulk. The more deliver electricity, maintain the grid, and the goal of providing accessible, residents who participate, the more potential manage customer support and billing. affordable clean energy at consistent there is to negotiate a lower rate and achieve Notification letters have been sent to rates to every electric power customer in the greater impact on the City’s climate change Eversource customers. If you have received C goals. CCE only affects the source and cost a notification letter from the City of Boston, city. It focuses on providing electricity from local renewable sources (solar, wind, and of the electricity supply, not its delivery. you will be automatically enrolled when the hydroelectric) and is a key part of Boston’s Participation is voluntary, and there program launches on February 1, and you plan to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. The is no customer contract. If you live in don’t need to take further action. program was encouraged and approved by the Boston and are an Eversource Basic Service If you haven’t received a notification Mayor and City Council in 2017 and was then customer, you will be automatically enrolled letter, either you aren’t a Basic Service designed by the municipal energy team and a in the Default (Standard) CCE product. customer or your account was otherwise community working group. The renewable energy supplier will be not eligible at the time of mailing, and you CCE is a municipal aggregation Constellation NewEnergy, which will be won’t be automatically enrolled. However, program. The City leverages the buying noted on your monthly bill from Eversource. HTTPS://UNSPLASH.COM/@ DAKIN, SHAUN PHOTO: COMMONS WIKIMEDIA VIA 4.0 BY-SA CC DAKINSHAUN, CLEAN ENERGY on page 2 > PHOTO: STEVE WOLF STEVE PHOTO: THE STORIES THAT SHAPED US Sign at 60 The Fenway in June. COVID-19 PANDEMIC he pandemic turned our lives upside down. 2020 While many businesses closed and Boston Public Schools transitioned to a primarily virtual model, local colleges all addressed the pandemic a bit BLACK LIVES MATTER PROTESTS differently. Some schools, like Northeastern and Boston University, allowed Thousands marched peacefully from Nubian Square to the State House Tin-person classes with heightened testing requirements; others, like Emmanuel on May 31 to protest the death of George Floyd, a long national history of College, stayed completely remote. police-involved shootings, and systemic racism. Protests continued through To combat the onslaught of sickness and loss of income, in late March/early the summer; here, health care workers gathered in Copley Square to decry April, six neighborhood organizations agreed to form a “hyperlocal” mutual aid police violence against communities of color as a public health issue. network and information clearinghouse in the Fenway—Fenway Cares. Within WOLF STEVE PHOTO: a week, Fenway Cares completed its first project, working with District 8 City Councilor Kenzie Bok to distribute more than 300 boxes of fresh produce to households across the neighborhood. Fenway Cares addresses both the public health and economic impacts of the emergency on residents. Organized by the Fenway CDC, the Fenway Community Center, Operation PEACE, Fenway Civic, the Fenway Alliance, Grace City Church, and individual residents, the network serves as a resource for people needing help, looking for reliable information, or wanting to volunteer to help neighbors. There were also federal, state and local eviction moratoriums, rental and mortgage relief funds, food banks, and free testing centers. Especially during the early months indoors and isolated, Fenway residents tried looking on the bright side, diving into new or familiar art forms, designing window signs expressing solidarity, and participating in the “Silver Linings” contest to highlight pandemic-driven changes in policies and attitudes they hoped would become permanent. One intrepid family built the “Stick House,” an evolving structure of twigs and branches found by two young boys that grew to cover nearly 3,000 square feet on south bank of the Muddy River near the MFA.

Otherwordly quiet reined on Van Ness Street, normally jammed for ball games, in mid-April. For another photo, of Boylston Steet TRANSIT TOOK A HIT PHOTO: STEVE CHASE etween scheduled repairs and route changes resulting from low ridership devoid of traffic, see page 3. during the pandemic, MBTA service in the Fenway, Mission Hill, and Audubon B Circle saw many changes this year. In late July, the T began a month of repairs on the E branch of the Green Line. During construction, it offered shuttle buses between Heath Street and the Prudential Center. Later in the pandemic, the agency proposed ending all E Line trolley service at Brigham Circle, lopping off five stops between there and Heath Street. The T also announced service cuts on the 55 bus route between the West Fens and Park Street, no longer running it to Park during the day and potentially eliminating it entirely in 2021. With poor community outreach, East Fens residents learned after the fact about the decision to relocate the bus shelter across from the Hynes Green Line stop to accommodate construction on Air Rights Parcel 12. The unappealing new shelter blocked a busy sidewalk and moved idling buses closer to residential buildings, leaving residents fuming over bus fumes. 2 | FENWAY NEWS | SPECIAL EDITION

> CLEAN ENERGY from page 1 to-use calculator to determine your costs. launch. However, you may opt out or opt in Eversource’s residential assistance discount, you can enroll when your current supply Simply enter your kWh per month (from to the program at any time for no charge. If and customers with a budget billing plan contract ends. Note that some electricity your Eversource bill) to get the cost for each you opt out, it may take one or two billing can stay on that plan. suppliers—your Eversource bill shows your product. cycles to return to Eversource Basic Service, The City has been hosting supplier—may charge for early termination. As an example, for a household that due to the timing of meter reads. informational webinars: the final one took The program offers two options beyond uses 100 kWh a month, the Default choice The initial City contract with place Jan. 4. the Default (Standard) that includes 28 will cost $11.41 a month; Optional Basic, Constellation is from February to November Visit boston.gov/departments/envi- percent renewable energy: $10.96; and Optional Green 100, $14.76. For 2021. The frequency at which the City ronment/community-choice-electricity for • Optional Basic (not to be confused with comparison, the monthly cost will be $11.88 renegotiates contracts is expected to vary the program description, opt-in and opt-out Eversource’s Basic Service) will provide for the Eversource Basic Service fixed rate (with the aim of longer term contracts), form, rates and energy choices, translation the minimum state-mandated level of between Jan. 1 and June 30. Remember, and new rates will be announced through of customer notifications, program princi- 18 percent renewable electricity in your these costs are for electricity supply and do press releases from the Mayor’s Office ples, and FAQs.Visit cityofbostoncce.com/ supply and cost less than the Default. not include the delivery charge. and posted on the CCE website and social resource-calculator/ for the CCE calcula- • Optional Green 100 will provide 100 You can opt out of the program entirely media. While the CCE program anticipates tor. Webinar recordings in multiple languag- percent renewable electricity and cost by completing a simple online form, calling lower costs for customers over the longer es will be posted on the Greenovate Boston more than the Default. Constellation, or returning the opt-out card term, it cannot guarantee savings over the YouTube channel: https://www.youtube. You can opt in to either of these in the notification letter. The opt-out period Eversource Basic Service rate, which may com/channel/UCDj97_kFFCQrq4005hD- products by completing the online form. for the Feb. 1 launch ends on Jan. 11 so that change twice a year or more. NjpA/featured The CCE website includes an easy- the City can transition accounts ahead of the There will be no change in Leslie Pond lives in the West Fens.

THE STORIES THAT SHAPED US FIREWORKS BECAME THE SOUNDTRACK

PHOTO: ALISON PULTINAS PHOTO: 2020 OF OUR SUMMER RIVER DREDGING BEGAN n late June, the Charter Company installed fencing along both sides of Agassiz Road ahead of its work with the Army Corps of Engineers (ACOE) Ion Phase 2 of the Muddy River restoration project. Over three years the company will dredge 1-8 feet of sediment from twelve areas along the riverto improve water flow, remove of some (but not all) phragmites, and restore and replant the riverbank with native species. In the fall, the company rebuilt the intersection of Agassiz and the Fenway to allow trucks to haul sludge from upstream sites near Simmons University and Leverett Pond in Brookline to the processing facility set up in front of the Duck House. We ran this photo of some of the first pieces of equipment deployed along Agassiz Road.

After Fourth of July celebrations, a Parker Hill Ave. resident named Josh took a broom to the basketball courts at McLaughlin Playground to clean up ALISON PULTINAS PHOTO: widespread firework debris. Maintenance workers from the Parks Department arrived later that morning. Throughout June and into July, excessive fireworks use was a problem not just in the Fenway and Mission Hill, but across the city and the country. In the first week of June, the Boston police told the Boston Herald, complaints about fireworks were up 2,300 percent citywide over 2019.

DEVELOPMENT PAUSED, RESUMED lthough there was a construction pause in the early days of the pandemic, construction resumed in June, and development projects remained a hot topic Ain the Fenway and Kenmore Square. During the summer, Samuels & Associates begun preliminary site work for its Parcel 12 project at Boylston Street and Mass. Ave. The $700 million office and hotel complex will rise above the Mass Pike across from the entrance to the T’s Hynes Station. An office building on Boylston and a hotel on Newbury will frame a half- acre public plaza with retail space, improved sidewalks, and a new under-the-street 2020 ELECTION entrance to Hynes. n the first two days of early In September, Damian Chaviano of Mark Development withdrew the developer’s voting in Massachusetts— proposed high-rise Kenmore Hotel from further Public Improvement Commission Saturday, Oct. 17, and Sunday, review to, in his words, ”fine-tune the overall design.” That halted the controversial PHOTO: STEVE CHASE O Oct. 18—hundreds of Boston residents plan to redesign traffic patterns for Beacon Street and Commonwealth Avenue took advantage of a chance to cast in the square for the time being. Meanwhile, construction continued on Related their ballots at Fenway Park. Lines Beal’s redevelopment of the north side of the square. The developer got the City to formed early, snaking back from Gate approve a change in use that will see about half of the 250,000 square feet used for A on Jersey Street and onto Van Ness. lab space. The renovation of 401 Park (previously the Landmark Center) will add a As both days wore on, however, lines 14-story building with more lab space and offices, also under the Samuels flag. and wait times shrank. The pandemic Also in September, Developer SCAPE proposed another project at 819 Beacon reached elections, too, with two St., this one with roughly 280,000 square feet of mixed uses. It will include East Fens polling stations moved to approximately 450 housing units, 53 patient-family housing units operated in Matthews Arena to reduce the risk partnership with Boston Children’s Hospital, and 209 parking spaces. Scape began to residents of the elderly housing deconstructing 1252-1270 Boylston in November—once home to two famed gay buildings that normally host them. bars and the Baseball Tavern—as it prepared the site for construction of 477 apartments and a small theater. DOROTHY’S CONCERT NOISE STUDY CLOSED s the Fenway being adversely affected by noise pollution? The resounding ong a local fixture, answer is yes. Local researchers have been studying the health effects of Dorothy’s Boutique Inoise in the neighborhood, and the results sounded alarming. In a study Lon Mass. Ave. shut released in February, Erica Walker, who holds a doctorate in environmental its doors June 30, an health from Harvard’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health, reported the results early retail victim of the of real-time sound monitoring at 14 sites throughout the Fenway from March pandemic. Owner Jon through September of 2019 during off hours, baseball games, and concerts at Diamond’s parents first Fenway Park. Conclusions were dramatic. Sound levels during concerts proved opened in the Fenway in higher (with statistically significance) than sound levels measured during both 1960, moving to 190 Mass. baseball games and times of no activity at the stadium. All concerts registered Ave. in the ’70s. Diamond sound levels higher than World Health Organization recommendations for told contributor Alison urban conditions. Nearly 100 people turned out for Walker’s presentation, the Barnet that he hoped to last large in-person public meeting held in the Fenway before the shutdown. continue selling on line.

PHOTO: JON DIAMOND FENWAY NEWS | SPECIAL EDITION | 3 THE2020 STORIES THAT SHAPED US ART IN THE TIME OF CORONAVIRUS MUSEUMS STRUGGLED ll museums—including Mass Historical Society, the Gardner, and the just-renovated galleries at MassArt—closed for many months. But our biggest museum took the biggest hit: The Museum of Fine Arts PHOTO: STEVE WOLF A canceled all public programs through the summer and laid off more than 100 staff members in the spring. In September, labor organizers working with employees at the museum filed a petition with the National Labor Relations Board to hold a new union election, potentially to join UAW Local 2110. The move could affect hundreds of administrative, technical, and curatorial employees. After a summer of uncertainty the MFA reopened on Sept. 26—sort of. In light of state and city guidelines, it only allowed visitors into certain galleries, dramatically reduced hours, and required reserve-ahead, timed tickets. (The Gardner had reopened in mid-summer, also with strict capacity and time limits). The six-month closure wreaked havoc with plans to celebrate the MFA’s 150th anniversary. On Dec. 16, in the face of a new surge of coronavirus cases, the City of Boston ordered museums to close yet again. PHOTO COURTESY OF MISSION HILL FENWAY NEIGHBORHOOD TRUST DELIA ALVAREZ BEAT COVID-19

On Sunday, March 22, a guerilla artist placed a face mask on one of the sculptures that flank the Fenway doors of the MFA. (The sculptures by Antonio Lopez, are known as “Day” and “Night.”) The Boston Globe later tracked down the artist, Peter Agoos, who recruited his nephew to help him install the mask, made of cling wrap. Although the museum had closed the previous week, its administrators didn’t take kindly to the installation and had it removed the next day—a disappointing choice at a time when humor offered some relief from the unrelenting grimness of the first wave of the pandemic.

Neighbors cheered the return of 96-year-old Delia Alvarez after she survived DEATH TOOK NO HOLIDAY a serious bout with COVID-19. Following a month in rehab, she returned to her he year took away some memorable local lights, including West Fens home in the summer, assisted by her niece Sandra. Shown in a 2019 activist Lisa Soli, known for her years managing and upgrading photo, Delia appears with Gloria Platt and Rachel Huot. Tmany of the buildings (and their financing) owed by the Fenway CDC; grassroots leader David Scondras, who served as the first city councilor from District 8 between 1983 and 1993 (see pages 4-5) and wrote the city’s first human rights ordinance; retired urban planner FIRST FENWAY CO-OP TURNED 40 and FCDC board member Romin Koebel; Whole Foods employee he First Fenway Co-op, located at 143-149 Mass. Ave., celebrated its Derrick A. Johnson, well known for his kindness and beautiful singing 40th anniversary in 2020. Back in the 1970s, when tenants in the voice; and musician and educator Florence Dunn, who’d lived in the Tbuilding learned that the owner was planning on selling, they banded East Fens for more than 60 years. together to purchase the building through a limited-equity cooperative that owns the entire building and keeps housing costs low. This led to numerous other housing affordability victories over the years. The 12 six-room apartments on Mass. Ave. have remained a successful resident- owned cooperative since 1980. PHOTO: STEVE CHASE STEVE PHOTO: RESIDENTS (BRIEFLY) RECLAIMED THEIR NEIGHBORHOODS

If fireworks provided a nighttime soundtrack in 2020, local residents at Clockwise from top left: Lisa Soli, Florence Dunn, Derrick A. Johnson, and least found some daytime quiet, with colleges emptied out, construction Romin Koebel on pause, and barely any cars on streets until mid-July. 4 | FENWAY NEWS | SPECIAL EDITION

EDITOR’S NOTE: Thanks to an anony- Fens resident Mat Thall immediately a pivotal moment. He became one of had on the Fenway and the city still mous donor, The Fenway News has after Scondras’s death from kidney the leaders among a remarkable group reverberates, not just in institutions produced this special edition, wrapped failure in November. It establishes of activists who coalesced in the late like Fenway Health and the Fenway around an expanded version of a trib- some of the historical context for the 1960s to address neglected housing, CDC, but also in the hundreds of ute to the late David Scondras that ran extraordinary comments submitted disinvestment, and a panicky City ef- people he worked with and inspired. in our online December 2020 edition. by friends, neighbors, and colleagues fort to address post-industrial decline He leaves a rich legacy that ripples We adapted the introduction that follow it. through urban renewal. out far beyond our little corner of the from a remembrance written by East Scondras landed in the Fenway at The outsized impact Scondras world.

† Remembering David Scondras ¢ BY MAT THALL the system,” deciding to run for city council from the avid was a lifelong activist and reformer who newly created District 8, which includes the Fenway and occupied roles as community organizer, tenant Mission Hill. He won, then spent five terms on the council organizer, statistical researcher, politician, pushing through measures to protect tenants from condo teacher, and writer over his 74 years. He changed conversions; generate linkage funds for affordable housing Dthe Fenway, the City of Boston, and the global war against from commercial development; and enact one of the AIDS. A passion for social and economic justice and LGBTQ first gay-rights and antidiscrimination ordinances in the rights inflamed him throughout his life. country—all while his office delivered an unprecedented Raised in Lowell, David attended Harvard College, level of constituent services. where he had his first brush with institutional homophobia After 10 years in office, David returned to “private life” when the university pressured him into seeking psychiatric in 1994. Initially focusing on gay-rights issues, including “help“ as an openly gay student. Settling in the Fenway af- as leader of the newly formed Boston Human Rights ter graduation, he deepened his involvement in antiwar and Foundation, he moved increasingly into AIDS activism, civil rights work. He worked to establish the neighborhood- an issue that had become intensely personal: his beloved focused and LGBTQ-supportive Fenway Community Health partner Robert Krebs had become infected with HIV. Thus Center, initially run out of a basement on Haviland Street. He was born Search for a Cure (SFAC). was a driver in the fight against the Fenway Urban Renewal Initially SFAC operated as an advocate for easier Plan, organizing the plaintiffs in a lawsuit that ended demo- access to promising treatments and a translator of complex lition of historic housing stock and ultimately changed the scientific information for people with HIV. By the late 1990s way federal urban renewal operated nationally. SFAC was working in India and East Africa, and David was In 1973 a rash of mysterious fires struck buildings on doing things like persuading Harvard Business School to Symphony Road and Westland Avenue. Scondras became the develop the financial and logistical plan for a massive AIDS- leader of the Symphony Tenants Organizing Project (STOP), formed to protect treatment program for the country of Malawi. tenants and fight the City’s official narrative that they were burning down their After nearly 40 years in the Fenway, David and Robert moved to Cambridge, own homes. Mounting a sophisticated research effort, STOP developed a model where Robert, an architect, redesigned the Victorian house that the couple for identifying where fires would occur and helped then-Attorney General Frank operated as a B&B to help fund SFAC. The 2008 recession, however, cut other Belotti indict and convict 33 people in an arson-for-profit conspiracy. funding to a trickle, and David, facing declining health, wound down the In 1983 Scondras made a tough decision to work for change from “inside organization.

I am so sad to hear the charming—and sometimes I probably met David around uninsured person with AIDS left and get off the street. David news of David’s passing. unpredictable—but he was 1971 during the protests against on the street to die; a troglodyte used his influence to get this Together we enacted the first always strategic, and he never the Christian Science Church’s city councilor whose campaign man into a rehab program, find rental-protection and anti- wavered as an activist for social demolition of the neighborhood workers threatened to drag my a home, and secure a small job. displacement law for poor justice. under the BRA’s urban renewal boyfriend and me behind their Some congressional offices today people in Boston—when most David lived a fulfilling life. plan. I had made a film about pickup...David’s outside-the-box don´t do as much as that city politicians and the media were He was a working-class kid from urban renewal in the Fenway thinking often reminded me of council office did. May David against poor people’s right to Lowell who went to Harvard but and was excited to meet the the quote attributed to Robert F. rest in peace, and may Robert housing. David fought for social never forgot where he came from. wonderful, dynamic people Kennedy: “Some see things as be comforted by knowing that and economic justice and never He was constantly causing what who were doing all sorts of they are and say, ‘Why?’ I dream things are a little better because backed down. Rest in peace, my the late John Lewis called “good interesting community work. of things that never were and they were together. friend. trouble.” David was a cyclone of political ask, ‘Why not?’” GARY DOTTERMAN, CITY COUNCIL RAY FLYNN, MAYOR, 1984-1993 PETER DREIER, MAYOR FLYNN’S HOUSING and intellectual energy amidst FRENCH WALL, CAMPAIGN VOLUNTEER, STAFFER ADVISOR; PROFESSOR AT OCCIDENTAL us all. He was never cynical or LEGISLATIVE AIDE COLLEGE defeatist about our fight against David had greatness in him. He David—Thank you for the huge financial and political was original, charismatic, a great When it came to building rollicking rollercoaster ride you forces at work to destroy our mind who thought outside the As a Boston City Councilor coalitions, there was nobody any gave us over several decades wonderful urban neighborhood. box. When I think of the Fenway, David won passage of better, especially when it came as your inventiveness, wit, His positive “can-do/why not?” he looms large. ordinances expanding to [including] a cross section of and curiosity contributed to attitude kept the energy level BETTE KEVA, JOURNALIST; FORMER protections against evictions and cultures. creating several new layers to EDITOR OF THE FENWAY NEWS condo conversions. However, I high for years way beyond my MEL KING, FORMER STATE the Fenway’s ongoing identity feel his work ought to be most residency in the Fenway. REPRESENTATIVE; FORMER MAYORAL as a community of joy seeking remembered for his sweeping JOHN NEWBY, FILMMAKER CANDIDATE justice. Your warmth and David Scondras was a remarkable human rights ordinance that vulnerability were special gifts progressive politician. When established protections against David’s 1983 city council Ours was the only city council from on high. I wish you much he won an uphill battle for discrimination in employment, peace, my friend. City Council, representing campaign was exhilarating, office with a “foreign policy” housing, and many other areas a turning point in Boston and became the City’s greeter BOB CASE, ACTIVIST; the Fenway, tenants were his based on sexual orientation, LONGTIME FENWAY RESIDENT political base and the city’s real politics as Mel King became of foreign officials. Our office gender, race, and religious the first person of color to staff was a collaboration of estate industry his outraged preference. In organizing make the mayoral run-off, and young citizens, senior citizens, Not many people know that opponents. passage of the ordinance, David became the first openly and interns who together came David was by training a As a City Council member, David combined his passion for gay person—and democratic up with ideas for improving mathematician. In the mid- he mastered the “inside- including everyone with his socialist—elected to the city the city as well as for helping 1990s, he and I often got outside” approach. He hired political strategy of building the council...In his office I learned people—now commonly called together to discuss problems community organizers on his biggest possible constituency... that democracy could be an “constituent services.” For that interested us. During one staff, continued to help build David was probably the smartest antidote to wealth’s privilege. I example, a young man called our of those sessions, the phone grassroots movements, and person I ever met. He had an also had a wake-up call that year office around Christmas one year rang. He picked it up, and next served as the voice and chief ally intense passion for helping the as a middle-class white boy: the asking for help. He told us that thing I heard was “Hey, Dapper! of Boston’s tenants—a majority most dispossessed of people. He destitute elderly mugging victim he had AIDS, was homeless, and How are you?” That was the of the city’s population—on the was my mentor and my friend. council. He was also the first who was told Medicaid wouldn’t was selling sexual services to start of a lengthy and animated JACK HALL, SCONDRAS CAMPAIGN cover her “cosmetic” jaw surgery survive. He wanted to get clean openly gay member of the City MANGER, CITY COUNCIL STAFF DIRECTOR conversation, perhaps a half- Council and became a stalwart since she could still manage to hour long. voice for LGBT equality. eat; the trans prostitute beaten Albert “Dapper” O’Neill, David could be goofy, by police, with only her word served on the council with sardonic, brilliant, funny, against that of three cops; the David and had a reputation as and angry, which made him an old-school, grandstanding FENWAY NEWS | SPECIAL EDITION | 5

† Remembering David Scondras ¢ Irish-Catholic politician, and with this quote from were both inspirational UP. David saw the need for “politically incorrect” in the him: “Government is and pragmatic, warm, a confrontational approach, extreme. When David finally about sharing, more and welcoming to but he also understood the hung up, I said, “David, I thought than anything else in many opinions once value of opening dialogue you two hated each other.” David the world...The issue thought polarizing. between affected community responded, “No, Jon. The truth is very simply do you Just a few months members and researchers. This is we always understood that we or don’t you agree ago Irene Alinsky died. led to the birth of Search for were the only council members that we’re a family? Now, with David gone a Cure. David’s training as a who actually believed what we If we’re a family than as well, we cherish scientist enabled him to ask said and weren’t there just to we’ve got to make what we learned from key questions, and his political make business connections. sure we take care of them all the more, skills allowed him to develop And I’ll tell you another thing: If each other.” and look forward to a friendships with key players at Dapper had been born 30 years JACK MILLS, ACTIVIST; future with the culture the NIH and several companies. later, he’d have been on our side.” COUNCIL they helped create. His activism greatly enhanced JON BALL, MATHEMATICS INSTRUCTOR STAFF DIRECTOR; FORMER JOE BECKMANN, FORMER AIDE community education and FENWAY RESIDENT AT UMASS BOSTON; FORMER FENWAY TO STATE REP. ELAINE NOBLE; helped shape thinking about the RESIDENT RETIRED EMERSON COLLEGE structure of studies and getting FACULTY MEMBER David Scondras experimental medications to David founded, helped build, or was one of my most those in need as expeditiously as engaged with organizations that reliable allies on David Scondras was possible. He was a great thinker are today the backbone of the the Boston City a brilliant, visionary and great soul, and will be sorely Fenway neighborhood and its Council. We co- leader. His local impact missed. commitment to diversity in every sponsored many alone was staggering, KEN MAYER, M.D., HARVARD MEDICAL way, including Fenway Health policy initiatives, and I doubt many SCHOOL FACULTY MEMBER; MEDICAL including the South people realize how RESEARCH DIRECTOR AT THE FENWAY Center, Fenway Community INSTITUTE Development Corporation, and Africa divestment much they owe to The Fenway News. David was ordinance, the him, as it’s easy to brilliant, caring, and often way assault-weapons take for granted the David never realized he had been ahead of the rest of us in seeing ban, creation of the structures he put an inspiration to so many. His what was possible. He was also Human Rights and in place to keep our middle name was social justice; it funny, generous, quirky, proudly Arson commissions, rent control community safe and healthy was human rights; it was love thy gay, and gave us four volumes and many other progressive David Scondras was the James and housed. I will always be neighbor. To quote civil rights of a wonderful biography that measures. In 2013, he even Michael Curley of District 8. grateful to David for waking leader John Lewis, America chronicles some of that history. supported my campaign for Although David’s politics were me up to the opportunities for needs many Davids “to make I will miss knowing that he’s out mayor of Boston. He was a friend the polar opposite of Curley’s, community impact that each trouble; to make good trouble.” there making the world better of the working people of Boston he had all the passion, political of us is presented on a daily HELEN COX, CHAIR OF THE SCONDRAS and so much more interesting. and a champion of human rights. savvy, and brilliance of the basis. He made the most of his STEERING COMMITTEE; LONGTIME FENWAY RESIDENT AND ACTIVIST NIKKI FLIONIS, DIRECTOR OF MISSION He will be missed. former mayor. In David’s heyday opportunities, and in his honor SAFE; LONGTIME EAST FENS RESIDENT CHARLES YANCEY, FORMER CITY as city councilor for the Fenway, we should each do the same. COUNCILOR; FORMER MAYORAL Mission Hill, and the Back Bay, BRIAN CLAGUE, MUSICIAN; LONGTIME David and Robert were my CANDIDATE he knew everyone, made it his FENWAY RESIDENT David Scondras was one of the neighbors on Edgerly Road, business to stay in touch with most complex, interesting people where we owned adjoining his constituents, and focused I’ve ever met. We all know I will always remember David I knew David when we were rowhouses. They were good intently on their needs. David his political and educational as one of the most creative boys in Lowell in the late 1940s neighbors, sociable, political, was gentle when he needed to be, activism, but he was interested and challenging community and early 1950s. His mother’s and generous—before they built but he also had the capacity to in and excited about everything! organizers and politicians. Even family owned a grocery store on their own house, they let me use become a passionate messenger I have memories of his forays before he drew me into his work the first floor of the tenement I the lot as a garden. I served as of truth and and insisted on into Kirlian photography, in the Fenway, I remember lived in, on the corner of Suffolk campaign treasurer when David justice when fighting for the making avgolemono soup, and marching with him in one of the Street and Broadway across from ran for city council. neighborhoods and constituents having camp-outs on the Edgerly first gay pride parades—which the Western Canal. We attended GALEN GILBERT, FORMER NEIGHBOR he represented and for the city Road playground. He was so he helped invent. During the religious school together at he loved so much. I’m sure he’s unique and energetic! 1980s, when our state and city the Transfiguration Church on David loved the people he districts overlapped, his advice already campaigning for the Saturdays. He was also whip- KARLA RIDEOUT, ACTIVIST; LONGTIME rights of his fellow angels. We worked and lived with. He FENWAY RESIDENT was crucial as I made decisions smart and would go on from “the miss you, my friend. loved his neighborhood and his on the first gay rights bill and Acre,” historic home of the Greek district. It was evident in the the state’s response to the AIDS BARBARA BURNHAM, FORMER EXECUTIVE immigrant community in Lowell, It was a total shock to learn DIRECTOR OF THE FENWAY CDC way he looked at and spoke to crisis. David leaves us saddened to Harvard. of David’s death! It seemed you that he cared. He combined yet so appreciative and so much DAVID SPEROUNIS, CHILDHOOD FRIEND impossible that someone so his aptitude for numbers with better. I met David [while] fighting for dynamic, so creative could a passion for people to make BYRON RUSHING, FORMER STATE justice. David was committed have died. David loved being David had an indelible impact change. He used the power of REPRESENTATIVE to an inclusive democracy, He Greek! He loved pushing the on my life, as he did on the love to be one of the fiercest represented his district on issues envelope! He loved making lives of so many. He was a wild champions of social justice this that affected the whole city, things happen...and so he did! In I got to know David as an man, a gifted strategist, and city has ever seen. and his successes changed our the Fenway. On the city council. organizer for the Massachusetts a natural leader. I met him in MICHAEL KING, FORMER MATH STUDENT society. David made a difference. In health care. In ways too Tenants Organization and 1975 shortly after I moved to OF DAVID’S; DIRECTOR OF THE SOUTH END later on the staff of the Fenway FELIX ARROYO, FORMER CITY COUNCILOR; TECHNOLOGY CENTER numerous to enumerate. SUFFOLK COUNTY REGISTER OF PROBATE the Fenway. He was central to David made a difference!!! CDC, two organizations that my initiation in community What else need be said? Except sometimes seemed to be organizing, LGBTQ rights, and David taught us all what it that we shall miss him for years extensions of David’s city I got to know David through community development, and means to be an “activist.” From to come. council office—or maybe the Elaine Noble, with whom I had his first city council campaign his prescient commitment to ROSARIA SALERNO, FORMER CITY other way around, as we worked worked at Emerson College, was my crash course in election equality to his leadership on the COUNCILOR; FORMER MAYORAL together so closely in the fight along with Irene Alinsky. field operations. I’m 3,000 front lines of the CANDIDATE; LONGTIME FENWAY RESIDENT for affordable housing and to This was in the early 1970s, miles away and in a completely AIDS crisis, we have lost a true protect tenants. David hired and Irene was inspiring all of different career—urban planning champion. great folks to work for him and I miss David. What an impact he us, as was her late husband, and higher education—but those MIKE ROSS, FORMER DISTRICT 8 CITY was constantly generating ideas had on who I am—our intense, Saul. In an era when issues of Fenway-nurtured, Scondras- COUNCILOR for legislation or programs or for successful work to end arson- race, of sex, of sexuality and influenced values and spirit still new ways to win allies to our gender (and, later, language, for-profit’s devastation in the guide me. We will miss him. If the definition of “moral” is cause. careers and culture) were all Fenway; our conversations CHRIS TILLY, FORMER FENWAY ACTIVIST; living what you believe, David BOB VAN METER, FORMER ORGANIZE; reforming, David’s inspiration CHAIR OF THE UCLA PLANNING with a Nobel laureate and a was the most moral man I have PAST DIRECTOR OF THE BOSTON OFFICE and irony contributed to all of DEPARTMENT tremendous musician; and ever met, and I loved him all the OF LISC our community—which, we our witness to human rights more for it! Extremely bright, previously would have called abuses in El Salvador and Lack of effective treatments and very passionate, generous to “communities.” We learned to subsequent work to stop Reagan bureaucracy slowed studies of a fault, tireless and always work and share with each other administration complicity in the promising therapies in the early courageous, no matter the cost. in ways that transcended those regime’s terrorist attacks on its days of the AIDS pandemic, The world will never know what boundaries. David’s success, his people. I can sum up my years leading to the birth of ACT- we have lost. grace, and his readiness to ask as David’s legislative director BOB KREBS, ARCHITECT AND rather than dictate solutions DAVID’S PARTNER FOR 42 YEARS 6 | FENWAY NEWS | SPECIAL EDITION PHOTOS2020 THAT CAPTURED US February PROTESTING ON THE T April/May CREATING WHILE

PHOTO: ALISON PULTINAS PHOTO: CAPTIVE From Mission Hill to the East Fens, people turned to art-making in the first months of the pandemic lockdown. We ran two full pages of the work they produced. Pictured here, clockwise from top: “Floral Painting” by Lisa Fay of the West Fens; “Shredded Shroud” by Beverly Sky of Contributor Alison Pultinas captured graffiti on a Green Line sign before the the Fenway Studios; and MBTA painted it over. The protest followed the assassination by Americans of jewelry made by Diane Iranian General Qassem Suleimani in the Baghdad airport. Sabella of Mission Hill. May STICKING IT TO COVID

In early April, three West Fens residents— PHOTO: STEVE WOLF Dennis Brown and his sons Caden, then 8, and Silas, then 5—assembled an improvised structure of fallen branches. Over the next few months, they continued adding to it and ultimately produced an art installation (our term, not theirs) that delighted passersby and even park rangers throughout the summer.

October FINDING SOME SILVER LININGS PHOTOS: GEORGE LEWIS JR. PHOTO: ARAMPHOTO: BOGHOSIAN

On Oct. 15 and 16, Operation P.E.A.C.E. and FENSFund hosted the Silver Linings Project, a community projection event. Recorded interviews and art submissions—both focused on unexpected positive changes and experiences that emerged from the pandemic—were projected onto the side of 72 Peterborough St. from the Seventh-Day Adventist Temple parking lot. Dozens of A team from the youth-mentoring masked people viewed the show in person, and more than 250 watched online. August Chica Project became the first volunteers to wrangle the newly October CLEANING UP installed WaterGoat trash- THAT DIRTY collecting system in August. SNOWING ON WATER It comprises a net attached to HALLOWEEN buoys and anchored on either ALISON PULTINAS PHOTO: side of the Muddy River near A year full of surprises had Charlesgate collects debris as the a full bag of tricks, including river flows through. Learn more a storm that dumped 3 about the WaterGoat—or maybe inches of snow on Boston sign up to empty it in 2021—at the for Halloween. Still, the big Muddy Water Initiative’s website, jack-o’-lantern at Mission muddywaterinitiative.org. Park kept on smiling. FENWAY NEWS | SPECIAL EDITION | 7

With ‘Furry’ Culture, A Door to Belonging Opens call him one. As it turns out, the difference “The furry world is one of fantasy, EDITOR’S NOTE: In addition to our review of the year just past and tribute to David between a fursuiters and furries is squares where dragons co-exist with bipedal, talking Scondras, this special edition showcases one of the most surprising stories we ran in to rectangles. A fursuiter is someone who wolves and impossible hybrids.” Dr. Plante 2020. Written by student journalist Adrian Tarr, it ran in our September issue. actively owns or engages in the full self- writes. Because the world of furry content is decoration of the suit. A furry could be so broad and all-inclusive, the fandom itself BY ADRIAN TARR anyone, fur clad or not, who can fit their tends to reflect those norms. “After all, if I am hat walks on two legs, barks Edmond Lam is a third-year mechanical appreciation for the fandom into their own spending time playing pretend as a neon-blue like a dog and has hair all engineering student at Northeastern. Edmond fursona. Ed’s fursona, Vyle, doesn’t have a cat that walks and talks, am I in any position over? It’s not your weird hippie commonly goes by Ed, but among the furry suit to his name… yet. to judge you for what you wear or how you uncle, it’s a “furry,” the name community, he is best known as Vyle. Vyle For now. Instead, Ed borrows his choose to identify?” given for people belonging to a most unusual, is one of a few fursonas under Ed’s supervi- roommate’s fursona, Ash. Ash is grey wolf In this way, many furries describe the W fandom as one of the first places where they and indeed plush, subculture. sion. Vyle is a six-foot-five blue-and-red fluffy with dark eyes and light blue undertones. Clint “Fox” is a 23-year-old male with dragon with When Ed felt like they could belong. a unique “fursona”—an alternative animal neon blue eyes goes to Ed went to a medium sized high school personality—who identifies as a furry. Clint’s and short red meetups in Manhattan, whose student body he didn’t fursona is a tall feminine fox with orange- horns. Unlike and events, fit into. “I got a lot of crap for reasons I never and-white fur and sunset yellow eyes who Clint’s physi- he puts on got, and eventually I gave up trying to figure frequently wears a green scarf around their cal manifes- Ash as a sort [it] out.” tation of his of “guest” While he wasn’t the only smart, nerdy

neck. Clint isn’t the only one, either. PHOTO COURTESY OF CLINT FOX Clint belongs to a Boston-based furry fursona, Vyle, fursona. kid in his high school, but the complexities group with hundreds of other fursuiters. While at least at the Arriving at of preteen social dynamics left him mostly smaller than other neighboring universities, moment, ex- Ed’s room on friendless there. “I had to outsource my Clint says Northeastern’s furry population is ists only in the seventh friends in high school” Ed said. close to 20 students. According to furscience. Ed’s head and floor, I was Robotics club is where Ed felt most in com, an online database founded by in his illustra- almost his element. “There wasn’t homework or investigators with diverse fields of expertise, tions. surprised assignments or teachers that kept me there for “the term furry describes a diverse community “One day at how any other reason, I just wanted to make robots of fans, artists, writers, gamers, and role he’s going to unsurprised I and so did the other people there.” Lucky players.” The furry fandom is a globe- be real… like was. Against for Ed, he now gets to study mechanical spanning network of individuals who don suits real [as in] the right wall engineering at his own fruition, and the furry made to represent an animalistic character of I can touch was a shelf fandom has become his newer, better robotics their own creation. him,” Ed said unit that club. There are quite a few negative with aspiration perfectly fit 5 It was a cloudy Thursday afternoon, and connotations and stereotypes associated with glimmering unique fursuit with my three new friends, I was about to the furry fandom. One skepticism involved through his heads. To my attend my first furmeet. Clint was in his iconic with group concerns the fetishism of bestiality. rectangular surprise—one Fox fursona, and Jason was wearing Maverick. Many people with a limited grasp of the glasses. As of them was The plan was to meet up at around three at breadth of the furry fandom believe it to be a of right now, Clint’s iconic Needham Bowlaway, a little over half an hour cult for sexual deviants. Others associate the Ed doesn’t fox! from Northeastern’s campus. group with mental disability and dissociative own his “He’s I felt at ease staring into the endearing disorders. own fursuit. honestly eyes of a furry headpiece—but when standing The original concept of the furry, They’re the best next to three fully decorated furries—I was according to fandom historian Fred Patten, expensive and roommate… the odd one out. Being on the taller side, I originates from the comic book Albedo, take quite he waters was unfamiliar with the sensation of being significantly shorter than everyone else. It written and illustrated by Steven Gallacci. some time to Clint Fox in March 2020. all of the Albedo followed the intergalactic exploits make. “A good plants!” -A was like I was at a basketball game with the of several anthropomorphic characters, fursuit costs at least $500,” and that kind of row of ferns and smaller potted plants line the monsters from Space Jam, but instead of scaly garnering a growing following through the financial investment isn’t in the cards for Ed back wall, in front of a large window that casts and scary, they were hairy and huggable. 1980s. These followers, who would often right now. green light into the room through and off the The four of us hailed an Uber for the meet at science fiction conventions, began to I was able to meet Ed the same way a lot flora. 30-minute journey. We were in luck to have costume themselves as characters depicted of way furries are able to make first contact Ed lives with two others, Clint, and been paired with a larger size SUV, thinking in the comic, and would even add their own with one another—through the internet. More another furry, Jason Wearer, and the three of about somehow cramming into a Prius was a non-canonized story to the Albedo universe. specifically, on a Boston-based furry Reddit them share four different fursuits. Clint takes hilarious thought exercise. Our driver, an older “I think we’ve all got a little bit of page. In the anticipation of meeting my first ownership of his fox fursona, as well as a gentleman, seemed perplexed to say the least, animal in us,” Clint said on his way home. “A real-life unsuited furry, I had no idea what to midnight blue wyvern dragon fursuit named but kept to himself throughout our journey. lot of us are able to comfortably communicate expect. Amethyst. Jason owns Ash, and a white-and- Upon arrival, I immediately took in the a different side of ourselves when we put on Waiting for him at the proctor station grey husky named Maverick. breadth of color and diversity of characters. It the suit. I think that’s what it comes down to, of his dorm, I was trying to picture what “Its like lending a friend your laptop,” was as if I was Snow White in the enchanted feeling comfortable in a community.” Ed might look like—stereotypes running Jason said, thoroughly inspecting Ash’s forest, and all my vibrant animal friends had For a lot of furries, the concept of being rampant. Was he going to come meet me in a head piece. “But when you get to know and grown to almost seven feet. different—but together—is key. Many are suit? Is there a secret furry greeting that will trust someone, you don’t really mind it. “Yip! Woot! Grrr!” bullied for their involvement in the fandom, offend him if I can’t comprehend? You just want to see them have fun with it.” Animalistic greetings, exclamations, but for most, the bullying didn’t begin with In hindsight, these thoughts were human, Jason is a quiet third-year computer science and expressions filled the parking lot. Furries becoming a furry. yet ridiculous. And that’s exactly what Ed was major in his normal clothes. When he puts hugged, jumped for joy, wrestled and shared According to furscience.com, furries are when I first met him: human. Ed is not a short on Maverick, the story completely changes. some nose-to-nose nuzzles. It turned out I “significantly more likely to have a history guy, he’s a little over six feet tall. He looked He becomes outgoing and an impulsively wasn’t the only one underdressed for the occa- of being physically and verbally bullied,” smart in his glasses and well-fitting, button- enthusiastic individual. sion. To my surprise, there were a few furries specifically during adolescence, at roughly up, cuffed jeans and leather boots. As he took According to Dr. Courtney Plante, a wearing only their headpieces, and others still 62 percent, compared to nearly 37 percent. me up to his seventh-floor dorm room, he social psychologist who contributes to the with just their tails and headband ears. Bullying and stigma aside, individuals with answered a few of my most burning questions. study of animal-human interaction, this We crammed into the entrance of Need- some form of furry identity benefit from a This was the first time—to my awareness—I behavior is healthy and not as abnormal as it ham Bowlaway like a bunch of fuzzy sardines. specific kind of social interaction that comes had ever properly met a furry. may appear. Dr. Plante views this as typical The folks running the lanes greeted us with with finding like-minded individuals—and “Why yes, I am a furry!” Ed said with behavior of those who have struggled in the a cheer—they were familiar with their furry there is little shortage here in Boston. a cheeky smile, as I asked him if I could past with finding an in group > FURRIES on page 8

When you’re

As you may know, we’ve launched a We plan to return to print as soon as the locked out, GoFundMe campaign (www.gofundme. pandemic ebbs and our distribution points call us. com/f/save-the-fenway-news) to help pay reopen. In the meantime, we continue Thanks to our supporters! Mass Ave Lock off our debt to our printer and expand our to publish online—including a regular online presence. If you’ve already donated, January issue in two weeks—the first 125 St. Botolph St. thank you! If you haven’t, we hope you'll Friday of every month. Don’t forget to: 617-247-9779 consider supporting us and news created > Visit us at www.FenwayNews.org Family-owned and -operated. 40 years and counting. by and for residents of Mission Hill, > Follow us on Facebook Lockouts Master Key Systems Audubon Circle, and the Fenway. > Write us at [email protected]  High-Security Key Systems Mailbox Keys Keys Made by Code Door Closers  Deadbolts 8 | FENWAY NEWS | SPECIAL EDITION PHOTO COURTESY OF MOLLY COSTANZA MOLLY OF COURTESY PHOTO > FURRIES from previous page what he thought was a costume party, but was patrons. All 25 or so of us were split into five actually a furry hang out.” Greg explained. lanes of five. The original four of us were He recalled Tony feeling ashamed he wasn’t joined by Mollie Constanza, rocking her Gale aware of the furry fanbase earlier. “He loved Frostbane fursona. Gale is a large black and it—he loved the people in it.” blue feline creature with long protruding It didn’t take long for Tony to start fangs. gathering people around the fandom. “He was “She’s actually pretty famous around like a lamp to the moths, he was a warm light here,” Clint said giving me a few elbows to the and a passionate, compassionate and driven shoulder. person.” Tony’s fursona, Dogbomb, was a big “Fluff up Clint!” said Constanza, which and fearless German Shepard. An inspiration turns out to be quite the common furry to furries all over, Tony left his mark on a lot expression. of people. “I’ve never seen a community come Mollie picked a ball from the rack with around a person or cause more powerfully.” a unique two-pawed style, and athletically Ed said, visibly moved. “Dogbomb represented bowled a nine on her first go. As it turns the best of us, he was the ideal furry.” At out, Mollie is a coordinator for Anthro New the end of the day, that’s what the furry England, the largest furry convention on the community is at its crux—a tight knit group of east coast. Mollie Costanza (right) with fellow furry “Strobes” in October of 2019 unique people with a whole lot of love for each At this point in time, the furry commu- other. In a tweet last year, Tony said “ALS is nity’s biggest gripe is with amyotrophic lateral athon runner and fursuiter in Orange County, condition. He died on April 5 of last year. taking away my body, but it cannot touch the sclerosis, or ALS. For the longest one of the California. Notorious for hosting running Greg Foster, who is not a furry, spoke to truth of my memories, the wonderful life that loudest and proudest members of the furry meetups for both LGBTQ and furry members me about Tony’s involvement within the furry I’ve lead, and the paw prints we’ve left on this fandom was Tony Barrett, a furry with ALS in his community, his ALS launched him into community: “Tony was a funny quirky dude magnificent piece of the natural world.” who was best known as Dogbomb. Before his the national spotlight. A lover and a fighter, with an all-around passion for life. A while Adrian Tarr is a journalism student at prognosis in 2018, Tony was a prominent mar- last March, Tony was given a year to live in his back a runner friend of his invited him to Northeastern University.

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