Residents Worry About Safety, Not Shrubs! NSTAR Neighbors Say Not Enough Has Been Done to Prevent Another Plant Explosion
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Like family: Community leaders honored GE 12 ~ Community Newspaper Company www.allstr1nbrightontab.com FRIDAY, MAY 23, 2003 Vol. 7, No. 44 • 48 Pages 3 Sections 759 Residents worry about safety, not shrubs! NSTAR neighbors say not enough has been done to prevent another plant explosion By Phoebe Sweet "I thou •ht it was a nuclear explo ion," landscaping improvements at a Wednes they have serious problems with public We have hlld three or four in the last 10 STAFF WRITER said Pegyr DiBuduo, a direct abutter, of day Allston Civic Association. NStar Di safety and reliability, and that's para years, so ii you extrapolate those num .. ·N STAR Electric representatives the April 1002 explosion that rocked her rector of Community Relations and Eco mount to me," said McDermott, chairman bers, that's like 12 times more often than it • asked for community input on house in the middle of the night and nomic Development Don Walsh asked the of the council's Public Utility Committee. should happen. landscaping for their Lincoln knocked 11ut her power for hours. "In the ACA to appoint a rask force to chose land "I don't know what planet they are on." "To me, lhat signifies a major problem Street substation this week, but abutters say three yeru that I have lived here, the place scaping for the station. Video footage from the April 2002 ex with this power station," he said. they are more concerned with the potential has expl1.Jed on me twice. Every time I Bue DiBuduo says that, while these im plosion show fireballs shooting into the McDem1ott has met with NSTAR offi for another serious explosion at the station hear a loud noise, I think I'm going to provements are welcome, aesthetics are air. Neighbors say the flames were at least cials on lleveral occasions to request than with what breed of shrubs the compa blowup:' wa} down the list of improvements she'd 75 feet high. majoroverhauls of the substation's equip ny plans to buy. Althoul1h !>OUrceS say NSTAR was ini like to see made to the station. "And there has been nothing from them ment Along with state Sen. Jarrett Barrios After three explosions in the past five tially unn.·i.:eptive to joining in efforts by And DiBuduo isn't the only one who's to indicate that this won't happen again," and state t-epresentatives Kevin Honan years - NSTAR calls these "incidents" Cabot, C.1l10t and Forbes and the Massa concerned about safety at the more than said Allston Civic Association President and Brian Colden, McDermott penned a - neighbors say they are afraid that the chusetts I umpike Authority to beautify 50-year-old station. Paul Berkeley. "Statistically, an event like letter to NSTAR CEO Thomas May in aging station may blow at any time. the LincClln Street corridor, the} proposed 'NSTAR seems to be in denial that that would happen once in every 30 years. NSTAR, page 3~ More On canPas low-cost housing cormng• By Phoebe Sweet STAFF WRITER After 30 years of ducking the regulation, the Boston Housing Authority has begun initiatives to reach federally mandated quotas for handicapaccessible u n it~ in their publicly funded housing de vt'lonmc'lt~ The BHA isn't alone in Its noncompliance, though. Accord ing to a federal Housing and Urban Development spokes woman Christine Foye, New York City, Baltimore and Wash ington, D.C., still don't have enough housing for disabled peo ple. "It's not rare for a housing au thority of this size and age," to be noncompliant, said Foye this week. The 1973 Rehabilitation Act, which prohibits discrimination against people with disabilities in federally assisted programs, re quires a percentage of housing authority units to be accessible to people in wheelchairs or with other disabilities and mandates PHOTO BY MATTTWTEN sizes and configurations of public Artist Alfred Mira of Allston paints his canvas at the comer of Linden Street and Brighton Avenue on Saturday. Mira was commissioned to do the work by the owner of the housing units. building he It portraying. Saturday was certainly a beautiful day for being outdoors. BHA, page 30 Tremont project: Belly dancing is not just for the thin By Phoebe Sweet STAFF WRITER take3 Forget yoga. Ditch pilates. The undulating rhythms of By Ph09be Sweet belly dancing have come to STAFf V.'P'"'ER All ston and students say this PATRIOT ACT After lopping t"-O torie and 21 sexy workout means love at units off a controYersial building first shimmy, shake and proposal for 9') Tremont St in thru11t. Your civil Brighton, developer Mike Lom Since January, Doreen bardi is ready (ll present his new Mar.., hall has opened up her rights are being and improved plan at a Thursday Brighton Avenue studio to meeting. novices desirous to learn the assaulted Lombardi and the B~ton Rede anctent Middle Eastern art of velopment Autlmrity are sponsor bell y dancing. Marshall, who 1111-SEEPAGE 13 ing the meetinf at the Brighton has studied the dance for a YMCA to showcase the proposal year and a half, has teamed up to redevelop oil the site of a 9- with dancer and teacher Lara INSIDE story tower that burned down in Triback, and the pair now 1979. host beginner and intermedi Commentary 10 Lombardi and his plan, now in ate classes on Tuesday and its third incarnu11on, took heat at a Thursday nights. · Community Notes 3 series of meetir1!'S last fall, where "Anyone of any age, shape residents said tllilt the 9-story, 92- or size can learn to dance and Crtme 4 unit, nearly 100 foot-tall building STAFF PHOTO BY KATE FlOCK do It well," said Triback, a Doreen Marshall belly dances for a class at her dance studio In Allston. Belly dancing Is for women was just too bi!' for the neighbor- DANCE page 8 Entertainment of all ages and sizes. 17 99 TR EMONT, page 31 Ubrary Notes 9 FREE ONLINE • 9o ... .Ji A1JO •P«ial ,,...ps :\l.\EI. 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