VOL. 120 - NO. 26 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, JUNE 24, 2016 $.35 A COPY North End Nursing Home Update by Jeanne Brady As promised, a petition has been drawn up to protest An act making appropriations for the fi scal year 2015 the planned closing of the North End Nursing Home for the maintenance of the departments, boards, com- and demand action by our elected offi cials. It is cir- missions, institutions and certain activities of the com- culating the neighborhood for signatures and reads monwealth, for interest, sinking fund and serial bond as follows: requirements and for certain permanent improvements Petition Summary and Background Section 275 of chapter 165 of the acts of 2014 (fy15 The North End community recently discovered Part- gaa) issues the following mandate: ners HealthCare plans to close the Spaulding Nursing The department of public health shall amend the li- and Rehab Center (formerly the North End Nursing censure procedure and suitability requirements for long Home) at 70 Fulton Street, Boston, MA 02113. The term care facilities to implement a hearing process decision to close this facility was made without any that would precede approval of and allow for public input from the community or concern for the impact on input on any application for a license, notice of intent the long-term residents who make their home there and for transfer of ownership or notice of intent to sell receive daily visits from family members who are unable or close any skilled nursing facility whether for to travel easily to locations outside the neighborhood. profi t or nonprofi t. Actions Petitioned for In a related topic, Mayor Walsh’s rescheduled Coffee We, the undersigned, are concerned citizens who urge Hour for the North End will take place in Christopher our elected offi cials to act now to 1) hold public hearings Columbus Park on Wednesday, June 29th, at 9:30 am. on the fate of the property (aka Parcel C-2-42A under The initial announcement described these “Neighbor- an LDA with the BRA requiring use as a nursing home) • Mayor of Boston, Martin J. Walsh hood Coffee Hours” as a way to “give residents a unique pursuant to Massachusetts DPH regulations, 2) com- • Massachusetts Governor, Charles Baker opportunity to speak directly with [the mayor] and mission an independent review of Partners’ analysis • State Representative, Aaron Michlewitz other city offi cials about needs in their neighborhoods.” of the relative conditions of the current facility and the • Speaker of the Massachusetts Recently, there have been unconfi rmed rumors that the Wingate facility they plan to purchase and renovate, House of Representatives, Robert DeLeo mayor will not actually take questions at this event, and 3) facilitate second opinions on the health impact • State Senator, Joseph Boncore, and but only allow residents to place written suggestions of moving individual residents. • Boston City Councilor, Sal LaMattina in a suggestion box. This would seem to fl y in the face If you haven’t already signed, please come by the The Massachusetts Department of Public Health of the whole reason for the event! Mayor Walsh may Post-Gazette offi ce at 5 Prince Street or go online at regulations referenced are contained in Section 275 choose not to answer questions, but we can certainly northendboston.com/nursing to sign electronically. of Chapter 165 of the Acts of 2014, reading as follows: ask them. I expect more than a few will be about our Once completed, copies will be delivered to: Chapter 165 Nursing Home … News Briefs 111th Santa Maria Di Anzano Annual Procession by Sal Giarratani Trump Getting under Obama’s Skin President Obama is looking far from being a happy camper lately. Donald Trump is getting under his skin. Trump is correct when he said that Obama was angrier with him, than the Orlando shooter. Obama also remains unable to say “radical Islamic terrorist.” He says you don’t have to call the enemy something in order to defeat it. I think many Americans want to hear him say it out loud. To date, he goes to great lengths to call the enemy anything but haters or terrorists. Why won’t he admit that ISIS terrorists consider themselves devout Muslims? To separate ISIS from the Muslim faith is to distort reality to many Americans. We are at war with a branch of Islam whether he wants to believe that or not. On this issue Trump is right and now even Hillary Clinton is addressing the enemy as radical Islamist. Time for the president to get on board, or look even more irrelevant. Warren Endorses Clinton U.S. Senator Liz Warren fi nally endorsed Hillary Clinton for president and she just had to go “attack dog” on Trump, calling him “a thin-skinned racist bully.” She also told Rachel Maddow on MSNBC that she hopes Trump never gets any place close to the White House. Donald Trump Needs to Stop Being “Stupid” At this point, I should be voting for Donald Trump, Honoring the Blessed Mother, the Society of Santa but he doesn’t make it easy to do when he implodes Maria Di Anzano’s annual procession was held himself with stupid talk. I understand that the Donald on Sunday, June 19th (rescheduled from Sunday, doesn’t like Judge Gonzalo Curiel who’s sitting on the June 5th), with a Mass at Saint Leonard Church, followed by a fi ve-hour procession of the Madonna statue accom- (Continued on Page 14) panied by society members, devotees, and two marching bands throughout the streets of the North End. The Society of Santa Maria Di Anzano was founded in 1905 in Boston by Italian immigrants from the town of Anzano, Puglia, Foggia who came to America and settled POST-GAZETTE SATELLITE OFFICE in Boston’s North End and surrounding towns. The 343 CHELSEA ST., DAY SQ., E. BOSTON Society continues the tradition of the Blessed Mother with a Mass, a social time before and after the Mass and Tues. 10:00 AM-3:00 PM — Thurs. 11:00 AM-2:00 PM highlights the day with a procession with the beautiful Call 617-227-8929 for more information statue of the Blessed Mother. (Photos by Rosario Scabin, Ross Photography) PAGE 2 POST-GAZETTE, JUNE 24, 2016 Res Publica by David Trumbull The Long Struggle for Independence The American Revolutionary 1784. Ratifi cation documents War began on April 19, 1775, were exchanged in Paris on May THE CHARACTER OF ROMAN STRUCTURES a date celebrated as a public 12, 1784. The shape, nature or charac- ORDERS OF features of their temples, such holiday — Patriots’ Day — in The American negotiators, teristics of all structures that ARCHITECTURE as the thickness, height, and the Commonwealth of Massa- John Adams, Benjamin Frank- have been built at any time or spacing of the columns and the chusetts and the State of Maine. lin, and John Jay, secured from place in history have been infl u- curvature of all horizontal and The war became a fi ght for in- one of the largest and most so- enced by their geographic loca- vertical lines to correct opti- dependence with the July 1776 phisticated world powers a trea- adoption, by the Americans’ ty which contained not only an tion, geology, climate, religious IONIC cal illusion. It is said that the beliefs, and social attitudes. typical Greek Temple was mans’ Continental Congress, of the unconditional acknowledgment Understanding these infl uences CORINTHIAN most nearly perfect creation. Declaration of Independence. of American independence, is a prerequisite to an under- When the Romans conquered As you celebrate Indepen- but also important provisions standing of the architecture of the Greeks, they accepted and dence Day weekend next week establishing the territory of the any country. used the Doric, Ionic and Co- — culminating in the free con- United States as stretching from Roman building was influ- rinthian Orders but added two cert and fi reworks spectacular Canada to Florida and from enced by the availability of more of their own design. These at the Charles River Esplanade the Atlantic to the Mississippi. marble, materials for making DORIC two are called the Tuscan, — remember that independence American commercial interests brick, chalky deposit called tufa which is not fluted, and the did not come easily. The war were protected by a provision (which also made excavations Composite, which is a combi- took seven years, with major for Americans to continue to for the catacombs practical), ex- nation of Ionic and Corinthian. battles as late as 1781. When, fi sh the waters of the Atlantic TUSCAN COMPOSITE cellent sand and gravel, a clean The Romans generally built on July 18, 1776, two weeks af- off Canada. earth called pozzolana which the horizontal structure above it their buildings fi rst and then ter the signing, the Declaration The Revolution began with helped in making a strong and which is called the entablature. applied the orders as decora- of Independence fi nally com- noble sentiment — We hold durable concrete, and by expo- The Greeks developed three tion later. Parts of structures pleted the long trek on the roads these Truths to be self-evident, sure to the work of Phidias and orders of architecture. These are still standing even though of the day from Philadelphia for that all Men are created equal, the “golden age” of Athens. are called Doric, Ionic and the decorative features were the fi rst public reading in Bos- that they are endowed by their The Greeks had developed a Corinthian and were used as removed centuries ago. The two ton, it was not at all inevitable Creator with certain unalienable civilization of the highest order.