Ward 5 Democrats take it vote by vote, door by door

by Sandra Miller
Back Bay Sun

The Ward 5 Democratic Committee is in its final days of knocking on doors and collecting information on voters to help on the big day, next Tuesday.
At its recent Candidates Forum at the Community Church of Boston, all of this November’s Democratic candidates whose districts include Boston Ward 5, were invited to seek the committee's endorsement. Attendees were state representatives Byron Rushing and Marty Walz and Sonia Chang-Diaz, a candidate for the Second Suffolk State Senate seat currently held by Dianne Wilkerson, who lost to Chang-Diaz and is now running a sticker campaign.
Rob Whitney, chair of the Ward 5 Committee, said each gave a brief statement and the committee then voted unanimously to endorse Representative Walz and Representative Rushing for re-election and endorsed Chang-Diaz for state senator for the Second Suffolk District.
In addition, the committee endorsed the following candidates: Barack Obama and Joe Biden for president and vice president, respectively; state senators Anthony Petruccelli and Steven Tolman; Representative and Speaker of the House Salvatore DiMasi; Congressman Michael Capuano and US Senator John Kerry.
On the three ballot questions, the committee voted as follows: to endorse the "No" position for Ballot Question No. 1 - to make no change in the state income tax laws; and to endorse the "Yes" position on Ballot Question No. 3 - to prohibit dog races on which betting or wagering occurs. With respect to Ballot Question No. 2, concerning replacing criminal penalties for possession of one ounce or less of marijuana with a new system of civil penalties, the committee didn’t issue any endorsement one way or the other, said Whitney.
The Ward 5 Committee is pretty busy these last few days, helping out their Democrats, especially the Obama campaign, with old-fashioned footwork and phone calls. Rob Whitney and Ania Camargo coordinate car pools along Beacon Hill, and Emily Stone is organizing the NH runs for Back Bay. “Stone is a strong volunteer,” says fellow Ward 5 member Ross Levanto.
The Ward 5 committee is composed of about 20-30 core members, with voting members elected in February.
A big factor in this year’s campaign is the committee’s increased use of the Internet to help its cause. Levanto is blogging about his choices, and notes that Ward 5 has its own Facebook page. “There are a lot of young professionals who are wired and who check out Facebook. New media has impacted this race, I’m sure,” he said.
He uses Facebook to post Ward 5 events, articles and photos. “We do not have to maintain a website,” he says. “The other thing is, the way Facebook operates, when there’s a posting on Facebook, there’s more of an impact from a viral way than posting on a blog. Whenever someone posts something, I’m told on my status page.”
Levanto prefers his blog, which he finds easier to post his opinions, tips for people going to the polls. “The most common question I get is ‘Where do I vote and how do I find out where my polling place is?’ The Ward 5 Committee is active just letting people know about events,” he says.
Levanto’s top three priorities this campaign season begins with Sonia Chang-Diaz, who is running for Dianne Wilkerson’s state senate seat. “I’ve had a lot of personal commitment to her campaign, and because that race isn’t over yet, I feel it’s unfinished business,” he says. He spends time making phone calls, canvassing, going door to door, talking to neighbors, posting blogs for her. “Last night, I was helping out a phone bank in Boston. I am taking off a day of work on Election Day to stand with her at a polling station,” he says.
Second on his priority list is supporting Barak Obama, whom he’s supported since late January. He’s volunteering in the mayor’s office on behalf of Obama, too. Third is his fight to defeat Question 1, which he says will “cripple” the state.
Levanto is busy, but his employer, Schwartz Communications in Waltham, where he is a vice president specializing in high tech public relations, is “very supportive of me. They understand people’s hobbies,” he says.
More importantly, though, he and his fellow Ward 5 members are working to ensure that people don’t just sit back and say that Obama is a done deal, my vote isn’t needed. If nothing else, their vote on the ballot questions are crucial, with such thin poll margins. He’s optimistic about seeing a high turnout this Tuesday. Now, if only that momentum could carry over into non-presidential election years.
“If you talk to Ward 5 voters, what they will tell you they care about the most, it’s generally a combination of education, cleanliness, and to some extent crime, which are issue that matters the most to local officials,” says Levanto. But conversely, it’s the municipal elections that don’t draw the voters to the polls. “I see that as a fundamental disconnect,” he says. “I’ve sat in lines at voting booths during presidential elections at my voting location, long lines that took me 20 minutes to vote. If that excitement would just carry over year to year.”
Is there a disconnect with some voters in this election? Who is Joe SixPack, anyway? “I don’t think it’s me,” says Levanto, laughing. “The thing I love about this stuff is you work hard and you think you can make a difference. Who would have thought the biggest story would be Joe the Plumber? That’s what so great about politics.”
For anyone who tells Levanto that their vote doesn’t count, he loves to tell the story of one election season in his Connecticut hometown As a teenager, he was going to vote for the first time in a race for the second congressional district. “We had five registered voters in our family, and we’d talk about who we were going to vote for. The guy won by four votes,” he says. If one person in his family hadn’t voted, the election would have turned out differently.
In related area news:
• On Election Day, the Neighborhood Association of the Back Bay (NABB) will host a membership table near one of the polls, at the Boston Public Library.
• Councillor Michael Ross will be in Florida to help with voter protection. “There’s a new law in Florida that makes it very difficult to vote if that license doesn’t identically match their name,” says Ross, who will be casting his absentee ballot before he flies out. “There is a concentrated effort, unfortunatelym to suppress votes, and so I will serve with other attorneys to make sure everyone who wants to vote will do so.” He’ll be volunteering to make sure people aren’t being turned away from the polling booth. “The reason why the vote didn’t go to somebody else the last time was because of dirty tricks,” says Ross, an Obama supporter. He’s also working with the mayor’s office to push for a vote against Question 1. “Eliminating the income tax will cripple government,” says Ross. “It’s a shortsighted law created to prey on people’s most selfish tendencies.” He’s still mulling over the other two questions.
o State Rep. Marty Walz is running uncontested, so she’ll be helping out her sister’s campaign in New Hampshire.

Miller answers the call

by Sandra Miller
Back Bay Sun
A local woman starring in the Nora Theatre Company’s production of “Martha Mitchell Calling” gets to do all the fun things an actress loves doing: talking in a fun Southern accent, wearing a blonde Beehive styled by Gary Croteau of Mario Russo Salon, and being the center of the stage.
But more importantly, the role of Martha Mitchell brings out the energetic side of award-winning actress Annette Miller.
“What I love most about Martha is her energy, her passion, her commitment to her country, and to her husband,” says Miller, a resident of Commonwealth Avenue. “When I’m in the process of playing her, all the parts of me that are like her are brought to the surface. I am working on those parts of me that have to seek truth. Martha can hold her own in any political situation. She was a great campaigner. President Nixon called her the secret weapon. It’s been a joy to not put her on, step into her, but to bring her out of me, every night.”
“Martha Mitchell Calling” is an original play written by Jodi Rothe, and making its Boston premiere through Nov. 9 at the Central Square Theater. Miller plays the feisty southern belle, Martha Mitchell, who clamors to be heard during the tumultuous times of the Watergate scandal. The wife of President Nixon’s Attorney General John Mitchell, Martha was a passionate and influential Southern socialite dubbed “the Mouth of the South” who became famous for her outspokenness and famous phone calls to the press about matters the Nixon-era conspirators wanted kept quiet. Said President Nixon in a 1977 interview with David Frost, “If it hadn’t been for Martha, there’d have been no Watergate.”
“She introduced her husband to Nixon because she thought at the time he was the best one for her country. She learned all the bad stuff they were doing, and she wanted her husband to tell the truth, and he wouldn’t. He began to cover up, and she told the truth, and for the good of the country, said Nixon should resign,” explains Miller.
“What I like about the piece is that it very much speaks to the present time. There are lots of lines that resonate in today’s world, and it seems what Nixon covered up and Nixon did pales in comparison to what things are happening today, in terms of deceit and lying. We’re paying a heavy price for it, and Martha paid a price for it. They made her out to be a looney and she wasn’t. I love being given the opportunity to speak about something very passionately about what I believe in. Martha gives me the means to do all that,” says Miller.
The play has been in production since 2006, when Miller originated the role at Shakespeare & Company, and in New York state and Florida.
Miller and her husband moved to Commonwealth Avenue three years ago, when the empty nesters moved from Newton. “The kids had grown up, and it was time to go back to the city,” says Miller, who is a native of New York City. “I love the Back Bay, being able to walk to everything.” Their daughter, Deborah, lives in Washington D.C., and son Bruce runs the Barbershop Lounge on Fairfield and Newbury streets.
Miller’s been acting ever since junior high, and attended the High School of the Performing Arts in New York City (of “Fame” fame.) At 18, she launched her professional career at the Cape Cod Melody Tent in a series of summer musicals, starting with “The Desert Song”.
She received a scholarship to Brandeis University, where she received her bachelor’s degree and later her MFA, and also studied at the Stella Adler Conservatory in New York.
Since then, she’s been in many productions. Miller has been a member of Shakespeare & Company for a decade, performing in such productions as “King John,” “Twelfth Night,” “Collected Stories,” and “Love Letters”. She has performed both on and off Broadway, including the role of Sylvie in the female version of “The Odd Couple,” with Rita Moreno and Sally Struthers. Locally, she has also performed with the American Repertory Theatre and Merrimack Repertory Theatre, and has worked in TV and film.
Of course, her favorite role is the one she’s doing now. “You always love the one you’re near,” she drawls in the Martha Mitchell accent she slips in and out of during our conversation. She’s also fond of her role as Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir in “Golda’s Balcony,” for which she received the Elliot Norton Award for Best Solo Performance.
“I created that role,” she says. “That’s what a lot of people in Boston remember me doing.”
Miller loves working with the Central Square Theater, which she says is only a short walk across the Mass. Avenue Bridge. “It’s a new theater. It’s a very exciting space to be in. I think in this time and age, we really have to hear more from artists who connect in a very truthful way to the world they live in. The playwright has written a very funny and at the same time serious piece, and people find themselves laughing and crying.”
Miller isn’t sure where the production is headed next after it finishes its Boston run, but she’s preparing for her next role, as Madam Ranevsky in Dostoyevsky’s “The Cherry Orchard,” at the Central Square Theater in January. “I’m really excited about playing her,” she says.
“At this point in my professional career, I’m fortunate I have an opportunity to practice in a profession that is a passion,” she says. “What I love the most is being able to, I guess, make a career of my passion.”

An informal look at the ballot questions

by Sandra Miller
Back Bay Sun/Beacon Hill Times
In an October 20-22 poll taken by Suffolk University and Channel 7, 59 percent of state voters plan to vote against Question 1, which would eliminate the income tax. About 26 percent of voters favor the repeal and 14 percent were undecided.
David Paleologos, director of the Political Research Center at Suffolk, said the recent advertising campaign against Question 1 seems to have worked. "The margin was much closer back in August when no ads were running," he was quoted as saying.
About the same number said they expected state taxes to increase to help bridge a budget deficit, another 28 percent said they didn’t expect tax hikes and 12 percent were undecided.
A yes vote would give the average worker $3,700 back while giving the state government a needed downsizing. Many argue that a yes vote is a reckless initiative that would cut state operating costs by 40 percent, leaving municipalities and taxpayers in a $12.7 billion deficit during a time when government is already laying off workers and cutting services.
Local political activist Ross Levanto of the Ward 5 Democratic Committee and the Beacon Hill Civic Association has been volunteering with Mayor Thomas Menino’s office to work on phone banks, encouraging a no vote. “That has been a very worthwhile effort I think,” said Levanto. “Most of the people I talk to understand when they think about it that it’s a reckless idea. It’s just a question of getting people on the phone and helping them understand what’s involved, that this is not the way to make a statement because of the draconian cuts that would be involved. In all the phone calls, I haven’t talked to many people who are voting yes on Question 1, which is a good thing.”


Question 2

A yes vote decriminalizes personal possession of marijuana, making possession of less than an ounce of the drug a civil infraction with a $100 fine. Proponents believe the proposal would save taxpayers $30 million every year in law enforcement costs and end the creation of a Criminal Offender Record (CORI report) for such a marijuana possession charge. Currently, more than 7,500 people in the state pop up on CORI for personal marijuana possession, making job searches, home buying and getting student loans more difficult.
Opponents say the law would be a slippery slope, leading to teenage truancy, problems in school, and increased car crashes.
In the Suffolk poll, 51 percent of registered voters supported Question 2, while 32 percent opposed it, and 16 percent were undecided. An August survey saw 72 percent supporting decriminalization, so the recent decrease in the vote can be attributed to law enforcement officials’ arguments, said Paleologos.
"The no side has gained momentum over the past two months," Paleologos said in a statement. "The issue is whether the brass and blue will be able to move enough additional voters to their side in 12 days."
Suffolk District Attorney Daniel F. Conley opposes the ballot question, saying its backers were trying to "turn our neighborhoods into the testing ground for a radical drug legalization agenda."
Levanto said he hasn’t made up his mind yet on this one. “It’s a tough question. There’s no escalation in terms of punishment. It’s kind of like a speeding ticket. I would be comfortable in escalation of punishment if you get caught repeatedly. There are significant issues about the CORI process, if you’re caught with this, it would significantly mess up your career.”

Question 3 would phase out greyhound racing, closing Raynham-Taunton Greyhound Park and Wonderland Park in Revere. Proponents call greyhound racing inhumane, citing long hours spend in cramped cages, poor diet, and injuries sustained in racing. Proponents of the question include the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals-Angell, the Humane Society, and Grey2K. Since 2002, injury reports show that 714 greyhounds were hurt through 2007.
Opponents said their research is flawed, that the dogs are treated well, and that in this economy, we can’t afford to lose more jobs.
Poll numbers are a real dog race. In the Suffolk poll, 44 percent support it, while 43 percent were opposed, and another 13 percent were undecided. The poll of 400 people, conducted Monday through Wednesday, has a 4.9 percent margin of error.
Levanto is in favor of the question. His sister-in-law ended up taking in some greyhounds when Connecticut closed a racetrack, and, she told him, “These dogs were clearly abused. Out of human decency, I don’t think it’s right not to have dog racing. I know that means people may lose jobs, but the wording of the proposal - I think there’s a way to help them with their employment.”

In other poll findings Gov. Deval Patrick received a 57 percent favorability rating; 53 percent favored Senator Barack Obama for president compared to 34 percent for Senator John McCain. Ralph Nader got 3 percent. Incumbent U.S. Sen. John Kerry received 56 percent to his Republican challenger Jeff Beatty’s 19 percent.

Ward 5 voters square off

Ward 5 Democrats take it vote by vote, door by door
by Sandra Miller

The Ward 5 Democratic Committee is in its final days of knocking on doors and collecting information on voters to help on the big day, next Tuesday.
At its recent Candidates Forum at the Community Church of Boston, all of this November’s Democratic candidates whose districts include Boston Ward 5, were invited to seek the committee's endorsement. Attendees were state representatives Byron Rushing and Marty Walz and Sonia Chang-Diaz, a candidate for the Second Suffolk State Senate seat currently held by Dianne Wilkerson, who lost to Chang-Diaz and is now running a sticker campaign.
Rob Whitney, chair of the Ward 5 Committee, said each gave a brief statement and the committee then voted unanimously to endorse Representative Walz and Representative Rushing for re-election and endorsed Chang-Diaz for state senator for the Second Suffolk District.
In addition, the committee endorsed the following candidates: Barack Obama and Joe Biden for president and vice president, respectively; state senators Anthony Petruccelli and Steven Tolman; Representative and Speaker of the House Salvatore DiMasi; Congressman Michael Capuano and US Senator John Kerry.
On the three ballot questions, the committee voted as follows: to endorse the "No" position for Ballot Question No. 1 - to make no change in the state income tax laws; and to endorse the "Yes" position on Ballot Question No. 3 - to prohibit dog races on which betting or wagering occurs. With respect to Ballot Question No. 2, concerning replacing criminal penalties for possession of one ounce or less of marijuana with a new system of civil penalties, the committee didn’t issue any endorsement one way or the other, said Whitney.
The Ward 5 Committee is pretty busy these last few days, helping out their Democrats, especially the Obama campaign, with old-fashioned footwork and phone calls. Rob Whitney and Ania Camargo coordinate car pools along Beacon Hill, and Emily Stone is organizing the NH runs for Back Bay. “Stone is a strong volunteer,” says fellow Ward 5 member Ross Levanto.
The Ward 5 committee is composed of about 20-30 core members, with voting members elected in February.
A big factor in this year’s campaign is the committee’s increased use of the Internet to help its cause. Levanto is blogging about his choices, and notes that Ward 5 has its own Facebook page. “There are a lot of young professionals who are wired and who check out Facebook. New media has impacted this race, I’m sure,” he said.
He uses Facebook to post Ward 5 events, articles and photos. “We do not have to maintain a website,” he says. “The other thing is, the way Facebook operates, when there’s a posting on Facebook, there’s more of an impact from a viral way than posting on a blog. Whenever someone posts something, I’m told on my status page.”
Levanto prefers his blog, which he finds easier to post his opinions, tips for people going to the polls. “The most common question I get is ‘Where do I vote and how do I find out where my polling place is?’ The Ward 5 Committee is active just letting people know about events,” he says.
Levanto’s top three priorities this campaign season begins with Sonia Chang-Diaz, who is running for Dianne Wilkerson’s state senate seat. “I’ve had a lot of personal commitment to her campaign, and because that race isn’t over yet, I feel it’s unfinished business,” he says. He spends time making phone calls, canvassing, going door to door, talking to neighbors, posting blogs for her. “Last night, I was helping out a phone bank in Boston. I am taking off a day of work on Election Day to stand with her at a polling station,” he says.
Second on his priority list is supporting Barak Obama, whom he’s supported since late January. He’s volunteering in the mayor’s office on behalf of Obama, too. Third is his fight to defeat Question 1, which he says will “cripple” the state.
Levanto is busy, but his employer, Schwartz Communications in Waltham, where he is a vice president specializing in high tech public relations, is “very supportive of me. They understand people’s hobbies,” he says.
More importantly, though, he and his fellow Ward 5 members are working to ensure that people don’t just sit back and say that Obama is a done deal, my vote isn’t needed. If nothing else, their vote on the ballot questions are crucial, with such thin poll margins. He’s optimistic about seeing a high turnout this Tuesday. Now, if only that momentum could carry over into non-presidential election years.
“If you talk to Ward 5 voters, what they will tell you they care about the most, it’s generally a combination of education, cleanliness, and to some extent crime, which are issue that matters the most to local officials,” says Levanto. But conversely, it’s the municipal elections that don’t draw the voters to the polls. “I see that as a fundamental disconnect,” he says. “I’ve sat in lines at voting booths during presidential elections at my voting location, long lines that took me 20 minutes to vote. If that excitement would just carry over year to year.”
Is there a disconnect with some voters in this election? Who is Joe SixPack, anyway? “I don’t think it’s me,” says Levanto, laughing. “The thing I love about this stuff is you work hard and you think you can make a difference. Who would have thought the biggest story would be Joe the Plumber? That’s what so great about politics.”
For anyone who tells Levanto that their vote doesn’t count, he loves to tell the story of one election season in his Connecticut hometown As a teenager, he was going to vote for the first time in a race for the second congressional district. “We had five registered voters in our family, and we’d talk about who we were going to vote for. The guy won by four votes,” he says. If one person in his family hadn’t voted, the election would have turned out differently.
In related area news:
• On Election Day, the Neighborhood Association of the Back Bay (NABB) will host a membership table near one of the polls, at the Boston Public Library.
• Councillor Michael Ross will be in Florida to help with voter protection. “There’s a new law in Florida that makes it very difficult to vote if that license doesn’t identically match their name,” says Ross, who will be casting his absentee ballot before he flies out. “There is a concentrated effort, unfortunatelym to suppress votes, and so I will serve with other attorneys to make sure everyone who wants to vote will do so.” He’ll be volunteering to make sure people aren’t being turned away from the polling booth. “The reason why the vote didn’t go to somebody else the last time was because of dirty tricks,” says Ross, an Obama supporter. He’s also working with the mayor’s office to push for a vote against Question 1. “Eliminating the income tax will cripple government,” says Ross. “It’s a shortsighted law created to prey on people’s most selfish tendencies.” He’s still mulling over the other two questions.
o State Rep. Marty Walz is running uncontested, so she’ll be helping out her sister’s campaign in New Hampshire.






Are Republicans feeling blue? Absolutely not
by Sandra Miller

Members of the Ward 5 Republican Committee know they’re a minority in the Blue State, but keep up their push for Senator John McCain and Governor Sarah Palin, and Jeff Beatty, who is running for U.S. Senate against John Kerry.
“I’m so used to being in the minority politically,” said Ellen Rooney, who leads the Ward 5 GOP crew. She counts about 25 regular members and other 35 “friends” of the campaign. Longtime fellow members include Rooney’s sister, Maureen, and Glenn Fiscus, Stephen and Rogina Jeffries, Lee and George Sprague, Reid Morrison, Richard Babson, and Mary Benedict.
Any Republicans who live in the district can sit in on the meetings, but the Ward 5 officers are elected via ballot during presidential campaign years such as this one. Rooney will be on the ballot.
Rooney, who is also executive director of the Beacon Hill Business Association, said when people join a ward committee and volunteer their skills, “Then you’re linked into what’s going on. If they’re making phone calls for this candidate or that candidate, going door to door, they’re in the loop,” she said.
Marty Samuels of Massachusetts Avenue is a new Ward 5 Republican Committee member, following a divorce and a move from Newton, where he was active with that GOP committee. “If you don’t do something, then you get what you deserve,” Samuels said. He doesn’t listen to the polls that say Beatty or McCain’s numbers are down, recalling the media headlines that proclaimed Dewey the winner over Truman. “People line up wanting to shake hands with Beatty,” he said. “To talk to him for 30 seconds, you want to vote for him. I find that heartwarming.”
The Ward 5 GOPsters were meeting once a month at Lir, and when the primaries started heading up, their meetings were visited by campaign representatives from Mitt Romney, Rudy Giuliani, and other Republican contenders, to answer questions from committee members, as also to solicit fundraising and campaign help. “That’s how they get their volunteers,” she explained. “The ward committees are really the grassroots.”
That’s how Rooney lost their secretary, when Ashley Maagero was snatched up by the McCain headquarters in New Hampshire. “It’s our loss and McCain campaign’s gain,” she said. “She’s an energetic, young, vital person. This is why the ward committees exist.”
Rooney, who moved to the Ward 5 area in the 1980s, joined the ward committee to find a few fellow Republicans in a Democrat stronghold. “When you live in Beacon Hill, most of the people you interact with are Democrats, and every so often you want to be in your own committee. I wanted to be around other people who had the same ideas, and for an exchange of ideas. I believe in being active. If you support certain candidates, you should work for them. Rather than complain about the status quo, you should work to change it,” she said.
Rooney and her sister were raised in Wisconsin by a Republican father and a mother who leaned independent. “We were raised to decide for ourselves … to weigh the issues,” Rooney said, recalling debates over the dinner table. “It’s a family that likes to talk and has lots of ideas.”
She came to Boston in the 1980s, and appreciated its love of politics. “What’s fun about this city is we love politics. There’s lots of good-natured bantering. It’s a political town -- if I didn’t like that, I wouldn’t live here,” she said.
She was elected chair since Romney first ran in 2000. Lately, it hasn’t been as much fun, she said. “This particular year, it’s such an incendiary topic. Wherever I go when I step over a threshold, someone is sure to come up to me and start talking politics. People are so emotional about it this year, I try not to engage in those situations.”
The committee is active, just not in your face. “I just say, ‘Keep your head down and just get to work.’ That’s what most people are doing. Keep on phone banking, keep making those calls, identifying the vote. All volunteer efforts are going to raising money and identifying the vote,” she said.
On Election Day, the committee organizes rides to New Hampshire, and making calls to make sure people are getting out to vote. She thanked her committee and those from wards 4, 9 and 14 for their phone bank help. “There’s some hardworking people at the McCain campaign,” she said.
These past weeks, the committee members are traveling to New Hampshire in the final days to make one last push. The McCain-Palin Boston field director, James Green led Ward 5 members and other Boston Republicans on a car pool to New Hampshire this weekend, and will go next weekend through Monday, to go door-to-door for McCain-Palin. “The big effort is calling voters and asking them, ‘Have you voted yet?’” she said.
She’s not discouraged by the polls. “We just keep goin, going, going. The polls keep changing .. We’re a small neighborhood in a Blue state, and it’s a big country. I do know there’s a lot of anger out there, a lot of emotion out there. People are worried about finances. We’re all impacted, we’re all going to see what happens,” she said.

Ward 5 voters square off

Ward 5 Democrats take it vote by vote, door by door
by Sandra Miller

The Ward 5 Democratic Committee is in its final days of knocking on doors and collecting information on voters to help on the big day, next Tuesday.
At its recent Candidates Forum at the Community Church of Boston, all of this November’s Democratic candidates whose districts include Boston Ward 5, were invited to seek the committee's endorsement. Attendees were state representatives Byron Rushing and Marty Walz and Sonia Chang-Diaz, a candidate for the Second Suffolk State Senate seat currently held by Dianne Wilkerson, who lost to Chang-Diaz and is now running a sticker campaign.
Rob Whitney, chair of the Ward 5 Committee, said each gave a brief statement and the committee then voted unanimously to endorse Representative Walz and Representative Rushing for re-election and endorsed Chang-Diaz for state senator for the Second Suffolk District.
In addition, the committee endorsed the following candidates: Barack Obama and Joe Biden for president and vice president, respectively; state senators Anthony Petruccelli and Steven Tolman; Representative and Speaker of the House Salvatore DiMasi; Congressman Michael Capuano and US Senator John Kerry.
On the three ballot questions, the committee voted as follows: to endorse the "No" position for Ballot Question No. 1 - to make no change in the state income tax laws; and to endorse the "Yes" position on Ballot Question No. 3 - to prohibit dog races on which betting or wagering occurs. With respect to Ballot Question No. 2, concerning replacing criminal penalties for possession of one ounce or less of marijuana with a new system of civil penalties, the committee didn’t issue any endorsement one way or the other, said Whitney.
The Ward 5 Committee is pretty busy these last few days, helping out their Democrats, especially the Obama campaign, with old-fashioned footwork and phone calls. Rob Whitney and Ania Camargo coordinate car pools along Beacon Hill, and Emily Stone is organizing the NH runs for Back Bay. “Stone is a strong volunteer,” says fellow Ward 5 member Ross Levanto.
The Ward 5 committee is composed of about 20-30 core members, with voting members elected in February.
A big factor in this year’s campaign is the committee’s increased use of the Internet to help its cause. Levanto is blogging about his choices, and notes that Ward 5 has its own Facebook page. “There are a lot of young professionals who are wired and who check out Facebook. New media has impacted this race, I’m sure,” he said.
He uses Facebook to post Ward 5 events, articles and photos. “We do not have to maintain a website,” he says. “The other thing is, the way Facebook operates, when there’s a posting on Facebook, there’s more of an impact from a viral way than posting on a blog. Whenever someone posts something, I’m told on my status page.”
Levanto prefers his blog, which he finds easier to post his opinions, tips for people going to the polls. “The most common question I get is ‘Where do I vote and how do I find out where my polling place is?’ The Ward 5 Committee is active just letting people know about events,” he says.
Levanto’s top three priorities this campaign season begins with Sonia Chang-Diaz, who is running for Dianne Wilkerson’s state senate seat. “I’ve had a lot of personal commitment to her campaign, and because that race isn’t over yet, I feel it’s unfinished business,” he says. He spends time making phone calls, canvassing, going door to door, talking to neighbors, posting blogs for her. “Last night, I was helping out a phone bank in Boston. I am taking off a day of work on Election Day to stand with her at a polling station,” he says.
Second on his priority list is supporting Barak Obama, whom he’s supported since late January. He’s volunteering in the mayor’s office on behalf of Obama, too. Third is his fight to defeat Question 1, which he says will “cripple” the state.
Levanto is busy, but his employer, Schwartz Communications in Waltham, where he is a vice president specializing in high tech public relations, is “very supportive of me. They understand people’s hobbies,” he says.
More importantly, though, he and his fellow Ward 5 members are working to ensure that people don’t just sit back and say that Obama is a done deal, my vote isn’t needed. If nothing else, their vote on the ballot questions are crucial, with such thin poll margins. He’s optimistic about seeing a high turnout this Tuesday. Now, if only that momentum could carry over into non-presidential election years.
“If you talk to Ward 5 voters, what they will tell you they care about the most, it’s generally a combination of education, cleanliness, and to some extent crime, which are issue that matters the most to local officials,” says Levanto. But conversely, it’s the municipal elections that don’t draw the voters to the polls. “I see that as a fundamental disconnect,” he says. “I’ve sat in lines at voting booths during presidential elections at my voting location, long lines that took me 20 minutes to vote. If that excitement would just carry over year to year.”
Is there a disconnect with some voters in this election? Who is Joe SixPack, anyway? “I don’t think it’s me,” says Levanto, laughing. “The thing I love about this stuff is you work hard and you think you can make a difference. Who would have thought the biggest story would be Joe the Plumber? That’s what so great about politics.”
For anyone who tells Levanto that their vote doesn’t count, he loves to tell the story of one election season in his Connecticut hometown As a teenager, he was going to vote for the first time in a race for the second congressional district. “We had five registered voters in our family, and we’d talk about who we were going to vote for. The guy won by four votes,” he says. If one person in his family hadn’t voted, the election would have turned out differently.
In related area news:
• On Election Day, the Neighborhood Association of the Back Bay (NABB) will host a membership table near one of the polls, at the Boston Public Library.
• Councillor Michael Ross will be in Florida to help with voter protection. “There’s a new law in Florida that makes it very difficult to vote if that license doesn’t identically match their name,” says Ross, who will be casting his absentee ballot before he flies out. “There is a concentrated effort, unfortunatelym to suppress votes, and so I will serve with other attorneys to make sure everyone who wants to vote will do so.” He’ll be volunteering to make sure people aren’t being turned away from the polling booth. “The reason why the vote didn’t go to somebody else the last time was because of dirty tricks,” says Ross, an Obama supporter. He’s also working with the mayor’s office to push for a vote against Question 1. “Eliminating the income tax will cripple government,” says Ross. “It’s a shortsighted law created to prey on people’s most selfish tendencies.” He’s still mulling over the other two questions.
o State Rep. Marty Walz is running uncontested, so she’ll be helping out her sister’s campaign in New Hampshire.






Are Republicans feeling blue? Absolutely not
by Sandra Miller

Members of the Ward 5 Republican Committee know they’re a minority in the Blue State, but keep up their push for Senator John McCain and Governor Sarah Palin, and Jeff Beatty, who is running for U.S. Senate against John Kerry.
“I’m so used to being in the minority politically,” said Ellen Rooney, who leads the Ward 5 GOP crew. She counts about 25 regular members and other 35 “friends” of the campaign. Longtime fellow members include Rooney’s sister, Maureen, and Glenn Fiscus, Stephen and Rogina Jeffries, Lee and George Sprague, Reid Morrison, Richard Babson, and Mary Benedict.
Any Republicans who live in the district can sit in on the meetings, but the Ward 5 officers are elected via ballot during presidential campaign years such as this one. Rooney will be on the ballot.
Rooney, who is also executive director of the Beacon Hill Business Association, said when people join a ward committee and volunteer their skills, “Then you’re linked into what’s going on. If they’re making phone calls for this candidate or that candidate, going door to door, they’re in the loop,” she said.
Marty Samuels of Massachusetts Avenue is a new Ward 5 Republican Committee member, following a divorce and a move from Newton, where he was active with that GOP committee. “If you don’t do something, then you get what you deserve,” Samuels said. He doesn’t listen to the polls that say Beatty or McCain’s numbers are down, recalling the media headlines that proclaimed Dewey the winner over Truman. “People line up wanting to shake hands with Beatty,” he said. “To talk to him for 30 seconds, you want to vote for him. I find that heartwarming.”
The Ward 5 GOPsters were meeting once a month at Lir, and when the primaries started heading up, their meetings were visited by campaign representatives from Mitt Romney, Rudy Giuliani, and other Republican contenders, to answer questions from committee members, as also to solicit fundraising and campaign help. “That’s how they get their volunteers,” she explained. “The ward committees are really the grassroots.”
That’s how Rooney lost their secretary, when Ashley Maagero was snatched up by the McCain headquarters in New Hampshire. “It’s our loss and McCain campaign’s gain,” she said. “She’s an energetic, young, vital person. This is why the ward committees exist.”
Rooney, who moved to the Ward 5 area in the 1980s, joined the ward committee to find a few fellow Republicans in a Democrat stronghold. “When you live in Beacon Hill, most of the people you interact with are Democrats, and every so often you want to be in your own committee. I wanted to be around other people who had the same ideas, and for an exchange of ideas. I believe in being active. If you support certain candidates, you should work for them. Rather than complain about the status quo, you should work to change it,” she said.
Rooney and her sister were raised in Wisconsin by a Republican father and a mother who leaned independent. “We were raised to decide for ourselves … to weigh the issues,” Rooney said, recalling debates over the dinner table. “It’s a family that likes to talk and has lots of ideas.”
She came to Boston in the 1980s, and appreciated its love of politics. “What’s fun about this city is we love politics. There’s lots of good-natured bantering. It’s a political town -- if I didn’t like that, I wouldn’t live here,” she said.
She was elected chair since Romney first ran in 2000. Lately, it hasn’t been as much fun, she said. “This particular year, it’s such an incendiary topic. Wherever I go when I step over a threshold, someone is sure to come up to me and start talking politics. People are so emotional about it this year, I try not to engage in those situations.”
The committee is active, just not in your face. “I just say, ‘Keep your head down and just get to work.’ That’s what most people are doing. Keep on phone banking, keep making those calls, identifying the vote. All volunteer efforts are going to raising money and identifying the vote,” she said.
On Election Day, the committee organizes rides to New Hampshire, and making calls to make sure people are getting out to vote. She thanked her committee and those from wards 4, 9 and 14 for their phone bank help. “There’s some hardworking people at the McCain campaign,” she said.
These past weeks, the committee members are traveling to New Hampshire in the final days to make one last push. The McCain-Palin Boston field director, James Green led Ward 5 members and other Boston Republicans on a car pool to New Hampshire this weekend, and will go next weekend through Monday, to go door-to-door for McCain-Palin. “The big effort is calling voters and asking them, ‘Have you voted yet?’” she said.
She’s not discouraged by the polls. “We just keep goin, going, going. The polls keep changing .. We’re a small neighborhood in a Blue state, and it’s a big country. I do know there’s a lot of anger out there, a lot of emotion out there. People are worried about finances. We’re all impacted, we’re all going to see what happens,” she said.

Sushi rock star at Uni

Youji Iwakura, the chef de cuisine at the modern-Japanese Uni Sashimi Bar, grew up in Japan and came to Boston to study at Berklee College of Music, as a singer. He first studied funk, and lately he’s doing some Stevie Wonder on the piano.

But at the sushi bar, he’s more of a jazz artist.

Many graduate from Berklee and become waiters. He became a Sushi Chef at Ginza in Brookline. He tried the front of the house for a while, bartending at Troquet and then a general manager at a few local Asian spots. In 2004, he returned to the “back of the house” at Ken Oringer’s Uni sashimi bar at the Eliot Hotel, and in 2005 it was named Boston Magazine’s Best of Boston: Best seafood.

But to further hone his skills, he returned to Japan for two years at an upscale Japanese brasserie. When he came back to Uni, he was named Chef de Cuisine, and continues to wow his customers.

Including one customer, as detailed in a recent Boston Magazine article, who was especially curious about his recipes, even taking notes. Some of Iwakura’s techniques allegedly made its way into the customer’s own sushi bar, O Ya.

The former music major said the chef flattered him, just as Prince emulates James Brown. “To create something, to compose music, you have to learn the style of soul music, not just imitate it.

“Someone can try to get a recipe out of here. But in just two months it will change again…A recipe is only 10 percent. Philosophy is more important.”

Iwakura is not the sushi chef who slices up a few pieces of raw fish and lays them on a wasabi’d finger of rice. The menu reflects what ’s fresh and available, especially what’s flown in daily from Japan.

But it’s not just about the fresh fish. He stocks his sushi bar with a huge spectrum of flavor. His sea urchin, undulled with preservatives, is served on his homemade warm tofu, seasoned with 7 spice Togarashi and roasted white sesami seeds, served in Warishita, traditional soy-dashi sauce, topped with Chardonnay gelee, Tomburi, a vegan caviar, and Youji's green shiso yuzu kosho vinaigrette.

He beams over his warm tofu, the only one of its kind in town, a copy of a recipe he found in a Japanese brasserie in NYC. “I could serve this tofu in Japan,” he says proudly.

The menu also depends on his whims. Lately he’s on an apple kick, because fall means apples.

Uni has just 21 seats, a third of which are at the sushi bar, so you can watch him work his magic five out of seven days a week in the fall. His autumn menu will include savory items such as charcoal grilled duck and mushrooms, "sandwiched" like a Japanese panini into a hasami-yaki style, with layers of ingredients skewered together and grilled, then drizzled with sauce. This "deconstruction of a hasami-yaki" will be the last course of a 7-course tasting menu, for $85 including 1 dessert course.

Another popular sea urchin item on menu is "Uni Spoon", quail egg yolk topped with sea urchin and caviar, served on a soup spoon, one of classic menu item at Ken Oringer's Uni Sashimi Bar.

Favorites include his rather simple tuna ceviche. But within his tiny sushi counter are a full palette of sauces and squeezebottles for the items he creates on the fly.

The recipe he shows today is a bit complicated because it involves using a lot of sauces he’s already created ahead of time. But it’s fall, and a recipe like this is fun for couples who tend to stay home when it gets cold, he says.

He sets the scene: “You’re home all day, and you say, ‘Oh, maybe I’ll go to Russo’s and get these ingredients, listen to music, we’ll sing together… and your husband will say, ‘I like your cooking better, forget about Chef Youji.’”

Here’s a recipe, with lots of notes.

Smoked Wild Bluefin Otoro and Grilled Porcini with Kobe Fat Powder

4 servings

"This is the kind of thing for the season," he said. "You expect some smokiness in autumn. Like you would do for some spice in a gazpacho in summer," which was a popular item that "I do not put it up for the first thing on my list because it's not really in season anymore." This recipe is subject to be changed, like many of his creations that change or improvise time to time, but it's something he's going to be offering more this November. "People enjoy tasting seasonal flavor with it," he says.

The ingredients:

* 4 sashimi slices of smoked o-toro (cold smoke with applewood)
* A porcini mushroom, sliced into four pieces, grilled on charcoal
* kosher salt and black pepper for seasoning

First, you need a seasonal tuna in good quality. "It doesn't have to be bluefin. Any toro (fatty part of tuna) is fine," he says, suggesting calling ahead to Kotobukiya in Porter Square to see when they flew some in fresh that day. "Toro is probably not available every day." He says he often likes to use chu-toro, which he says tends to have more flavor than o-toro, “which just has straight-up fat.”

To smoke the o-toro, you put them in a smoker with applewood chips, that you can get at Russo's in Watertown, or Home Depot, with an underliner of ice tab so that the result will be cold smoke. The key is to keep the toro away from charcoal. “You just want to impart a smoke flavor into the fish,” he says.

To add a mushroom confit: place mushroom slices, canola, any herbs you like, such as thyme, in a cheesecloth, over top of flame over low 150-degree oven.

Saute a little garlic until brown, and set aside.

Just warm up o-toro slices in a toaster oven set at 200 degrees.

Slice the mushroom into four slices, sprinkle with kosher salt to prevent them from shrinking and to bring out their flavor. Place it on a small stovetop ceramic grill, known as Hida-Konro, Hibachi or Shichirin, slowly heated with oga-bincho, formed Japanese charcoal, or any other quality charcoal, in the ceramic, until you can hear it sizzle.

To make sauce:

* Start off with a small diced sweet onion seasoned with salt and pepper, heated up slowly in a little neutral oil (preferably an oil infused with porcini mushroom).
* Add half of crispy garlic, grilled mushroom, and 1 oz. dry sake.
* Add 2 to 3 ounces mushroom broth or vegetable broth.
* Add 4 tablespoons of Youji's yakiniku (see below for Korean-style Japanese steak sauce,) then simmer.
* Add 2 teaspoons of unsalted butter, then emulsify.





To plate them

• Place warmed up smoked o-toro slices onto plate.

• Top with grilled porcini slices and sauce.

• Finish with remaining crispy garlic, chives and Kobe Fat Powder.

About that Kobe Fat Powder: since his restaurant uses real Wagyu beef, and it's a precious piece of meat, he tries not to waste any of it. So he'll take the fat cut from the Wagyu, melt it down, and blend it in a food processor with tapioca maltodextrin (the ratio is 5 parts tapioca to one part beef fat).

This wasn't part of the recipe he wrote out, but he can't help completing the dish without it:

• He adds apple chips as garnish: slice apples into thin chips, steep them in a simple syrup for a short time, then put them on a lightly sprayed tray, to make them easier to >remove. Dry them in an 180-degree oven for four-five hours.

• He also edges the plate with a lemon balsamic reduction and mulled apple cider puree.

"My imagination when finishing up this plate is like an Apple Crumble, with the crumb being the Kobe fat powder, onion, and crunchy garlic," he says. "I am always, always, thinking about the season."



If this recipe is a bit complicated, he says don’t worry about getting it exactly. More important is to understand your ingredients and to enjoy the process. Says Iwakura, "This recipe here is just an example. The most important thing in cooking is to maximize its flavor with each one of those ingredients. If you do, you are a chef."



Sidebar box:

Youji's Yakiniku Sauce

(makes one pint)

Part A:

Usukuchi soy sauce 8oz.

Water 1.5oz.

Mirin 1oz.

Sugar 70g

Glucose 1 tea spoon

Konbu 1 ea.

Apple 1/4

Lemon 1/4

Part B

Korean pepper paste 25g

Sesame oil 3oz.

Grated garlic 15g

The instructions:

* Bring Part A to simmer, for 5 minutes.
* Cool to room temperature, then strain.
* Mix with Part B in a large mixing bowl

Winston's ready to bloom again on Newbury

by Sandra Miller

In this day of programmed cell phones and Internet orders, who knew the renovation of a flower store would have left such a hole along Newbury Street, even when there was another Winston’s around the corner?
The flagship 131 Newbury Street store, which opened in 1944, hadn’t been renovated in more than 15 years, so it was closed since mid-June. Customers only had to travel to the Boylston Street store around the corner, but still, the Newbury Street shop was missed by the neighborhood and area merchants.
“So many people came in and said it was worth the wait,” said store manager Kelly Bonzani, who is thanking her customers for their patience during the renovations. “It really kind of made my day. One customer said she’s been coming since the ‘70s, said she saw every renovation, and told us what a good job we’ve done. Our customers agree that it looks amazing and that they are happy that this is in their neighborhood.”
Winston Flowers will show off its extreme makeover tonight at its open house. The store received a sophisticated new look by designers Kelly Monnahan Design and Studio F-Kia, along with Winston Flowers creative director Hilary Nylander.
Bonzani, who has been there for more than a year, oversaw the Boylston Street and Newbury Street shop transitions, with a goal to achieve a look that’s equal parts natural and modern design, to showcase floral and plant designs and products.
“While we are a company looking for a more modern direction aesthetically, it’s important we still want to look like a flower shop,” said Bonzani, who lives in the North End. “Instead of making the store so sleek, it was almost sterile, we made it a little warm yet modern, while still keeping the feeling of the Back Bay by keeping the exposed brick.”
We weren’t sure a flower shop could get any greener, but Winston’s is doing the best it can. It upgraded the windows for insulation and the staff’s comfort; installed energy-efficient lights, and will also be turning them off a half-hour after closing and before opening to save energy. They’re also focusing on buying flowers from local farms, said Bonzani.
The redesign of the front also brings more light into the basement level shop. “We cut the awning in half,” she said.
There’s also a new lawn, with five-foot-deep planters currently seeded with Lirope grass. “They will change with the seasons,” said Bonzani.
To say thanks, the shop is offering a limited-edition floral design, and complimentary delivery on "The Newbury" or any floral arrangement of $120 or more, until the end of the month.

Onein3 Boston helps residents connect

by Sandra Miller

It’s kind of a common refrain - it’s just hard to meet people here in Boston. It’s kind of clique-y. People aren’t friendly. Everyone just hangs out with the people they met in school or their families. It’s expensive to live here. What’s a newcomer to the city or his/her neighborhood to do?
This age group is known for its social networking skills – via the Internet, cell phones, Twitter, IMs, alumni networks, and the like, but that only goes so far. That six degrees of separation on Facebook may link a person to a neighbor, but it’s hard to start up that conversation, or even recognize that the person lives a few doors down. It takes work. Neighbors here don’t come over with a pie to welcome the new person down the hall.
That’s where Onein3 Boston comes in. It uses Facebook and e-newsletters to connect to some of its members, and through its website on the Boston Redevelopment Authority website.
“Facebook has been great for us,” says Onein3 Boston manager Devin Cole, 28, who says he may branch out to Meetup.com and other social networks and organize old-fashioned block parties.
The Back Bay branch of Onein3 organized a private room at the Rattlesnake Bar last week as part of its monthly networking series. The room filled up as the night went on. Some knew each other before they got there, but others were there to make the leap and get to know people in their neighborhood, a radical concept for a Bostonian.
“It’s not so much our age group has trouble connecting with people. It’s that they live in neighborhoods and are not connecting with people there,” says Cole. “You don’t say hi to people at your bus stop. We provide a safe space to make connections. If you get to know someone on your street, then your street life will be better.”
Cole grew up on Fairfield Street in the Back Bay, and has never moved further than three miles from there, he says. When he moved to Charlestown, on Russell Street, he knew his roommates and a few others, but most of his friends were from high school and college. “I probably walk by 100 young people in Charlestown,” he says. “Last year, I was at the Bunker Hill Parade, and a guy came up to me and said, ‘You just moved here?’” Cole was living in Charlestown for two years at that point. “Turns out he lived three doors down. There never was a reason to get to know each other,” Cole adds.
Cole has been working on this project for four years, and about two years ago, launched the neighborhood groups to target the one-third of Boston's population between 20 and 34 years old. The program connects Boston's young adults with resources related to home buying, business development, professional networking, and civic engagement, whether they are young professionals, parents, singles - anyone in that age group.
“It’s an outgrowth of neighborhood groups,” says Cole. “This organization is building a civic organization. You first have to create basic social connections … to do more proactive civic organizing.”
The One in 3 neighborhoods right now include Back Bay, Beacon Hill, North End, Charlestown, Brighton/Allston, Roxbury, and South Boston, with co-chairs for each group.
The North End chair, Michael Ratty, had moved there from Somerville two years ago, and started planning North End nights while on the mayor’s advisory council. Ratty became active in the community, and has become extremely well connected in the neighborhood. He’s just one of dozens of those active in the Onein3 Boston network, says Cole. “They’re people who moved here three or four months ago, or lived here all their life.”
Back Bay co-chairs Molly Eckman and Caryn Lazaroff both live on Beacon Street, but didn’t know each other until they joined Onein3.
Eckman, who lives on Beacon Street, points out that living in the Back Bay means tiny apartments, and “Tight spaces make it awkward to have conversations,” she says.
Eckman’s day job is at a travel council in Fort Point Channel, but when she comes home to Beacon Street, she laments she didn’t know anyone at the local Starbucks in the morning, or her neighbors next door. In contrast, she knew everyone in her hometown in Carlisle, Pa.
Eckman decided to move to Boston on a whim after seeing Babaloo, a local band who came to her Rochester college and seemed friendly. She had some friends in the area, but says, “It took me five or six years to feel stable here, to feel like a Bostonian…there were years without knowing a neighbor.”
She was doing some online searches to become more connected, and she came across Onein3 on Facebook. Cole appointed her co-chair.
“I want to go to the coffee shop or bookstore and see people I know,” says Eckman. “Everyone says this is a town, but this is not the biggest city in the world, it should have more of a neighborhood feel.”
Eckman stopped to say hi to Michele Laudenberger. In a weird coincidence, Eckman had been visiting her hometown and ran into her neighbor, Laudenberger, who was also home visiting, but lives in Boston. “I told her about this,” said Eckman, and Laudenberger came to the Rattlesnake to meet others, too. “I love this city,” says Eckman. “I want people to love it here.”
Eckman loves it so much, she is now invested in the city. She bought a studio and is looking to join the neighborhood association and take classes at the Boston Center for Adult Education.
Caryn Lazaroff, 30, grew up in Rhode Island and lived in Manhattan before coming here two years ago. She says, frankly, people are friendlier in New York City. An outgoing person, she doesn’t think twice about going places alone, but it was just hard to meet people. “It’s sort of clique-y here,” she says. “People only talk to the people they come with.”
She had friends in Boston, but, she says, “I wanted to carve out my own space.” She saw an ad for the mayor’s advisory counciland was invited to be a co-chair of the Back Bay group. “I met the neighbors in my building,” she says. Through the group, she is meeting more neighbors. “I am getting to know the city better,” she says. “This provides a warm sense of community.”
It’s also in Boston’s interest to try and keep our young residents from fleeing the city, even the state, so ONEin3 Boston provides links to career resources, parent resources like schools, parent groups, summer camps, day care, and area attractions, volunteer opportunities, information on local government and elected officials, the Mayor's Office of Neighborhood Services, tools for renting, and first-time homebuyers programs.
So far, Cole says, he hasn’t heard of any romantic connections at these events, “but it would be a great place to meet someone,” he adds.
Tonight at 6 p.m., the One in 3 career division will host an entrepreneurs night at the Boston Public Library, with guests invited to dissect and critique a few presentations. Boston Young Entrepreneurs provide support to entrepreneurs at varying stages and levels of experience while establishing a united voice for its members. It’s open to all young voices and meets in the evening on the third Tuesday of every month.
For more information on Onein3 Boston, go to www.onein3boston.org.

Cat calls and doghouses: Harbor Vets make house calls for downtown residents

by Sandra Miller

CAPTION: One of the many pets that is seen by Harbor Veterinarian House Calls. If you’re in the West End, maybe you’ve seen Paula Zingarelli walking her sphynx cat, Kojak, in a kitty carriage, around Charles River Park. Well, Kojak needed a new veterinarian, when their former vet could no longer make home visits. Zingarelli noticed that one vet also had a sphynx, so they chose Harbor Vets House Calls. “Since they are not your usual pet, a lot of vets do not know about them,” she said. “That drew me to them.” Harbor Veterinary House Calls is run by Dr. Maija “Dr. Mik” Mikkola Curtis, 35, and Dr. Emily Neenan, 27, who launched it in April for dogs and cats around Boston and surrounding areas. They had both worked at Johnson Veterinarian Hospital in Lawrence, when Curtis had an idea to do a house call service. Neenan described working in an animal hospital as “very removed and cold and sterile.” They wanted to work together, and since then, they’ve been building their house call service. Zingarelli invited the two vets over for a meet-and-greet. “I thought it would be a good way of meeting them to see how they interacted with him [Kojak],” she said. The two spent a while just getting to know Kojak, then Dr. Mik asked if she could hold him. “His heart was racing and you could tell he was afraid, but within a few minutes he calmed down and she just held him in her arms and he just stayed there,” Zingarelli said. “I was very happy and impressed with them.” Caring for pets in the home is not only a way to avoid overhead costs, but it’s also a more humane way to treat pets that are often confused and stressed at the steel counters and strange, rival animals at the vet’s office or hospital. “It’s incredibly rewarding,” said Dr. Neenan. “We get to spend more time with customers.” Home vet visits offer convenience for families who can keep their kids at home, their pets in a comfortable environment, and even get several pets seen at the same time, for a discounted rate. Plus, you get two doctors for the price of one, they emphasize. “Some pets get motion sickness on the car ride. That’s not the best way to start a visit,” said Neenan. “They aren’t stressed out. If there are behavior issues, like the cats are destroying things or going outside the litter box, it’s easier to decipher what’s wrong.” She added, “We have the kind of services we’d want with our own pets.” "Dr. Mik" has two cats, Bella and Dante, and two dogs, Charlie and Dodger. Neenan has two dogs, Lily and Finch, and a cat named Monk. The two make about one to five visits a day, which means fewer patients but more patience with pets. “We have more time to see them,” she said. “It’s a totally different mentality. It’s incredibly flexible for everyone involved.” Services include nail trims and shots, ear cleanings and de-wormings, and new kitten and new puppy packages. The prices are comparable to vet office visits, because the vets have no overhead or administrative staff, but they do charge a travel fee also. They come by with the car stocked with supplies, a prescription pad, and if the problem is more serious, usually they’ll do triage on the phone before they visit, and send the family to a nearby pet hospital, such as Angel Memorial. In the worst case, they are equipped to put the pet to sleep in the home. “Most people that we see are grateful for the extra time and effort we put toward their pets, the convenience of our service and the time we take with them to be as complete as possible,” said Neenan. “We help them understand what is going on with their pets- from managing chronic diseases to preventing them from occurring in the first place.” Zayna Gold, program director at Newbury Street’s Boston Body Pilates, is a self-described “Brangelina of the animal world,” who recently adopted two cockapoos, Cookie and Brownie, and two Siberian cats, Mischa and Cinda. Soon after, she called up Harbor Vets for some education and “handholding”. “Emily has been so patient with our new animal kingdom,” said Gold. “The first month, I was paranoid about any little thing, and she came over and treated them with so much knowledge, and she did not make me feel ridiculous at all.”

Mooo finds a new home on the Hill

by Sandra Miller

Mooo… just turned a year old, and is a pretty, romantic, and elegant 60-seat restaurant that has swept away any memories of its more stodgy predecessor, the Federalist. It’s a destination for senators and artists, powerbrokers and locals, all of whom feel comfortable in its casual attitude and adventurous steakhouse menu items created by chef-owner Jamie Mammano.
But during one Tuesday afternoon, it was a little quiet. “Sometimes it’s packed, sometimes it’s quiet,” says bartender Dante Delucci, who moved over from Mistral to serve the afternoon crowd. “In the wintertime, it gets really busy. I think it’s because people aren’t eating lunch out on the patios then.”
Delucci tended to a lone lunch diner, who sat at the 16-seat gray marble bar that’s lined at the end closest to the door with copies of the Boston Globe, New York Times, Financial Times, Wall Street Journal and USA Today. Mooo… is a restaurant that’s attached to a four-star hotel, XV Beacon, so it attracts an international crowd, business types, and government workers along with the locals.
Delucci likes to talk to the customers. About 25 percent of the customers who come to Mooo… are from the neighborhood. Delucci can tell the business crowd from the locals, just by what they order. Locals order the less expensive items on the menu. The other day, a customer was talking about the economy. “He’s a stockbroker. He said, ‘Remember this date. This is going to be the worst crisis in U.S. history. Please take care of your job.’”
Mooo… apparently treats its staff well, since it has kept 76 of its original 80-person crew. “They are part of our family,” says manager Diego Rivera. “We depend on them, and on their level of responsibility and professionalism.”
The staff of Mooo… has built a portfolio of rave reviews, to prove its successful move from its predecessor, the highly regarded Federalist.
“It’s a totally different feel” from its days as the Federalist, says Rivera. “The Federalist had a great start, but it didn’t seem to be doing what it was expected to do. They decided to change the concept, and brought new life to it with a fresh revitalization to the entire restaurant.”
The new restaurant’s décor is Asian inspired, with almost an entire absence of dark-wood steakhouse colors to create an airiness in the 60-seat dining room. Mammano changed the Federalist’s mostly seafood menu to Mooo…’s meat-centric lineup. “The chef definitely thinks outside of the box with cuts of steak and meat,” says Rivera.
Chef David Hutton, with 23 years of experience, five at Mistral with Mammano, was surprised to discover that he had a lot to learn about what makes a great steak. He figured out how to check for fat marbling, perfected his searing method, and experimented on how long to let it rest to maintain moisture. “I thought it would be easier than this,” says Hutton.
He researched farms and tasted more than 60 steaks before they opened the place. “My doctor told me to have salads for six months,” he jokes. Finally, he tried out his recipes for three days on family and friends until he perfected his recipe. His goal? “To knock the guests’ socks off,” he says.
Apparently, that’s what they are doing.
The best selling items are the filet mignon and beef Wellington, although Hutton recommends the $46 grass-fed prime sirloin from Painted Hills, New York, or the $49 pepper crusted prime sirloin au poivre. All of the steaks are served with roasted garlic and bone-marrow butter tucked into the bone.
Many customers go for the flight of sides, which during autumn will be whipped Yukon gold potato, creamed spinach with parmesan foam, truffled parmesan fries, and locally forested mushrooms. The top-selling salad is the arugula, lemon and parmesan. Their new seared foie gras atop butternut squash soup became popular quickly. Hutton also plans to add an appetizer of black mission figs with prosciutto and apple balsamic vinegar.
A fair number also stampede to their Kobe beef, a “true 100 percent Kobe beef from Kagoshima Prefecture, Japan,” which is $120 for six ounces. They buy two sirloin shells of Kobe a month, cut out the centers of the $78-a-pound sirloins, and sell about 50 steaks a month.
“Our prices are reasonable compared to other restaurants in the area and New York,” says Hutton. “We sear it, slice it on a plate, add no sauce, no oil. It’s $35 an ounce at some places. We don’t make any money on it. That’s okay, because we’re about providing a service for our guests. No one says the steak is too small.”
But that’s a pricy leftover, and that’s where the chef came up with the most popular item on the appetizer list, the steamed kobe dumplings with garlic and ginger soy sauce, sprinkled with micro cilantro. “You need a spoon,” says Hutton. He insisted on it, and it was well worth spooning up the sauce, which was not just a dip for the dumplings, but a rich Asian soup laced with Kobe juices and fat.
“I have really learned a lot about steak in the past year and a half,” he said. Now it’s fall, and the roof herb garden is nearly depleted, so he turns to perfecting a comfort-food menu, including the introduction of dry-aged, bone-in prime steak once he decides on a supplier. “That’s the gamut of steak,” he says.
Other fall items include a veal porterhouse with a side of gorgonzola polenta with truffle oil served bubbling in a crock. He plans to add lobster to their take on macaroni and cheese. Salads will include more seasonal ingredients, and he hopes to encourage more customers to try the mussels and chorizo soup. “People don’t get the mussels, but when they do, they rave about it,” Hutton says.
Vegetarians need not avoid Hutton’s steakhouse, because he promises to whip up off-menu items beyond the salad-and-pasta standbys, like interesting things with polenta, fall veggies, and quinoa. He became excited talking about his mushroom distributor who is bringing him fungi with names like chicken of the wood. “You’d swear it tasted like chicken,” says Hutton.
It’s this kind of excitement over ingredients that turns curious first-time diners into regulars on a first-name basis with staff, says the manager. But Rivera also says it’s the level of service that diners also have come to expect and enjoy. The waitstaff crumb the tables, change the glassware, and anticipate a customer’s needs without being overbearing. “We don’t have the ‘Is everything ok?’ question as they pass by the table,” says Rivera. “I’ve sat down with guests and had conversations with them. We want the feedback, so we can put in the right items. I want to create that bond. Creating that comfort zone with our guests is what we’re trying to accomplish here.”
As a result, Rivera says their delivery, food quality and service is five-star quality, although they currently are rated at Mobil’s four-star level, and four diamonds with AAA. “I think it’s just because we’re still new,” he says.

City lines up funds for Brewer Fountain repairs

by Sandra Miller and John Lynds

The City Council's Boston Common Committee held a hearing Monday to discuss a federally-funded capital grant of $200,000.00 from the United States Department of the Interior, National Park Service to refurbish the decaying Brewer Fountain on the Tremont Street side of the Boston Common.

The committee recommended Monday that the $200,000 be sent to the City Council for a vote on Wednesday. "If all goes well work on the fountain will begin in early spring 2009 and take about a year to complete," said City Councilor Michael Ross, co-chair of the Boston Common committee. "The important thing here is that the Tremont Street side of the Common is not as built up as it could be and this side of the park is in need of the most work. I think refurbishing the fountain will certainly kickoff the effort to turn this part of the Common around."

City Councilor Sal LaMattina added that the fountain "is one of the nicest fountains we have in the City of Boston". "We have have an opportunity here to restore a city treasure," said LaMattina, who co-chairs the committee with Ross. "I'm looking forward to turning this beautiful landmark back to its original glory."

The Boston Parks and Recreation Department received a $200,000 grant from Save America's Treasures, to be matched by $300,000 from the mayor's Capital Budget, and $100 from the Fund for Parks and Recreation. The city will refurbish the bronze statue fountain, and install a new water circulating system.

The fountain was given to the city in 1867, and has been spewing green ever since. According to Henry Lee, who leads the Friends of the Public Garden, the fountain was restored about 10 years ago, but the water pump and the recirculating system became flooded.

“That all has to be replaced, plus the work on the monument itself,” said Lee. “It has never run very well for very long in its entire history. William Dean Howell looked at the allegorical figures [in the fountain] and said it was the four seasons of drought. He said that 120 years ago, and nothing much has changed.” Lee said that lovingly, because the fountain is a treasure that not only needs this funding, but an ongoing endowment.

The area surrounding it is also in need of renovation. “It is bleak and barren and in very bad condition,” he said. “We think part of making the fountain once again the centerpiece of the Common is making it more hospitable and attractive. That, too, will cost a great deal of money.” The Friends are working with a local landscaping architectural firm to develop plans and hope to have “something to study” within the next months, said Lee.

For now, the $600,000 refurbishment will include disassembly, removal, transporting to an offsite conservation studio, cleaning, repair, repatination, reassembly and reinstallation of the historic 1868 bronze fountain, said a spokesman from the Parks Department.

The project will also clean, repoint and repair existing granite masonry elements, and include a bird deterrent system. Bids to start the project, as designed by Carr, Lynch and Sandell of Cambridge, are due Thursday, October 23, and assuming bids are received and are appropriate, the project will be awarded that day, said Hines. The contract will probably be executed within eight weeks, with work starting in December. According to Mary Hines of the Boston Parks and Recreation Department, the bronze sculptural fountain piece will be restored offsite in a conservator’s studio.

While the fountain is away, the existing concrete basin will be partially removed, new piping will be installed and a new, more historically accurate concrete basin will be installed. The water level in the fountain will be slightly reduced, but will be adequate to maintain the sound of the water splashing. The basin will be lined with dark gray, 2-3-inch flat stones set in a bed of mortar.

In addition, two new underground vaults will be installed in the turf panel directly east of the fountain. The equipment vault will hold pumps, filters, heaters, and other equipment required to run the fountain, while the storage vault will hold the fountain water, leaving the fountain empty during night hours. The new pumps will be higher capacity and will force more water through the fountain than in previous years.

Once everything is installed, the bronze statue will be returned to the site and re-installed atop the existing granite plinth.

For now, Lee is crossing his fingers that the mayor’s recent cutback plans won’t include the fountain. “It’s tied to other funding,” he said hopefully.

The Friends of the Public Garden understand current economic conditions mean the parks may be overlooked. “It’s nothing that a few million dollars wouldn’t take care of,” Lee said, joking. But more seriously, he said, perhaps it is time that the residents around the park look into funding their front yard.

“In many other cities, groups have gone to neighbors and argued successfully that half the value of their property is looking over the park,” Lee said. “Everyone wants to see the Common improved, but the city is short of funds.” He also argued that the parks receive no improvement money from the Massachusetts Convention Center Authority, which runs the underground garage, or the MBTA, which has several stops on the Common.

“Both state agencies use and damage the Common but don’t provide any funds to support the Common. Nor do any of the development firms in the neighborhoods,” he said. Again, Lee knows the economic climate isn’t very sunny right now. “We’re not expecting any big bonanzas in the next six months, but one can always hope,” he added.

City lines up funds for Brewer Fountain repairs

by Sandra Miller and John Lynds
Beacon Hill Times/Back Bay Sun
The City Council's Boston Common Committee held a hearing Monday to discuss a federally-funded capital grant of $200,000.00 from the United States Department of the Interior, National Park Service to refurbish the decaying Brewer Fountain on the Tremont Street side of the Boston Common. The committee recommended Monday that the $200,000 be sent to the City Council for a vote on Wednesday. "If all goes well work on the fountain will begin in early spring 2009 and take about a year to complete," said City Councilor Michael Ross, co-chair of the Boston Common committee. "The important thing here is that the Tremont Street side of the Common is not as built up as it could be and this side of the park is in need of the most work. I think refurbishing the fountain will certainly kickoff the effort to turn this part of the Common around." City Councilor Sal LaMattina added that the fountain "is one of the nicest fountains we have in the City of Boston". "We have have an opportunity here to restore a city treasure," said LaMattina, who co-chairs the committee with Ross. "I'm looking forward to turning this beautiful landmark back to its original glory." The Boston Parks and Recreation Department received a $200,000 grant from Save America's Treasures, to be matched by $300,000 from the mayor's Capital Budget, and $100 from the Fund for Parks and Recreation. The city will refurbish the bronze statue fountain, and install a new water circulating system. The fountain was given to the city in 1867, and has been spewing green ever since. According to Henry Lee, who leads the Friends of the Public Garden, the fountain was restored about 10 years ago, but the water pump and the recirculating system became flooded. “That all has to be replaced, plus the work on the monument itself,” said Lee. “It has never run very well for very long in its entire history. William Dean Howell looked at the allegorical figures [in the fountain] and said it was the four seasons of drought. He said that 120 years ago, and nothing much has changed.” Lee said that lovingly, because the fountain is a treasure that not only needs this funding, but an ongoing endowment. The area surrounding it is also in need of renovation. “It is bleak and barren and in very bad condition,” he said. “We think part of making the fountain once again the centerpiece of the Common is making it more hospitable and attractive. That, too, will cost a great deal of money.” The Friends are working with a local landscaping architectural firm to develop plans and hope to have “something to study” within the next months, said Lee. For now, the $600,000 refurbishment will include disassembly, removal, transporting to an offsite conservation studio, cleaning, repair, repatination, reassembly and reinstallation of the historic 1868 bronze fountain, said a spokesman from the Parks Department. The project will also clean, repoint and repair existing granite masonry elements, and include a bird deterrent system. Bids to start the project, as designed by Carr, Lynch and Sandell of Cambridge, are due Thursday, October 23, and assuming bids are received and are appropriate, the project will be awarded that day, said Hines. The contract will probably be executed within eight weeks, with work starting in December. According to Mary Hines of the Boston Parks and Recreation Department, the bronze sculptural fountain piece will be restored offsite in a conservator’s studio. While the fountain is away, the existing concrete basin will be partially removed, new piping will be installed and a new, more historically accurate concrete basin will be installed. The water level in the fountain will be slightly reduced, but will be adequate to maintain the sound of the water splashing. The basin will be lined with dark gray, 2-3-inch flat stones set in a bed of mortar. In addition, two new underground vaults will be installed in the turf panel directly east of the fountain. The equipment vault will hold pumps, filters, heaters, and other equipment required to run the fountain, while the storage vault will hold the fountain water, leaving the fountain empty during night hours. The new pumps will be higher capacity and will force more water through the fountain than in previous years. Once everything is installed, the bronze statue will be returned to the site and re-installed atop the existing granite plinth. For now, Lee is crossing his fingers that the mayor’s recent cutback plans won’t include the fountain. “It’s tied to other funding,” he said hopefully. The Friends of the Public Garden understand current economic conditions mean the parks may be overlooked. “It’s nothing that a few million dollars wouldn’t take care of,” Lee said, joking. But more seriously, he said, perhaps it is time that the residents around the park look into funding their front yard. “In many other cities, groups have gone to neighbors and argued successfully that half the value of their property is looking over the park,” Lee said. “Everyone wants to see the Common improved, but the city is short of funds.” He also argued that the parks receive no improvement money from the Massachusetts Convention Center Authority, which runs the underground garage, or the MBTA, which has several stops on the Common. “Both state agencies use and damage the Common but don’t provide any funds to support the Common. Nor do any of the development firms in the neighborhoods,” he said. Again, Lee knows the economic climate isn’t very sunny right now. “We’re not expecting any big bonanzas in the next six months, but one can always hope,” he added.

Amid cutbacks, mayor fast-tracks three Back Bay developments

by Sandra Miller
Back Bay Sun

When Governor Deval Patrick announced cutbacks last week, Mayor Thomas M. Menino followed suit with his own belt-tightening announcements, including a hiring freeze and a cutback on capital improvement projects.
Menino also announced plans to fast-track three Back Bay developments, which he hoped would bring in more money to the local economy.
In a move he hasn’t made since September 11, 2001, the mayor pushed the Boston Redevelopment Authority (BRA) to finish up development projects in the city. In response, the BRA immediately identified five projects that could enrich the local economy by $1.9 billion and bring in thousands of jobs. The projects include three in the Back Bay: the 19-story 888 Boylston Street office tower near the Hynes Convention Center; a 30-story residential tower on Exeter Street; and the Hayward Place, a 14-story mixed-use building with 19,000 square feet of retail space and underground parking.
“It was in response to the governor’s state fiscal plan,” said BRA spokesperson Jessica Shumaker. “We rely on the state for a number of things.”
Shumaker said, “The BRA will look at ways to see which projects can get their approvals in a quicker time frame. Nothing has been immediately determined.”
She said the Hayward Place project has already received BRA approval, and that the Exeter and Boylston projects are well along in the process. “We will try to get board approval quickly,” she added.
And other projects that aren’t on the fast track?
“These were just the five that immediately came to mind. It doesn’t mean that other projects won’t be identified and looked at,” said Shumaker.
State Representative Marty Walz, who also is actively involved with these development projects, was startled when she heard about the express approvals.
“I’m not sure what they are saying,” said Walz, who points out that these projects also depend on community support. Since PruPAC (Prudential Project Advisory Committee) is reviewing Back Bay proposals and are slated to take a vote Nov. 10, that may mean PruPAC may not approve them, said Walz.
“The outcome of that vote is entirely uncertain. The project is tentatively [set] for approval in December. Those meetings are already scheduled, and I don’t know if there’s anything to expedite.”
While Walz said the BRA is correct that, on its end, the BRA is well along in the process, she worries whether the PruPAC recommendations will be ignored in trying to expedite the projects.
The Copley Tower project in particular is a long way away from being approved by PruPAC, said Walz “There is significant work to be done by the CAC. It could be sped up, but the CAC [Citizens Advisory Committee] is already meeting every other week … that’s a pretty aggressive schedule.
“The BRA can ignore that recommendation if it likes, but I’d be surprised if this could move much faster than it could be moving,” said Walz. “They may need to look at other things that can be sped up, or other projects that are languishing, but these three buildings are not languishing.”
Menino also speculated that the city may have to postpone such capital improvement projects as maintenance and repairs of playgrounds, parks, sidewalks, streets, and schools, and also cut back on community policing and firefighter training.
"This is the beginning, as I look at it. What it's going to mean is we're going to have to work smarter and more efficiently," Menino said. So far, that doesn’t mean layoffs.
On Wednesday, Governor Patrick announced more than $1 billion in state budget cuts, of which the city is expected to be directly affected by only $5 million of those cuts.
The Next PruPAC meeting is Monday, November 10, at 6 p.m. at the Hynes Convention Center in Room 102 to discuss 888 Boylston/Exeter Street Residences DPIR submission.

Red Hat Signage up for debate today

By Sandra Miller
Beacon Hill Times
The battle still continues this morning at City Hall over whether a hand-painted mural is allowable on leased space above the Red Hat building, facing Cambridge Street.
In question is signage on the two exterior walls of 9 Bowdoin Street, which face Cambridge Street.
The zoning board of appeals meeting is at 9:30 am in room 801 today, for those who would like to weigh in.
The applicant, Michael Schifino, and Commonwealth Avenue-based Sponsor Spot had applied to erect two 875-square-foot signs on a Cambridge Street façade two years ago, a project denied by the Beacon Hill Civic Association and the city’s Board of Appeal. In response, Sponsor Spot filed suit against the city, arguing that the decision infringes upon First and 14th Amendment rights. “The city is serving as a landlord to conglomerates like Clear Channel and JC Decaux,” said Damien Jacob, co-owner of Sponsor Spot. The vinyl signs affixed to 9 Bowdoin Street, which houses Red Hat, would cover almost all of the building’s exposed brick, Jacob said.
“We have been seeking signs on the Red Hat for years and have always welcomed dialog with anyone from Beacon Hill who had an interest in our plans,” said Jacob. “We’re not in the architectural historic district, we has a permit from the 1990s, that says it is not within the historic district. We didn’t write the zoning code, we deserve our rights. When we came to do this, we looked at the zoning codes, we looked at the zoning map, and picked the best property that would be allowed.”
While many area residents oppose the sign, Jacob argues that there are other billboards in the area, including the city’s sidewalk billboards: “If you’re standing close to it, it’s just as big as the building,” said Jacob. “It’s all visual perception.”
Many residents were surprised that the meeting was being held today, and scrambled to discuss the meeting and to gather people to attend.
As a result, the BHCA expressed concern and voted to oppose the application, and any proposal that would increase signage on Cambridge Street. Many wish to preserve the historical integrity of the district.
Cambridge Street is not in the historic district, but the building itself is, says Karen Cord Taylor, former chair of the Cambridge Street Study Committee (and former BHTimes editor).
The proposed billboard is a few feet, “perhaps even inches” —of an important historic district, and the Red Hat building itself is within that district, Taylor says. “To enjoy the higher value conferred on their building by the historic district and at the same time acting against the principles of the historic district is, frankly, selfish, and without consideration for neighbors.”
Taylor says that over the past 40 years, the growth of billboards are a “blight” to the business community, “thereby reducing growth and prosperity” and “degrade a street that is finally looking good.”
A successful appeal would reverse a trend that had seen several billboards removed from Cambridge Street.
“Interestingly, no other building owner has made the argument Schifino’s lawyer makes that he has the right to install a billboard. If his argument holds, there is nothing to stop the Davis Companies, the Beacon Hill Athletic Club owners, Suffolk University and a host of other building owners from mounting their own billboards,” says Taylor.
“People felt strongly that advertising signage (whether or not it's a 'billboard') detracts from the desired appearance of Cambridge Street and that billboards should be eliminated, not added,” said Tom Clemens, a BHCA member. “This is especially important to the neighborhood because we are now finally seeing the fruits of three decades of effort to upgrade the street and make it an attractive gateway to Beacon Hill and Government Center.”
Jacobs says notice is only required for applicants seeking relief from the zoning code. “Since we are not seeking a variance or conditional use permit, but rather a correction by the ZBA from an erroneous ISD decision, we are not required to notify anyone,” said Jacob. “Nonetheless, there were conversations between Sponsor Spot and Councilors Ross, Turner, Feeney, Eric from Connelly’s office as well as William Onuoha from Neighborhood Services. Councilor LaMattina’s office was unable to schedule a meeting after many attempts.”
“We are trying to make an honest, simple living,” said Jacob. “This is the oldest form of communication. Since the 1700s you just hung your message on the side. It’s always going to be the most powerful form of communication.”
“Furthermore, there are Beacon Hill residents who believe creating a sponsored mural in the genre of historic Commercial Art similar to the Quaker Oats mural on the corner of Cambridge and Grove Streets would add a great deal of character and color as well as safety through illumination,” said Jacob.
He contends that the problem that many have with the billboard is not the board itself, but the “spider web of steel,” and so he says he’s willing to “to keep the doors of communication open with Beacon Hill residents” and “to assist them in their signage policy objectives.”
But his bottom line is that this project is a bright light in a poor economy. “During this tough economy, there should be a desire from everyone to create jobs. Our small business is trying to survive and this project directly impacts our livelihood as well as those who work with us. When the Zoning Code allows something, a person should take security in knowing that it is allowed; this is America and there should be Equal Protection of the Laws.”
Jacob’s group contacted residents in the “immediate vicinity,” including John Hazzard from 10 Bowdoin Street. Hazard lives across from the Red Hat building – as he says in a letter about the subject, “the proposed signs will become a part of my family’s daily life, more so than most other residents on Beacon Hill.” Hazard says he and his wife do not know the owner of 9 Bowdoin Street, but after talking with Jacob, he says he supports the billboard.
Hazard said that there are more pressing neighborhood issues than this sign, such as “vandalism, rowdy drunkenness, violence and the unresponsiveness of police,” as well as the “median landscaping that has been allowed to overgrow.” After those considerations, Hazard writes that the signage would “add safety with lighting, and attract attention to a neglected corner, while at the same time adding color … The proposed signs are on a commercial building, in a commercial area, do not face toward any residence and the vinyl or painted mural will be flush against the walls, so there are no obstructions or shadows cast. The banners or
painted murals will contribute to the scenery, experience, and the environment of living in Downtown Boston and will add to the quality of life on the corner of Bowdoin and Cambridge Street.”
Taylor contends that the street is already well lit by the new street lights that accompanied the reconstruction of the street, and the new drug store across the street. “A lighted sign about thirty feet from the street and above the Dunkin’ Donuts will not increase light on the sidewalk at all,” says Taylor. “In fact, nearby neighbors on a higher floor might consider it a nuisance.”
Says Jacob, “These signs mean a lot to me and I am saddened that we are so polarized in our views that we cannot find any common ground. There are people who think a hand-painted mural would look fantastic on the Red Hat and bring us back in time to a simpler place.”
The issue has been in play for two years. “Since then large banner signs or wallscapes have become commonplace throughout Boston, and now there are even plans to erect an illuminated LED display 3 stories high on Somerset Street,” says Jacob. “Some Beacon Hill residents have expressed a fondness for the hand-painted murals companies commissioned in the 1800s and early 1900s.
“I and others were very shocked and outraged by the total disregard for the law, due process, and the Constitution, at the ZBA hearing in Oct. ‘06, where I was not permitted to state our case or even read the Zoning Code,” says Jacob in an email. “As ironic as some may think it to be, the Boston Zoning Code allows the use of billboards/ advertising devices on this property, and this is the reason for our pursuit of signs at this location.”