Pete Stidman

Dorchester Reporter
September 6, 2007

Bats, knives, clubs and a pit bull were weapons in a fight between seven or more people on Morton Street last Tuesday, Aug. 28, according to a police report. One victim told police officers he was hit in the face with a hammer.

It might be just another incident, two juveniles arrested for trespassing and disturbing the peace, one for assault with a deadly weapon (the dog), four victims treated at Caritas Carney Hospital, one for "profuse swelling and bleeding to the eyes and face," but for one thing: neighbors and others familiar with the case say one or more of the alleged attackers live at 28 Sanford St., a house the city's assessing website identifies as a tax-exempt parsonage belonging to the Shawmut Community Church of God. Since May 2006, the church has rented the property out.

Gardeners await fate of plots

Dorchester Reporter
August 30, 2007

A now-dormant gardening group that once helped pioneer the city's urban farming movement may spin off six neglected Dorchester garden plots to a new steward.

The group, called Boston Urban Gardeners or BUG, hit hard times in the late 1990s, ceased doing business, and then earned nearly $450,000 from the sale of their headquarters building in Jamaica Plain in 2000. They have debated what to do with the money ever since, frustrating gardeners who want funds for improvements.

"We're still trying to find someone to take over the gardens," said Helen Strieder, BUG's treasurer. "We've had some good discussions with [Boston Natural Areas Network] BNAN. They've made a proposal and we're pondering if this would be the right move."

Dorchester Reporter
August 30, 2007

The preliminary election that would have pared down nine candidates for Boston City Council's four at-large seats, to the eight required by the city's election law, has been cancelled. Preliminaries for the District 7 and 9 races will still be held.

A bill that provided a one-time exemption to the election law sailed through the House and Senate after being introduced by the City Council as a home rule petition on July 12. Governor Deval Patrick signed it on July 26, but the election department decided not to publicize the fact until after Labor Day.

Dorchester Reporter
August 16, 2007

It will take a some work to approach Mayor Thomas Menino's goal of 100,000 new trees in Boston by 2020, announced in April, but a few gaps in Dorchester's tree canopy are starting to look leafy.

"I love it," said Gloria Vieira of the Annapolis Neighborhood Association. "Not only does it make the neighborhood look better, but I think it brings the community together. Now, when people walk the neighborhood, they feel comfortable saying hello. They take pride in it."

The City Roots program from the Urban Ecology Institute (UEI) at Boston College helped Vieira organize the planting of nine trees and shrubs in her neighborhood this year, and 10 the year before. Other community groups planted new trees in Ronan Park, Sharon's Park, Codman Cemetery, and Dix Street.

Small shops gear up for change

August 23, 2007
Dorchester Reporter

The future looks bright.

Creeping into the skyline from formerly vacant lots just outside Upham's Corner on Dudley and Hancock streets are two new housing developments that people will start moving into early next year. The Salvation Army will soon break ground on The Ray and Joan Kroc Community Center, a gigantic family-oriented facility just west of the newly renovated commuter rail station. Dormant storefronts in the business district are opening this fall as a CVS, possibly a new grocery, and a renovated theatre, the historic Strand. But as the construction crews labor, some say business is thin.

DORCHESTER REPORTER

Against a backdrop of eroding sandcastles on Revere Beach Aug. 1, Governor Deval Patrick announced $2 million in new funding for 19 metropolitan beaches from Nahant to Hull, including three in Dorchester. More beach benefits are in the works on Beacon Hill, but advocates say reviving Dorchester's beaches will also require friends.

Currently, Savin Hill Beach has the Friends of Savin Hill Shores to mind its sands and organize a clean-up once a year. But Malibu and Tenean Beaches are left to fend for themselves.

"The main thing I got out of meeting with the governor was that it's a new day in the State House, it's just beginning," said Rosanne Foley, an environmental health advocate living in Dorchester who sat on the Metropolitan Beach Commission. "The beaches [are] really starting to get into people's consciousness, but we still need a friends group. I don't think it's best to have individual groups for individual beaches. We need to have a Dorchester-wide voice."

BOSTON COURANT

Four charter buses let off passengers at Government Center Tuesday, and although many aboard were of retirement age, none were gawking at the sights. Instead, they proceeded to the City Council's Ianella Chamber with canes, electric mobility scooters and the occasional vintage fedora for a hearing about their own safety.

Spurred by advances in technology and a tight budget, the Boston Housing Authority (BHA) is proposing to eliminate daytime security guards in 13 public housing developments for the elderly and disabled, including six in the South End. The 8am to 4pm guard shifts during the week would be replaced with video surveillance and an electronic access system activated by key fobs.

BOSTON COURANT

Local City Councilors Michael Ross and Bill Linehan have planted their feet on different sides of a landlord-tenant activist dispute, this time over an ordinance filed by Councilor Sam Yoon.

Ross is supporting an ordinance written by Yoon and City Life/Vida Urbana that would require landlords to meet with qualified tenant unions. The proposal is patterned on similar collective bargaining legislation governing labor conflicts.

“I was surprised that there was as much strong opposition as there was,” said Yoon of the July 19 hearing on the bill. “Our city is suffering from post-rent-control trauma.”

BOSTON COURANT

Guests are asking for it, new trade magazines are dedicated to it, and hoteliers in the Back Bay are watching it improve their bottom line. It is green tourism, and it no longer requires a rainforest visit.

“It's all happening very quickly,” said Dan Ruben of Boston Green Tourism (BGT), a conservation advocacy group. “Several years ago not many people thought about having green hotels. Now hotels are putting an extraordinary amount of enthusiasm and energy into this.”

One measure of a green hotel is energy efficiency. A year ago, only three hotels in Massachusetts carried the EPA Energy Star rating, which designates buildings that are in the upper 25 percentile of the most efficient buildings nationwide. Today 16 in the state carry the award, with the Jurys Boston Hotel at Stuart and Berkeley Streets recently passing the bar.

BOSTON COURANT

More power is coming to the Fenway, straight from the heart of the sun.

The roof of the Fenway CDC's mixed-income housing at 108 Peterborough Street is now home to a solar panel array, the second installed by Solar Fenway since the group began in 2002.

“The crazy thing is, it was like nobody knew about all this until Al Gore did [Inconvenient Truth], and now we're all into it,” said City Councilor Mike Ross to Sajed Kamal, founder of Solar Fenway at a celebration June 22. “You were there way before that. You keep this dream of a solar Fenway alive.”

The 1.5 kilowatt system produces roughly one and a half times the average U.S. household's electricity use, according to figures from Kamal and the Energy Information Administration. It will feed directly into the city's power grid, and thus the meter would flow backwards if the building's energy use drops below the solar panels' supply.