Fenway Infill and Small Developments
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The neighborhood agreed to the changes in zoning based on an agreement to keep the existing number of parking spaces while only adding enough new spaces for the residential components of any development. They want the tax revenue to fix up the crumbling infrastructure in the Fenway.
kz1000ps
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Burned out
When Fenway's Restaurant Row went up in flames, neighbors lost more than their favorite eats
By Maggie Cassidy
Globe Correspondent / March 15, 2009
When workers closed up shop at El Pelon Taqueria on the night of Jan. 5, there were virtually no signs that the restaurant had suffered a devastating fire just over a year earlier, in December 2007. Since reopening in February 2008, they had reincarnated their famous walls of photos displaying about 70 snapshots of customers proudly wearing their El Pelon T-shirts - which show a mustachioed man underneath the restaurant's name - in locations around the world.
There were other mementoes, too, tacked up on the walls: Mexican baseball shirts, folk art, gifts from customers. And there were the customers themselves: tourists, passersby, and, in large part, local Fenway residents who stopped in for the $4 burritos or popular $5 fish tacos.
The following morning, the beloved taqueria was gone. El Pelon was one of seven businesses - six restaurants and a dry cleaner - destroyed in a four-alarm fire early Jan. 6. The blaze gutted the building, causing an estimated $5 million in damage and leaving 71 workers unemployed.
The Boston Fire Department later declared the cause an electrical short circuit in Thornton's Fenway Grille. But as with several other Boston neighborhood restaurants destroyed by flames in recent years, the damage on Peterborough Street extended beyond fire reports and insurance claims. The neighborhood lost its informal community center - its "heart," neighbors said.
Joyce Foster, president of the Fenway Community Development Corporation's board of trustees, said the eateries on so-called Restaurant Row - Thornton's, El Pelon, Rod Dee Thai Cuisine, Greek Isles, Sorento's Italian Gourmet, and Umi Japanese Restaurant - mirrored the diversity of the neighborhood they had served for years. Some of them, like Sorento's, had been there for more than two decades.
Beyond being popular places to eat, they were "part of the fabric of the Fenway community," Foster said, and their disappearance "represents a major tear in the fabric. It's heartbreaking."
Fenway residents say that without a formal neighborhood center, the small, locally owned food joints played an important role in their community. Restaurant Row drew customers from beyond the Fenway area, but "of course it's the neighborhood people who are most affected, because you can't help but have all these feelings every time you pass," said Gloria Platt, one of many Peterborough Senior Center members who frequented the restaurants. "Nothing's there except a big old bunch of boards."
Younger generations, too, had affection for the restaurants, whose colorful awnings overlooked chairs and picnic tables on their patios out front. In the first few weeks after the fire, Restaurant Row's destruction was at the top of 28-year-old Liz Koch's conversations with old classmates - the news spreading to friends as far away as California. Like many college students, Koch, who lived on Park Drive for six years before graduating from Northeastern five years ago, had an affinity for El Pelon, but she said the appeal of all the restaurants was their connection to the Fenway area.
"It was one of those neighborhood things that nobody else knew about. It belonged to the neighborhood," she said. "I had this pang of sadness when I saw that headline" about the fire, "and the picture was gut-wrenching."
A group of students from McKinley Preparatory High School, located across the street from the restaurants, even wrote a song to express their feelings about the fire, later posting it as a slideshow video on YouTube.
Jim Hoben, who opened El Pelon in 1998 and sports the same mustache shown on its T-shirts, said January's early-morning blaze had devastated his workers.
"We miss being a business," he told a crowd of local supporters at a community meeting Feb. 23. "I don't think I ever realized how much" the restaurant's workers "enjoy doing what they do until now."
And neighbors can hold a special regard for such familiar faces, and their establishments. Robert J. Sampson, professor and chairman of Harvard's Department of Sociology, said community restaurants fall into a group called "third places" - places outside home and work, like pubs and bookstores. Third places have served an important function throughout history, he said, by providing "a common ground for people of all different backgrounds to come together."
"One of the reasons the old show 'Cheers' was popular was because it evoked that sense of place where 'everyone knows your name,' where there's a community of sorts, those they see on a regular basis," Sampson said. "Even in large urban areas, one of the reasons third places are important is because you can form an identity or attachment, even if you don't know them in a very personal way."
Losing the restaurants is like "losing a part of the community," said Sampson. "It's understandable that some of the more popular restaurants that have burned would cause a certain anxiety."
Allston residents know what Sampson is talking about. The neighborhood favorite Grecian Yearning Restaurant, destroyed by a four-alarm fire last June, offered Allston's large college student population affordable all-day breakfasts in an inviting, low-key environment.
It was a place where everybody knew your name - or at least your face, said owner Nicholas Katsarikas, who opened the restaurant after emigrating from Greece in the '70s. He said the place thrived on the friendly atmosphere he and his wife created.
"It was nothing really special; we didn't have chandeliers," Katsarikas said. "It was just a simple, simple place, but that was what the college kids like. . . . It was their place - that was our goal all the time."
Similarly, neighbors had long considered the Tai Ho Mandarin and Cantonese Restaurant, destroyed in August 2007 by a blaze that killed two firefighters, the best of the few Chinese food restaurants in West Roxbury, largely because of the friendly mom-and-pop-style service that would deliver in all kinds of weather. And Jamaica Plain residents learned the tragedy of losing a community restaurant when El Oriental de Cuba, a neighborhood gathering place, was destroyed by a firebomb in July 2005, shutting down the restaurant for more than a year.
"That's the way everybody sees it - it's like a community place," said Edgar Figueroa, 35, who was born and raised in the area. "It's not just a place you go eat. You see everybody, everybody's together."
With the economy failing and the cost of opening a restaurant soaring, restaurants struggle to rebound from fires. In West Roxbury, former Tai Ho owner Jean Li last spring gave up trying to rebuild, according to her lawyer, Carolyn Conway, who said Li didn't have the money to start over. This spring, pizza chain the Upper Crust is slated to fill the space with its 14th shop.
Satisfying building codes can also be a hurdle. More than 30 years of new regulations have been passed since Katsarikas opened the Grecian, and he said he can't afford to bring the building up to code.
Although he hopes to reopen in Allston, he doesn't know if he will return to the Harvard Avenue location, which remains covered in plywood, now decorated with dozens of comments scribbled in marker by well-wishers.
Nobel Garcia, however, is one of the lucky ones. He triumphantly reopened JP's El Oriental in November 2006 amid a crowd of neighbors, politicians, servicemen, and other community supporters.
"We went through 14 months of real, real hell, but the community kicked in, the city of Boston kicked in," Garcia said. "Everybody from everywhere came out in throngs. The neighborhood came back to life again."
With the future cloudy for the Fenway restaurants, community members seem to agree on one thing: The neighborhood is not the same without them.
"Everyone I've talked to - neighbors and strangers alike - seems stunned that the restaurants are gone, and people are only now coming to grips with the idea of not having them around," said Steve Wolf, a longtime Fenway resident and CDC board member. "Those privately owned businesses, with no conscious intent to function as the heart of the West Fens, had become just that."
Link
When Fenway's Restaurant Row went up in flames, neighbors lost more than their favorite eats
By Maggie Cassidy
Globe Correspondent / March 15, 2009
When workers closed up shop at El Pelon Taqueria on the night of Jan. 5, there were virtually no signs that the restaurant had suffered a devastating fire just over a year earlier, in December 2007. Since reopening in February 2008, they had reincarnated their famous walls of photos displaying about 70 snapshots of customers proudly wearing their El Pelon T-shirts - which show a mustachioed man underneath the restaurant's name - in locations around the world.
There were other mementoes, too, tacked up on the walls: Mexican baseball shirts, folk art, gifts from customers. And there were the customers themselves: tourists, passersby, and, in large part, local Fenway residents who stopped in for the $4 burritos or popular $5 fish tacos.
The following morning, the beloved taqueria was gone. El Pelon was one of seven businesses - six restaurants and a dry cleaner - destroyed in a four-alarm fire early Jan. 6. The blaze gutted the building, causing an estimated $5 million in damage and leaving 71 workers unemployed.
The Boston Fire Department later declared the cause an electrical short circuit in Thornton's Fenway Grille. But as with several other Boston neighborhood restaurants destroyed by flames in recent years, the damage on Peterborough Street extended beyond fire reports and insurance claims. The neighborhood lost its informal community center - its "heart," neighbors said.
Joyce Foster, president of the Fenway Community Development Corporation's board of trustees, said the eateries on so-called Restaurant Row - Thornton's, El Pelon, Rod Dee Thai Cuisine, Greek Isles, Sorento's Italian Gourmet, and Umi Japanese Restaurant - mirrored the diversity of the neighborhood they had served for years. Some of them, like Sorento's, had been there for more than two decades.
Beyond being popular places to eat, they were "part of the fabric of the Fenway community," Foster said, and their disappearance "represents a major tear in the fabric. It's heartbreaking."
Fenway residents say that without a formal neighborhood center, the small, locally owned food joints played an important role in their community. Restaurant Row drew customers from beyond the Fenway area, but "of course it's the neighborhood people who are most affected, because you can't help but have all these feelings every time you pass," said Gloria Platt, one of many Peterborough Senior Center members who frequented the restaurants. "Nothing's there except a big old bunch of boards."
Younger generations, too, had affection for the restaurants, whose colorful awnings overlooked chairs and picnic tables on their patios out front. In the first few weeks after the fire, Restaurant Row's destruction was at the top of 28-year-old Liz Koch's conversations with old classmates - the news spreading to friends as far away as California. Like many college students, Koch, who lived on Park Drive for six years before graduating from Northeastern five years ago, had an affinity for El Pelon, but she said the appeal of all the restaurants was their connection to the Fenway area.
"It was one of those neighborhood things that nobody else knew about. It belonged to the neighborhood," she said. "I had this pang of sadness when I saw that headline" about the fire, "and the picture was gut-wrenching."
A group of students from McKinley Preparatory High School, located across the street from the restaurants, even wrote a song to express their feelings about the fire, later posting it as a slideshow video on YouTube.
Jim Hoben, who opened El Pelon in 1998 and sports the same mustache shown on its T-shirts, said January's early-morning blaze had devastated his workers.
"We miss being a business," he told a crowd of local supporters at a community meeting Feb. 23. "I don't think I ever realized how much" the restaurant's workers "enjoy doing what they do until now."
And neighbors can hold a special regard for such familiar faces, and their establishments. Robert J. Sampson, professor and chairman of Harvard's Department of Sociology, said community restaurants fall into a group called "third places" - places outside home and work, like pubs and bookstores. Third places have served an important function throughout history, he said, by providing "a common ground for people of all different backgrounds to come together."
"One of the reasons the old show 'Cheers' was popular was because it evoked that sense of place where 'everyone knows your name,' where there's a community of sorts, those they see on a regular basis," Sampson said. "Even in large urban areas, one of the reasons third places are important is because you can form an identity or attachment, even if you don't know them in a very personal way."
Losing the restaurants is like "losing a part of the community," said Sampson. "It's understandable that some of the more popular restaurants that have burned would cause a certain anxiety."
Allston residents know what Sampson is talking about. The neighborhood favorite Grecian Yearning Restaurant, destroyed by a four-alarm fire last June, offered Allston's large college student population affordable all-day breakfasts in an inviting, low-key environment.
It was a place where everybody knew your name - or at least your face, said owner Nicholas Katsarikas, who opened the restaurant after emigrating from Greece in the '70s. He said the place thrived on the friendly atmosphere he and his wife created.
"It was nothing really special; we didn't have chandeliers," Katsarikas said. "It was just a simple, simple place, but that was what the college kids like. . . . It was their place - that was our goal all the time."
Similarly, neighbors had long considered the Tai Ho Mandarin and Cantonese Restaurant, destroyed in August 2007 by a blaze that killed two firefighters, the best of the few Chinese food restaurants in West Roxbury, largely because of the friendly mom-and-pop-style service that would deliver in all kinds of weather. And Jamaica Plain residents learned the tragedy of losing a community restaurant when El Oriental de Cuba, a neighborhood gathering place, was destroyed by a firebomb in July 2005, shutting down the restaurant for more than a year.
"That's the way everybody sees it - it's like a community place," said Edgar Figueroa, 35, who was born and raised in the area. "It's not just a place you go eat. You see everybody, everybody's together."
With the economy failing and the cost of opening a restaurant soaring, restaurants struggle to rebound from fires. In West Roxbury, former Tai Ho owner Jean Li last spring gave up trying to rebuild, according to her lawyer, Carolyn Conway, who said Li didn't have the money to start over. This spring, pizza chain the Upper Crust is slated to fill the space with its 14th shop.
Satisfying building codes can also be a hurdle. More than 30 years of new regulations have been passed since Katsarikas opened the Grecian, and he said he can't afford to bring the building up to code.
Although he hopes to reopen in Allston, he doesn't know if he will return to the Harvard Avenue location, which remains covered in plywood, now decorated with dozens of comments scribbled in marker by well-wishers.
Nobel Garcia, however, is one of the lucky ones. He triumphantly reopened JP's El Oriental in November 2006 amid a crowd of neighbors, politicians, servicemen, and other community supporters.
"We went through 14 months of real, real hell, but the community kicked in, the city of Boston kicked in," Garcia said. "Everybody from everywhere came out in throngs. The neighborhood came back to life again."
With the future cloudy for the Fenway restaurants, community members seem to agree on one thing: The neighborhood is not the same without them.
"Everyone I've talked to - neighbors and strangers alike - seems stunned that the restaurants are gone, and people are only now coming to grips with the idea of not having them around," said Steve Wolf, a longtime Fenway resident and CDC board member. "Those privately owned businesses, with no conscious intent to function as the heart of the West Fens, had become just that."
Link
kz1000ps
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City's upscale destination sees dramatic change in landscape
March 15, 2009
KIMBERLY SANFELIZ
At the beginning of last month, Excelsior shut down, leaving only a note on the door thanking customers for years of continued business. It was soon followed by Marina Rinaldi, an upscale clothing boutique for women sizes 10 to 14 located at 300 Boylston St., also abruptly closing its doors.
According to Alisha Farmer, spokeswoman for Max Mara USA, the parent company of Marina Rinaldi, the closing of the downtown store was planned.
"It is not an indicator of the economy," she said. "We planned the close in the development stages of opening the Natick store prior to the [current] economic climate."
As for the Excelsior, Kenneth Himmel, managing general partner for Excelsior and two other Boston-based spots, Harvest and Grill 23, said closing the restaurant was not an easy decision.
"We all woke up and started to read the newspaper," he said. "It started to sink in."
Himmel says he plans to open a new, more casual restaurant in mid-September 2009, which will serve Southern Mediterranean food and will have a more accessible price point aimed at attracting some of the foot traffic that walks up and down Boylston.
Meanwhile, both St. John and Escada, the two boutiques on either side of the vacant Marina Rinaldi storefront, were empty on a recent afternoon visit, but store managers for neither would comment except to say they weren't worried about the economic climate or the effect the closings would have on their business.
Link
March 15, 2009
KIMBERLY SANFELIZ
At the beginning of last month, Excelsior shut down, leaving only a note on the door thanking customers for years of continued business. It was soon followed by Marina Rinaldi, an upscale clothing boutique for women sizes 10 to 14 located at 300 Boylston St., also abruptly closing its doors.
According to Alisha Farmer, spokeswoman for Max Mara USA, the parent company of Marina Rinaldi, the closing of the downtown store was planned.
"It is not an indicator of the economy," she said. "We planned the close in the development stages of opening the Natick store prior to the [current] economic climate."
As for the Excelsior, Kenneth Himmel, managing general partner for Excelsior and two other Boston-based spots, Harvest and Grill 23, said closing the restaurant was not an easy decision.
"We all woke up and started to read the newspaper," he said. "It started to sink in."
Himmel says he plans to open a new, more casual restaurant in mid-September 2009, which will serve Southern Mediterranean food and will have a more accessible price point aimed at attracting some of the foot traffic that walks up and down Boylston.
Meanwhile, both St. John and Escada, the two boutiques on either side of the vacant Marina Rinaldi storefront, were empty on a recent afternoon visit, but store managers for neither would comment except to say they weren't worried about the economic climate or the effect the closings would have on their business.
Link
The Guitar Center on Boylston doesn't look bad!
Lurker
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http://www.goecsaints.com/sports/w-softbl/spec-rel/021009aaa.html
EMMANUEL AND CITY OF BOSTON TO RENOVATE CLEMENTE FIELD
Emmanuel College has established a partnership with the City of Boston to upgrade Roberto Clemente Field, a city-owned field located across the street from the Emmanuel College campus.
Feb. 9, 2009
Emmanuel College has established a partnership with the City of Boston to upgrade Roberto Clemente Field, a city-owned field located across the street from the Emmanuel College campus. This comprehensive restoration will result in a brand-new facility that will benefit the Fenway neighborhood and Boston Public Schools, as well as serve as the new home field location for Boston Latin School and Emmanuel College athletic teams.
"The partnership is particularly important in these difficult economic times and we appreciate Emmanuel's willingness to assist. This will provide a terrific state-of-the-art field for Boston Public School children, the neighborhood and Emmanuel," said Boston Parks Commissioner Antonia Pollak.
The renovation will include an upgraded 120,000 sq. ft. NCAA-regulation synthetic turf field, a three-lane rubberized all-weather track, practice facilities for expanded track and field events, new MUSCO lighting, scoreboard, spectator stands and benches for handicapped seating. With the planned removal of the southern spectator stands and planting of new trees, community members will be able to enjoy additional green space for picnicking and quiet relief, in addition to an enhanced view of the winding Muddy River. The renovation project is supported in part by a grant from the Yawkey Foundations.
"Emmanuel College is pleased to partner with the city on the renovation of Roberto Clemente Field," said President Sister Janet Eisner, SND. "Emmanuel has a long tradition of giving service to the wider community, and we hope that this renovation will enable more members of the Boston community, including our students and our neighbors, to appreciate and use this historic treasure."
"The Trustees of the Yawkey Foundations are pleased to be involved with this worthwhile project. Renovating Clemente Field is consistent with the Yawkey legacy of supporting and celebrating quality youth and amateur baseball and softball programs throughout the region," said James P. Healey, President and Trustee of the Yawkey Foundations.
Clemente Field is located in the Back Bay Fens area of Boston and is part of the city's 1,100-acre chain of parks and waterways known as the Emerald Necklace. Designed in the late 19th century by Frederick Law Olmsted, the Emerald Necklace was meant to serve the city as a place for both relaxation and recreation. At the foundation of his plan to develop the Back Bay Fens was a desire to eradicate the pollution plaguing the area, all the while remain true to "both the character of the land and the needs of the growing population."
Although over time the area has undergone change, most notably through the damming of the Charles River in 1910 and the addition of new features designed by landscape architect Arthur Shurtcliff, Olmsted's vision of creating a park that meets the needs of its owners, the people of Boston, remains strong. It is hoped that through this new partnership between Emmanuel College and the City of Boston that the current renovation will preserve the park to be utilized by generations of city residents to come.
For the past 20 years, meanwhile, the Emmanuel College softball team has called Clemente Field home. The Saints' soccer and track and field teams also use the field for daily practice. For many team members through the years, Clemente Field has not only had a significant impact on their development as athletes, but on their experience as Emmanuel College students as a whole. The College community looks forward to the restoration of the facility and its enhancement to the neighborhood of the Fenway.
Construction will begin in mid-March and is to be completed this summer. Residents of The Fenway may obtain a copy of the construction schedule through the Boston Parks and Recreation Department.
Click the thumbnail and then the image multiple times to get the full size image.
My perspective on Clemente Field
City Council President Mike Ross
The changes at Roberto Clemente Field are the result of hard work and significant effort, and I wanted to put them in some context.
This issue was first brought to my attention by parents of student-athletes from Fenway-area schools, who were upset by my opposition to Emmanuel?s initial plans for Clemente Field. They argued that the field was in awful shape, and that it was a danger to their sons and daughters. For years, the city tried to maintain the field, spending good money after bad, only to find the field a muddy pit, endangering those who used it. I understood their concerns.
However, the initial plans that Emmanuel submitted were a bad deal for the city and for the neighborhood, which made me hesitant to support the project. Emmanuel initially wanted what Emerson got at Rotch Field in the South End: A 30-year plus lease, a fence and a guardshack around the field, signs that suggested that Emmanuel owned the space, and nearly unfettered student access to the field at times when neighbors would want to use it. That?s not something I can support in my community.
The $4 million being offered by Emmanuel and the Yawkey Foundation to fix up the much-loved field couldn?t be ignored entirely. We brought community groups, Emmanuel, and the city together to find some common ground and make Clemente Field a safe space for both Emmanuel students and residents of the Fenway. We reached a compromise that reduced the terms of the contract to 10 years, eliminated the fence, the guard shack, and the signage. We ensured that the track would always be accessible for residents, reduced Emmanuel?s hours of usage, and moved the field closer to the basketball courts in order to provide significant passive area space for neighbors to relax or play.
I recognize that not everyone is satisfied with the end result. But I believe we worked together to provide a safe field for Boston Public School kids, as well as preserving the fields and track for neighborhood use. We did so through a partnership with a local institution that now has an even greater obligation to work with the neighbors to maintain a positive long-term relationship.
If you want more details, you can read a letter I sent to residents of the Fenway here. Or, as always, you can contact my office at (617) 635-4225 or Michael.Ross@cityofboston.gov. Thanks.
EMMANUEL AND CITY OF BOSTON TO RENOVATE CLEMENTE FIELD
Emmanuel College has established a partnership with the City of Boston to upgrade Roberto Clemente Field, a city-owned field located across the street from the Emmanuel College campus.
Feb. 9, 2009
Emmanuel College has established a partnership with the City of Boston to upgrade Roberto Clemente Field, a city-owned field located across the street from the Emmanuel College campus. This comprehensive restoration will result in a brand-new facility that will benefit the Fenway neighborhood and Boston Public Schools, as well as serve as the new home field location for Boston Latin School and Emmanuel College athletic teams.
"The partnership is particularly important in these difficult economic times and we appreciate Emmanuel's willingness to assist. This will provide a terrific state-of-the-art field for Boston Public School children, the neighborhood and Emmanuel," said Boston Parks Commissioner Antonia Pollak.
The renovation will include an upgraded 120,000 sq. ft. NCAA-regulation synthetic turf field, a three-lane rubberized all-weather track, practice facilities for expanded track and field events, new MUSCO lighting, scoreboard, spectator stands and benches for handicapped seating. With the planned removal of the southern spectator stands and planting of new trees, community members will be able to enjoy additional green space for picnicking and quiet relief, in addition to an enhanced view of the winding Muddy River. The renovation project is supported in part by a grant from the Yawkey Foundations.
"Emmanuel College is pleased to partner with the city on the renovation of Roberto Clemente Field," said President Sister Janet Eisner, SND. "Emmanuel has a long tradition of giving service to the wider community, and we hope that this renovation will enable more members of the Boston community, including our students and our neighbors, to appreciate and use this historic treasure."
"The Trustees of the Yawkey Foundations are pleased to be involved with this worthwhile project. Renovating Clemente Field is consistent with the Yawkey legacy of supporting and celebrating quality youth and amateur baseball and softball programs throughout the region," said James P. Healey, President and Trustee of the Yawkey Foundations.
Clemente Field is located in the Back Bay Fens area of Boston and is part of the city's 1,100-acre chain of parks and waterways known as the Emerald Necklace. Designed in the late 19th century by Frederick Law Olmsted, the Emerald Necklace was meant to serve the city as a place for both relaxation and recreation. At the foundation of his plan to develop the Back Bay Fens was a desire to eradicate the pollution plaguing the area, all the while remain true to "both the character of the land and the needs of the growing population."
Although over time the area has undergone change, most notably through the damming of the Charles River in 1910 and the addition of new features designed by landscape architect Arthur Shurtcliff, Olmsted's vision of creating a park that meets the needs of its owners, the people of Boston, remains strong. It is hoped that through this new partnership between Emmanuel College and the City of Boston that the current renovation will preserve the park to be utilized by generations of city residents to come.
For the past 20 years, meanwhile, the Emmanuel College softball team has called Clemente Field home. The Saints' soccer and track and field teams also use the field for daily practice. For many team members through the years, Clemente Field has not only had a significant impact on their development as athletes, but on their experience as Emmanuel College students as a whole. The College community looks forward to the restoration of the facility and its enhancement to the neighborhood of the Fenway.
Construction will begin in mid-March and is to be completed this summer. Residents of The Fenway may obtain a copy of the construction schedule through the Boston Parks and Recreation Department.
Click the thumbnail and then the image multiple times to get the full size image.
My perspective on Clemente Field
City Council President Mike Ross
The changes at Roberto Clemente Field are the result of hard work and significant effort, and I wanted to put them in some context.
This issue was first brought to my attention by parents of student-athletes from Fenway-area schools, who were upset by my opposition to Emmanuel?s initial plans for Clemente Field. They argued that the field was in awful shape, and that it was a danger to their sons and daughters. For years, the city tried to maintain the field, spending good money after bad, only to find the field a muddy pit, endangering those who used it. I understood their concerns.
However, the initial plans that Emmanuel submitted were a bad deal for the city and for the neighborhood, which made me hesitant to support the project. Emmanuel initially wanted what Emerson got at Rotch Field in the South End: A 30-year plus lease, a fence and a guardshack around the field, signs that suggested that Emmanuel owned the space, and nearly unfettered student access to the field at times when neighbors would want to use it. That?s not something I can support in my community.
The $4 million being offered by Emmanuel and the Yawkey Foundation to fix up the much-loved field couldn?t be ignored entirely. We brought community groups, Emmanuel, and the city together to find some common ground and make Clemente Field a safe space for both Emmanuel students and residents of the Fenway. We reached a compromise that reduced the terms of the contract to 10 years, eliminated the fence, the guard shack, and the signage. We ensured that the track would always be accessible for residents, reduced Emmanuel?s hours of usage, and moved the field closer to the basketball courts in order to provide significant passive area space for neighbors to relax or play.
I recognize that not everyone is satisfied with the end result. But I believe we worked together to provide a safe field for Boston Public School kids, as well as preserving the fields and track for neighborhood use. We did so through a partnership with a local institution that now has an even greater obligation to work with the neighbors to maintain a positive long-term relationship.
If you want more details, you can read a letter I sent to residents of the Fenway here. Or, as always, you can contact my office at (617) 635-4225 or Michael.Ross@cityofboston.gov. Thanks.
Beton Brut
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^ Former home of WBCN. Interior work may be under way. Will check Monday morning.
SeamusMcFly
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Remdog's? I didn't know Remy was opening a restaurant.
I'm more bullish on the Fenway area than any other developing neighborhood in Boston. It seems like all the major players -- the developers, community groups, the BRA, and the Red Sox -- are reading from the same page and working towards the right ends. I really hope this transformation succeeds.
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You may have just hit the nail on the head in terms of how to get things done in Boston. The Greenway didn't have this, neither did the SBW. The Harvard-Allston thing is just a giant hubris fueled clusterfuck.
I see a masters thesis in all this.
disturbanist
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Upper Crust Fenway is now open at 1330 Boylston Street.
It's nice to finally have a business up and running in that space.
It's nice to finally have a business up and running in that space.
B
bostoncitywalk
Guest
I saw this the other day. It is good news. However, it is a bit odd how the sidewalk and seating area in front of 1330 are basically over grates that vent (at least I think) from the parking garage below.
R
Riverworks
Guest
Don't restaurants have to obtain a permit for seating going out onto the sidewalk? It seems like the outdoor seating here is a little half assed. Maybe they didn't want to draw too much attention?
I hate it when restaurants do this. It's my impression that people want some sort of boundary or zoning, whether it be a railing, umbrella or even planters. No one likes being exposed to the open sidewalk. It almost leaves you feeling vulnerable.
I hate it when restaurants do this. It's my impression that people want some sort of boundary or zoning, whether it be a railing, umbrella or even planters. No one likes being exposed to the open sidewalk. It almost leaves you feeling vulnerable.
kennedy
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Yeah, if you look at almost any successful sidewalk seating at restaurants, be it on South Beach or in Venice, they always have some kind of separation, and it makes them seem more lively. Adds more color to the streetscape. I've got no problem with 6 umbrellas with Upper Crust logos.