---

The Newsletter of the High Street Hill Association

April 2007

---

Please Join Us for Your Neighborhood Association's
Annual Meeting
and Potluck Dinner

Monday, April 23
Latvian Lutheran Church
58 Irving Street

6:00 PM Family Potluck Dinner
7:00 PM Featured Speaker Deirdre Buckley
Co-Chair, Climate Change Action Brookline

With special invited guests
Jeffrey Sanchez, State Representative
Richard Kelliher, Brookline Town Administrator
Erin Chute Gallantine, Director, Division of Parks and Open Space
Captain John O'Leary, Brookline Police Community Service Department

HSHA Annual Business Meeting to Follow

Those with last names beginning with A-F please bring a main dish, G-M a dessert, and N-Z a salad.

Our Annual Meeting offers a great chance to meet old and new neighbors over dinner, ask local officials questions and hear what your association's been up to. Our featured speaker, Deirdre Buckley, Brookline's Environmentalist of the Year, will talk about how we on Pill Hill can realistically address the challenges of climate change. Hope to see you there.

---

Disturbing Trend

Lately there have been an alarming number of crimes committed in the Pill Hill neighborhood. On April 13, a home on Upland Road was brazenly burglarized at 9pm while the owners were upstairs; on April 6, a car on Walnut Street was jacked up and had its wheels stolen; and on a night two weeks ago, two unidentified men harassed an Irving Street resident by banging on the door and threatening harm. In each case the Brookline Police responded promptly but were unable to apprehend the perpetrators.

Many have said that our neighborhood is so friendly that they don't even lock their doors. The recent spate of reports proves that it would be unwise if you didn't take precautions.

• Lock your doors and windows. Don't leave valuables like a laptop where it can be seen from the outside.
• Your car is a bad place to store valuables. Keep it locked with iPods, GPS, etc. out of sight.
• Report suspicious activity immediately to the police. They don't mind if you're wrong.
• Keep an eye on your neighbor's house and let them know if you'll be away.
• Call the Brookline Police to request their email crime reports.

Captain John O'Leary from the Brookline Police Community Service Division and Town Administrator Rich Kelliher have been invited to our Annual Meeting. It will be a good opportunity to find out what has been planned as a response to this disturbing trend.

---

Neighborhood and Town are Partners in New Volunteer Program

In recent years, the Town of Brookline has overseen the implementation of the Emerald Necklace Masterplan for the restoration of Olmsted Park. Trees have been planted, beds of shrubbery have been replaced according to Olmsted's intent and the Babbling Brook has been reborn to once again inspire those who walk along its banks. The next challenge, however, is to maintain this wonderful resource and multimillion dollar investment.

But as has been demonstrated time and again with similar projects across the country, public funds alone can't sustain local parks. And so, what some are calling a "new model of stewardship" involving private funding and local volunteers is being developed to collectively support our parks.

At Olmsted Park, the Town of Brookline currently maintains the grounds with a mix of its own landscape staff, subcontractors and Department of Correction crews but their efforts and funding are not enough to keep the park in optimum condition.

Over the last few months HSHA board members have gotten together with Brookline GreenSpace Alliance leaders and Town Parks and Open Space Director Erin Chute Gallentine to develop a neighborhood volunteer program to help fill the gap.

Starting next Saturday and continuing through the spring on Thursday nights and a few more Saturdays, volunteers will be trained to accomplish specific landscape maintenance assignments. The first target area, for example, will involve the raking the hill along the Allerton Overlook and cleaning the edges of beds. Three Town environmental education and landscape staff will help explain the how's and why's of the day's effort. On succeeding days, volunteers will remove invasive knotweed, revitalize planted beds and remove debris from the Babbling Brook. Overall, the goal will be to have a visible, positive and moneysaving impact on our own park. It is hoped that our program will serve as a model for other neighborhood volunteer groups in Brookline.

All neighborhood volunteers will get a special T-shirt.
The front of the shirt is printed with a "Friends of Leverett Pond" logo created 25 years ago by local artist Colleen for the original Olmsted Park activist group. The back of the shirt was designed by neighbor graphic artist Susan Scott specifically for this program.

Tools will be provided although feel free to bring your own work gloves or favorite rake.

For more info contact:
Hugh Mattison, 617-232-6083, hmattison@aol.com or
Rob Daves, 617-566-7334, robdaves@rcn.com.

It's your park and it needs your help this Spring

---

More than 25 years of Activism

We are fortunate to have the beautiful walks and well-kept shady groves of Olmsted Park to grace our neighborhood. But this jewel in the Emerald Necklace wasn't always so glittering. Twenty-five years ago Olmsted Park was an urban eyesore--the trees were tangled and overgrown, Leverett Pond was choked with tires and shopping carts and commuter traffic on a road (where the current bike path is) discouraged any bucolic notions. HSHA members decided to band together, pick up the trash and start lobbying the local and state governments. The Olmsted Park you see today is the result of 25 years of continued activism and those very same neighbors are still involved in the effort to keep the park healthy.

---

Carbon Footprint has Nothing to do with Shoe Size...

Local artist Clara Wainwright is no novice when it comes to bringing people together for a cause. She started the first First Night celebration and lately she's the artistic director for the Faith Quilts Project. On March 26 she invited about 20 people from the neighborhood into her Upland Road home to discuss local solutions to global climate change and share a potluck dinner. David Lowe from Climate Change Action Brookline started the ball rolling and everybody tossed out their ideas for saving energy. The HSHA plans to contribute by using its website for exchanging info to help residents reduce their carbon footprint. Stay tuned.

Passing

Gaudio Imbruglia, 77, of 8 Upland Road, passed away last week. He lived on Upland Road his whole life, worked for Brookline Ice and Coal and was veteran of the Korean War. To those who knew him, he was a repository of local knowledge. If you mentioned a town location, he could tell you what was there 50 years ago, what the restaurants served, or what trees had been removed to make way for the "improvement." Gaudio, who could be seen walking to the Village every day, loved to be part of what he called the "Heart of Brookline--the real Brookline, old like me."
from Lindsay Ellison, downstairs neighbor.

Rental Wanted

Brookline resident Roger Blood is looking to find a house for rent for his daughter's family who will be visiting this summer. Contact him at 617-743-3529.

---

Save the Dates

April 21	Volunteers in the Park Kick-Off, Allerton Overlook, 10am-1pm.
April 23	HSHA Annual Meeting, Latvian Lutheran Church, 6pm.
May 1	Town Election. Precinct 5 votes at Lincoln School, 7am to 8pm.
June 17	HSHA Annual Picnic on the Green, Philbrick Square, Upland Road.

---

The Highlight is printed several times a year and is distributed on foot or by bicycle by HSHA Board members and their usually willing family members. If you have a comment or contribution contact the editor, Rob Daves, at 617-566-7334 or robdaves@rcn.com.