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| The Newsletter of the High Street Hill Association | April 2011 |
Please Join Us for Your Neighborhood Association's
Monday, May 2
at the Latvian Lutheran Church
58 Irving Street
6 PM Family Potluck Dinner
7 PM Featured Speakers
Alan Khazei and Vanessa Kirsch
also an "Update from the State House" from Representative Jeffrey Sánchez
Allerton Street neighbors Alan and Vanessa are busy people. Alan, author of
Big Citizenship: How Pragmatic Idealism Can Bring Out the Best in America
HSHA Annual Business Meeting to Follow
Those with last names beginning with A-F please bring a salad, G-M a main dish, and N-Z a dessert.
For the Town Election on May 3, eight of the town's 16 precincts will have Town Meeting Member races in which there is only one challenger for the open seats. In six of the precincts, including our own, the TMMs are unopposed and in two of the precincts some of the seats will be unfilled. Is everybody in Brookline happy with everything the way it is? You should still vote, of course, to show support for those who are doing good work.
On March 29, the Advisory Committee, after a somewhat disjointed discussion, voted 13-8 in favor of preserving funding for bicycle lanes on Cypress Street and Harvard Street. However, they voted 9-12 against funding lanes on Beacon Street. These striping projects originated in the Town's Bicycle Master Plan (see BrooklineBikes.org) and will make the roads safer for all users. The Cypress Street portion will go from Route 9 to Chestnut and then over to the Paul Pender rotary and will not involve the loss of any parking spaces. The next step is for the Town Meeting to vote on the budget in late May and if approved the lanes would be installed in Spring 2012. At its April meeting the HSHA board voted to support Cypress this initiative. Please contact your TMM to express your opinion.
The footprint of the High Street Hill Association, except for the north side of Allerton Street, lies wholly within the boundaries of Precinct 5 and has been that way for a very long time. But now, due to the results of the last census, some precincts are going to be remapped. Although P5's population has not changed much, the bordering precincts of 4 to the northeast and 14 and 15 to the west, have changed, putting pressure on P5 to grow in area and get pushed farther west. According to Walnut Street neighbor Frances Shedd Fisher, "It would be best to keep the HSHA area in P5. Although P5 and P4 have worked well together on border issues, P4 has some issues that are specific to P4, as does P5, so the ability to make a difference might get watered down if the neighborhood lines aren't honored." The HSHA board urges residents to contact Selectwoman Betsy DeWitt and others who are on the town's Reprecincting Committee to say HSHA should remain in Precinct 5.
Come pitch in and do your part to spruce up your park as part of Earth Week. The winter's been rough but now the weather's getting nice and Olmsted Park needs some grooming from its nearest and dearest neighbors. We will be edging beds, mulching and planting replacement shrubs. Get a free "Friends of Leverett Pond" tee shirt. Tools will be provided. Sponsored by HSHA's Friends of Leverett Pond in cooperation with the Brookline GreenSpace Alliance and the Town of Brookline Division of Parks and Open Space. For more info please call Rob Daves at 617-566-7334 or Hugh Mattison at 617-232-6083.
9AM to 1PM Saturday, April 23. Meet at the Allerton Street Overlook on Pond Avenue
Every year it seems we lose more and more of our historic black and silver cast-aluminum street signs due to damage or theft. Made from the 1930s through the 1950s by Brookline's DPW workers, the signs are nationally unique and, for many, are emblematic of our great town (see A Historic Legacy from Brookline's DPW on the history page of the HSHA website). Although there has been a moratorium on removing them and there was a written inventory performed by the Preservation Commission in 2006, the HSHA board felt it would be prudent to make a photographic survey to document the location and condition of each sign. In February we hired high school student and neighbor Nick Weber to create the photo document. He did a great job and we will soon be posting the photos and a Google map with the locations on our website. In January HSHA wrote a letter to the Federal Highway Administration requesting a waiver from proposed regulations that would require replacement of the signs. Neighbors Betsy and Dennis DeWitt also persuaded Senator John Kerry to write a letter in support.
Last February, the Transportation Board (TB) voted to proceed with its plan for crosswalks along Pond Avenue. But, due to a HSHA request from High Street residents citing new information from traffic expert and former Transportation Board member Peter Furth, the TB decided to take additional time to consider traffic calming along High Street. Among the options are reducing the 25 mph speed limit, installing a median refuge (pedestrian island) at Highland Avenue, and adding a flexible crosswalk stanchion in the crosswalk at Irving Street. And now that the snow has finally cleared, Peter Furth has added details to his original suggestions in a second report. Based on this additional info, several High Street residents are distributing a petition that will ask the TB to request that the state reduce the speed limit from 30 to 25 mph along High Street. At its April meeting the HSHA board voted to support the petition. Please come to the April 28 TB meeting -- your input is needed.
On Sunday, May 15, 6 PM at the Coolidge Corner Theater, the organization Honoring Eleanor Roosevelt: A Project to Preserve Her Val-Kill Home will present its Following in Her Footsteps Award to Chobee Hoy, civic leader and philanthropist, Jackie Jenkins-Scott, president of Wheelock College, and Jane Alexander, Pill Hill native (Hawthorn Rd) and former head of the National Endowment for the Arts. All three women represent the energy and fortitude of Mrs. Roosevelt and her commitment to make this country a better place for all. Please join in for a wonderful evening of film and reminiscences to honor these very special Brookline women. Tickets are $125 and $25 for students and are tax deductible. For more info go to www.honoringeleanorroosevelt.org or call 617-365-6788.
To be presented at our Annual Meeting on May 2:
Bill Weber, President
Olivia Fisher Fox, Vice President
Margot Balboni, Secretary
Blake Cady, Treasurer
Rob Daves, Past President
John Carpenter*
Maria Connor
Anthony Flint*
Betsy Shure Gross
Kristin Leader
Alexis Hasiotis Wintersteen*
* New Candidates
Thanks to the following outgoing board members for their service: Liz Craig-Olins, Richard Robb and Jennifer Shea.
The High Street Hill Association Presents
|
Featuring Musicians from the Manhattan Camerata 3 PM Sunday, May 15 at the Home of Neighbors John and Jean Peteet 100 High Street |
In past years the HSHA's spring Musicale has featured neighborhood talent. This year, however, we have a special opportunity to host a performance by musical guests from New York City, followed by our famous ice cream sundaes. Reserve a seat by calling Maria Conner at 617-278-0276 today. |
The Manhattan Camerata was founded in 2009 by Artistic Director Lucia Caruso, composer and pianist from Argentina, and Music Director Pedro Henriques da Silva from Portugal, a composer and multi-instrumentalist playing classical and Portuguese guitars, sitar, bouzouki, and mandolin among others. Maria Connor, a member of the HSHA board, and Toni Oberholzer, a nearby Brookline neighbor, are both founding board members of the Camerata which performs nationally as well as internationally.
In the March issue of UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship) Magazine, Boston Celtics power forward Glen "Big Baby" Davis is quoted as saying that Upland Road resident Dave Ginsberg repeatedly made him "tap out" (ask for mercy) when sparring during one of their training sessions. Dave, a Jiu-Jisu-based mixed martial arts (MMA) trainer and a MMA referee, has been working with Davis in the off-season for a couple of years. The amazing thing is that Dave is 5' 10", 180 pounds and Big Baby is 6' 9" and weighs 289!
The Maintenance and Management Oversight Committee (MMOC) of the Muddy River Restoration Project and the Colleges of the Fenway Center for Sustainability is proud to host the 5th Annual Muddy River Research Symposium: Sustainability, Public Health, and the Politics of Urban Parks on Thursday, April 28 from 4:00-7:30 p.m. at Wheelock College, 43 Hawes Street. For information, contact Michael Berger at 617-290-5984 or michael.berger@simmons.edu.
If you've heard about various state, federal, and utility company programs that have been offering rebates and energy audits but haven't acted because it sounds too complex and confusing, now there is a one-stop answer that will make it easy to find out if you can lower your energy bills and shrink your carbon footprint. The Town of Brookline's Climate Change Committee and the Planning Department has hired Next Step Living as its official Green Homes Brookline contractor. With one call you can get a no-cost energy assessment and up to $3,500 of upgrades that may lower your utility bills by $400-1,200 annually. Go to greenhomesbrookline.org or call 866-867-8729 or CCAB volunteer Rob Daves at 617-566-7334 for more info.
After years of advocacy and planning Phase One of the Muddy River Restoration Project is finally (!) getting underway near the Landmark Center. Permitting has been completed and $8.1 million has been transferred from the Commonwealth of Mass to the Army Corps of Engineers to get things started. Beginning this week and continuing for about 3 months contractors will be relocating utilities under Brookline Avenue between Park Drive and The Riverway. Since this is a very congested area every effort is being made to reduce impact: construction will be mostly from 7 PM to 5 AM and will not start until 2 hours after Red Sox games are over. Phase Two, which will dredge and restore the river downstream to Charlesgate and upstream to Leverett and Willow Ponds, is still a few years away. May we all live long enough to see it completed.
We...
These are just a few of the important ways that the committed volunteers of the High Street Hill Association have helped our neighborhood in the past year. But it takes support from you to continue the activities and the advocacy. We hope you agree your $15 per year dues brings quite a return. Thank you for your support.
Do you think our neighborhood would be as special without the HSHA?
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High Street Hill Association
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High Street Hill Association
Blake Cady, Treasurer
24 Walnut Place
Brookline, MA 02445
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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.