I wanted to tell you about the most important event since NAG’s founding (Neighborhood Access Group is almost 7 years old!) , a rally next Friday called “Everyone Wins!”  In a nutshell, the city has implied that it wants to take out the brick sidewalks along Huntington Avenue and replace them with concrete (at an estimated cost of $384,000), but that it might also have to try (due to overwhelming institutional and elite pressure) to make them comply by grinding them down.  The challenge is for people who support public safety, civil rights for people with disabilities, and fiscal responsibility — bricks are a nightmare to maintain, while concrete takes care of itself — to overcome opposition from elitists trying to protect a bad investment in status enhancement (installing the bumpy and dangerous bricks in the first place over a perfectly serviceable concrete sidewalk).

So NAG and BCIL are sponsoring a rally next Friday, 12 p.m.-2 p.m., at the corner of Huntington Avenue and Massachusetts Avenue, near 333 Mass Ave. and Utrecht Art Supplies.   We are calling the rally “Everyone Wins!” and will be offering wheelchair rides on the brick, opportunities to write to public officials, sign a petition, and have fun.

there’s more…

Here is some background on the issue:

First of all, Huntington Avenue reconstruction project was born out of the federal mandate to make the E line accessible to people with disabilities.  Federal funds were routed through Mass. Highway, and the MBTA took the lead in the actual project, using city designs.  The design came from Northeastern and the Fenway Alliance, who wanted to remove the “blight” there previously (concrete sidewalks) and raise their status with brick sidewalks and trees.  The sidewalks were installed 2003-2004.  People with disabilities haven’t been on the sidewalks ever since.  I have written about this issue a lot at the NAG website.

When we saw what was going on — bricks were laid right up against Symphony Plaza with its hundreds of elderly and disabled people — we got really active, held a protest in September 2003, held City Hall hearings, signed petitions and letters to the Mayor, and filed a complaint on one portion of Huntington.  Nothing else worked but the complaint, now over three years old, has resulted in a fine of over $300,000 against the city for not bringing the sidewalk into compliance with state access codes (it’s still tilted).  The city has unsuccessfully gone to court twice now over this issue, and appears ready to throw in the towel.  Most recently Public Works chief Dennis Royer came in to the Architectural Access Board (AAB) and said that the city is trying to decide between ripping out all 14 blocks of bricks (between Mass Ave. and the Museum of Fine Arts) and replacing them with concrete, or “polishing” the brick with grinding machines. 

Access advocates are taking up the challenge of helping the city make the right decision.   We are calling upon all three entities — the city of Boston, the MBTA, and the state — to come together and commit to concrete.  As the complainant on the Huntington Ave. sidewalk now being fined , I am writing the AAB that if the city will replace the brick with concrete, I support allowing the use of the fine to defray the cost of restoration.   The MBTA, as the lead agency which failed its responsibility to manage the sidewalk installation correctly, should also contribute.

http://www.beantownjazz.org/

to find out what you’re missing if you don’t get over to Columbus Ave.

Stephen

I found this vid on Crooks and Liars – a great place to visit for news about American politics.

James Levine, who collaborated with Mr. Pavarotti in 139
performances at the Met beginning in 1973, said, “Few singers in the
history of the Metropolitan Opera have had the popularity with the
general public and the enormous impact that Luciano Pavarotti had during
his 36-year career with the company. Luciano’s voice was so
extraordinarily beautiful and his delivery so natural and direct that
his singing spoke right to the hearts of listeners whether they knew
anything about opera or not. I will never forget the sheer magic of that
voice, but I will also remember the warm, generous, and exuberant spirit
of the man. He is, rightfully, a legend already – an artist whose
recordings will be a reference for singers and opera lovers for a long
time to come.”

For a brief taste of the two maestri working together, check out this YouTube vid of nessun dorma – but if you’re anything like me, you should have some kleenex handy…

The article notes that the janitors got some moral support in August from “the region’s largest commercial office-building owner,” the Blackstone Group.  Fenwickians might wonder why the largest non-profit educational institution in our neighborhood could not have taken the same high ground.

Dear Neighbor,

As we enter the 9^th inning of our season, and while we all have October on the mind, we want to take this opportunity while the team is on the road to invite you over to hear about this year’s Fenway Improvements. If you are able, we invite you to Fenway on Tuesday, August 28, at 6:00 pm or Wednesday, August 29, at 7:30 am for this informal meeting. All attendees can enter Gate D.

Thank you,

Sarah McKenna

That being said, I would rather adopt the smelliest, loudest, most pathetically and hopelessly needy of the lot of them, and move that person into my house, than live next door to someone like Norm Knickle or Jerry Frank.  According to the Boston Globe’s Yvonne Abraham, they would deny homeless people the chance of a roof over their heads simply because they imagine that their property values might suffer.  If I were a religious person, I would think about these persons in terms of the state of their souls, and about camels passing through the eyes of needles.  I might compare their posh Upton Street houses to whited sepulchres.

But I’m not.  I’m just someone who can’t stand the stench of greed and selfishness and who hopes that the more that people like these try to make themselves comfortable at the expense of others the more they will be afflicted by demons of their own making.