neighborhood advocacy by kids 02111
The Dewey Square Farmers’ Market opened today and will be open until 6:30PM this evening. This public market near South Station is a program of Boston Public Market. We’re glad to have it back in 2009, after missing it last year.
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Posted in missing farmers market.
This week, the kids and I took a moment to think about our site. We decided to update the structure a bit.
We want to talk about the neighborhood in two different ways: 1) small, quick encounters/observations; and 2) longer-term projects that take weeks or months of advocacy. Until now, we’ve dedicated our posts to our longer-term projects and ignored the little stuff. The result: we went months without creating a new post. And we found ourselves updating old posts with progress reports, long after most readers had probably moved on.
So we’ve shifted things around.
1) We migrated our longer-term projects (which we call “cases”) to a series of pages which you can access via the drop-down menu above, and
2) We’re aiming to increase the frequency of our posts, giving brief updates on our various “open” cases and talking about other things we notice.
Hope it works for you. Feedback welcomed.
Posted in news.
The newly-installed lights along the entire west side of the Chinatown Park on the Greenway are out. Another lamppost on the east side is half out. We noticed all this while playing wall ball in the evening.
In the city, there’s always a question of who’s-in-charge-of-what. On the Greenway, the main players are the City of Boston, the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority, and The Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway Conservancy. The Turpike Authority is a state agency that became responsible for the park immediately after its creation as part of the Big Dig. The Conservancy is a nonprofit organization that will manage the park going forward.
Right now, the Conservancy is about to take over. The details were worked out in a 2004 Memorandum of Agreement. In 2008, a law replaced the Memorandum and explained how things will work now. (Hey Kids—a Memorandum of Agreement or MOA is complicated name for a simple idea. An MOA is a letter you write with other people that explains how you plan to work together. For example, in school, when students and teachers write a list of rules at the start of the year and post it on the classroom wall—that’s an MOA.)
So, with all that in mind, who should you call to change a lightbulb on the Greenway?
Continued… (read more and comment)
Posted in park lights out.
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The storm drain at the end of our street needs to have its catch basin mucked out. My son pointed out the smell weeks ago, and I agree—something’s not right.
The smell is overpowering, and we had to hold our breath to take this photo. There is a small restaurant on the corner which suffers from being directly downwind. The husband and wife who run the place are always kind to us. No doubt their business is being driven away.
Let’s see if we can get this fixed. Continued… (read more and comment)
Posted in stinky storm drain.
We live near a narrow, fenced-in, overgrown lot in the heart of downtown Boston. A section of the chain link fence regularly collapses onto the sidewalk, allowing you to walk inside. Under the shrubs, you can see how the lot has absorbed bottles, takeout containers, and illegally dumped restaurant grease for years. (On a recent trip inside, I found a sun-bleached beer can with a removable pull tab.) The vacant lot poses no real threat to the neighborhood, but its lack of purpose (or perhaps subtlety of purpose) seems to invite abuse by visitors and residents alike.
Do we live in a urban place where there are only two alternatives: real estate development or utter neglect? Is there something in-between?
How does one tend a vacant lot? Continued… (read more and comment)
Posted in trashed vacant lot.
Films at the Gate
Wednesday, Sept. 3 - Sunday, Sept. 7
(films start each night at 7:30 PM)
For five nights this week, for the third year in a row, a vacant lot near Boston’s Chinatown Gate will become a free, outdoor theater, showing Kung-Fu and classic Chinese-language films. Learn more here. The film series is a community event which seeks to:
Hudson Street Gallery
Opening, Saturday, Sept. 6, 2008, 12-5 PM
Hudson Street Gallery, a new urban art space in Boston’s Chinatown, will open on September 6. The new gallery seeks to “honor the history and heritage of Chinatown and its immigrant communities while providing a home for contemporary artists to explore issues of geography, ethnicity and urbanism.” The gallery features several contemporary photographers and also historical images of Chinatown provided by The Asian Community Development Corporation. The historical photos include images of Hudson Street and the destructive impact the former Central Artery had on the neighborhood and its people. Learn more here.
Posted in news.
On May 21, 2008, the City of Boston calendar (screen shot) announced the opening day of the farmers’ market at Dewey Square/South Station in Boston. The Boston Public Market Association website listed the same information.
We walked over to the square, but there wasn’t any market.
Here’s what we did about it:
Steps
[2008.05.21] We called the City of Boston phone number on the calendar listing and were told that the city was waiting for information about the market schedule.
[2008.05.22] We emailed and received a prompt reply from Howard Leibowitz, Executive Director of the Boston Public Market Association, explaining that the Association will not be offering a seasonal market at Dewey Square this year because they were unable to resolve logistical issues (loading/unloading on Atlantic Ave) that drove up costs.
[2008.05.22] We emailed the Mayor of Boston asking that the city step in and facilitate the opening of the market. (10 days, no reply)
[2008.06.02] We sent an open letter to the Mayor’s Office. Continued… (Find out what happened, and comment)
Posted in missing farmers market.
The red light on the northeast corner of Kneeland and Tyler Streets has been out for weeks. Even with a signal, crossing at this intersection is tough for pedestrians because cars speed, run red lights, and make numerous turns. The pedestrian/walk button on the same corner is also broken. The button has been jammed into its socket and does not move.
Steps
[2008.05.12] We emailed the Boston Transportation Department. (10 days no reply or results.)
[2008.05.22] We called the Transportation Department (617) 635-4283 and were transferred to Signal Shop. We were told that someone would come out to fix both problems. A few hours later, a replacement lamp and a new pedestrian/walk button were installed. Case closed.
Tools
The Boston Transportation Department repairs street signs and traffic signals. Call (617) 635-4283 or email.
Posted in dead traffic signal.
Gateway Park is a small park/playground located near the southern end of Boston’s Rose Kennedy Greenway. It sits in the shadow of the Chinatown Gate, so the park’s condition sends a powerful message about the state of the neighborhood and Boston generally. Unlike the newly created Chinatown Park to the north, Gateway Park is in poor condition and suffers from the following problems:
Improving this park is listed as a community priority in the City of Boston Open Space Plan 2008-2012 Draft (at page 7.2.3-11): ”Address immediate security and safety problems at Gateway Park, such as garbage and conflicts with vagrants. Redesign Gateway Park to better meet community needs.” This language is identical to the community priority stated in the previous Open Space Plan 2002-2006 at page 68.
With help, Gateway Park could be a pleasant public space for families, children, and local residents. Let’s see waht we can do here. Continued… (read more and comment)
Posted in park in disrepair.
Recently, we noticed that our curbside recycling was being dumped into a garbage truck with our household trash. We shot this video and sent it to the Boston Department of Public Works.
Steps
[2008.05.05] City employees replied by email and said a meeting was planned with the collection contractor (Capitol).
[2008.05.09] On the next trash day, household trash was picked up at 6:30AM, and recycling was picked up separately, mid-afternoon.
[2008.05.16] The next week, trash and recycling were also picked up separately. Case closed.
Tools
Posted in recycling thrown away.
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