Here are a few photos from this morning of the dismantling of the old Pepsi building, other the Science Complex related demolition, and the former Citgo station now owned by Harvard.
 
 Bring your family and friends to join in song and celebration at the Weeks Bridge. Come as early as 5:00PM and bring a picnic. The participatory singing starts at 6:00PM. To request lyrics, please email RiverSing2007@yahoo.com. For sponsorship information or to buy tickets to the Weld Boathouse reception, please contact Jennifer Chu at jyc@thecharles.org http://www.thecharles.org/projects/Bridges/RiverSing2007_release.html
 Certainly nobody in Allston is protesting Harvard's demolition of the old Pepsi building on Western Ave. It is fine with me to see it and the other buildings around it go. None of them had any architectural charm or special value. Across the country in Berkeley, CA, protesters have been living in trees for months to show their opposition for a University of California plan to to cut down the trees to build a $125 million athletic center. University Fences In a Berkeley Protest, and a New One Arises - New York Times
This happened just yards from where a bicyclist was hit by a car and killed earlier this year. I don't know who was or wasn't obeying the traffic laws but regardless this is terrible and another reminder of how unfriendly and unsafe our roads are for people using every form of transportation. Skateboarder in critical condition after accident on Boston street - The Boston Globe
The Harvard Crimson :: News :: Election Ends Political AnxietyGalluccio is no stranger to Harvard expansion in Cambridge. During his tenure on the city’s University Relations Committee from 2004 to 2005, Harvard secured the go-ahead for numerous construction projects, including graduate student housing near Mather House and science buildings north of the Yard. The seven-term city councillor says that his past experience will enable him to be an advocate for the Allston-Brighton area.
“I have a long history working with the neighborhoods of Cambridge in dealing with Harvard University development issues,” he said. “I’m aware of how important these issues are to the Allston-Brighton community, and I will be an advocate and continue to work with the neighborhood.”
Boston Globe columnist Steven Syre asks some important questions in his column today: With a $35 billion endowment, how should Harvard spend its money? - The Boston Globe"And what about the university's neighbors?" he asks, and then continues "institutions, like people, have an obligation to think about the well-being of their neighbors, and that goes double for the well-off."
The people who live in Allston absolutely think about the well-being of their neighbors. But it is important to recognize the difference between how neighbors in Allston and Brighton can help each other and how it works elsewhere. It seems pretty well established that Boston and Massachusetts don't have the money to provide many of the services and amenities that are important to many people who live here. To fill this void, organizations have been created to raise money and make improvements that otherwise would not happen. The Esplande Association is a great example. Founded in 2001, The Esplanade Association has done wonderful things for the Charles River alongside the Back Bay neighborhood. In 2005 they had revenue of $455,000 that was able to support their good deeds. The Esplanade Association isn't alone in being able to raise a significant amount of money from private sources. Also in 2005 the Neighborhood Association of the Back Bay had $256,000 of revenue and the Friends of the Public Garden brought in $1.8 million dollars. So these three neighborhood groups had combined revenues of more than two and 1/2 million dollars, and I am sure there are many others with smaller but still significant operations. It is wonderful that many people are so generous and giving of their time to make these organizations as capable as they are. In a more working-class neighborhood like Allston and Brighton, we don't have many neighbors with the resources of a Chris Gabrieli who can make major contributions to local good causes. If the Allston Civic Association or Brighton Allston Improvement Association asked people to pay a membership fee, I doubt they would bother with a $1000 Sponsor level. We do have neighbors with tremendous physical, intellectual, and financial resources, they just happen to be universities instead of private individuals. We also have problems and needs similar to our wealthier neighbors elsewhere in Boston - clean and safe streets, well-maintained parks, good schools... We can keep writing and talking about the "double" obligation of the "well-off" to think about their neighbors, but something has to change at City Hall or Harvard Yard before we are going to see any results.
There are plenty of ways to rationalize this - bad weather, idiodic district boundaries, two elections in one month, etc. - but we need to vote if we want the attention that we need from our elected officials Six percent vote in A-B - Brighton, MA - Allston/Brighton TAB
45-47B Murdock Street - Erect a three-family dwelling
28 Quint Avenue - Off street parking for twelve residential vehicles If you wish to express an opinion about these zoning variances you can call 617-635-4775 for more information or write to: Board of Appeal, 1010 Massachusetts Avenue, 4th floor Boston, MA 02118. The hearing is at 9:30 in room 801 at City Hall.
Mark is having a campaign rally on Friday from 7-10 at the Elks Lodge, 326 Washington St. You can call 617 789 4693 for more info.
Harvard announced at last night's Task Force meeting that they have completed their purchase of the 1/2 acre of land at 182 Western Ave, the former CITGO station that has been closed for several months. The deed dated August 29 is less than transparent. It tells us that for $1 the property was transfered to "Keystone Corner LLC" at 500 Western Ave. As the map shows, Harvard continues to tighten its grip.
I happened to have a camera with me yesterday when walking down North Harvard St at 8:45 in the morning. The traffic was barely moving and jammed solid from Cambridge St to Western Ave. How much worse will it be when Harvard starts construction or eventually when 1000's of new people start commuting to jobs in North Allston? When we start talking about Harvard's 20-year plan there needs to be some serious planning to eliminate problems like this.
Here is some video of a recent candidates forum and a chance to see each of the four candidates talk about Harvard's expansion in Allston and Brighton. (By the way, I have no idea how Tim Flaherty got the idea that I am the president of the Harvard Allston Task Force)
A group of Allston and Brighton residents have put together a response to Harvard's education portal (an education community benefit) that was proposed by Harvard in mid-August. Many people think that Harvard's proposal is insufficient and signatures are being collected from community education leaders, neighbors, etc for a university-assisted community school approach. The principals of the Thomas Gardner Elementary School and German International School in North Allston and more than 100 residents and educators in the community have already pledged their support. Click here to read the letter and learn how you can support the effort.
On Wednesday I went to a house party on Windom St for Tim Flaherty, one of the candidates to replace Jarrett Barrios and represent parts of Allston/Brighton in the State Senate. He talked about a typical set of issues - education, Harvard's expansion, public safety, preventing drug abuse - and in some cases I felt went a bit too far in what he told us he would do as a State Senator. Certainly as one of 40 people in the Senate you can do some good things, but I don't know how one senator is going to create drug treatment centers or solve the problem of Oxycontin abuse. As far as I know, Tim is the only one of the four candidates who has come to our neighborhood for any personal events. They are all stuffing our mailboxes with lots of postcards, but actually showing up here and talking to people is much more important than just sending us mail. Senate hopefuls tout their ties, skills - The Boston Globe
Nobel laureate Watson doesn't mince words - The Boston GlobeNobel laureate James Watson has some unkind things to say about Larry Summers in his memoir, "Avoid Boring People: Lessons From a Life in Science." In the book,
excerpted in the new issue of 02138, the mighty molecular biologist says "nothing may have distinguished Summers' time in office like leaving it."
Watson, who's one of the co-discoverers of the structure of DNA, calls Harvard's Allston expansion a 'Soviet-style fantasy.'
Give credit to Alex Selvig for being the first Allston/Brighton City Council candidate to submit and publish comments about the Harvard expansion in this letter to the State's environmental regulators in the MEPA office. We need a lot more than a councilor who sits quietly in the back of the auditorium during our community meetings. Hopefully Alex, Mark, Tim, Rosie, Greg, and James will write to the BRA by Monday and share with all of us their opinions about Harvard's proposal.
 Shown in green in this map, it is probably one of the world's most irregular legislative districts. But for a bunch of us in Allston and Brighton it is our State Senate district. There is a special election on September 11 to replace Jarrett Barrios and the Globe has endorsed Tim Flaherty. To find out if you can vote in this election, go to the Secretary of State's website. If it lists Barrios as your "Senate in General Court" district representative then please vote on the 11th. For state Senate - The Boston Globe "He says he will fight to ensure that North Allston neighborhoods won't be "overrun" while Harvard University rolls out its ambitious campus expansion plans."
A week from today is the deadline for comments to the BRA about Harvard's Science Complex. What should you write? Anything! If you don't want to write about technical issues like automobile mode share or groundwater levels, write about how you feel about the relationship between Harvard and our community. Write about the Task Force, the Task Force meetings, or the BRA. Are you satisfied, frustrated, confident, overwhelmed, or something else? Our written comments form the official summary of the past several months of meetings and that is very important. Spoken comments at meetings are good too, but those are often not recorded in the minutes and they leave no permanent record. Even if you write just a few sentences, please write! As a reminder of what we have written in the past, the community submitted these comments about the Science Complex in December 2006 and these comments in February 2007 about projects including the Science Complex in Harvard's Master Plan Amendment. Send your comments to Gerald.Autler.bra@cityofboston.gov.
I mentioned the Boston Health Care and Research Training Institute in a post last year and it is worth mentioning again now. This profile and this website describe a great program for Boston residents living near the Longwood Medical Area. It provides entry-level workers with education and support so they can build skills, earn higher wages, and advance in their career in the health care industry. I am baffled that between the City (which funds this Longwood program and lists it on the BRA website), Task Force (whose members have talked at length about creating job opportunities for Allston/Brighton residents at Harvard's Science Complex), and Harvard (who is a " proud member" of the Institute in Longwood), we have not been able to agree on a similar program here in our neighborhood. In the Science Complex DPIR, Harvard "offers to complement the BRA Jobs and Adult Education programs by developing a workforce development program with the City" which sounds great, but what kind of program will it be? Who will fund it? How many people will be able to enroll? Do we want at least preliminary answers to these questions before the project is approved or should we just wait and see? This sort of thing can almost give the impression that Harvard isn't concerned with public opinion about the Science Complex. Because it seems so easy, when the program that we want and that makes so much sense already exists just a few miles away, for Harvard to announce that they will expand the Boston Health Care and Research Training Institute and bring this program here for Allston and Brighton residents. Maybe Harvard could even find a couple thousand square feet in the Science Complex to house the program's offices and classrooms. People would stand up and applaud, the Science Complex would enjoy greater community support, and the whole review process would feel like it was yielding something worthwhile for the community. Instead there is a vague "offer" (which is much weaker than saying "Harvard will develop a workforce development program") and little attention given to this important subject, and that is too bad.
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