Our alleys

A big thank you to all who volunteered this weekend for the alley cleanup of the Hanson/Waltham alley, and for the individuals that gave the Waltham/UP alley a cleanup.   With this weekends' efforts, all of our alleys have now had some level of cleaning.

It's up to all of us to help keep our alleys in a clean state.

Aside from looking nice and being used to move things in and out of our homes, our alleys are important for our first responders.   During all our cleanups we've found that the alleys have become dumping grounds. Contractors using the alley to dispose of things they don't want to throw out, including soil they've dug up and decided to dump into the alleys. Residents using the alleys for storage of items, or as a place to throw out trash.   Added to that were fallen branches and blown-in trash that no one had ever cleaned up.

At best, the alleys end up looking messy.   At worst, they may come a day when police or fire respond to a call and can't get through to your home, or get injured trying to navigate debris in the dark while responding to a call.   Unkempt alleys can also give the impression that the area is not cared for, and overgrown trees and plants can make good hiding places for those with ill intent.


To keep our alleys clean and safe, we ask everyone to

• Clean the alley behind your own home regularly. 
• Trim low hanging tree branches and overgrown bushes that might keep the alley dark or provide hiding places for thieves.
• Do not throw trash into the alleys.  
• Do not store items in the alleys.   While it seems convenient, it clutters the alleys and can impede first responders
• Police ask that you add your house number to your rear gates, again so first responders can find your home should an emergency ever happen.
• The police also remind everyone with a gate do put a secure locking mechanism on the gate.  During all our alley walk-throughs, BPD was able to walk into almost half of the back yards due to gates not being locked or have an easily defeated gate latch.

If we all pitch in we can keep our alleys clean and safe.

Stoop Nights

Come out and meet your neighbors!!!

Postponed by the rain - Join us on Saturday night!

Join us on Dwight street on Saturday, May17th from 5:30-7pm for Stoop Night.

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This Friday Eight Streets is resurrecting an old tradition.  

In the days before Internet and big screen TVs and all our other distractions, many people used to spend evenings sitting on their front steps.  You enjoyed some nice evening weather, and got to say 'hi' to all
your neighbors as they came home from work or went out running errands.

Flash forward to the present, and you'll see very few stoop sitters, and we often don't even know the people living in our building never mind those next door to us.   We hope to start reversing this trend.

The ESNA social committee is bring the next social event right to your front door!

On Friday, Eight Streets will host a stoop night on Dwight Street.

• If you live on Dwight street, we ask that you turn off the computer and the TV and head outside!  Sit on your stoop from 6-7:30 and say Hi to all who walk by!

• If you live on our other streets, head over to Dwight!  Walk the street,  say hi, and stop and chat with a neighbor you've never met before.   Make some new friends, talk about neighborhood issues, and take a break form your hectic week to just sit and mingle for a bit.

To help inspire others, several Dwight residents have agreed to be 'host' stoops.  They will be stoop sitting for the entire time from 6-7:30  Just look for the balloons at 7, 26, 30, 31.5, 38 and 52 Dwight. Some hosts will have light refreshments to entice you.   If we get a good turnout, we'll continue Stoop Night throughout the summer visiting each of our streets!

Download this flier for more information - or print it out and post in your lobby so everyone in your building can participate.   For more information please contact Bernard.      Rain date is Saturday, May 17th from 5:30-7.

May Business Meeting

Happy Allergy Season!

Our next business meeting Wednesday, May 7th, 6:30-8:30 at the Boston Ballet 5th floor board room (Corner of Warren & Clarendon)

Meeting format:

6:30-7 - Neighborhood Networking.   Meet your neighbors in an informal setting.
7-8:30 - Business meeting.

On the agenda this month:

• Deck @ 35 Hanson
• Elections
• Committee reports
• Business focus: Siena Farms
• Special Guest Speaker - John Sullivan of BWSC
• Open Member Discussion

Business this month includes 35 Hanson street seeking support for a rear parlor level deck.

Our business focus this week will be Siena Farms, purveyor of fresh produce and flowers on Waltham street.

Our guest speaker this month will be John Sullivan of Boston Water & Sewer.  He'll give a presentation on the history of Boston water, as well as some current and future projects.    Jim Steinkraus, BWSC General Council will also join us, to help answering any questions after the presentation.

ESNA business this month consists of our annual elections of your neighborhood officers, and committee reports, including several cleanup and social activities coming up, and our search of additional street captains.

A reminder that the Hanson/Waltham Alley Cleanup, and the Ringgold Park mulching is this Saturday, May 10th. so mark your calendars.   See more information here.


Help support the neighborhood Association by becoming a member.  Head to the ESNA Membership Page.  There you can join on-line with your credit card, or print out a membership form to mail in with a cheque.

Remember to like us on Facebook as well - get more local notices and photos from all our events.

Hope to see everyone there!

Join us on Social Media
Our Google Calendar
Our Facebook page
ESNA Twitter feed

A Weekend of Cleanups

This weekend brings the annual Boston Shines cleanup to the South End, and several projects in our neighborhood.

On Saturday, May 10th the neighborhood has the following activities going on.

At 9:30 we continue our cleanup of Ringgold park.   By then the city should have delivered mulch outside the park.  We'll spend the morning mulching the various plant in the beds.  This will make the park look even better, keep the weeds down and keep plants form drying out over the summer.  We're also planning a plant sale for that morning - more information on that soon!

At around 9am Berkeley Community garden will also have another cleanup that morning, continuing their Spring Cleanup from last month.   Stop by the garden and give them a hand and meet our gardening neighbors.

At 8am our biggest effort will be another alley cleanup.  This year we will be cleaning up the alley between Hanson and Waltham streets.   Our security walk-through with BPD last month shows it would be a hazard to any first responders due to all the debris in the alley and the uneven ground due to dumping over the years.   We hope both neighbors and alley abutters will join us to take part in the alley cleanup.   Boston Shines will provide tools and bags, and will make a special pickup to remove this larger debris.  meet in Ringgold Park (and in the alley) to help out with this cleanup.

If you abut this alley and have personal property in the alley, please remove it before Saturday so it doesn't accidentally get cleaned out on Saturday.

A flier with alley cleanup details can be found here (pdf)

Hopefully you can take park in one of these cleanup efforts and help make our neighborhood shine!!   Even if you can only take some time to sweep and clean the sidewalk in front of your home, every little bit will help.