Happy Halloween

It looks like we'll have some decent weather for halloween night.  Barring a random shower, the kids will be out in force tomorrow night.

For those new to the city, since we're mostly town houses, the kids don't really go around buzzing apartments.  Instead, we come to them.  Those giving out candy become porch sitters for the night, greeting trick-or-treaters on our front steps.

Aside greeting the kids, this can be a great way to meet your neighbors!  Take this opportunity to say hi to the folks next door that you may only see in passing.   Or combine a few houses onto one stoop and make an evening of it.  (the kids just want candy, they don't care where you live  :)

And if you have kids of your own, don't forget about the annual Ringgold halloween gathering, which takes place Wednesday from 4:30-6.  "Enjoy a potluck of savory refreshments and grab a glow stick before parading out of the park for trick-or-treating along adjacent streets. Please bring something savory to share and join in the fun."

In either case, have a fun Halloween, and make some new friends!!!

Aaron's Coffee Hour

This Saturday, October 13 brings the return of Aaron Michlewitz's Coffee Hours.   Stop by Berkeley Perk (69 Berkeley St) between 10am and Noon and char with Aaron.   "He invites all residents and neighbors to come and join in discussing neighborhood concerns, potential legislation for the upcoming session, who is going to win the election, or what’s going on with the Patriots!?"

This is your opportunity to chat about anything with your state representative.

If you can't make Saturday, you can catch Aaron on these other dates:

• Saturday, November 3, 2012 from 10:00am to 12:00pm at Mohr & McPherson 
• Saturday, December 1, 2012 from 10:00am to 12:00pm at the Appleton Café

October ESNA Business meeting

Our next monthly Eight Streets business meeting will be this Wednesday, October 10th in the Boston Ballet 5th floor board room (corner of Warren & Clarendon streets)

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

7-8:30 - Business meeting.  

On the agenda this month:

• 14 Milford - information on upcoming project
• 6 Milford street - request for support for parlor level deck and roofdeck
• 286 Shawmut - request for support for a roofdeck on read "L"

We have two voting items on the agenda this month.   

As you can tell this meeting is one week later than usual, but we will be in our regular meeting location.   

Hope to see everyone there!  

And a reminder that the meeting schedule for the rest of the year is on line -  mark your calendars so you don't miss a meeting!

Old Dutch demolition

South End Patch reports demolition of the Old Dutch Candy building has begin.   (Corner of Tremont and Dwight).   Patch managed to get into Atelier and have some nice overhead photos you can see in this article.

The removal makes way for a new 6 story condo building, construction of which should begin as soon as demolition is completed.

Still time to get recycling carts

If you would like to get a recycling cart for your building, there's still time to request one from the city.
Carts are best for those abutting the Dwight street alley (PA705), or those that can store the cart inside their buildings.   Carts cannot be left on the sidewalk.    If you don't have space for a large cart like this, you can continue to use clear plastic bags.

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Nov 9 last day to request cart.  No winter cart deliveries.

Residents may request a big blue wheeled recycling cart until November 9th.  No deliveries will be made in the winter.  Deliveries will resume in the spring.

Public Works has a limited supply of recycling carts.  In order to be eligible for a cart, you must live in a residential builidng with 6 units or less.  You must have space on your property to store the cart, and you must bring it out to the curb by 7AM on your recycling day for collection, and return it to your property after it has been emptied. 

Please put your address on the cart.

Carts that are not being used properly will be removed by Public Works

If you need a recycling container but don't have space for a cart, you can still request stickers to convert trash barrels of your own.

To request a recycling cart or recycling stickers, please call (617) 635-4500, or visit www.cityofboston.gov/recycle.

Remember: Recycling carts are for recycling only!

NOTE: Only buildings with between 1-6 units are eligible for carts.  Landlords or property managers of larger buildings (7+ units) are required by law to provide recycling service to tenants.  If you are a tenant and would like to make sure your building sets up a recycling program, please call (617) 635-4500.  Thank you!

Fall Leaf and Yard Waste Collection

From the City - information on the Fall yard waste collection.


Fall Leaf and Yard Waste Collection: Oct 15 - Nov 30

Fall leaf collection runs for seven weeks: October 15 - November 30.  Leaf and yard waste is collected on your recycling day.

Place leaves in large paper leaf bags or open barrels marked "yard waste."  No plastic bags will be collected.  For free "yard waste" stickers, please call(617) 635-4500 or visit www.cityofboston.gov/recycle.  Two stickers are available per household.

Cut branches to 3' maximum length and 1'' maximum diameter.  Tie branches with string.

Place leaves and yard waste at the curb by 7:00am on your recycling day.

Leaf and yard waste in trash will not be collected during the two weeks before the October 15 start date.  Please save your leaves from October 1 to October 15, when collection begins.

Collecting leaf and yard waste for composting saves tax dollars, reduces greenhouse gas emissions, and produces compost!  

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Eight Streets recycle days are Tuesdays - so yard waste can be out out on:

• October 16, 23, 30
• November 6, 13, 20, 27

Monthly meeting on Oct 10th

A reminder that our monthly Eight Streets meeting will take place one week later this month, due to room availability.  Current agenda can be found at http://eightstreets.org/next_meeting.html   I'll send a final agenda out before the meeting (things often change...)

See you NEXT Wednesday, October 10th.

Membership Renewals

It's time to renew!!

If you haven't yet, it's time to renew your Eight Streets NA membership!!   Our yearly memberships expire on Aug 31* so renewals for the upcoming year are now due.  

Becoming a member of Eight Streets lets us know you want your voice heard in the community. Membership grants you voting privileges at Eight Streets business meetings. Your dues contribute to ESNA support costs, as well as for projects ESNA takes part in throughout our neighborhood.

Renewing is easy.   Head over to our Membership web page.   You can renew right on that page using paypal (your credit card).   Or, on that page is a PDF you can print out and US mail in with a cheque.

Join us and make 2013 a great year!!!


*If you renewed in June or later, your membership will run through the next August.

Color hotel rendering

The Boston Globe has a story and color rendering of the planned hotel/residential building on the E Berkeley/Albany/Traveller lot.  

In the main photo, Albany St/93 is on the left, and Traveller st is on the right.

Power restoration work: Friday night 9/7

On Wednesday night part of Eight Streets and Bradford st NAs lost power.   This section of the neighborhood is currently on a temporary generator.

According to NSTAR, the replacement work will happen tonight (Friday night (9/7) - Sat morning) between Midnight and 8am.

If you lost power on Wednesday (9/5), then expect power outage during this time tonight as they perform the repairs.   They should complete all work by Saturday 8am.

September business meeting

Our next monthly Eight Streets business meeting will be this Wednesday, September 5th in the Boston Ballet 5th floor board room (corner of Warren & Clarendon streets)

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

7-8:30 - Business meeting.  

On the agenda this month:

• Change of occupancy for 257 Shawmut
• (potential) support for rear deck on 286 Shawmut
• Open member discussion.

We have two voting items on the agenda this month.   (Still waiting on confirmation from 286).   

The main focus this month will be during Open member discussion.   The the question is what do you want your neighborhood association to be?  Where do you want it to go?   What do you want us to do?  The Neighborhood isn't me - it's all of you.   We need to give out neighborhood direction and decide what kind of presence we want the association to have.  And we need you to do it - how do we engage more neighbors to come out and be a part of your neighborhood.    

Hope to see everyone there!  

And a reminder that the meeting schedule for the rest of the year is on line -  mark your calendars so you don't miss a meeting!

2012-2013 ESNA Meeting Schedule

Time to dust off the doldrums and get your engines started for the new season of Eight Streets! (I'd make a back to school joke, but those sales seemed to have started on July 5th)

We're also happy the Boston ballet will continue to host us this year. Our thanks to them for being such a great neighbor! And thanks to Michelle at BB for letting us schedule and confirm the whole year now, so our reservations should be good to go.

The schedule for 2012-2013 is below, starting with our first meeting of the new year on Wednesday, September 5th. The agenda will be out as we get closer to meeting time. But here's the year laid out, so you can mark your calendars early.   The calendar can also be found on our Calendar web page.  If you're a google calendar person, you can also add our calendar to yours.  Enter eightstreets@gmail.com  in the "add a friends calendar" on the left, and Eight Streets events will be displayed on your personal calendar.

Please note that three meetings this year will be moved to the second wednesday due to room conflicts.

Eight Streets meeting schedule, 2012-2013: 

First Wednesday of each month, 6:30-8:30pm, Boston ballet 5th floor board room

• September 5 
• October 10 (one week later) 
• November 7 
• December 5 
• January 9 (one week later) 
• February 13 (one week later) 
• March 6 
• April 3 
• May 1 
• June 5

Neighborhood Night at the Gardener

The Gardener museum is having their third in a series of Neighborhood Nights.   Stop by this Thursday, August 9th after 5pm for free admission.   Families are welcome!!

This night's theme is Magical Journey.   For information, please click here.

August 9: Magical Journey
Explore art from Egypt, China, Japan and Spain, and imagine your own journeys. Join in a scavenger hunt to discover fascinating stories and art from around the world. Create your own artwork, and be enlivened by the spontaneous creativity of the Impulse Dance Company.

Streetlights Going Green

The city has informed us that beginning in August, all of our acorn street light fixtures will be replaced with energy efficient LED light fixtures.  This is part of a program to be greener throughout the city, as well as cut the city's energy bills.  All city street lights are slowly being converted.

As you can see from the image on the right, the new lights will look the same.  (Well, if you look close you can see a smaller internal lighting mechanism).  They should put out the same amount of light as the current lights, with less "light trespass" (it should shine in your apartment window a little less).   The light should be white in color - similar to what we have now, but the light son Shawmut will probably be white, rather than the current orange tint they have now.

The regular streetlights on the Dwight Alley (PA705) were replaced a few months ago, and you really wouldn't know the difference unless you looked up at the fixtures.

Update: Shawmut will not be changing at this time.   From the manufacturer: we will be converting only the high cost mercury vapor lights on the residential streets in the South End at this time. We do not have an LED solution yet for the Sodium Vapor lights on Streets like Shawmut Ave at this time. They are in developement and may be available by next year.

Dwight street closed Thursday

Dwight street will be closed Thursday morning, June 28 while a crane is brought in to do some private work.     Closure can begin as early as 7am and should be done by lunch time.   Please plan your travels/parking accordingly.

Bike Safety for Kids

Join BPD for kids Bike Safety Day - A day full of fun and events for families

Saturday, June 23, 11a-2p at 650 harrison Ave (D4 police station)

Bike safety kits and kids helmets while supplies last.

See this Flier for additional information

Milford/Hanson improvements continue

UPDATE:   Due to complications, the sones will arrive Monday morning, not Sunday as originally posted.

The residents abutting the Milford/Hanson alley are following up their alley cleaning with a stone laying effort.   Through group collections, they will be laying gravel/stone down the Milford/Hanson alley this weekend.    Stone will be arriving early Sunday morning, and the rest of the morning will be spent moving and laying the stone down the length of the alley.

Feel free to join them Monday morning to give a hand!   For more information on the project, please contact Michael or Lewis

The alley team adds:

Our plan is deliver and spread the stones on Monday June 11 @ 8.00a.m. onwards. It will likely take most of the day and any volunteers that would like join in the work are welcome, but of course there is no obligation. We will work in the direction of Bond to Tremont.

If you would like to level/grade the dirt in your alley lot please do that before Sunday, since we will spread the stones on whatever surface we find. Please also remove any debris that would get in the way of the spreading. As a recap, we will spread approx 1-2 inches of stones across each yard length, spanning the alley width between Milford & Hanson.

Happy Pride

Happy Pride weekend everyone.

This year the Pride parade has moved the start of the parade back to Copley square, after having started here on Tremont street for the past few years.    As a result Tremont street will not be closed as long this year as in the past.

Tremont from Union Park to Berkeley will be closed around parade time (around noon-2pm).   Please note any parking restrictions as stated on city parade signs posted.  Access to Waltham/Hanson/Milford/Dwight will also be limited during these times.

June meeting: 5th floor of Boston Ballet

Greetings, Boston Ballet has moved us back up to the 5th floor for tonight's (6/6) meeting, but will meet in the Lounge. Take a left as you get off the elevator, and the lounge is the open area near the big window. There will be folding chairs we can set up for the meeting. See you tonight!

June Eight Streets meeting

Our next monthly Eight Streets business meeting will be this Wednesday, June 6th in the Boston Ballet  (corner of Warren & Clarendon streets)

This month we will meet in a conference room on the 3rd floor.   Please see the ballet front desk for directions.

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

On the agenda this month:

• A short introduction by The Kitchen - the new restaurant that will occupy the old Pops location.  They're stopping by just to say hi and introduce themselves to the neighborhood
• 562 Tremont - presentation and vote on addition of rear decks.
• Safety and Community Policing - see below
• Open member discussion.

The main focus of our meeting this month will be Safety.  Our local community service office Sargent Provenzano will join us, as well as director of BPD's community watch unit Carolyn MacNeil.  We will talk about general crime and safety in the neighborhood, and things we can to to help make our neighborhood safe.   Included in this Carolyn will talk about the Neighborhood Watch program.

If we have enough interest, the neighborhood can start a Neighborhood Crime Watch program  (read more about the program at http://www.cityofboston.gov/police/crimeprevention/crimewatch.asp) 

Crime Watches are very neighbor based - so we wouldn't necessarily have a watch for the whole neighborhood, but probably start with a street or section of Eight Streets.  But we would need all neighbors to be involved to start any neighborhood watch program.  Come to the meeting if you can, and read up on the crime watch web page if you're interested in getting more involved.

Hope to see everyone there!  Actually I have other commitments, so I won't see you there, but hope you'll be as great for Jim as you are for me!