Urbanism at Franklin Hill

All that could change if the US Department of Housing and Urban Development approves a $20 million Hope VI grant needed to leverage funds for demolition and reconstruction. During the 1990s, HUD's Hope VI program transformed some of the nation's worst, densest projects into livable neighborhoods. The longtime law-abiding tenants of Franklin Hill deserve inclusion in the program.

The Housing Authority's proposal features so-called "new urbanism" principles known to enhance community spirit and public safety: Entrances and windows would face the street rather than hidden courtyards, for example. Building styles and materials would be used to integrate the development with the wider neighborhood. And a 5,000-square-foot community center is planned for the site.

It is quantity, however, that sets apart the proposal. Most Hope VI developments, including successful ones in Roxbury, result in a net loss of affordable units when architects reduce density and add open space. The Franklin Hill planners, however, would increase the number of units from the current 365 to 378 by clever placement of traditional triple deckers, four-story stacked duplexes, and midrise elevator buildings. Housing Authority officials are learning that no design, no matter how handsome, should exacerbate the city's housing shortage.

Good design and new units are useless without tenant cooperation. And Franklin Hill tenants have attended numerous planning meetings and offered creative ideas for the Hope VI grant, according to the Housing Authority's executive director, Sandra Henriquez. Teenagers, she says, are active participants in the sessions, a good sign for future stability.

Boston is one of just two cities in New England competing for the latest round of Hope VI grants. On balance, HUD officials should look kindly on a proposal that both increases and improves their portfolio of inexpensive housing.

Boston's teacher-parents

The Boston Teachers Union is forming a new advocacy group with built-in credibility -- teachers and paraprofessionals whose own children attend the city's schools. It's an astute initiative with potential both for improving classrooms and attracting families that now bypass the 60,000-student system.

The group was launched earlier this month by the BTU's new president, Richard Stutman, whose daughter attends fifth grade at the Hennigan School in Jamaica Plain. Stutman is still surveying his members but estimates that 500 of his roughly 7,500 colleagues have children in the city's schools.

Concern about the unevenness of offerings across the system, especially after-school programs, was a hot topic at the first meeting, according to the union chief. Parents attending also expressed frustration about gaining access to special education services, a common complaint systemwide.

But the group's clout is likely to be greatest on curriculum matters. Stutman, a mathematics teacher, is openly critical of portions of the city's math curriculum that emphasize alternative ways to solve problems at the expense of standard formulas and computational methods. The curriculum, he suspects, puts the city's elementary school students at a disadvantage when taking competitive entrance exams. If so, Boston teachers are not likely to sit idly by while private and parochial school students push past their children for seats at the city's more prestigious high schools.

The group could also aid in the union's new "Partners with Parents" campaign, aimed at encouraging Boston parents to read to their children and limit their television time. Coming from these teacher-parents, the suggestion may sound less like a lecture and more like neighborly advice.

A bear essential

It's not exactly the Shaw Memorial, but the FAO Schwarz teddy bear has become a Boston landmark less than 13 years after it first appeared on the sidewalk at Boylston and Berkeley streets. The Menino administration was right to make sure the statue would not go the way of the bankrupt toy store. Now that FAO Schwarz is shut, the bear will probably need a new home, and it should be a place where it will be surrounded by children.

That rules out the Berkeley-Boylston sidewalk, even though some Back Bay neighbors want it to remain. In the absence of a toy store, the location loses its connection to children, and another, more staid business could find the giant creature inappropriate. If an investment house moves into the space, it probably will not want to face a three-ton reminder of a bear market.

The teddy bear should not end up on the Rose Kennedy Greenway merely because that space is still in the design stage and has plenty of room for statues needing a home. The city has too many examples of memorials being dumped haphazardly into parks, the most notable being the unlovely "Partisans" on Boston Common.

The Menino administration needs to find a location that attracts children throughout the city. The Public Garden is a possibility, but it already has "Make Way for Ducklings." The children's play areas on the Common or the Esplanade would be appropriate if there is enough space. But there's clearly room at the spacious Franklin Park Zoo. The bear would continue to delight young people and perhaps feel at home among a more mobile animal population.