Bicycle Bill's in Allston closes after 38-year run
A popular longstanding bicycle shop in Allston has closed. Bicycle Bill’s final day of business was Saturday, ending a 38-year run.
Paul Sager said Monday that he was shutting down the shop at 253 North Harvard St. to retire. He said he and his roommate opened the store in 1975.
Management announced the closure late last week on Facebook, where photos from the shop’s final hours were posted.
Sager, reached by phone at his shop, declined to comment further because he said he was busy taking care of some final work. He ended the conversation before being asked what will happen to the property.
City land records show Sager owns the 2,598-square-foot property at the corner of N. Harvard and Bayard streets. The city lists the address as 261 N. Harvard and assesses the property as being worth about $270,000.
State land records show Sager bought the property in 1996 for $100,000.
E-mail Matt Rocheleau at mjrochele@gmail.com.
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Allston artist uses parking tickets to create skyline scenes of Boston, Cambridge
(Ruth Rieffanaugh / Unbound Visual Arts)
They often hide, tucked under a windshield wiper blade, cruelly waiting to show themselves as that poor driver approaches. The mere sight of those bright orange envelopes is enough to ruin the day for many.
But an artist from Allston hopes people will be able to find some beauty in Boston parking tickets.
Ruth Rieffanaugh has used parking tickets – some her own and others she found discarded on the street – to create colorful skyline scenes of Boston and Cambridge.
An exhibit of her work, called "Parking Ticket Blues & Other Rediscovered Uses" will debut at the Massachusetts State House on July 10, according to Unbound Visual Arts, Inc., a nonprofit that is sponsoring the exhibit. A public opening reception is scheduled from 3:30 to 5 p.m.
The exhibit, which includes other art she has created using discarded newspapers and other paper materials, will run through July 31, open Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. in Room 34 of the State House.
"After moving to Boston, the artist started receiving several parking tickets and she also found many parking tickets discarded on the streets," said a statement from the sponsoring organization, which Rieffanaugh is a founding member of. "In order to capture her feelings and emotions in her new city, she decided to use the tickets to create things of beauty."
"The parking ticket art as well as her other artwork are about ideas and for Ruth those ideas emerge as enigmatic imagery," the statement added. "Drawn from personal experiences, the work grapples with the very personal yet universally personal – that nameless realm of feelings that blend the passionate and pleasurable, the angst and anguish, the uncertain and unsettled – often evoking a moment in time, a meaningful place, a despairing loss or a sudden discovery."
Rieffanaugh lives in Allston where she also works in her art studio. She also works as the director of the Dorchester Alternative Youth Academy and teaches drawing at Boston Architectural College. She received a masters in art education from Lesley University and a bachelor's in fine arts from the Art Institute of Boston.
"As a group, her paintings reveal uncertainty and barriers for the mind. She challenges the mind to confront those limitations and she presents us with the concepts that 'change is constant' and life 'is what it is.'"
E-mail Matt Rocheleau at mjrochele@gmail.com.
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(Ruth Rieffanaugh / Unbound Visual Arts)
(Ruth Rieffanaugh / Unbound Visual Arts)
It's always sunny on the MBTA
Jeremy C. Fox for Boston.com
Were these Orange Line passengers tweeting positive thoughts about the MBTA? It could happen.
Jeremy C. Fox can be reached at jeremy.fox@globe.com.
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Brookline reviewing hotel proposed for Route 9
Bridgewater-based real estate firm Claremont Companies is seeking to build a Hilton Homewood Suites hotel at 111 Boylston Street that would cater to guests seeking lodging for several days.
Company president Elias Patoucheas appeared before Brookline’s Planning Board Thursday along with his design team for the hotel, that would be five stories tall along Route 9, but would step down to four and then three stories at the rear of the property along the MBTA’s Green Line tracks and a residential area.
Previous proposals by Leggat McCall and then GLC Development Resources LLC to build medical office buildings on the long-vacant site have both fallen through in recent years.
Patoucheas said that while the previous developers fell victim to a bad economy, that won’t be an issue for Claremont Companies.
“The cash equity to develop this project is in the bank,” Patoucheas said.
The hotel will cater to guests staying more than three days on average. Most of the parking will be underground, and the hotel will have a pool, meeting room, lounge and a fitness room.
To review the hotel proposal, Brookline’s Planning Board voted Thursday to establish a design advisory team including town officials and neighborhood representatives.
The team will begin is review in July. Planning Board members said they were encouraged by what they see in the preliminary design, though members suggested several alterations to the preliminary design, including some improvements to the façade of the five-story structure that will face Route 9.
“This is a terrific project,” said Planning Board Chairman Mark Zarillo.
City launches “City Hall to Go” truck full time
(Photo courtesy City of Boston)
Getting to City Hall might be easier from some Boston residents this summer as the city launches its City Hall on wheels full time.
Starting July 2, the “City Hall to Go” truck will regularly visit neighborhoods on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays to provide certain services to residents, and be stationed by request on Fridays and Saturdays at special events, block parties, and street festivals.
The truck will allow residents to pay or dispute parking tickets, request birth, death or marriage certificates, get a dog license, request a residential parking permit, or pay property and excise taxes without travelling to Government Center.
Residents will also be able to sign up for Renew Boston’s home energy audits and weatherization, request raffle applications, and submit claims to the City Clerk.
The city first held a soft launch of the trunk in December.
“The ‘City Hall to Go’ truck makes personal, timely service from the City of Boston possible for a whole new set of constituents,” Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino said in a statement. “We are constantly trying to push what appear to be the limits of municipal services. The success of the truck’s earliest visits shows that benefits of City Hall can exist far beyond its walls.”
The repurposed Boston Police Department SWAT vehicle will be open until 7 p.m. on weeknights and 5 p.m. on Saturdays.
The truck will also use social media to determine part of its schedule. On the fourth Tuesday of every month residents can tweet @CityHallToGo to tell the city where they want the truck to go that day. The truck will open at the most requested location at 12:30 p.m.
The city provided the following schedule for its mobile City Hall. It is subject to change and residents can follow @CityHalltoGo on Twitter or call 617-635-4500 for updates.
FULL ENTRYMBTA to increase security for July 4
The MBTA will increase security and police patrols around the system on July 4. As in years past, the T will boost subway service and will not charge fares after a certain point at nighttime, officials announced this week.
“We encourage people coming into the city to celebrate to use the MBTA and ask passengers to expect large amounts of people, and as we do every day we ask people to be aware of their surroundings, and if they see something unusual, report it immediately,” said Joseph F. O'Connor, superintendent-in-chief of the Transit Police Department.
He said, that while security is normally heightened on the holiday and for other large public events around Boston, this year there will be even more patrols than on July 4 in years past, including a “significant amount” of both uniformed and plain-clothes officers throughout the public transit system due to the bombing attacks in the city at the Marathon in April.
“We want people to feel safe,” O’Connor said. “We want to reassure the public for people who may be concerned because of the events that happened at the Marathon and in the week after.”
There will be no special restrictions on what items passengers can carry while riding the T, but O’Connor reminded riders that some items will be prohibited within a secure perimeter that will be established around the Esplanade.
He said random bag inspections, which are performed daily at strategically-chosen parts of the T, will be performed on the holiday. O’Connor also encouraged riders to download the agency’s free smartphone application which allows users to report suspicious activity by sending text and photos directly to Transit Police.
He said that Transit Police will, as they do regularly, work closely with federal, state and city law enforcement throughout the holiday.
The T also plans to institute schedule-related changes similar to what the agency has done on Independence Day in years past.
On Thursday, July 4, fares will not be collected after 9:30 p.m., subway service will run at “rush hour levels” after 2 p.m. and the last outbound commuter rail trains scheduled to leave Boston will delay their departure to allow passengers more time to board after the fireworks display at the Esplanade.
“Customers are urged to take public transportation to and from Fourth of July events and advised to check T-Alerts and mbta.com for the most up-to-date service information during the holiday,” the agency said on its website.
Officials also reminded riders that bicycles are not allowed on any subway lines on July 4. Bikes are also not allowed on inbound commuter rail trains from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. or on outbound trains after 4 p.m.
Buses will operate on a Sunday schedule. Before 2 p.m., the T’s four subway lines – the Red, Blue, Orange and Green – will operate on a Sunday schedule.
The commuter rail will operate on a Saturday schedule, until the day’s final outbound commuter rail trains, all but one of which will delay their departures from Boston until 11:45 p.m. – about 45 minutes after the city’s fireworks display usually ends. The #1173 to Newburyport is scheduled to depart at 11:15 p.m.
Quincy and Hull boats will run on a weekday schedule. Charlestown boats will operate on a Saturday schedule. Hingham boats will not run.
Passengers who use The RIDE service are asked to check directly with their contractors for specific schedule changes.
For more information, visit the T’s website, www.mbta.com.
E-mail Matt Rocheleau at mjrochele@gmail.com.
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Six students displaced after fire damages Allston home
Six people were displaced after a fire damaged part of a two-story home on Ashford Street in Allston late Sunday night, according to city fire officials.
The American Red Cross assisted the six people who were described in a report from firefighters as "adult students," Steve MacDonald, a spokesman for the Boston Fire Department, said Monday.
He said the report did not describe the displaced individuals further.
No injuries were reported.
The fire broke out on the first floor of a two-story, wood-frame house at 26 Ashford St. at about 10:50 p.m., MacDonald said.
He said the cause of the fire remains under investigation.
Building inspectors for the city were scheduled to visit the home Monday, he said.
The fire broke out in a part of Allston hit by two serious house fires in recent months: one blaze in April killed one BU student and resulted in the home's landlord being cited for violating city housing rules; and another fire in Jan. 2012 at a house across the street sent seven students to the hospital, including one who suffered neurological problems after awaking from a coma.
After each of those fires, city officials have conducted special door-to-door campaigns to promote fire prevention and to inspect for health and safety violations.
A high concentration of college students live in that area of Allston, where city inspectors have said they frequently respond to reports of unsafe, unsanitary, and illegal living conditions.
E-mail Matt Rocheleau at mjrochele@gmail.com.
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Brighton 7th grader inducted as Red Sox Scholar in ceremony at Fenway
(Red Sox Foundation)
A student from Brighton was one of 10 seventh-graders from Boston Public Schools inducted as a Class of 2013 Red Sox Scholar at a recent game at Fenway Park.
Myeta Petruccelli joined a total of 230 other students in the scholars program, ranging from seventh-graders to rising seniors in college, the Red Sox Foundation announced.
Through the program, which celebrated its 10th anniversary this year, the foundation provides $10,000 in college scholarships for each new scholar, along with mentoring from foundation staff members, tutoring, and after-school and summer enrichment activities. The program selects middle school students from Boston Public Schools who are “academically talented, financially challenged.”
The foundation, Red Sox players and executives and workers from the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center welcomed Petruccelli and other new class of scholars at the game June 9 at Fenway Park, which the Sox won 10 to 5 over the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.
The program is supported by the medical center, the Highland Street Foundation, the Sunshine Lady Foundation, Target, the Peter Lynch Foundation, and the Klarman Family Foundation.
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The MBTA can't be all bad. Can it?
Jeremy C. Fox for Boston.com
These Green Line riders had a not-bad wait at Kenmore Station on Thursday night.
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Joseph M. Smith Community Health Center to unveil proposal for new facility on state property in Brighton
The Joseph M. Smith Community Health Center will present a proposal next week to build a two-story, 48,000-square-foot medical facility in Brighton, according to an announcement from the city.
The Boston Redevelopment Authority will host the public meeting about the project in the community room of the Jackson Mann Community Center in Allston at 6 p.m. on Thursday, June 27.
The proposal calls for constructing a LEED-certified clinic that allow the health center to consolidate several of its existing locations into the new facility, the city announcement said.
The building would include a retail pharmacy open to the public, a dental clinic with 10 exam rooms, an administrative suite, a vision clinic with four exam rooms and a retail eye glass shop, and a conference area for health center and community use, the announcement said.
Officials at the health center told boston.com last summer that the new $19.4-million facility would be completed by 2015 on three parcels of state-owned property at 487-495 Western Ave. in Brighton, where a State Police barracks and salt and sand maintenance facility currently operate.
State officials have said the barracks and the salt and sand facility will move to other yet-to-be determined sites.
The 2.2-acre site is bordered by Soldiers Field Road to the north and Western Ave to the south. The abutting property to the west houses the historic Charles River Speedway headquarters building, which the state is exploring ways to preserve and reuse.
Through legislation approved two years ago, the state has agreed to lease the property to the nonprofit health organization for a to-be-determined fair market rate for 50 years, with two 10-year lease extension options, officials have said. The property is worth about $3.5 million, according to the city.
The organization’s existing medical locations in Allston – its main site at 287 Western Ave. and vision center at 300 Western Ave. – would consolidate into the new building, along with its administrative offices at 1380 Soldier’s Field Road, officials have said.
The new facility would allow the health organization to serve an additional 5,500 patients, nearly doubling the roughly 6,000 patients served currently at the two Western Avenue locations, officials have said.
Last spring, to help kick-start funding for the proposed medical building, the health center received a $5 million grant authorized through the federal health care law.
The organization recently sold a half-acre of property it owns in Allston to a developer and plans to use the proceeds from the $1.3-million sale to help cover the new facility’s cost.
Under the leadership of Allston resident Joseph M. Smith, the community health center was established in 1974 at the Charlesview Apartments complex. The organization said it now serves a total of nearly 12,000 patients annually across its five locations.
The city said in its recent announcement that public comments about the health center’s proposal will be accepted through Friday, July, 12. Comments can be directed to lance.campbell.bra@cityofboston.gov and by mail to: Lance Campbell, Boston Redevelopment Authority, One City Hall Square, 9th Floor, Boston, MA 02201.
E-mail Matt Rocheleau at mjrochele@gmail.com.
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