Jeremy C. Fox for Boston.com

The setting sun shone down as an outbound Orange Line train approached Roxbury Crossing.

By Jeremy C. Fox, Town Correspondent

Spring is in the muggy, fetid air on the MBTA

Storified by Jeremy C. Fox· Fri, May 03 2013 12:32:56

Jeremy C. Fox can be reached at jeremy.fox@globe.com.
Follow him on Twitter: @jeremycfox.
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Jeremy C. Fox for Boston.com

Hundreds of marchers crossed the Andrew McArdle Bridge over the Mystic River.

By Jeremy C. Fox, Town Correspondent

Hundreds of laborers, union representatives, immigrants, and activists gathered at city halls in Boston, Revere, Everett, and Chelsea on Wednesday and marched together to East Boston’s Central Square in a spirited observance of International Workers Day, also known as May Day.

“Immigration is a human right,” they chanted. “Mr. President, get it right.”

Immigration issues edged out messages about workers’ rights in these communities with large immigrant populations, as this year’s May Day parade occurred against the backdrop of sweeping immigration reform legislation under consideration in Washington but also in the aftermath of the Boston Marathon bombings.

The suspected bombers are ethnic Chechens who emigrated from Russia to Cambridge about a decade ago. Even as marchers filled the streets, two Kazakh students appeared in court on charges they disposed of evidence left behind by the younger Tsarnaev brother.

“Everywhere we go, people want to know, who we are, so we tell them, we are the immigrants, the mighty mighty immigrants,” the marchers chanted.

As the crowds passed through the streets of Chelsea and East Boston, chanting such pro-labor and pro-immigrant slogans, and carrying signs, banners, and flags, people along the parade route stopped to clap and cheer them on.

George Mousad, a mattress store owner originally from Egypt, turned a few heads when he stopped on Meridian Street in East Boston, clad in an ivory suit, a light tan straw hat, dark sunglasses, and a lavender tie and dress shirt.

Mousad said he was proud to be a US citizen and said, in an apparent allusion to the Marathon bombers, that in this country only those responsible for an action should suffer its consequences.

“It is the best country of any country on the planet,” he said of the United States. “God bless America forever and ever, amen.”

The crowd only grew as the marchers reached Central Square, where they observed a moment of silence in honor of those killed and hurt in the Marathon bombings, the first responders who helped to save lives, and those who die attempting to cross the border into the US.

During the rally, civic and religious leaders addressed the celebrants in Spanish and English, alongside ordinary workers and immigrants who shared their stories of struggle.

Steven A. Tolman, president of the Massachusetts AFL–CIO and a former state legislator, greeted the crowd in Spanish and then said in English that he and other labor leaders would stand together to fight for immigration policy reform.

“Too often, too many workers are stuck in the shadows of the workplace without any justice because of a broken immigration system in America,” Tolman said. “We are honored to stand with all of you to fight for a pathway to citizenship.”

Longtime activist Mel King told the crowd he hoped to see a day when instead immigrants, newcomers to the US would be known simply as neighbors.

“I want to throw the I-word out. Don’t say it again. Call yourself neighbors,” he said. “You’re my neighbor. You’re Obama’s neighbor. You’re everybody’s neighbor.”

For a gallery of photos from the march and the rally, click here.

Jeremy C. Fox can be reached at jeremy.fox@globe.com.
Follow him on Twitter: @jeremycfox.
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By Matt Rocheleau, Town Correspondent

Subway service between the Orange Line’s four most northern stations will be replaced by buses after 9 p.m. on five days each week for about one month, according to the MBTA.

Shuttles will run between Oak Grove Station and Sullivan Square Station from 9 p.m. until the end of service on every Sunday through Thursday from May 19 to June 21, officials said. However, there will be no evening diversion on the night of Sunday, May 26, due to the Memorial Day holiday that Monday.

The buses, which are accessible for people with disabilities, will stop at those two stations as well as at the two stations in between: Malden Center Station and Wellington Station, according to the T’s website.

During the times the four subway stations and their connecting tunnels are shut down, MBTA crews plan to perform work on the Assembly Square Station Project, officials said.

For more information, contact the MBTA Customer Communications Department at 617-222-3200, TTY: 617-222-5146.

E-mail Matt Rocheleau at mjrochele@gmail.com.
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By Matt Rocheleau, Town Correspondent

Free Wi-Fi Internet service will be available throughout South Station in Boston, starting today, officials announced.

Google, Biederman Redevelopment Ventures Corp. and the MBTA partnered to build the infrastructure for the public wireless Internet system, according to a joint announcement issued Thursday.

“Google is excited and proud to provide the infrastructure for free Wi-Fi for the first time inside South Station and to support the Greater Boston community,” said a statement from Steve Vinter, engineering director for Google.

“We understand that people want to stay connected from anywhere, at any time, from any device. As a major hub for Boston area residents, the new WiFi network at South Station will allow hundreds of thousands of commuters to be even more productive online each day,” he added.

Google invested in the network and BRV Corp., which manages the public space programming inside the station, is responsible for the Wi-Fi deployment, officials said.

“As we watch this area of Boston surge with new businesses, more and more people pass through the station each day and they will appreciate this new amenity,” said a statement from Ted Furst, project manager for BRV Corp.

MBTA General Manager Beverly Scott said in a statement that the new Internet service inside the station will tie in well with Wi-Fi broadcast on commuter rail trains, which the T has said it hopes to soon expand.

“Anything that improves our customers’ transit experience is a good thing,” she said. “By coupling this new initiative with the Wi-Fi service provided on commuter rail trains, the MBTA is keeping its customers connected from the moment they enter South Station to the time they exit trains.”

E-mail Matt Rocheleau at mjrochele@gmail.com.
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Jeremy C. Fox for Boston.com

Downtown Boston.

By Jeremy C. Fox, Town Correspondent

A City of Boston initiative has been named one of the top government innovations in the country by an institute at Harvard University.

The Mayor’s Office of New Urban Mechanics is among 25 semifinalists for the Innovations in American Government Award, presented by the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government.

“These top 25 innovations in government offer real, tangible ways to protect our most disadvantaged citizens, educate the next-generation workforce, and utilize data analytics to enhance government performance,” Stephen Goldsmith, director of the center’s Innovations in Government program, said in a statement Wednesday.

“Despite diminishing resources, these government programs have developed model innovations that other struggling agencies should be inspired to replicate and adapt to their own communities,” Goldsmith said.

The Mayor’s Office of New Urban Mechanics works to deliver an array of transformative city services to residents, ranging from enhancing public spaces, to increasing civic participation, to improving educational outcomes, according to Harvard.

The 25 initiatives were selected by a panel of researchers, practitioners, and policy specialists, Harvard said. The Innovations in American Government Award winner and four finalists will be announced in the fall.

In the list released Wednesday, the programs are presented in alphabetical order and are not ranked.

The Ford Foundation created the award in 1985 to draw attention to effective government programs, Harvard said. The awards program has since recognized more than 400 government initiatives at the local, state and federal level, as well as tribal governments, and provided more than $22 million in grants to support efforts to help disseminate those programs.

A full list of the Top 25 programs is available here.

Jeremy C. Fox can be reached at jeremy.fox@globe.com.
Follow him on Twitter: @jeremycfox.
Follow Downtown on Twitter: @YTDowntown.

(Matt Rocheleau for Boston.com)

By Matt Rocheleau, Town Correspondent

The temporary extra patrols of well-armed police officers and soldiers in MBTA stations are gone. But the quest to bolster the long-term safety of the public transit system is far from over.

The T still has $80 million in unspent federal homeland security grants, which have been doled to public transportation systems across the country since 2002.

The $60 million in federal grants spent by the T over the past decade has helped make the agency a national leader in the industry of public transit safety.

“The efforts toward security and policing that the MBTA has had in place for a number of years have really been looked at as a benchmark for the industry,” said Greg Hull, director of operations, safety and security for the American Public Transportation Association.

And, when the bombs went off at the Boston Marathon two weeks ago, officials at the MBTA said that, while shocked and devastated like the rest of the city, they were prepared, largely due to the new equipment and training acquired in recent years.

“It was controlled chaos,” said Randy Clarke, senior director of security and emergency management for the MBTA and the Massachusetts Department of Transportation.

He described the atmosphere of the T’s central hub for dispatch and communications, or Operations Control Center, as officials scrambled to secure stations and stop some service after the explosions at Copley Square, and then again several day later when the system was shut down during a lengthy manhunt.

“I hate to say we’re used to crises and trained for them, but we are,” Clarke said.

On Monday, two weeks after the Marathon bombings, MBTA officials gave a tour of the control center, which includes some of the transit industry’s most sophisticated technology for daily operations and security.

By Johanna Kaiser, Town Correspondent

The Boston Synagogue will mark 125 years in Boston this month with an anniversary celebration focused on its history and the release of a new history book written by a local author.

The synagogue will host a reception, silent auction, and presentation highlighting its history on Sunday, May 19, from 4:30 to 7 p.m.

The celebration’s presentation will show highlights the Synagogue’s history project and what it has has uncovered about its 125-year history, its predecessors, and the old West End.

The current temple on Martha Road only dates to back to 1971, the anniversary celebrates the incorporation of its predecessor synagogue, Congregation Beth Jacob, in 1888.

The synagogue will also celebrate the release of Michael Weingarten book “The Boston Synagogue: 1888-2013.” Weingarten, a Back Bay resident, wrote the book on the synagogue’s history uncovered facts and information that is not widely known, according to the synagogue..

In a statement announcing the celebration, the synagogue said its history paralleled Boston’s in some ways, noting substantial growth from to immigration at the turn of the 20th century, followed by a long period of urban decline, and then a substantial resurgence as downtown Boston has become an increasingly attractive place for people to live.

“As such, we celebrate not just the synagogue, but the entire downtown Boston community of which it is a part,” the statement read.

E-mail Kaiser at Johanna.yourtown@gmail.com. For more news about your city, town, neighborhood, or campus, visit boston.com’s Your Town homepage.

(Jeremy C. Fox photo)

There were no signs an election was taking place at the Nazzaro Community Center.

By Jeremy C. Fox, Johanna Kaiser, and Patrick D. Rosso
Globe Correspondents

At the Nazzaro Community Center in Boston's North End at lunchtime today, it was hard to tell the polls were open inside. There were no eager supporters outside and no candidate signs posted.

Inside, just before 12:30 p.m., there were only 92 votes cast in Ward 3, Precinct 2, and 79 votes in Precinct 3.

"This is slow," one poll worker said.

Outside, Prince Street resident Rosemary McAuliffe, who is in her 80s, said she cast her ballot in the US Senate race for Representative Stephen Lynch for personal reasons.

"I think they were both good candidates," she said of Lynch and fellow Democratic congressman Edward Markey, "but knowing Stephen, I voted for him."

Bob Ganley, 33, said he was registered as an Independent but was on his way to vote for Republican Dan Winslow.

The eight-year resident of the North End said he thought Winslow was "a little more of a mainstream, modern Republican" who would stand a good chance against a Democratic opponent.

"It seems like Winslow is more in the mold of a Scott Brown rather than a Rand Paul or Sarah Palin," he said.

He said he liked Winslow's focus on making government more efficient and his more progressive stances on social issues such as same-sex marriage, which could help him win over some Democrats as well as Independents like himself.

"He seems like somebody who would be a good person to go down there and represent a new Massachusetts, whereas Markey and Lynch just represent the old liberal guard," Ganley said.

Just before 1 p.m., two tall, sharply dressed men arrived at the community center to collect signatures for Suffolk District Attorney Daniel F. Conley, a mayoral candidate.

Brian Clendenin, 57, said he lives in Worcester County but works in Boston. He was optimistic that he could have a successful day despite the low turnout.

"We hope things will pick up here around the polling center," he said. "We'll put in a few hours here and see what we can do."

There were no signs of mayoral campaigning or signature gathering at the Back Bay's Emmanuel Church or Boston Architectural College, or the Symphony West building in the Fenway Tuesday morning.

Signs for mayoral candidate Martin J. Walsh, a state representative, hung outside Cathedral High School in the South End and at Boston Public Library in Copley square. A sign touting City Councilor Rob Consalvo for mayor was also posted outside the library.

Outside the Emmanuel Episcopal Church in the Back Bay, Irene Tayler, 78, and Saul Touster, 88, both retired and Democrats, said they voted for Markey.

"He's the better candidate," said Tayler.

"He's much more for Obama," said Touster. "Lynch is a qualifier."

Tayler said she wished more people were voting and noted the poll workers did not have much to do.

"Everybody is bored. It's too bad. It's an important election," said Tayler.

By 1:45 this afternoon, 265 people had voted at the Catherine F. Clark Apartments in Dorchester.

Carrie Cole, a 41-year-old bartender, said she voted for Markey and, in the 1st Suffolk state Senate race for Linda Dorcena Forry.

"Ed Markey is a longtime public servant, and Lynch's stance on women's rights definitely came into play," said Cole. She felt he wasn't supportive on women's issues.

By Matt Rocheleau, Town Correspondent

Free Wi-Fi Internet access will soon be broadcast from 16 existing pay phones in Boston.

And officials from companies leading the effort hope to, pending city approval, rapidly expand the service so that a total of about 100 existing pay phones across Boston will offer free wireless Internet hotspots by the end of this summer. By the end of next summer, they hope they will have reached a total of about 400 payphones citywide.

The effort, called “FreeBostonWiFi,” is being carried out on a trial basis, company officials said.

So far, the city’s Department of Innovation and Technology has approved Wi-Fi installations at 16 pay phones, located around City Hall, Faneuil Hall, Downtown Crossing and Long Wharf, according to Tyler Kratz, president of DAS Communications, which is one of four private companies partnering on the effort.

RCN Business Services, LCC International Inc., Pacific Telemanagement Services and DAS Communications announced their plan at a conference in Boston last week.

Four temporary demo sites were set up at pay phones near the Hyatt Regency hotel where the conference was held, the companies said.

One site at Cambridge and Court streets near City Hall Plaza was heavily used even though nothing was done at the site to advertise that the Wi-Fi signal was there.

“People had no idea it was there unless they saw it on their phone,” or other mobile device, said Kratz. “People were using it quite a bit. It blew my mind.”

Over about a 24-hour span last week, about 18,000 mobile devices “noticed” the Wi-Fi. About 2,000 devices connected and more than 200 people spent and average of 17 minutes using the Internet connection, he said.

“There’s a demand for this,” said Kratz.

He said the Wi-Fi service at that payphone by City Hall was supposed to be permanent. But, last week it was struck by some bad luck. A vehicle rammed into and damaged the booth. But, Kratz said the companies plan to have it replaced and restore Wi-Fi service within a couple of weeks.

The other 15 pay phones in line to get Internet hotspots are also located in downtown Boston and in areas that draw a high number of pedestrians, including commuters, business professionals and tourists.

Kratz said another focus will be to add the service to pay phones in low-income areas of Boston where some people cannot afford their own Internet access.

“Boston is a great city. With all of the college students and the young people it’s perfect demographically,” he said. “And we really want to make sure this is not just clustered in one spot.”

The Wi-Fi hotspots will offer around-the-clock Internet access for an unlimited amount of time at no cost to users or taxpayers.

The signal is usually accessible within 100 to 200 feet of the kiosk, though range can vary depending on whether there are objects or structures around the kiosk that could interfere with the signal.

To connect to the Wi-Fi hotspots, users need to select FreeBostonWiFiSSID on their mobile device and then accept the connection’s terms and conditions. No password is needed and no personal information gathered.

The companies that own the kiosks and run the service pay for installing and maintaining the new infrastructure at the payphone stations.

Some of the kiosks themselves have advertisements on them to generate revenue for the companies, but Kratz said the Internet service will not display ads on users devices.

"The partnership is giving new life to telephone booths that have almost become extinct due to the evolution of the cell phone," said a statement from Jeff Carlson, vice president and general manager of RCN Boston. “Small cell and Wi-Fi technology deployed through this partnership is another step toward delivering high quality wireless by lighting up hotspots in Boston using RCN's unparalleled fiber network."

The payphone kiosks will broadcast Wi-Fi in part by using small cell technology, which allows mobile devices, such as cell phones, to work.

"It's interesting and a little ironic that capacity demands from the cellular market has allowed for the repurposing of existing phone infrastructure, like payphone kiosks,” said a statement from E.J. von Schaumburg , vice president of Advanced Mobility Solutions at LCC International. “Utilizing small cell technology, we can take advantage of the excellent kiosk locations throughout an urban area and deliver high quality cellular capacity at the street level."

Last summer, a pilot program launched in New York City in which free public Wi-Fi Internet hotspots were emitted from routers installed at about 10 payphones.

Kratz said his company has been involved with the efforts in New York City and that his company now runs Wi-Fi from about 20 payphones there and plans to soon add the service to about 40 more payphones.

City officials in New York have said they plan to have Internet service added to all 12,000 payphones there.

Several weeks later after the program debuted in New York, two at-large City Councilors in Boston – Felix G. Arroyo and Ayanna Pressley – proposed doing something similar here.

Kratz said he has since met with Arroyo to discuss replicating the service in Boston and that he and other city officials have been instrumental in helping it launch.

Use of payphones has become rare because of cell phones. Some payphones no longer function to make calls. Others have been removed entirely.

Wi-Fi hotspots will help restore some use to the old payphone kiosks, officials have said.

The first-ever payphone was installed at a bank in Hartford in the late 1800s.

Since 1997, the number of payphones nationwide has dropped from an estimated peak of about 2.2 million to about 400,000, according to a petition that the American Public Communications Council, which advocates for payphone use, sent to the Federal Communications Commission last spring.

Kratz said the roughly 400 payphones in Boston his company hopes to bring Wi-Fi to are all owned by Pacific Telemanagement Services. He said there are few others in the city.

Kratz said his company is also in talks with city officials about the possibility of having free wireless Internet access broadcast from key municipal buildings, like police and fire stations, as well as from old-fashioned fire alarm boxes around Boston. But, Kratz said, no agreement has been reached and other companies are pitching similar ideas to the city.

E-mail Matt Rocheleau at mjrochele@gmail.com.
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Jeremy C. Fox for Boston.com

Children played in the Armenian Heritage Park during a heat wave on June 20, 2012.

By Jeremy C. Fox, Town Correspondent

The Armenian Heritage Park on the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway will participate Saturday in World Labyrinth Day, an event promoted by the Labyrinth Society in an effort to heal the Earth, the Armenian Heritage Foundation announced.

At 1 p.m. in downtown Boston, and upon the same hour in other time zones around the world, people will walk labyrinths as a gesture of solidarity and peace, the foundation said in a statement.

Countries expected to participate in the global event include Australia, the Bahamas, Canada, China, France, Ireland, Spain, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand, South Africa, and the United Kingdom. The event is held each year on the first Saturday in May.

The Armenian Heritage Park is a gift from local Armenian Americans to the city and the state, the foundation said, and is designed to celebrate the experiences of Armenian immigrants and their contributions to American society, and also to commemorate those killed in the 1915 – 1923 Armenian Genocide and other mass killings.

Its labyrinth is made up of inlaid stone surrounded by strips of grass and symbolizes life’s journey, the foundation said. “A single jet of water and the symbol of eternity mark its center, representing hope and rebirth. Art, Service, Science, and Commerce are etched around its circle in tribute to accomplishments and contributions made,” it said.

The labyrinth walk will take place at 1 p.m. on Saturday, May 4. For more information about the park, visit www.ArmenianHeritagePark.org.

Jeremy C. Fox can be reached at jeremy.fox@globe.com.
Follow him on Twitter: @jeremycfox.
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