Academy of the Pacific Rim holds 10th graduation at Faneuil Hall
(Jeremy C. Fox for Boston.com)
The 2012 graduating class of the Academy of the Pacific Rim Charter Public School posed for an informal group portrait outside Faneuil Hall before their commencement ceremony.
On Friday, seniors from the Academy of the Pacific Rim became the Hyde Park-based charter school’s 10th graduating class and prepared to move on — every single one of them — to college in the fall.
The 38 students, who make up the largest graduating class so far for the 15-year-old school, will go to colleges and universities as close as Chestnut Hill and as far away as Los Angeles. Collectively they have been awarded $3.5 million in financial assistance.
In addressing the students during the commencement ceremony in Faneuil Hall’s second-floor Great Hall, Principal Jenne C. Grant encouraged them to take their passions, ideals and their acceptance of the differences of others with them as they move into the next phase of their lives. Grant quoted Eleanor Roosevelt’s famous exhortation to simply be oneself.
Speaking before the ceremony, students expressed excitement and a touch of nerves as they prepared to say goodbye to classmates from the small, tight-knit school.
“It’s like a family, basically,” said 17-year-old Meagan Badohu, a Roslindale resident who will be attending Pine Manor College in Chestnut Hill in the fall. Badohu said she selected the small women’s college in part because it reminded her of the academy.
“I’m going to be crying,” Badohu said, and when she took her seat inside the Great Hall half an hour later, she was indeed wiping away tears.
Valerie Hartnett is planning to attend Hunter College in New York City to pursue two very different passions — theater and physics. She’s looking forward to a bigger city where she’ll have more opportunities to explore her admittedly esoteric interests.
“I’m a little tired of Boston, just because I’ve lived here my whole life,” said the 18-year-old Roslindale resident. She’s also looking forward to the challenge of being on her own so far away from her family.
“It’s time to spread my wings,” she said.
One of those traveling the farthest for college is Dalin Celamy, who will attend Occidental College in Los Angeles. Celamy, 18, said he’d first become interested in the liberal arts school when representatives from the college visited the academy when he was in 10th grade.
He said his counselor had advised that students should have an “aha!” feeling about the college they selected, and that’s how he felt about Occidental. Still, he confessed to a little trepidation about moving 3,000 miles from home.
“I am a bit nervous, even though I’ve been thinking about it ever since sophomore year,” the Randolph resident said. “[But] I’m ready to take in the new people and the new environment.”
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The MBTA - not much to tweet home about
(Jeremy C. Fox for Boston.com)
Are all these people unhappy? Maybe.
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Pride Flag raised on City Hall Plaza, marking start of Pride Week
(Jeremy C. Fox for Boston.com)
The lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender Pride Flag flew alongside the American Flag, the POW-MIA Flag, and the Massachusetts State Flag after its annual raising on Boston’s City Hall Plaza.
Around 200 people gathered on City Hall Plaza on Friday for the raising of the Pride Flag, kicking off Boston’s 42nd annual LGBT Pride celebration.
“It’s particularly appropriate that we gather here today, one day after our hard-fought victory to finally declare DOMA unconstitutional,” said Justin Holmes, director of constituent engagement for Mayor Thomas M. Menino.
Holmes, who said he was proud to be part of the city’s lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community, was referring to a landmark ruling Thursday by a federal appeals court in Boston that the 1996 federal Defense of Marriage Act deprives same-sex couples the rights and privileges given to heterosexual couples.
Holmes presented the volunteer organizers of the Pride celebration with a proclamation from Menino officially declaring June 1 – 10 as Pride Week in Boston. He also presented certificates of recognition for the Pride Parade’s marshals: the Massachusetts Transgender Political Coalition, radio personality “Fast Freddy” Murphy, and the late Brendan Burke.
Boston’s leadership in LGBT acceptance and civil rights were the theme of the day. Gunner Scott, executive director of the Massachusetts Transgender Political Coalition, touted the state transgender rights bill passed last November but noted that the Boston City Council had passed a similar law a decade earlier. But he said the struggle was not over.
Anna Dubrowski, co-chair of Interpride2012, said the worldwide Pride movement had begun in Boston with the first conference of the International Association of Pride Organizers 30 years ago and would pay tribute to those beginnings when the conference returns to Boston in October.
Murphy, who currently broadcasts at Mix 104.1 but has worked at a handful of local stations in his 20-year career, said he had long ago made a conscious decision never to pretend not to be a gay man.
“Whether it is the Top of the Hub or the bottom of the barrel, I always present myself as I am,” he said.
Elected officials in attendance included Boston City Councilors Felix G. Arroyo, Frank Baker, John R. Connolly, Robert Consalvo, Salvatore LaMattina, Bill Linehan, Matt O’Malley, Stephen J. Murphy, and Michael P. Ross; State Representative Elizabeth A. Malia; State Senators Sonia Chang-Diaz and Sal DiDomenico.
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(Jeremy C. Fox for Boston.com)
Gunner Scott, executive director of the Massachusetts Transgender Political Coalition, spoke at the flag-raising.
Chinatown group provides financial records as part of Attorney General inquiry
(Jeremy C. Fox for Boston.com)
Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association board member Chungchi Che (standing at right) asked the board’s officers for greater transparency.
Leaders of a Chinatown business and social-service organization say they have responded to an inquiry by the state Attorney General's ofice by providing financial records and correspondence dating back decades. But some members of the group's board are demanding more transparency.
The president of the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association said Tuesday that the attorney general’s office had written him in late March in response to community complaints about the use of lease funds from a property the association owns at 50 Herald St., overlooking the Massachusetts Turnpike.
Tufts University and the New England Medical Center gave that building to the association as part of a 1983 agreement stipulating that Chinatown residents would not oppose institutional expansion in the neighborhood. The association accepted on behalf of the community, with the understanding that the site would be used for the development of affordable housing.
But no affordable housing was built there, and much of the revenue collected from the property’s lease as a supermarket has been funneled into the association’s general fund, a breach of its agreement.
At Tuesday’s bi-monthly board meeting, conducted mostly in Chinese, Rick Wong, the association’s president, said it had spent approximately $1.5 million in lease funds since 2001.
According to a translator, Wong said that in a series of letters beginning in late March, the attorney general’s office had requested correspondence related to the transaction going back to the 1980s as well as financial records and bank statements from the mid-2000s to the present. He said the association had been unable to locate some correspondence from the 1980s but had otherwise supplied all the documents requested.
Tuesday night’s meeting also included an update on a controversial plan to extend the current lease of the Herald Street property to the C-Mart supermarket for 10 years, with two optional five-year extensions. In a 27 – 17 vote at its March meeting, the board voted to move forward in negotiations with C-Mart, despite cries by some board members that the association should have cast a wider net and asked for higher rent.
Leaders of the association’s board defended the lease in late March, saying it would enable them to plan for development of housing at a later date and to begin to repay the housing fund.
Wong announced Tuesday that the association countered C-Mart’s offer of a $24,500 starting rent with a request for $27,000 per month. Under either agreement, the rent would increase 1.5 percent for each of the first 10 years and 2 percent for each of the next 10 years, if both parties choose to exercise the lease’s two five-year options.
Wong said the association’s attorney had reviewed the lease agreement and suggested some changes, including an increase in the insurance on the property.
Board members Rosemary Yee, Bill Moy, and Raymond Shih asked Wong to make copies of the lease agreement available to members.
“Give it to all the board members to look at and know about it,” Yee demanded in English.
Wong would not provide the board members with copies, but he said the association’s asset committee would discuss the lease agreement further at its June 4 meeting, which all board members are invited to attend but which is closed to the public. Yee was not satisfied.
“If directors have objections, what recourse is there?” she asked.
Wong also refused board members’ requests to see the letters from the attorney general’s office and the related documents.
“We only respond to inquiry from the AG and no one else, including reporters,” Wong said in English. “My business is to protect the community and the CCBA. I only answer to the AG and no one else.”
Later, Wong said he would assemble copies of the letters and make it available for board members to view.
Wong said an attorney hired by the association had begun an investigation of the past use of lease funds as well as other issues related to the Kwong Kow Chinese School, a former tenant of the association’s headquarters building, and Tai Tung Village, a low-income housing development owned by the association.
He said the association had paid $4,475 to the attorney and planned to allocate $3,000 more for the investigation. Wong said he hopes to complete the investigation by July and will post the results on the association’s website.
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(Jeremy C. Fox for Boston.com)
Several vocal members of the association’s board have opposed extending an existing lease for the C-Mart supermarket at the Herald Street property.
A hot week on the MBTA
(Jeremy C. Fox for Boston.com)
Will these unsuspecting passengers be greeted by waves of heat once they board their bus? Many commuters were this week.
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Haymarket vendors and customers have mixed feelings about upcoming development
(Jeremy C. Fox for Boston.com)
Though cleaner than in the past, Haymarket has remained much the same since the 1830s.
With a prominent new structure soon to rise alongside Haymarket’s historic home on Blackstone Street, pushcart vendors and customers have reactions ranging from upbeat to dismal.
All agree that the market should remain much as it is, regardless of whatever new structure goes up. State officials are currently reviewing four proposals: two would bring apartments above high-end markets and restaurant spaces, one would create a 180-room hotel, and another would build a new museum of Boston history. Officials expect to declare a winner sometime this summer.
“As long as it doesn’t affect Haymarket,” said K.C., a Woburn resident who said she had been coming to Haymarket every week for 14 – 15 years. “Because all these people want to do business, make their money, and I like buying fresh vegetables all the time.”
Ottavio Gallotto, a Haymarket vendor for 26 of his 49 years and president of the Haymarket Pushcart Association for the last eight, represents the vendors on an advisory committee that will present feedback on the four proposals.
Gallotto said the pushcart association would oppose the Market Square proposal presented by Walter “Budge” Upton because the 119 apartments it would create would bring too many additional people and cars to the area. But he would be willing to work with the developers proposing the museum, hotel, or the apartment building with only 50 units.
Gallotto disagreed with a recent Globe opinion piece that stated the pushcart association was opposed to change.
“We’re looking to make this work,” he said. “We want this to work. We don’t want to lose our livelihoods.”
He said a lot had already changed at the market since the old days when refuse would pile up on Blackstone Street and some would remain rotting on the street for days.
“It really is a different, different market,” he said, crediting Mayor Thomas M. Menino and the Boston Public Works Department for working with the vendors to bring trash compactors and recycling to the site.
“What we’ve done is work with the city and the state in every capacity,” said Gallotto. “We have gone away from throwing garbage on the street and having a bulldozer throw stuff away at the end of the night. We have compactors, we recycle, and we are as clean as any market there is in the country.”
Customers visiting Haymarket on a recent Saturday also felt protective of the market and had concerns that changes could have negative effects.
Alicia Savini, 32, has lived in the North End for three years and comes to Haymarket “intermittently” to get fruits and vegetables. Pausing on her way to pick up beets, Savini said she’d prefer that the lot be left open, but if something has to go there, she liked the idea of a museum or an affordable apartment building.
“I think if they were to do apartments, they should do smaller and allow for people who have a lower income to be able to afford to come into a great area,” Savini said. “There’s just not enough affordable places. They’re really hard to find.”
Savini wasn’t enthusiastic about a new hotel in the area.
“There’s enough hotels,” she said as she stood in the shadow of the Millennium Bostonian Hotel.
Danvers resident Patricia MacLean, 59, grew up in Dorchester has been coming to Haymarket for the bargains all her life, though she usually visits only a couple of times a year.
“If it’s not a bargain, I’m not buying it,” she said.
MacLean agreed with Savini that Boston has enough hotels. She would prefer housing, especially if it could be affordable. But most important to her is the preservation of Haymarket.
“I just think that this is like a museum here,” she said. “It’s been here so long.”
MacLean is right. Though its surroundings have changed dramatically, Haymarket has been in more or less the same location since about 1830. And for more than a century, members of the Campo family have been part of Haymarket.
Pat Campo, 56, is a third-generation vendor — his son Andrew, who works with him at this stand, is the fourth generation. Campo said his grandfather first began working here around 1908, but he embraces the upcoming changes and hopes they will improve working conditions in the market by adding restrooms, running water, and electricity — amenities that all the developers have offered to include.
He has some concerns, though, about bringing apartments to the site due to the early morning noise when the vendors set up.
“I wouldn’t want to live with all that noise early in the morning,” he said.
His favorite proposal is the Boston Museum, which would capture many aspects of local history in a building with dramatically open glass walls on the Greenway side of the building.
“I think there’s too much red brick in Boston,” he said.
Vinnie DeNado, 21, has worked as a Haymarket vendor since he was 14, taking over his father’s stand around four years ago. He has no preference among the four proposals, because he believes any change is likely to eventually drive Haymarket from the site, despite city and state officials’ promises to the contrary.
He thinks preference will be given to the Boston Public Market, an indoor farmer’s market planned for the adjacent Central Artery vent building.
“If it goes up, we’re out of here, so I don’t care,” he said. “They’re going to kick us out and keep the public market.”
DeNado doesn’t believe Haymarket will ever get restrooms, running water, or electricity.
“They’ve been saying that for 15 years, since my father was here,” he said. “They said they’re going to do all this stuff, and then they don’t do nothing. … The only good thing is they put the trash compactors in, that’s about it.”
Cheryl Tello, 49, has sold produce at Haymarket since she was 14. She shares DeNado’s concerns, and his belief that promises made to the vendors won’t be kept. She believes apartment-dwellers or hotel guests are both likely to complain about the noise and activity of the market
“They’re not going to want us there,” she said. She also doesn’t like the idea of a new public market moving in right next to Haymarket
“If they open this market under here that’s open seven days a week, it’s going to kill us over here,” she said.
Tello said many of her customers are regulars who return week after week and know her by name.
“I mean, we’re a landmark,” she said. “We’re here for the people. We’re not here to make a million dollars. We’re here to feed the people who can’t afford to go to the supermarkets.”
As she spoke, a customer stopped by her stand to give Tello a gift for her granddaughter. Tello explained that the elderly woman sometimes runs out of money before the end of the month, and Tello lets her take vegetables anyway and repay her however she can.
“Her checks run out, so I give her lettuce and tomatoes sometimes,” she said. “If they don’t have the money, I say, ‘Don’t worry about it. Bring it to me next week.’ And then they’ll come back and they’ll pay me next week. Especially a lot of the elderly. … I won’t let anybody starve.”
For a gallery of images from Haymarket, click here.
For a gallery of images from the proposed developments, click here.
All four proposals are also available at the MassDOT Real Estate Website. MassDOT will accept public comment on the proposals until June 3, 2012. Comments may be sent by e-mail to MassDot.RE@dot.state.ma or by letter to the following address:
MassDOT
RE: Parcel 9
OREAD
10 Park Plaza, Suite 4170
Boston, MA 02116
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(Jeremy C. Fox for Boston.com)
Dense crowds of shoppers from across Greater Boston and all over the world are just part of the Haymarket experience.
BU, Emerson students among those chosen to 1st US national Quidditch team
A student from Boston University and another from Emerson College are among 21 first-string players named to the United States’ first national team in the Harry Potter-derived sport of Quidditch.
The squad will compete at an international tournament planned to be held near London shortly before this summer’s Olympic Games, though the Quidditch sport is not part of the actual Olympic Games, according to the International Quidditch Association, which is organizing the games.
Kedzie Chase Teller from Boston University and Allison Gillette from Emerson were selected for the first string group from more than 150 nominations “based on their skills on the pitch and ability to be a good ambassador for the sport and the United States,” the association’s website says.
Brendan Stack, from BU, and Rebecca Der, from Emerson, were also chosen as reserves for the US national team, according to the site.
If a first string player cannot make the trip to the “Olympic Expo Games” in Oxford, England, a reserve player of the same gender and position will be offered the spot, organizers said.
At least two other teams are expected, from the United Kingdom and Australia, according to the site. A French team and others may also compete.
Modified from the game played in the renowned Harry Potter novels and seen in the movies, the real-life version involves no flying or magic. Instead, competitors run with brooms between their legs.
Adapted seven years ago by students at Middlebury College in Vermont, the sport is played at more than 300 universities and high schools in the country and in a dozen other countries, according to the IQA, which was founded at Middlebury.
The sport has held World Cup matches in recent years.
Many universities participate in intramural or intercollegiate Quidditch. Local schools including: the University of Massachusetts Amherst, Boston University, Emerson, Smith and Eastern Nazarene colleges, Harvard, Suffolk, Tufts, Brandeis and Amherst universities have formed teams, according to the International Quidditch Association.
Read more about the four local college students selected to the team below. The following is text and photos are from the IQA website:
First-string Players:Name: Kedzie Chase Teller
(Yes, his middle name is actually Chase. Coincidence? We think not)
Team: Boston University
Position: Chaser
Teller was recruited to BU for sprints on the BU D1 track team his freshman year. Eventually, he found a spot on the BU quidditch team. He has competed with the team since Fall 2009 (still the era of the capes) and has been a starting chaser since his first competition. He is a 3-year World Cup squad starter and a 2-year World Cup squad captain who, as a chaser, is 100% first-to-quaffle record in all inter-BU competitions. He helped lead the team to 3rd place finish at World Cup III, racking up the highest total number of goals for the team in 2009. He has also led his team toward victories at the First Annual BU Winterfest, Northeast Regionals, and UMass Lily & James Potter Memorial tournament, as well to a sweet 16 finish at World Cup V, losing to Middlebury by a snitch-grab. Teller has worked alongside his sister, founder of BEACON Collaborations (formerly Teller Marketing Solutions), for three years, learning the ins and outs of proper event planning and marketing strategy. For World Cup III, he sat outside the university dining hall to fundraise money to put towards his team’s journey to Middlebury, Vermont. In the end, he earned enough money to help with transportation and to purchase the team’s dinner that night. Teller was also one of the key organizers that ran planning and marketing for the Championship series tournament for the Boston Cannons lacrosse opener.
Name: Allison Gillette
Team: Emerson College
Position: Beater
Allison has been playing quidditch since fall 2009. She has played for three World Cup teams and was captain the latter two years. She brought Emerson to many Northeastern tournaments and has played a large part in facilitating intercollegiate games in Boston between teams like Tufts, BU, and Brandeis. During Allison’s leadership at Emerson, she created a stat-keeping position for all of their games. As a beater, the drive and heart with which she plays the game brings energy to the entire team. Her strong, clean play allows her to take on the best beaters of either gender, and she has saved countless goals for keepers by knowing where to be with her bludger. As Emerson’s Commissioner from 2011-2012, Allison has been the commander-in-chief of the fundraising effort, as ECQ gets no funding from the university. Thanks to Allison, the IQA was able to host the IQA Champions Series tournament for the Boston Cannons Lacrosse opener in April.Reserve Players:
Name: Rebecca Der
Team: Emerson College
Position: Beater
‘Becca’ is a fierce competitor on the quidditch pitch. She is always the go-to person for getting and maintaining bludger control, and works with her partner to create a cohesive team of beaters. With two years on the Berserkers (Emerson’s house team), one year on Emerson’s World Cup team (one semester B team, one semester A team), Becca has always stood out on the pitch. Her enthusiasm and commitment to the sport is found in a few players. At Emerson, she left a reputation of being the best defensive beater – her fellow players coined her style the “Becca Der method.” She is supportive of her team, and no matter what, she keeps a positive attitude. She is extremely dedicated to the sport and her teammates and gives it her all when she is on AND off the field. Becca has worked as an intern for the IQA for two years. She helped organize the World Cup in 2010 by calling and e-mailing companies to raise money and ask for donations for the event. She organizes players from local Boston colleges for film shoots. At Emerson, she was on the Quidditch marketing team, which organized events like a dance, a trivia night, a movie night, and the New England Cup. She also fundraised for Emerson Quidditch by running swag sales.Name: Brendan Stack
Team: Boston University
Position: Keeper
Stack is a very capable keeper with experience on varsity volleyball, basketball and crew teams. He has the speed to outrun the opponent’s fastest chasers, as well as the size and the agility to score on the other side of the pitch. His impossibly long arms make him one of the most adept shot-blockers out there. Stack’s understanding of the game has allowed him to push his offense so he can act as a fourth chaser, if needed. Using his position on the pitch as well as his high vantage point, Stack sees the whole pitch, allowing him to direct and assign his defenders when needed. As well as having a presence on the pitch, Stack has proven himself an ambassador of the sport and of BU. He has succeeded in making friends on every team he plays. He also has done fundraising since high school, from annual pancake breakfasts and “Learn-To-Row” days for crew to raising over $1000 for a fun-filled eating competition for his fraternity. Stack has been appointed as his frat’s Athletic Chair to organize and set up the brotherhood’s intramural teams.
E-mail Matt Rocheleau at mjrochele@gmail.com.
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Faneuil Hall visitor center opens Friday
(Jeremy C. Fox for Boston.com)
Faneuil Hall’s first-floor marketplace will reopen Friday with a new National Park Service visitor center to help guide people to Boston’s historic sites.
Friday marks a new era for Faneuil Hall, as the 270-year-old landmark becomes not just a tourist destination but the central location for any visitor interested in Boston’s history.
Faneuil Hall’s first-floor marketplace is now home to a National Park Service visitor center for both the Boston National Historical Park and the Boston African American National Historic Site.
The new center will replace the dark, subterranean visitor center at 15 State St., across the plaza south of the Old State House, and will encourage more visitors to explore not only the Freedom Trail, but the lesser-known Black Heritage Trail.
“This is a wonderful place where we can all find common ground,” Sean Hennessey, a spokesman for the park service, said of Faneuil Hall.
“Obviously it was quite prominent during the American Revolution — meetings were held here as the revolt against the British occupation was growing hotter and hotter. And then in the 19th century, the abolitionist movement, many meetings and speeches were given here by the likes of Frederick Douglass, Wendell Phillips, and other prominent abolitionists.”
FULL ENTRYDays appear to be numbered for Ups N Downs bar
The Neponset Circle bar Ups N Downs could soon be closing. Representatives for a new downtown bar informed the Boston Licensing Board on Wednesday morning that it planned to purchase the bar’s liquor license.
At a hearing, William McDermott, an attorney representing Sterling’s, which is slated to open at 60 State St., said that his client is planning to purchase the Dorchester bar’s license.
In April, representatives for Ups N Downs, which has been the site of multiple violent incidents, went before the city’s Licensing Board because of a large fight at the establishment in February.
At the hearing, Michael Ford, the attorney representing Ups N Downs, told the board that his client was planning on selling the establishment’s liquor license to the Tea Party Museum located in the Fort Point Channel.
Those plans have been scrapped and according to McDermott his group plans to purchase the license as soon as possible for $300,000.
Sterling’s will be a bar and restaurant with an estimated 120-seat outdoor patio and a 2 a.m. closing time.
At the hearing, the Mayor’s Office, the office of City Councilor Sal LaMattina, and the office of at-large City Councilor Stephen Murphy all voiced support for the license transfer and new restaurant.
The Licensing Board will make its decision to approve or deny the transfer Thursday.
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Email Patrick D. Rosso, patrick.d.rosso@gmail.com. Follow him @PDRosso, or friend him on Facebook.
Asian American Civic Association hosts annual gala
(Courtesy Asian American Civic Association)
Michael Tow, president of the New Boston Financial and member of the Asian Community Development Corporation board of directors; Mary Chin, president of the AACA board; Monalisa Smith, vice president of Citizens Bank Massachusetts; and Jerry Sargent, president of Citizens Bank Massachusetts pose at the reception. Smith was among the 2012 AACA Community Service Award recipients.
The Asian American Civic Association recently hosted its 45th annual gala, raising $225,000 to help the agency continue to expand its social services, English classes, and workforce development programs for immigrants and the economically disadvantaged.
The event, titled Their Courage to Be New, drew 500 guests, including many elected officials and leaders in the local Asian-American community, to the Boston Park Plaza Hotel on May 18.
The evening included a dinner, live auction, and entertainment from the dragon dance troupe of the Wah Lum Kung Fu Athletic Association and a jazz performance by saxophone prodigy Grace Kelly.
At the event, the civic association presented awards recognizing members of the local community who have helped create opportunities for immigrants and citizens living in poverty.
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( Courtesy Asian American Civic Association)
Boston City Councilor Bill Linehan and his neighborhood liaison James Chan at the reception.
( Courtesy Asian American Civic Association)
Chau-ming Lee, executive director of the AACA; Joe Riley, executive vice president of Eastern Bank; Jerry Sargent, president of Citizens Bank Massachusetts; and Mary Chin, president of the AACA board, pose for a picture before entering the ballroom of the Boston Park Plaza Hotel.
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