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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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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2nd annual 'Circle the City' to create car-free corridors in Boston on two upcoming Sundays
On two upcoming Sundays, traffic will be shut down and parking restricted along one-and-a-half-mile stretches of two busy Boston roadways as part of a yearly initiative that aims to promote healthy, car-free activities and to unite neighbors with area parks.
On July 14, the second annual “Circle the City” will create a car-free corridor along the outbound side of Huntington Avenue, or Route 9, between Belvidere Street and Brigham Circle (Map). The event will cut through or border parts of Mission Hill, the Fenway, Roxbury, the South End and Back Bay.
On Sept. 29, a car-free corridor will be set up along Blue Hill Avenue, between Columbia Road and Dudley Street (Map). The event will cut through or border parts of Roxbury and Dorchester.
The open-streets initiative, sponsored by the City of Boston and a host of local organizations, invites residents and visitors “to reclaim their streets,” which will be temporarily transformed into “paved parks” with a “festival-like atmosphere,” featuring live music and performances, fitness clinics, biking and walking tours, children’s games, hula hooping, roller skating, yoga, aerobics, farmers’ markets, art activities, live music and dance classes.
On both dates, programming will run from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. The events are free to attend.
“I hope our residents will take advantage of the opportunity to walk, bike, skate and play together on car-free streets,” Mayor Thomas M. Menino said in a statement.
Last summer, the three “Circle the City” events were held. The first at Franklin Park, did not involve street closures. The other two did and were held in Jamaica Plain and along the Rose Kennedy Greenway in downtown Boston. An estimated 6,500 people attended.
“I’m looking forward to a second year of transforming our streets for Boston residents to get out and get active,” Menino added. “Open streets on Huntington and Blue Hill Avenues brings this great, free program to new neighborhoods.
Organizers said cross traffic will be allowed at a “limited number” of points along the stretch of closed roadway. The events are planned “to ensure that people have alternative travel routes,” organizers said.
“Our dates have been researched to account for conflicts with other large Boston events. We are doing our best to meet with neighborhood and business representatives to encourage engagement and ensure all are informed,” organizers said. “Traffic will be monitored so that any traffic impacts can be measured.”
To see a list of traffic and parking restrictions and programming for the July 14 event, click here and here.
A similar list of traffic and parking restrictions for the Sept. 29 event has not yet been released.
“Circle The City is not a parade, nor is it a race,” organizers said. “Rather it is a unique opportunity to safely enjoy the streets and explore new neighborhoods and parks.”
“With ‘Circle The City: Open Streets, Open Parks’ events, Boston joins cities around the world that are creating temporary open space in the heart of urban communities to celebrate the opportunity to get out and active together,” organizers said. “‘Circle The City’ builds community, encourages family fun, supports local business and promotes safe physical activity linking neighborhoods and parks for a healthy, vibrant Boston.”
Partners and sponsors of “Circle the City” include the Boston Collaborative for Food and Fitness, the Boston Cyclists Union, the Emerald Necklace Conservancy, LivableStreets Alliance, Sustainability Guild International, the Fenway Alliance and the Museum of Fine Arts, the Barr Foundation, and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts.
Last spring, the America’s Great Outdoors initiative named Circle the City as one of five nationally-selected “2012 Urban Signature Projects,” according to the Environmental Protection Agency, which, through its New England office, nominated the Boston open streets event for the distinction.
For more information, visit the event website, www.circlethecityboston.org, or Facebook Page. For more information on Open Streets initiatives elsewhere, visit www.openstreetsproject.org.
E-mail Matt Rocheleau at mjrochele@gmail.com.
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Brigham and Women's Hospital starts work on new research, clinical facility
(Image courtesy Brigham and Women’s Hospital)
A rendering of Brigham and Women’s Hospital's new medical research and clinical facility at the corner of Fenwood Road and Vining Street. The building is scheduled to open in 2016.
Brigham and Women's Hospital has broken ground on a new medical research and clinical facility designed to integrate research and patient care and support new innovations and breakthroughs.
“We think that the sky’s the limit. We think that the discoveries that will go on in this building will impact medical care for generations to come," Betsy Nabel, the hospital’s president, told the crowd of supporters gathered Wednesday at the corner of Fenwood Road and Vining Street where the building will stand.
The 11-story, 360,000-square-foot building, known as the Brigham Building for the Future, will house state-of-the-art labs, outpatient clinical space, and advanced imaging facilities.
With clinical space to treat patients and research labs in the same building, clinicians and scientists will be able to more readily communicate and collaborate to support breakthroughs in research and patient care.
Nabel said this will create a culture of innovation and allow teams of clinicians and care providers to advance diagnoses and treatments.
“There will be a lot of cross fertilization, cross culture occurring throughout the building, ” said Nabel, who praised the hospital’s doctors and scientists and Boston’s medical and life sciences communities that will contribute to work done in the new building.
“Together we can elevate our medical advances and bring them forward to our patients and community,” she said.
The LEED gold-certified building will have a roof garden to reduce storm water runoff, a system that cleans and reuses storm water for mechanical equipment, and a co-generation plant to supply the building with electricity, steam and hot water. The building will be connected to the main campus by a bridge over Fenwood Road.
The $450 million project will create 400 construction jobs and 200 permanent jobs, according to Peter Meade, director of the Boston Redevelopment Authority, who attended the ceremony.
“It’s such an important part of what the city is--this institution,” Meade said. “And the construction of this new building will provide a new opportunity for this hospital to be an even better citizen, better scientist, and better folks who have hope in their hearts, in their hands, and their minds for all of us and for our future.”
The facility, scheduled to be complete in the fall of 2016, will also allow the hospital to consolidate its research space throughout the city.
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.
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.
Jeremy C. Fox can be reached at jeremy.fox@globe.com.
Follow him on Twitter: @jeremycfox.
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YMCA Summer Food Program provides meals and snacks to children and teens
The YMCA of Greater Boston will provide free meals and snacks for children and teenagers this summer at about 20 sites across Boston and in neighboring communities, the organization announced.
The Summer Food Program will offer nutritious food at more than 10 YMCA sites as well as other community gathering places, including seven different locations in East Boston. Anyone 18 or under is eligible for the program, which will run from June 24 to Aug. 30.
In a statement, Kevin Washington, YMCA of Greater Boston president and CEO, said the program will address the needs of underprivileged families who struggle to supply extra meals through the summer.
“In order for kids to maintain good health, they need proper nourishment as well as activities to keep their minds and bodies active,” Washington said. “The YMCA’s Summer Food Program will help kids stay well-nourished, active and energized, and also provide some relief to families who need support in providing more food when school is out.”
The program is supported by a $70,000 grant from the Walmart Foundation as part of a national partnership between the foundation and the YMCA of the USA that focuses on addressing child hunger by serving children who lose access to free or reduced-price meals when school is out.
Across the country, the YMCA’s 900-plus Summer Food Program sites plan to serve 4 million meals and snacks to 100,000 young people.
The YMCA of Greater Boston also serves meals and snacks in its afterschool programs throughout the school year, the organization said.
Meals and snacks served through the Summer Food Program vary by location. For a complete list of program sites and meals served at each, visit www.ymcaboston.org/summer-food-program or contact Gail Klimas at (617) 569-9622.
Jeremy C. Fox can be reached at jeremy.fox@globe.com.
Follow him on Twitter: @jeremycfox.
Follow East Boston on Twitter: @YourEastBoston.
Cherie Blair talks global collaboration, solutions at Wheelock College
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(Photo courtesy Wheelock College)
Cherie Blair, the wife of former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, spoke at Wheelock College's international conference on Global Challenges and Opportunities Facing Children, Youths and Families.
Cherie Blair, a lawyer, women’s rights advocate, and the wife of former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, is encouraging non-profit organizations, government agencies, business leaders, and fellow advocates to work together in order to solve some of the world’s most pressing issues.
“We must collaborate; we must celebrate. We want to work together in strategic partnerships. We need to value diversity not just within companies within our own countries, but on a global scale,” Blair said Thursday during a keynote address at Wheelock College’s international conference on Global Challenges and Opportunities Facing Children, Youths and Families. “We need to understand it’s a modern, interconnected world.”
Blair told the audience that international partnerships across specialties allow advocates to develop innovative and long-term solutions to an array of complex, global issues such as widespread poverty, discrimination, violence against women, and corruption.
“Now is the time to seize the opportunity to make a collaborative impact. Now we must work together to develop long lasting solutions to these problems,” she said. “Big challenges require big solutions, and we cannot effectively address them alone.”
Blair encouraged groups to share their successes and failures and collaborate on project rather than working in silos while trying to address the same issues.
“If we’re going to truly solve the problems of the world we’ve got to share our information whenever we can and strategically include one another in or efforts," she said.
Blair’s organization, the Cherie Blair Foundation for Women, works with groups and businesses to provide women in developing countries with the skills, technology, networks, and access to financing to start or grow their own businesses.
“With the right support, women can’t just change their economics, they can also change their social status and their political voice,” Blair said. “If you invest a development dollar in a women she will reinvest it back into her families and her communities and have a sustainable impact.”
Blair’s foundation has worked in 70 countries in South America, Africa, the Middle East, and Asia, providing women with training, mentoring, and support that allows them to develop skills and establish themselves financially.
In India, for example, the foundation partnered with a mobile phone company and a local wholesaler to develop an app that would allow women who sell dried goods door-to-door to place their orders via text message and have their orders delivered. The technology allows the women to sell their products instead of spending a day traveling and helped the wholesaler improve its ordering process.
“We can only do so much, but working with others we can do so much more,” Blair said in an interview after a panel discussion. The foundation also has partnerships with non-government organizations, and agencies including USAID and the U.S. State Department. “This way we can really multiply what we do together.”
The foundation's support not only helps women and their communities financially, Blair said, it also allows them build confidence and gain freedom in cultures that often do not respect or value women.
“They need confidence, and a lot of this is saying to women--who have been told for so long that they shouldn’t have a voice, they can’t do these things--that actually they can," she said. "I think having to make your own business and to make your own money gives you that confidence to enable you to make choices.”
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.
Wheelock to celebrate international conference with cultural festival
Wheelock College will kick off its first international conference and celebrate its 125th anniversary Wednesday with a professional development program and a cultural festival for the Boston community.
Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino, singer Maya Azucena, and community leaders will celebrate Wheelock’s “Gift to the Community” cultural festival Wednesday at the school’s Fenway campus with a cake cutting ceremony and a performance by Azucena.
The free festival, which is open to the public, will feature activities for children and adults interactive theatre, global food fare, authentic cultural performances, and arts and crafts from around the world
Wheelock has encouraged guests to register online and the first 200 attendees to register will win tickets to Wheelock Family Theatre, the Children’s Museum and an invitation to a free evening at the Museum of Science.
The afternoon festival will run from 3 to 7 p.m. at Wheelock College at 200 The Riverway, following Wheelock’s Arts in Education program.
Arts in Education, a free professional development program for educators, will kick off Wheelock’s inaugural international conference, Global Challenges and Opportunities Facing Children, Youth and Families held at the school June 19 to 22.
The conference will bring together advocates and experts from around the world to discuss topics related to health, human rights and education. The focus will be on global challenges and opportunities for children, youth and families and will include international film screenings, and a special Global Leadership Awards celebration at the John F. Kennedy Library and Museum honoring international achievements and impacts on behalf of children and families.
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.
Winsor School celebrates commencement
(Photo courtesy Winsor School)
By boston.com
Students of the Winsor School celebrated their graduation this month when the school honored the class of 2013 at its 119th commencement ceremony.
Fifty-nine students graduated from the private girls’ school during the June 6 ceremony. The graduates received their diplomas from the school’s director Rachel Friis Stettler and Linda Thomas, president of the board of trustees.
Dr. Lisa Randall, an author and professor who studies theoretical physics and cosmology at Harvard University, delivered the commencement address.
The school, located in the Longwood Medical Area, teaches students in grades 5 through 12.
