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This is a map I created in Adobe Flash using the ActionScript 3 programming language. I started with a basic map of the Boston districts and added a bit of information on what candidates were running in what districts. If I had more time, I would have added in demographic data, campaign finance information and the works.
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A replay of the streaming coverage of the 2009 Boston Veteran's Day Parade for Fenway News Online. The package was a team effort put forth by five students from Boston University's College of Communication:

Blog coverage provided by: Keith Colella and Marion Geiger.
Photos by: Caitlin Nordahl and Angela Carlos
Management and commentary by: Ina Chu and Jonathan Kim

This was my first attempt at doing live web coverage, and it worked out extremely well considering we had no satellite internet cards, video cameras or a budget.




View Veteran's Day Parade Map in a larger map
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This is a compiled sample of the media packages I built for Fenway News Online as part of our on-going coverage of the city council elections. The final products were six separate slideshows, which are still available on the Fenway News Online website.
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As November nears, one of the important issues of this year’s mayoral election will be public safety. Like any urban environment, Boston is subject to a high volume of crime that each candidate has so far tried to address.

The city of Boston, under Mayor Thomas Menino, has gotten better about cracking down on crime. According to the preliminary data released by the Boston Police Department, crime fell an impressive 15 percent in 2008. But these outstanding numbers came at a high price for Menino.

Last year, about $23.4 million was spent on overtime hours for police officers, firefighters and security guards—a morsel of information that city councilor and mayoral opponent Sam Yoon has capitalized on. The mayor’s ability to justify the excess is hindered by the fact that violent crime has hardly decreased at all.

Yoon cites the overages on his campaign website and couples them with his own crime-fighting plan to contain spending. In a hypocritical move, Yoon announced his plan to increase the sales tax by 0.5 percent to 6.75 percent, bestowing Massachusetts with the sixth-highest sales tax nation-wide. Yoon plans to use the revenue solely on enhancing public safety, namely by increasing community crime-prevention programs—a resource that all candidates have also vowed to bolster in varying capacities.

Candidate Michael Flaherty, also a city councilor, has the most robust community prevention plan of the four candidates. As a former assistant district attorney, Flaherty has real experience with crime and law enforcement and makes councilor Yoon’s anecdotes of his Dorchester home seem unprofessional. Flaherty also backs up his statements of better public safety with a seven-page document that details his plan for “de-centralizing” how Boston polices its neighborhoods. This document, available online, seeks to lure citizens out of their homes and place them on the street as an unarmed police force—a policy that busy professionals and the elderly may not be so apt to follow.

Despite all the shortfalls of the aforementioned candidates, each can rest assured that his public safety plan is not the worst of the bunch. Compared to Menino, Yoon, and Flaherty, Kevin McCrea seems to completely miss the issue of public safety and lacks both experience and a plan. On his campaign website, McCrea not only generalizes criminals as “young people with no resources, distressed families and neighborhoods, and no confidence,” but he thinks the problem will go away when there are more jobs.

His background as a real estate developer really comes out in the “Public Safety” of his platform. Of the five vows to his voters, McCrea only directly addresses crime prevention once. The others are about development and business. “I will focus on more local manufacturing development, rather than on office towers,” the platform reads. How is this suppose to minimize crime?
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BOSTON—Over a million Americans will be able to tell their children exactly where they were when the first black man became President—on Facebook. Just before Barack Obama gave his inaugural address, more than 1.3 million users tuned-in to CNN’s coverage on Facebook.com.

The presence on Facebook was more than half the number of visitors who filled the streets, fields and bars of the capital that day. Although live video broadcasts of a presidential inauguration have been available online since 1997, this year could be the first time the entire world has been asked to do more than just hear it or watch it.

Social networking websites like Facebook and Twitter teamed up with media outlets CNN and Current TV to experiment with this year’s coverage. Both of the social networks allowed online members to comment alongside a streaming broadcast of the inauguration, making each site a digital living room where anyone on the Internet could watch and chat about presidential politics.

“Everyone is usually in their secluded little [space],” said media analyst Steve Garfield, “just consuming, versus leaning forward and participating.” A multimedia journalist himself, Garfield said that he was impressed by the service provided by Facebook and CNN. He predicted that the success of the digital broadcast is only the start of good things to come from the interactive feature.

“I think that with technology like this, you might see more people interested in participating in [politics] when it becomes as easy as Facebook just made it,” Garfield said.

Until recently, online conversations were typically restricted to chat rooms, said Garfield. A less popular method of conversing is through Internet relay chats (IRC), which let multiple people share and discuss content through a web browser. The inaugural coverage, suggested Garfield, was a culmination of these past innovations that made Facebook and Twitter a place where people could watch and listen together.

“It’s not essential,” Garfield said, hesitantly, “but it adds value to certain people who are interested in community.”
According to a statement released by CNN, the online community at CNN.com Live totaled over 18.8 million people between the hours of 6 a.m. and 1 p.m., breaking a record of 5.3 million viewers that was set on Election Day.

Prior to the inauguration, Tobe Berkovitz, a media analyst and professor of communication at Boston University, said he expected fewer people to rely on the web for inaugural coverage.

“I think when you have an event like the inauguration,” Berkovitz began, “the mainstream media becomes more significant.” He argued that this inauguration emphasized new media strategies more than tech innovations, and he predicted that media networks would rely mostly on television as their main outlet.

“People would rather watch [the inauguration] on a flat screen television than on their computer, iPhone or Blackberry,” said Berkovitz.

In an article from NewTeeVee.com, a corporate social network for developers of video hosting sites, writer Stacey Higginbotham recommended “ditching” the online version of the inauguration and simply watching it on television. According to Higginbotham, CNN, ABC and C-SPAN all malfunctioned at least once during their broadcasts. To her, missing even a second of the inauguration was not worth chatting online during the event. Higginbotham’s article attracted several comments from people who experienced interruptions and delays in their own broadcasts. Others wrote that their computer screens were just too small to allow them to fully enjoy the historic moment.

When asked how he watched the event, Garfield admitted that he opted to watch the inauguration on television. “But just before the swearing in, I was watching the CNN.com Live coverage with Facebook,” Garfield said with a laugh.
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BOSTON—Just over a month after its release, Google’s web browser, Chrome, may see its most attractive features undermined with the release of Mozilla’s Firefox 3.1, currently in the test phase.

This potential threat was released under the codename “Minefield,” and it can only be downloaded from a directory – a webpage that simply lists the files in an interface reminiscent of the early nineties Internet. Mozilla has kept this project a trade secret, and word of the early browser can only be found in scattered online forums.

Reports of the release have been traced to October 2 of this year, just three and a half months after they released Firefox 3.0, a software that established a Guinness World Record of over eight million downloads in one day. The Firefox 3.0 series is two to three times faster than the previous version, according to a guide released by Mozilla.

The manual stated that “the performance improvements are particularly noticeable in the case of complex web-based applications like Google Mail.” Perhaps not noticeable enough.

“That simplistic approach to Javascript engines isn’t enough anymore,” said Chrome developer Lars Bak in a Google press release. A global search giant, Google boasts a growing list of robust web-applications from interactive global maps to advertisement generators for websites. Although Javascript is a fast and lightweight programming language, too much of it can decrease the performance of computers and web browsers.

According to Google’s press statement, Chrome puts less stress on a computer’s processor by keeping things small and separated. The most innovative part about Chrome is that every new window or sub-window (called a “tab”) that users open becomes it’s own independent program. The windows can process webpages faster because each window and tab operates as completely independent programs. In the event that one tab stops working, it can be forced close without affecting the others.

In a telephone interview, social media expert Chris Brogan voiced his approval for both Chrome and Minefield, saying that there is still much more that Javascript can do. In his experience as vice president of the media marketing company CrossTech Media and as an award winning blog writer, Brogan said that the latest web trend is a desire to be “dynamic.”

“Everything is optimized to run a lot tighter now,” Brogan said, adding that the features that Chrome and Minefield have were explicitly meant to cater to the demands of complex websites. Browser development and website design push each other to the boundaries by either demanding compliance or offering space for creative innovation.

“It gives everybody else room to play a lot nicer,” Brogan said. Although familiar with both programs, Brogan said he uses neither Chrome nor Minefield, and instead relies on Mozilla’s current “stable” version of Firefox 3.0. His biggest critique, he said, was that he’d like to one day see browsers adapt some dynamic features, like widgets and customization, possessed by the high-performing websites they serve.
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PUBLISHED by the Fenway News

BOSTON—A new study reveals that the Chinese art of Tai Chi may enhance your sense of touch and increase the size of your brain. Catherine Kerr and her team of researchers at the Harvard Medical School are finding that the elderly benefit the most, Kerr says.

In a small library at Harvard’s Landmark Center office, Kerr presented her findings on the acute sensitivity possessed by a group of Tai Chi practitioners from Brookline. The data suggests that people who practice the Chinese martial art in conjunction with meditation have a heightened sense of touch, Kerr says.

“It was a fairly simple study, but I think it has important implications for understanding the benefits of Tai Chi,” says Kerr.

A better mood, stronger legs and increased flexibility are a few of the benefits of Tai Chi, and there are many more, Kerr says. According to her, elderly people who practice Tai Chi also have a lower chance of falling down. Related research suggests that muscle and immune system improvements may also come from practicing Tai Chi.

The next leg of the project will be determining whether the Tai Chi students have developed larger sensory organs because of their training. In her presentation, Kerr cited a 2006 study done in London that revealed that certain kinds of training permanently alter the shape of certain regions of the brain—a phenomenon called neuroplasticity.

“This gives us some clues why Tai Chi may be health-promoting,” Kerr says, “but it doesn’t yet tell us definitively.” Kerr says that past studies have yet to precisely measure exactly the benefits of Tai Chi.

The research has been inexpensive so far, says Kerr, but she predicts the next phase will require roughly $100,000 to complete. In order to prove that the brain is actually changing, Kerr says she will need costly brain scans done on each of her research patients. She and her team plan to finish this next step of their study within a year.
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BROOKLINE, Mass.—President-elect Barack Obama may owe his election success to his television campaign, former governor and 1988 presidential candidate Michael Dukakis told a synagogue of community members last night.

In an informal lecture at the Congregation Kehillath Israel synagogue on Harvard Ave., Dukakis and three Harvard University faculty members engaged a greying audience in the effect that images have on politics. Recalling his experience with his own campaign, Dukakis said that society now depends on the media to present a candidate’s personality.

“I’m a backyard/living room kind of guy,” Dukakis said, alluding to different kinds of campaign methods. It is now harder for a politician to meet all his voters, Dukakis said, which is why a strong media image is so important.

“[Obama] ended up giving people a pretty good impression of who he was,” Dukakis said. In contrast, Dukakis noted that the publicity Republican candidate John McCain accrued worked against him as the election went on.

In contrast to Dukakis, Kiku Adatto, author of Picture Perfect: Life in the Age of the Photo Op, said that Obama’s biggest advantage came from the outlets he chose to promote his campaign. Several new media markets emerged during this election, which brought both opportunity and risk, Adatto said.

“Obama mastered the new medium,” said Adatto plainly, citing the rise of social networking sites like Facebook and Myspace, as well as viral markets such as blog networks and the popular video host, YouTube.com.

“[Obama] came out of this a lot stronger than he went in,” Dukakis said about Obama’s breadth of political experience. He concluded, saying that the media has become, and will continue to be, a powerful force in election politics.
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BOSTON—Experts at this year’s Gilbane Boston Conference on technology and social media conceded that open source software has a respected place amongst web programs.

Dozens of these Content Management Solution (CMS) experts pitched their company’s products to wandering investors at the fifth annual expo. While some of the booths offered $100,000 products, two companies, Hippo and Magnolia, became the conference’s first open source exhibitors.

“If I had my own company, I’d use [open source software],” said CoreMedia representative Arner Eichel. A powerhouse based in Hamburg, Germany, CoreMedia develops the most dominant CMS in Germany, Eichel said. Other clients include T-Mobile, Continental Airlines, and several other large global companies, yet Eichel admitted that their product isn’t for everyone.

CMS software have become the backbone of complex websites. A robust CMS offers an efficient way to organize files and information, as well as a simple interface for clients to add and change their web content.

“When I get proposals for projects,” Eichel said, “I always tell them to first look at open source.”

Open source software is free to use and edit, has a growing list of features and much of the troubleshooting is done by other people. It’s an appealing offer for those not ready to pay the average $500,000 and the annual maintenance fees that CoreMedia charges for their product, Eichel said.

Clients gravitate to a proprietary CMS, not in search of innovation, but for its dependability, Eichel said. The company’s latest product, a video-hosting service called CoreMedia Web TV, is similar to YouTube.com. Those familiar with the social network will find that it offers nothing new outside of increased control over content, but the service was built and launched in two days at the request of a client.

Where CoreMedia has avoided open source, other companies have integrated it. Jim Awiszus, an account executive from Quark, Inc., said the company’s latest product borrowed from open source. Quark is best known for it’s earliest software, QuarkXpress, which became a publishing standard in the late 1980s but fell out of vogue in the past five years, Awiszus said.

Quark has integrated an open source CMS from Alfresco, Inc. into their latest product, Quark Dynamic Publishing Solution (DPS), which Awiszus said will spell certain death for its rival application, Adobe InDesign. When told that CoreMedia’s CMS is priced at half a million, Awiszus was not surprised.

“Quark [DPS] starts at $250,000,” Awiszus said plainly. “We’re in it to do business.”
Awiszus’ interpretation of Quark’s mission could not be farther from that issued by Wordpress.org, a very popular open source CMS platform. The latter company’s website states that the software was “created by and for the community” in 2001 and has since taken off.

The application isn’t just for tech novices looking to make a quick webpage. Ford Motor Company, The New York Times and even Red Sox pitcher Curt Shilling have, with the help of hundreds of thousands of other users, altered Wordpress to perform like an expensive CMS.
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NUTLEY, N.J.—Airline ticket prices will separate a family of four this holiday season. Stephanie Komura chose to spend the holidays at home with her father Shigeru while her mother and younger brother visit their extended family in Hawaii.

Stephanie and Shigeru say they are saving between two- and four-thousand dollars, depending on when and where they chose to buy their tickets. The sacrifice means more than giving up a balmy beachside vacation — it means breaking tradition and missing what the Komuras call their largest family gathering of the year. This is the first year that Stephanie has opted to stay home to save the family money. Shigeru, who use to work two jobs until recently, has only flown to Hawaii with the family a handful of times, he says.

“My dad usually spends the holidays by himself,” says Stephanie, “I’m glad I’m staying here, even if I could afford [the flight to Hawaii].”

Stephanie is in her third year at Villanova University and says that her college expenses have really taxed her family and is one of the reasons why her father took up a second job last year.

Georgetown University sophomore Hilary Nakasone paid roughly $1,000 for her ticket back to Hawaii this winter break, she says. Her mother bought the ticket almost five months ago, along with an even more expensive ticket for her return home again this coming summer.

And these aren’t fancy tickets. These are economy class, non-exchangeable, non-refundable, try-to-pass-your-second-suitcase-as-a-backpack sort of tickets. However, both Nakasone and the Komura family say that reuniting with their families this Christmas is a worthwhile strain.

“If [my mother] had let me skip my first day of classes, I would have saved $400!” says Nakasone, who found that ticket prices fluctuated dramatically from day-to-day. She almost went ahead and bought the tickets herself, she says.

The rise in ticket prices, the lengthening list of airline fees, the steady increase of college tuition and the poor state of the economy are making it extremely tough on those travelling long distances. Both Nakasone and the Komuras agree that the trials of this holiday season instilled an appreciation for more affordable pricing; however, the biggest change in each was distrust.

“If oil is so cheap now, why are tickets still so expensive?” asked Nakasone, rhetorically. Her face flushed as she stood and recalled how a flight home had cost half as much in May 2008 even though the price of crude oil was two and a half times more expensive than it is now.

In contrast to what Nakasone and the Komuras found, a press release by the online travel booking site, Travelocity.com, said that airline fares are only getting cheaper.

“For those who priced out a December trip earlier this year and found travel was out of their reach this holiday season, it's time for another look.” The press statement went on to say that the company’s “most recent data” showed an average price drop of $53 in the last five weeks. It went on to say, “Despite the economic downturn, there will be no shortage of travelers,” and that passengers may end up paying less than they did a year ago for the same flight.

Nakasone opened an archived email after reading the Travelocity press release. It was a confirmation email for a round-trip airline ticket, the first leg of which went from Dulles Airport, D.C. to Honolulu last December. The ticket was $843.
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BOSTON—The federal court ordered Brockton resident Robert Nelson, 23, to live with his girlfriend following a hearing yesterday afternoon. Cierra Lobrano, 21, pledged a $50,000 joint-bail with Nelson’s mother to release Nelson on house arrest in Lobrano’s apartment in Roxbury.

Nelson was arrested in June for possession of a firearm, which comes with an average penalty of one year, said Nelson’s attorney, Catherine Byrne. He is now being tried in federal court for being a felon in possession of a firearm, which comes with a sentence of up to ten years.

Byrne said that although Nelson will likely face seven years in prison, she is confident that he will appear in court so his mother and girlfriend can reclaim their bail. Nelson is currently under electronic monitoring and has orders not to leave Lobrano’s apartment unless for an approved emergency. In addition to avoiding firearms and illegal activities, Nelson is also not allowed to “drink in excess,” said the court judge.

“I do believe that Mr. Nelson will adhere to house arrest,” said Byrne. “Most of my clients do very well on electronic monitoring and take the bail requirements seriously.”

No trial date has been set for Nelson, but he was sent to mediation with Pre-Trial services before his release. Byrne chose not to release contact information on Nelson, his family or his girlfriend, and they remain out of contact.
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BOSTON—Before an auditorium of business owners, Detective Steven Blair, both figuratively and literally, laid out some of the scams he thinks Massachusetts retailers will encounter this holiday season.

The two-hour-long seminar was held at the Boston Public Library in Copley yesterday morning and was closed to the public. A pair of police guards stood by each entrance as if protecting the trade secrets told by Blair and his associates.

“Everyone in this room is going to get hit with identity fraud,” warned Blair. A 20-year veteran in solving fraudulent crimes, Blair said he has seen every trick out there. Blair’s collection of souvenirs included fake IDs, forged documents and illegally made passports. He even had a few international drivers licenses — a concept which does not exist but still makes it past lazy patrol officers who give up trying to check its validity.

Blair also revealed card scanners that were small enough to fit, fully disguised, on a keychain. Stacks of fabricated credit cards and gift cards, also sat on Blair’s display table next to boxed software that could create and print blank checks.

“It’s not organized crime,” said Blair, “most of the time it’s just some bored kid with a laptop.” Though conspiracies about foreign counterfeits and large-scale heists were revealed as true later in the seminar, Blair said that his biggest adversaries are tech-savvy young adults.

“It may be the time for community values to increase,” said Jumaada Smith, a first-time attendee and small business owner of an unnamed store in Dudley Square. Smith said she also represented a handful of other small businesses in the Dudley Square area and was shocked by Blair’s testimony that even “mom and pop” stores were vulnerable to holiday fraud.

“It’s just always good to be aware [of fraud], that’s the whole key,” said Smith, “not necessarily suspicious, but aware.” Her first task, upon returning to her friends in Dudley, will be to share the day’s information and reinforce proper conduct among her employees, she said. Although Blair warned to be on the lookout for thousand-dollar purchases, Smith said she plans to take every cent seriously.
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BOSTON—While election results trickled out and America tuned in, window shoppers from Gloucester Street to Clarendon Street found something else to do than watch the election. At the Ben & Jerry's ice cream shop on Newbury Street, voters and non-voters settled in for free ice cream.

In the line that wrapped along the sidewalk and on the steps at nearby boutiques, there were few serious words said about politics. The most common utterance of Barack Obama or John McCain was frequently followed up by a John Stuart, Stephen Colbert or Saturday Night Live reference.

Four students from Berklee were of the few outside Ben & Jerry’s who engaged in conversation about the debate. The group, two from New Hampshire and two from New York, were split about their presidential candidates (Obama, McCain and Barr) and had volumes to say about each one. They didn't come to mingle with other voters, they came for the free ice cream and later went on in search of free coffee (at Starbucks).

“I just want [the election] to be over already,” said Berklee sophomore Stephanie Barker. “How long have we been doing this and still something goes wrong?”

Exhausted, aggravated and apathetic, the four friends could not help but reflect on the flaws of the election process and the hype the media has given it, they said. Free ice cream and coffee were more outlets for them to unwind rather than a way to celebrate and be praised for voting — the way Ben & Jerry’s and Starbucks intended.

"I guarantee you that many of these people did not vote," said Greg Arney, also a sophomore at Berklee. Like Arney, it seemed that the voting process was on the mind of few people at the ice cream shop. Popular line-waiting-conversation topics cycled between what flavor of ice cream was best, the length of the line and the weather.

Some people had no idea that the store was giving free ice cream to just anyone. In fact, one girl went in with the intention of buying ice cream and made a surprised comment when she noticed that people weren't paying.

“If I were a parent, I’d bring my kids to Free Ice Cream day too,” said another girl in line as a mother and child walked out of the ice cream shop.

The actual name of the promotion was, “Free Ice Cream for Voters,” from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. according to a poster hanging behind the dessert bar. A smaller 8.5”x11” display located on the counter said that even non-voters could get coffee with “no complainin’” from the Ben & Jerry’s staff. That add-on is strikingly reminiscent of the fate of Starbucks’ “It’s Bigger Than Coffee” promotion, which was forced to extend its offer of free coffee to non-voters to avoid violating laws that prohibit giving rewards in exchange for voting.
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“I am a firm believer in the notion that you can do good and do well at the same time,” Mass. State Senator Diane Wilkerson told undercover agents. Five weeks prior to that conversation, FBI agents witnessed, recorded and photographed Wilkerson stuffing a $1,000 bribe up her shirt, according to an affidavit released Monday.

The 32-page document accuses Wilkerson of accepting $23,500 in cash from civilian and undercover agents, as well as of delaying legislation to leverage a personal agenda. The affidavit follows Wilkerson from Dec. 2006 until the present and claims that she had illegally accepted money in return for legislative favors as early as May 2007. The details of the allegation are prefaced by a history of Wilkerson’s prior infractions, which include tax evasion, failure to adhere to campaign filing laws and for providing false testimony in a state court.

The case made against Wilkerson circles around political bullying to acquire a liquor license and real estate in Roxbury called “Parcel 8.” Earlier this month, Wilkerson filed legislation to lease the property to developer TrinMA Development and Management LLC.

Senate President Therese Murray told reporters today that Wilkerson should resign if she "values the integrity of the Senate."

Wilkerson was not at the Senate Caucus today, but instead, sent a letter to Murray regarding the allegations against her.

“I apologize to you and the members [of the senate] for being drawn into the madness that has become my life,” Wilkerson wrote. “But I can say that there is much more to the story than you have been told.”

Wilkerson has not announced whether she will continue her plan to run for reelection through a “sticker campaign” against Democratic nominee Sonia Chang-Diaz -- the underdog who unseated the senator in mid-September.
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PUBLISHED by the Fenway News

BOSTON—Over the next six months, residents and visitors to the Fenway area can expect to see, hear and interact with what project representatives called a "decent-sized" makeover of Fenway Park. The renovation will only be a slight intrusion upon the community, Red Sox spokespeople said.

The project plans were unveiled to a room of about 40 community members at an open meeting held yesterday evening in the Absolut Clubhouse attached to Fenway Park. The discussion was organized to prepare the ballpark's neighbors for disruptions that come with construction, said Fenway Affairs officer Larry Cancro.

"There are inconveniences to this process," Cancro said, "and we always find that it's best to explain...what that's gonna be so we can minimize the impacts."

The project officially began the day after the Red Sox's season closer. A majority of the renovation is scheduled to complete in late March, while other parts may run into early April. The project is being overseen by developer Struever Bros. Eccles & Rouse (SBER), who did work on Fenway in 2002.

SBER spokesperson Tom Kugel said he was very confident that he will meet his deadline, saying that he has never missed one yet. The bulk of the project is due on March 27, just ten days before the Red Sox season opener at Fenway, which drew a chuckle out of many of the attendees who are too familiar with the inability of Boston contractors to meet deadline.

Local business owners can expect to see dumpsters and building materials on all sides of the ballpark. Trucks and heavy machinery will be coming in and out, mostly around mid-morning, with the possibility of others later in the afternoon. Bill Olsen of William A. Berry & Son, Inc. (WBS) said they do not plan to work past 4 p.m., however, contractors may decide to turn the ballpark lights on at 6 a.m. once daylight savings begins.

Contractors and ballpark officials repeatedly stated that the construction will not interfere with parking in Fenway. Workers from WBS said they may have 40-50 people working on any given day, which would normally mean more metered spots taken by contractors and pickup trucks. Kugel and Cancro promised that every measure has been taken to locate parking facilities for construction workers.

“We’ve written in every single one of their contracts that they have to provide offsite parking for their employees,” Kugel said. “I think we’ve got it fairly well covered.” He also mentioned that SBER will be circulating information to locals on how to report parking problems to the BTD. Fenway Park security guards will also be monitoring the metered spots in the morning to assure that sub-contractors are not occupying visitor spots, Kugel said.

Bob Richard of SBER mentioned earlier that while plans are in place, infractions could still arise.

“They have to tell us where they’re going to be parked,” Richard said. “So far, we haven’t gotten a whole lot of answers…but we told them ‘No parking around Fenway Park.’” At one point or another, Richard, Kugel and Cancro all reminded attendees that the plan is not perfect.

Janet Marie Smith, a planning executive for both SBER and the Red Sox, said that they’ve done everything they can to behave like good neighbors.

“We’ve worked hard to make sure there’s a minimum of one lane,” Smith said, “and where we can, we’ll put [the dumpsters and raw materials] on our sidewalks.”

Smith said she does not forsee any complaints due to noise and did not receive any during last year’s restoration, which she said was of similar size to this year’s.

“We’ve been blessed that our neighborhood is pretty tolerant. It is one of the virtues of having night clubs as neighbors,” Smith said.
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BOSTON—Massachusetts residents took their transportation complaints 'on the record' at last night's MBTA public hearing. Of the eight citizen speakers, five voiced concerns about poor handicap access.

Like Somerville resident, Tom Gilbert , who spoke about his hazards of waiting at the bus stop. According to Gilbert, the buses in his area are unable to pull up to the curb because illegally parked cars block the bus stop. The cars are seldom penalized, if at all, said Gilbert, and the state has done little to prevent it. These illegally parked cars force Gilbert to stand further into the road in order to flag down bus drivers.

Standing on the street rather than safely on the curb is a different experience for Gilbert because he is legally blind. He said that improving the condition of curbside stops is a small change that can improve the overall rider experience.

"When services get better and better for persons with disabilities," said Gilbert, "it should get better for everybody else too." He went on to list illegally parked cars, deteriorating bus stops and filthy trains as a few of the things that may be making mass transportation unappealing for potential customers.

"More people would get out of their cars and use the buses and trains more often if they knew that they weren't going to get on a train that smelt like urine," said Gilbert.

Another speaker, Roxbury resident Robert Palmer, claimed he represented over 100 other residents from his housing complex at 125 Amory Street. The building is managed by the Boston Housing Authority and rented to “low-and-moderate income elderly and disabled persons,” according to the BHA website.

The 48 bus that stops immediately outside of 125 Amory St. is one of the four routes that are will no longer run during the weekdays due to low ridership. In addition, route 48 is the only one that will also have its Saturday trip cut, thus running only on Sundays.

When Palmer spoke at the podium, he held up a stack of petitions with his left hand and forcefully said that the MBTA would be bombarded with complaint calls by every resident at 125 Amory St. if the 48 bus schedule is appended as planned. Palmer went on to explain that the bus is the main source of transportation for him and his neighbors who need it to go to work and grocery shopping.

Due to the nature of the hearing, neither Gilbert‘s nor Palmer’s issues were formally addressed by the MBTA Service Plan members. Instead, both got a chance to talk with the Service Plan Manager Melissa Dullea, and other MBTA employees after the meeting. In an aside interview, however, Dullea mentioned that the issues brought up in last night's meeting will probably not be added to the list of scheduled changes.
"We'll only withdraw proposals," said Dullea, following the meeting. She went on to explain that the process is only a filtering process that her team uses to retract extremely controversial proposals.

While Dullea said that it was still likely that route 48 would be cut, an example of a saved route – the 8:30 p.m. boat from Boston to Hingham, route F2/F2H – was announced at the beginning of the hearing.

“After the completion of [the Service Plan], we’ll be getting back to our interest groups,” said Dullea. “If we are moving forward with a proposal, we’ll get back to them.”
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Published by the Fenway News

BOSTON—“Whatever comes next, comes next,” said Shah Hadjebi as he leaned in to be heard over the bar chatter. He had a glass in his hand and seemed eager to get back and celebrate with the other members of his band – Persian Blue – after their show at Bill’s Bar on Lansdowne street.

The jazz-funk-rock band has been working its way up the entertainment ladder and have two sold out shows under its belt, the latest of which came from a show at the Boston Hard Rock Café in August. Hadjebi is the mastermind behind the musical group and uses a relaxed approach to manage their performances and balance their personal lives.

“It’s a revolving door,” Hadjebi said. Band members come and go as they please, and play almost completely unrehearsed, mentioned Hadjebi. “These guys are pros,” he said, adding that it is usually he who needs the rehearsal time. Even that, said Hadjebi, happens only once before a show.

Persian Blue's performance was well received and attended by roughly 75 people, according to the doorman's count. Hadjebi said he plans to keep things small.

"Once a month," said Hadjebi, “[the fans] don’t want to hear you play every week.” He does not consider himself a professional musician, but more of a passionate hobbyist. “I need my work, I need my marriage and I need the music,” Hadjebi said.

Richard Dolabany and his friend, who simply went by Sam D., stood near the bar but kept their eyes focused on the stage. Dolabany had been to the Hard Rock show and has been a big fan of Hadjebi’s music. Dolabany and Sam D. said that Persian Blue had such a unique sound, although it was not the kind of music they normally listen to.

People familiar with Persian Blue say the band has real star potential. Marc Friedman, a writer with the music review magazine, “The Noise,” said that Persian Blue might have success in its future.

“As big of a future as any Boston band,” Friedman said. He has gone to two-thirds of Hadjebi’s shows, even before the creation of Persian Blue. Friedman, sporting a black Persian Blue t-shirt, was one of the first people inside Bill’s Bar when it opened for the show. He mentioned that the band has undergone a few “revisions” of its members, but that the group that played at Bill’s Bar was the best yet.

The current cast includes drummer Zeke Martin, bass guitarist Rozhan Razman, keyboardist Peter Hanson, singer Nina Evans and the multi-talented Tucker Antell, who played tenor sax, soprano sax and flute during the ten-song set.

Hadjebi said he does not plan more than one show at a time, despite praises from people like Friedman that the band could do much more.

“It’s just a matter of how big [Hadjebi] wants to get,” Friedman said.
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BOSTON—The Department of Conservation and Recreation found strong opposition from a small group of environmental activists, who claimed that the DCR is using the restoration of the B.U. Bridge as a guise to intentionally destroy the last sanctuary of the Charles River white geese.

Robert LaTrémouille spearheaded that attack on the DCR at the public hearing held last night at Boston University. The meeting was meant to unveil the DCR's plans for the bridge renovation but more than two hours of the meeting was spent on the question-and-answer period. LaTrémouille was standing by the microphone with a scripted speech even before the DCR spokesman began taking questions.

“In the past five years, the DCR, through its agents, has destroyed every piece of vegetation between the BU Bridge and the BU Boathouse,” LaTrémouille said, “except for the vegetation…which this project proposes to destroy.” He claimed that the DCR’s proposed staging area, just east of the bridge, is a deliberate attempt to exterminate the white geese.

Renovation on the B.U. Bridge sidewalks has already begun, and a staging area for raw materials and equipment is located beneath the Reid Overpass, on Memorial drive. The area has been fenced off and does not interfere with the habitat of the white geese, according to a May press release by the DCR. However, a three-way fork and an intersection divide the staging area from the B.U. Bridge, making it less convenient than the area directly east of the bridge.

“If use of the staging area under Memorial drive delays the project, that is the fault of the DCR,” LaTrémouille said, adding that if the current staging area is good for the sidewalk project, it should be good for the remainder of the restoration.

Lakes and Ponds Coordinator James Straub was at the public meeting and tried to abate LaTrémouille’s concerns but received shouts of “Nonsense! Nonsense!” when he responded that the white geese would endure the DCR’s temporary encroachment.

“I have not encountered this gentleman before,” Straub said in an email, “but [I] can say that there are many people that have similar environmental concerns across the state.”

Straub said that animal inhabitants always return to the site after construction unless the DCR continuously chases them away. Constructing fences or scaring the geese away with trained dogs are the methods used “99 percent of the time,” Straub said. Currently, the DCR does not plan to permanently remove the geese.

“My goal is to try and show them that DCR wants the best for the environment and that we would not harm wildlife that is such a resource to the aesthetics of the area,” Straub said, “[but] there are times when people’s safety has to take priority over other issues.”

"I'm sure we'd all like get home to catch the end of the [Red Sox] game," said Deputy Commissioner Jack Murray after about an hour of questions. "Or at least make use of the lull in traffic."
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