Teabag Politics Comes to Allston-Brighton

The tea party movement claimed national attention last year with protests against tax policy and using their favorite prop, the teabag -- a reference to the Boston Tea Party. One candidate for Boston City Councilor-At-Large last year, Doug Bennett, even had connections to the movements, speaking to assembled crowds at two tea party events.

At first some tea partiers referred to their activities as teabagging or to themselves as teabaggers, but they have since chosen to avoid these terms due to their sexual connotations.

Now one local elected official is reviving the teabag metaphor. State Senator Steven Tolman gave Senate President Therese Murray a marble plaque engraved with the inscription (alternately attributed to either former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt or actress Mae West ):

"A woman is like a teabag. You never know how strong she is until you put her in hot water."

I'm sure Senator Tolman didn't mean to connect the senate president with the tea party movement, right?


Image from http://www.flickr.com/photos/dlytle/ / CC BY 2.0

Unsubstantiated Allegations About Unsubstantiated Allegations

Readers of this week's Allston-Brighton TAB who flip to the editorial page will find a series of endorsements for the municipal election that will be held Tuesday: incumbent Thomas Menino for mayor; incumbents John Connolly and Stephen Murphy, as well as challengers Tito Jackson and Felix G. Arroyo, for City Councilor-At-Large; and incumbent Mark Ciommo for District 9 City Councilor.

In crafting the endorsement of Ciommo's bid, however, the editorial page of the A- B TAB engaged in a bit of mudslinging -- about challenger Alex Selvig's mudslinging:

Ciommo has been on the receiving end of a campaign of mudslinging. We took seriously the accusations that were hurled in his direction by opponent Alex Selvig and some of his followers. Many of the charges have turned out to be distortions and unproven accusations. [emphasis added]

As a frequent reader of the A-B TAB, I was startled to read that the newspaper had unearthed multiple distortions and multiple unproven accusations made by Selvig, because I have not seen any such news analysis printed or online in their newspaper. Nor were any examples given in the editorial itself.

The TAB's allegations about Selvig's "distortions" and "unproven accusations" might be accurate; as far as I can tell, however, they have not substantiated any of these allegations on their pages.

The campaign between Ciommo and Selvig has been lively and, yes, there have been some cases where both candidates -- though noticably more by Selvig -- have stretched the facts a bit to make their point. But to my eye it has mostly been the typical kind of stretching that goes on in political campaigns. Selvig did go negative with a mailing earlier this month, and another one that arrived today. But once again, inspection of the TAB's stories don't substantiate how Selvig's allegations in these negative mailings are "distortions" or "unproven accusations."

A-B TAB editor Wayne Braverman did not respond to an emailed request Friday for examples of stories they have run that would detail their allegations about Selvig. The closest examples I could find, in a news story in last week's paper, look like pretty ordinary and tame campaigning -- by both Selvig, who accurately pointed out a $200 contribution to Ciommo's campaign, and by Ciommo, who incorrectly identified the source of most of Selvig's campaign funds. (The funds were loaned to his campaign by Selvig, not by Elite Rowing -- which would illegal under the state's campaign finance law.)

Until I hear something more concrete, I will chalk up as unfair the TAB's unsubstantiated allegations about Selvig making unsubstantiated allegations.


Other Endorsements in District 9 Race

For an endorsement in the District 9 race that is better reasoned, read the Boston Phoenix:

Also deserving is first-term District 9 incumbent Mark Ciommo, who has a solid understanding of issues facing Allston-Brighton — particularly campus expansion — and took on the difficult role, for a freshman councilor, of mastering the city’s complex budget. As chair of the Ways and Means Committee, he managed to hold serious, informative budget sessions in the middle of a fiscal crisis and a mayoral-election year.

The Boston Bulletin also endorsed Ciommo:

Ciommo is a quiet man in the middle of very loud neighborhood debates.

The audible angst in Allston and Brighton is seen as necessary by residents who feel that their neighborhoods are under siege by massive development projects and the impacts that come from the hundreds and hundreds of college students who are their transient neighbors...

We agree with those who think Ciommo needs to be more vocal in his stands on crucial issues. It would be nice to see him act less like a diplomat and more of a fighter on issues like police patrols, ISD enforcement, rats and improving schools. We urge him to make good on this endorsement by taking his work on the council to a higher level.

Note that the Boston Herald did not endorse in this race, and neither did the Boston Globe.


Image of Sometimes I yell at myself by spunkinator, provided through a Creative Commons license.

BRA Ought to Drop the Shovel and Stop Digging

One of the basic rules of crisis management and organizational communications is that when you find yourself deep in a hole, the first thing you do is stop digging.

The BRA slipped into that mistake on Monday.

The Boston Redevelopment Authority has been criticized during the last few days over a project manager's emails that were viewed as disparaging towards some Allston-Brighton residents. Mayoral candidate Councilor-At-Large Michael Flaherty, his unofficial running mate Councilor-At-Large Sam Yoon, District 9 City Councilor Mark Ciommo, and Ciommo's challenger Alex Selvig -- as well as Mayor Thomas Menino himself -- all expressed criticism of the BRA's emails on Monday.

The BRA was doing a reasonably good job at crisis management over the issue: the employee was disciplined in response to a Boston Globe reporter's inquiries; the employee offered an apology; criticism from Flaherty was forcefully rebutted by BRA director John Palmieri; etc. Political campaigns are fair game for this kind of back-and-forth; that's what the sport of politics is all about.

All of this followed the crisis management script until BRA spokesperson Susan Elsbree went beyond criticizing mayoral candidate Flaherty's proposals to reform the BRA to point her finger once again at a few Allston-Brighton residents:

Elsbree said [BRA project manager Jay] Rourke has already apologized for his statements and said his comments were not aimed at the Allston-Brighton community as a whole, but rather a product of frustration at “two or three individuals who are trying to stop the relocation of 700 residents” [in the Charlesview redevelopment proposal]. [emphasis added]

Oops.

Who might she be speaking about? I can think of some.

Four Allston-Brighton residents wrote to the BRA on October 13, 2009, stating that they "support a Charlesview relocation proposal incorporating the following revisions and recommendations." And those were some pretty substantial revisions they requested.

They wrote requesting the BRA and developer to: expand the area of land in the development to include the Brookline Machine building; reduce the number of rental units (those that are beyond the low-income units for the current Charlesview tenants); reduce overall the project's density; increase the number of home ownership units; reduce of the height of the eight-story Telford Street building; express a concern about a "lack of open and recreational space" in the project; increase the amount of retail space; and halt further development of Harvard property in North Allston-Brighton until "significant development of the Holton Street Corridor is realized." Pretty broad stuff which will take a while for the BRA and the project's developers to modify and accommodate.

Who are these obstructionist A-B guys who are "trying to stop the relocation of 700 residents"?

State Senator Steven Tolman, State Representative Kevin Honan, State Representative Michael Moran, and Boston District 9 City Councilor Mark Ciommo. (Cambridge State Senator Anthony Galluccio was also a co-signer of the letter to the BRA.)

That hole just got a bit deeper. I think the BRA needs to drop the shovel again and stop digging.


Image of Digging in the Dark by Wessex Archaeology provided through a Creative Commons license.

WTF: Police Cite Oak Square 7-Eleven For Not Selling Alcohol

Boston Police recently appear to have been conducting license checks on a number of Allston-Brighton businesses.

The Allston-Brighton TAB reports on one citation that, on the face of it, appears mind-numbingly backwards:

The 7-Eleven convenience store at 584 Washington St. in Brighton was found to be a holder of an active 2009 retail malt and wine license, but the premise was found to have discontinued the sale of alcohol, so it received a violation for non-use of a license.

The 7-Eleven in Oak Square just got cited for not selling booze? Come on.

If they aren't using their license, then the city should just take it back. The neighborhood obviously won't miss the loss of that one license.

Yeah, I know, it's possible that the point of the police's citation might be to create a paper trail in order to take away the license. Yeah, sure. But don't cite them in a way that encourages a 7-Eleven to sell booze. Just talk to them and get an agreement to send the license somewhere else...


Image of Beer kegs by slworking2 provided through a Creative Commons license.

A-B Violent Crimes Down 11.5% Compared to Last Year

Last Sunday morning saw a wild melee near the Kells in Allston Village that lead to two arrests, confiscation of a hidden handgun, and an injured police officer.

Despite last weekend's mayhem, the latest statistics from the Boston Police Department show that violent crimes in 2009 year-to-date are down 11.5% compared to the same period last year.

Statistics released by the BPD for the D-14 service area show that the combined number of incidents of homicide, rape, robbery, assault, burglary, larceny, and vehicle theft are down from 1,275 incidents in 2008 (January 1 - September 7) to 1,128 incidents for the same period in 2009, a decrease of 11.5%.

Only the categories of robbery and assault saw an increase in D-14 over the previous year.

Back at last weekend's the Allston Village melee, the police report describes the officer as succeeding in disarming one perp while being surrounded and attacked by the large group of thugs:

Upon arrival, police said they observed Paulo Santos, 20, of 80 Hancock St. in Dorchester, allegedly place a firearm into his pants and pull his shirt over it. The officer drew his weapon and ordered Santos to keep his hands away from his weapon.

However, at this time, the large group surrounded the officer and began punching and kicking him, but the officer was still able to retrieve the gun from Santos.

Captain Mancini, to whom do we submit a nomination for a medal?



Note: The Boston Police Department modified some of their district boundaries between 2008 to 2009 -- which can affect crime statistics for individual districts, although D-14's boundaries were unchanged.

Image of BPD cruiser by velkr0 provided through a Creative Commons license.

Boston Globe Scoops A-B TAB on Conflicts-of-Interest Story

The Boston Globe's metro section ran as its top story yesterday a report of conflicts-of-interest among two members of the Boston Redevelopment Authority's Boston College Task Force, and another potential conflict-of-interest of the Allston-Brighton District 9 City Councilor Mark Ciommo.

In these days of community newspapers, where GateHouse Media's Wicked Local websites are fighting off a new challenge from the Boston Globe's YourTown entries, you would think that the little local paper would break a story like this -- particularly where the original public statements were made at local community meetings.

But you would be wrong. The Globe scooped the Allston-Brighton TAB -- on a local story on which many details are more than a year old.

Task force member John Bruno has a son who attends BC on an Allston/Brighton Scholarship provided through the community benefits portion of an earlier Article 80 review process -- a community benefits package that the task force is revisiting as part of the approval of BC's Institutional Master Plan. Task force member Denis Minihane owns property on Washington Street which he leases to BC to house its Boston College Neighborhood Center -- a center that BC touts as part of its Article 80 community benefits (page 13-9). And Councilor Ciommo's son recently was offered admission to BC, where he will be eligible for one of the Allston/Brighton Scholarships that would be part of the continued Article 80 community benefits (page 13-2).

The Allston-Brighton TAB reported on a meeting of the BC Task force in June 2007 when task force member John Bruno stated publicly that his son was attending BC on scholarship. Yet no mention in the TAB of the scholarship.

It reported on another meeting in January 2008 meeting of the task force when Bruno also stated that there was called by an ethics investigator -- likely from the Massachusetts State Ethics Commission -- and that he would fight the investigation. Yet no mention in the TAB story of the ethics investigation.

The TAB had a reporter in the room in a January 2009 meeting of the task force when Councilor Ciommo acknowledged that his son had been admitted to BC, and that he might be eligible for the scholarship -- but that he was unaware yet as to whether or not he would receive it. Yet no mention in the story of Ciommo's statement.

Why doesn't the Allston-Brighton TAB report on controversial stories, like this one on potential conflicts-of-interest, brewing in the community they cover?

One theory is that they try to avoid personal issues like these might be, even though they are alleged conflicts-of-interest among both elected officials (Councilor Ciommo) and part-time/volunteer municipal employees (the status of task force members, who are appointed by Mayor Thomas Menino and charged with advising the BRA's Board on the BC IMP).

The issues here, however, were not whisper campaigns run by enemies trying to discredit them (though they may have started out that way). Instead, these were public statements (with the exception of Minihane) at public meetings in apparent attempts to set the record straight in public. Bruno volunteered the information on two different occasions, and Councilor Ciommo was open in responding to the issue when raised by a member of the public -- both presumably speaking publicly in a way to get their message out. Why not report what they said?

Well, in a way, they did. The TAB provided a link to the Globe story yesterday in their blog.

The editor of the Allston-Brighton TAB, Valentina Zic, responded by email stating that the paper did not brush off the conflict-of-interest issues that had been raised at the meetings of the task force:

TAB reporters have always been encouraged to cover the conflict between Boston College and neighbors opposing aspects of its expansion. The issue is a complex one, and, with limited resources, we haven't been able to cover every aspect of the conflict. But there's never been a concerted effort to suppress conflict-of-interest discussions that happen at task force meetings.

Another possibility, however, is more personal about the newspaper staff. The TAB employed just one staff reporter until last year (now they have only free-lancers). Their reporter for the first half of 2007, Karen Elowitt, was, at the time, dating the son of the chair of the BC Task Force. Yet she had five bylines in the TAB for stories about the task force, and that no mention was made about the reporter's connections in the paper. (Note that Elowitt had left the paper before those three subsequent meetings that formed the basis for today's Globe story, and hence did not report on them.)

Zic responded that Elowitt had notified the paper of her potential conflict over reporting on the task force, but that the paper decided that she would be able to report fairly on the topic.

When covering community news, it may be difficult to find reporters with no inter-connections with their subjects, but isn't that why you might hire the occasional free-lancer to step in?

The issue is serious enough that Councilor Ciommo told the Globe reporter that he had filed paperwork with Boston's City Clerk about his potential conflict-of-interest with BC over his son's admission and possible scholarship. That sounds like a tacit admission from the councilor that this is a serious issue, not one to be brushed off as desperate ploys by opponents of BC's plans to build dorms and stadiums on the former St. John's Seminary land.


My personal opinion is that the TAB pulls their punches when reporting on local stories of a personal nature. People can get very defensive about stories that might be viewed -- rightly or wrongly -- as personal attacks; all you have to do is read the comments posted to the Globe's story at their website. The problem is that they showed excessive caution when a task force member -- appointed by the mayor to a governmental advisory body whose purpose is to advise the BRA on a $1 billion development project -- admitted that he had been contacted by an ethics investigator about a possible conflict-of-interest. That was enough of a red flag that warranted a story in the TAB.


Image of sculpture "Whispers" [by Stephen Weitzman] by takomabibelot provided through a Creative Commons license.

When Will A-B Liquor Stores Get a Clue?

Last fall, the Boston Police Department's D-14 station announced to area business owners and residents that they were about to conduct a sting operation to catch liquor sales to underage purchasers.

Despite warning after warning that the sting operation was on its way, can you guess what happened? The sting operation still nailed a bunch of liquor stores -- and a couple of college students -- with underage purchase of alcohol.

The Allston-Brighton TAB reported that six Allston liquor stores in November 2008 sold alcohol to an undercover officer ("cadet") without requesting ID, and two Boston College students were issued criminal complaints for underage purchasing of alcohol on the same day as the sting operation.

Boston Police just issued a warning about a new sting operation that they will be carrying out in Allston-Brighton soon. Will local stores -- and underage college students -- heed the warning this time? Don't hold your breath.


Image of trunk full of beer by DrPantzo provided through a Creative Commons license.

A-B TAB Op-Ed: Time to Step Back and Slow Down Master Plan Review

The Allston-Brighton TAB last week published an op-ed I wrote arguing that BC and the city of Boston should slow down their master plan review process, particularly in the light of recent comments by Mayor Thomas Menino:

With the tensions having risen between BC on the one hand and the residents and mayor on the other, now would be a good time for BC to: postpone its planning process for a few extra months; go back to the drawing table to improve its plan; engage with the city and community in an iterative process to modify it; and, in the end, produce a consensus plan that accommodates the needs of everyone, not just BC.

One particular way in which the city ought to consider requiring further review is that the purchase of the apartment building at 2000 Commonwealth Avenue -- and subsequent proposal to convert to an undergraduate dormitory -- were not part of the original institutional master plan notification form of December 2007.

In reading the 409 pages of public comments I was unable to find a single case where a letter writer requested BC to purchase off-campus buildings, nor did I find a case where a letter writer used terminology such as "university-controlled housing" or "university-owned housing" when calling for BC to house all their undergraduate students (the term "on-campus" was the typical language used in the letters).

The issue of an off-campus undergraduate dormitory was not raised in the IMPNF and, as a result, the public comments did not consider that possibility.

The Boston Redevelopment Authority has therefore not issued any kind of scoping determination on BC's proposal for an undergraduate dormitory at 2000 Comm Ave. Now would be the time to do so.

Editorials on BC's Revised Housing Proposal

The Boston Globe's editorial page is pushing for Boston College to build denser housing on the Mods site as part of their revised institutional master plan -- and as a potential compromise with the neighborhood:

There should be room to resolve such issues within the 10-year construction schedule of dorms, new academic buildings, and recreation facilities — as long as BC remains flexible. One such opportunity is on the northeast section of the lower campus, where BC wants to replace 22 dreary modular housing units with a 175-student dorm and a swath of greenspace. Enlarging the dorm and moving up the schedule for its construction could postpone the need to build dorms on the contested former archdiocese site. Such compromises would also smooth the permitting process with the city.

The Boston Herald's editorial board, however, thinks BC's plan is fine just the way it is, quoting Eva Webster from the Boston Globe's news story to support their argument.

The Allston-Brighton TAB editorial sides with the Globe, arguing that BC should consider taller dorms on its main campus to minimize housing near residential areas, but is more positive about BC's purchase of 2000 Commonwealth Avenue.

Earlier: Boston Globe editorial in December 2007 that BC has not made a "convincing case" for the Brighton Dorms on the former St. John's Seminary land; adding a few stories to proposed dormitories on their main campus and "maximizing the use of land now occupied by outmoded modular housing units" were suggested.

Also: Mayor Thomas Menino told the Globe's editorial board in January that he wants to see the dorms built south of Commonwealth Avenue. (The Brighton Dorms would be north of Comm Ave.)

Gatehouse Media in Financial Trouble: Is the A-B TAB At Risk?

Earlier this year the Allston-Brighton TAB had to cut its only full-time reporter position as a result of the budget woes of GateHouse Media, the parent company of the TAB and the owner of more than 100 newspapers (mostly community weeklies).

Now Dan Kennedy reports on the Media Nation blog that Gatehouse Media is descending rapidly into financial turmoil:

GateHouse Media may be in deep trouble. According to the blog 247WallSt.com, the chain — based in suburban Rochester, N.Y. — is doing so badly that you might be able to get some furniture and computers cheap in a few months. After turning itself into a publicly traded company several years ago, the stock price has tanked, falling 80 percent over the past year.

247's Douglas McIntyre writes: "Watch for GHS to be broken up before the end of the year or to enter Chapter 11." (GHS is GateHouse's symbol on the New York Stock Exchange.) Wow.

What's more, the Motley Fool recently listed GateHouse as one of "5 Deathbed Stocks." [some hyperlinks added]

Before you decide not to renew your subscription to the TAB lest the money be lost in a Chapter 11 bankruptcy, Kennedy thinks the community papers won't die even if the parent company goes belly-up:

GateHouse may or may not survive, but its papers should probably be all right in the long run. Community newspapers are in a better market position than major metros these days. Providers of quality local news don't face a lot of competition either from other papers or, with a few exceptions, from the Internet.

While some in the neighborhood periodically complain about poor reporting here or there in the paper, the A-B TAB fulfills a valuable role in the community by keeping the neighborhood informed of news, activities, and interesting people among us. So send in those renewal checks to try to keep the paper afloat.

TAB Scoops Heights On Undergraduate Student's Lawsuit

An editor at the Northeastern News, the student newspaper of Northeastern University, wrote in The Salt Mine that The Heights, the Boston College student newspaper, got scooped on a story that should've been a slam dunk for The Heights to cover.

Who scooped them? The Allston-Brighton TAB, a community newspaper.

At issue? The undergraduate who is part of the lawsuit against the city over the new zoning amendment that limits off-campus undergraduate student apartments to four students or fewer. Her name is Jessica Luccio, and she is a sophomore at BC. It only made sense for a newspaper to run an interview with her to find out why she joined the lawsuit. As of today, a search at the website of The Heights still produces no hit for the name "Luccio".

The NU News editor argued that there were two days for The Heights to file their story after the Boston Herald first named Luccio as part of the lawsuit -- albeit without identifying the university in which she is enrolled. (UniversalHub and Brighton Centered both noted soon after the Herald article that Luccio is an undergraduate at BC, I might add.)

Most of the main-stream media -- and non-MSM bloggers -- don't cover on-campus issues because that is the beat that ought to be covered best by student newspapers. I think there will be some red faces over in Chestnut Hill this week.

What were the stories that The Heights considered more important to run in their April 17th issue? One story was the debut of two flat-screen TVs in the dining hall. Apparently, students voted in February 2007 that these flat-screen TVs were more important than "a push for united social change, reshuffling the [Undergraduate Government at Boston College's] structure to improve efficiency, extending the UGBC's role beyond programming to improve student life, and [having the UGBC serve] as a more representative liaison between the students and the administration."


Image from Mike Wade through Creative Commons license.

Legal Objections to the Four Student Apartment Zoning Ordinance: "Is That All You've Got?"

Opponents of the recently enacted zoning amendment limiting off-campus undergraduate students to four or fewer per apartment appear to be preparing a legal challenge, according to the TAB newspapers.

What might be the legal arguments at the basis of their challenge?

An online op-ed by Dr. Richard Cravatts, advertising and publications manager at law firm Nixon Peabody LLP, at the American Thinker website presents a series of potential arguments against the zoning amendment. I suspect that the arguments he makes will be similar to many arguments that will appear in a lawsuit seeking to overturn the zoning amendment. He works for a law firm, while I'm not a lawyer at all, so it makes perfect sense for me to be presumptuous by analyzing his legal arguments. I am admittedly surprised by how poor those legal arguments against the zoning amendment appear to be.

1. A zoning ordinance that has as one of it objectives to limit the amount of rent an owner could potentially realize in an unregulated market, thus reducing his profits and the value of his property, has been seen by some courts, as it has with rent control, as a "taking" of private property by the government for "public use, without just compensation," a violation of the Fifth Amendment.

At no time have I heard the proponents state that the zoning amendment has anything to do with rent control; instead, it is the opponents who claim that the amendment amounts to a backdoor version of rent control. Councilor Michael Ross and other supporters justified the amendment on the basis of over-crowding and quality-of-life issues. While some have claimed that the outcome of the zoning amendment could be to make such units more affordable to families, a plausible argument could even be made that the zoning amendment will actually drive up rental prices, because it will increase the demand, as measured in number of units, while not increasing the supply of units.

Opponents of the zoning amendment also frequently argue that it will increase the price per person for student rentals -- landlords continue to charge the same amount per unit, in order to pay off their costs, thereby charging more per occupant when there are fewer occupants -- which is contrary to the position that landlords will now be earning less per unit. Many students remark that they pay more for on-campus housing, yet still prefer to live on-campus, indicating that there is more money available to many students per person to pay for off-campus housing than they currently pay.

If the lawsuit simultaneously argues both that the zoning amendment amounts to rent control and that students will have to pay more for apartments as a result of it, then expect any decent defense lawyer to tear apart the argument by showing the inherent contradiction.

If the TAB article is correct, then a form of this argument (#1) will be the primary basis for the lawsuit. Skip Schlomming of the Small Property Owners Association told the TAB, "They want to use a landlord on the verge of retiring so if he gets targeted, that’s just his retirement." Such a landlord's legal standing would be his financial harm due to the decreased occupancy.

2. Landlords legally cannot proscribe or police the private behavior of tenants -- nor should they have to -- even if it was permitted by housing law.

The zoning amendment as I understand it does not include any provision for policing the private behavior of tenants; its enforcement plan doesn't yet exist, but will presumably be written by the city's Inspectional Services Division. Indications are that enforcement action would be initiated by a complaint, and that the enforcement would target the landlord, not the tenant.

Standard leases state the names of all people allowed to occupy the unit; if other people not listed on the lease occupy the unit, then the tenant is in violation of the contract, and the landlord can just throw them out. If the landlord, however, signs one or more leases for a unit that include, in writing, more than four undergraduate student occupants, then the landlord is violating the new zoning amendment. In neither case is the landlord "[policing] the private behavior of tenants" -- he is only required not to sign leases to more than four students.

Something I expect to occur is that some students may now sign leases that do not list all the occupants. If they do so, they may become liable for paying the fines and also subject to eviction. It's one thing to like to watch Jeopardy, but quite another to be living in a state of continual jeopardy that could suddenly throw you out onto the street in the middle of the winter. Since ISD enforcement is likely to be triggered by complaints, students engaged in such illegal living arrangements would definitely not want to be throwing noisy parties with underage drinking.

3. The courts have also repeatedly asserted that tenants, when they live in units that conform to zoning regulations, are entitled to an expectation of privacy from government intrusion, something they seemingly would be denied if Boston officials can prevent them from living together merely because they happen to be college students.

Cravatts' sole legal argument here invokes the dissent in the U. S. Supreme Court's 1974 Belle Terre v. Boraas case; a lower court hearing a lawsuit against the zoning amendment would be unlikely to reject the majority decision in favor of the dissent, since this would likely not survive an appeal.

4. While the Boston ordinance specifically prevents more than four college students, and only students from living together in a unit, it will allow families, even extended families, to occupy the same units that will now be unavailable to students.

On a factual basis, the defense would cede this point. The reason is that students are not legally a protected housing class, regardless of whether or not some people consider this unfair. Cravatts' once again uses only the Belle Terre dissent as a legal argument that would be unlikely to carry the day.

5. There are other measures to address the social problem of rowdy student behavior which are more practical to implement and less intrusive than regulations which have tended to harm, rather than ameliorate, housing markets.

Whether or not this is true it does not invalidate the zoning amendment. Cravatts is making a political argument rather than a legal one. Government has every right to choose among competing options to address a problem, as long as they are all legal.


One more argument was made by attorney Stephen Greenbaum in the TAB article:

6. “The city would have to ascertain students’ personal academic status in order to determine the legality of their living arrangements,” said Greenbaum. “Students are under no obligation to disclose that information.”

Greenbaum's argument is that the law is not enforceable on a practical level, because students living off-campus will simply refuse to say whether or not they are students. Yes, that may very well happen, and the apartment would not get cited. But if the students deliberately lied to an ISD officer that might open up more legal jeopardy if ISD could determine their enrollment status through independent means.

Boston College Police, for example, jointly patrol off-campus with Boston Police Department details, and regularly are supported in their work by BC employees who identify whether or not a given apartment is occupied by BC students. BC students having a noisy party may prefer to be identified as being students to go through the student disciplinary system rather than initiating a criminal record.


I must say that I am quite unimpressed with these legal arguments against the zoning amendment. I honestly thought that there would be stronger legal arguments than these -- they amount to a Hail Mary pass, not a slam dunk. As The Decider asked Brother George, "Is that all you've got?"

More discussion on this topic is at the AllstonBrighton2006 google group.

The McDonald's of Burritos -- Or the Anti-McDonald's?

The cheap eats restaurant review by Sheryl Julian in this week's Boston Globe samples three different Chipotle's burrito restaurants in the Boston area, including the newest one at Cleveland Circle. Amazing how the review was timed to coincide with the exact day for a new Chipotle's to open in Harvard Square.

Julian likes the burritos: "This food is indeed fresh, it's made quickly, it mostly tastes very good, and the quality is evident."

The Cleveland Circle restaurant opened near to another burrito joint, Boloco at 1940 Beacon Street, leading the Allston-Brighton TAB to declare the instigation of "Burrito Wars." The opening salvo was a day of free burritos at the Chipotle's.

Yelp.com already has eight reviews up on the new restaurant. One excerpt: "Good burritos. A bit pricey though. Guacamole on our burrito is $1.75. Not a great value. Easy to spend $10 here for one person." Boloco has eleven reviews.

Chipotle's has become a big chain with 700 restaurants across the country, but McDonald's, their seven-year investor, divested in 2006. Julian now thinks of Chipotle's as the anti-McDonald's, because of Chipotle's emphasis on "organic, natural, unprocessed, family-farmed, and sustainable ingredients."

If you want a reason to avoid eating at Chipotle's, just check out the Chipotle Nutritional Calculator. If you get the extra cheese, sour cream, and guacamole you can easily get that burrito to come in at over 1200 kilo-calories -- including virtually all of your daily allowance for total fat and saturated fat (for a 2000 kilo-calorie per day diet). That sounds more like McDonald's than an anti-McDonald's.

Chipotle's Restaurant, 1924 Beacon St. (Cleveland Circle), Brighton, 617-232-0788. Image from Meemo's Kitchen, who has recipes to reproduce Chipotle's products at home.

BRA Board Votes to Limit Apartments to Four or Fewer Students

In an unannounced appearance at the conclusion of the Allston Brighton Green Gathering, Councilor Michael Ross of Mission Hill delivered the news that the BRA Board voted earlier in the day in favor of limiting apartment occupancy in Boston to four or fewer students.

Councilor Ross submitted the petition to change the definition of a "family" under the city's Zoning Code that would exclude groups of "five or more students enrolled at or attending a post-secondary educational institution" from being able to live together in a single housing unit. The city's previous definition of "family" was overruled by a 2003 court decision and subsequent consent decree, which meant that landlords could rent to larger groups of students during the past five years than previously allowed.

The Boston City Council has already unanimously approved Councilor Ross's petition. The next and final step for approval will be an appearance before the city's Zoning Board on March 12th. Councilor Ross said that opponents to his proposal -- I'm guessing that these include the Small Property Owners of America -- have put out the call to appear in large numbers at the upcoming Zoning Board meeting.

The most surprising detail was that many of the city's institutions of higher education have come out in favor of his proposal. After the event, Councilor Ross stated Northeastern University, Wentworth Institute of Technology, Massachusetts College of Art, Massachusetts College of Pharmacy, the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, and Suffolk University were all backing his proposal. He also noted that several other prominent institutions were considering supporting the proposal, including Simmons College, Boston University, and Boston College.

Councilor Ross also noted that the Greater Boston Legal Services, who had brought the court challenge to the previous definition of a "family" under the Zoning Code, were now supporting Ross's petition.

The Allston-Brighton TAB already filed their story about how the BRA Board is soon to vote on the issue. I think they've got a day or two to add to their story before deadline... Their story provides interesting background from last week's meeting of the Allston Civic Association (ACA):

Many other cities and towns regulate the number of occupants a housing unit may have.

At the Green Gathering, Councilor Ross noted that Newton had similar problems with over-crowded, off-campus student housing and pass an ordinance much like Ross's proposal. The Newton ordinance, he said, was successfully defended in court.

The TAB article continued:

Ross said some neighborhoods, including Brighton, have an overabundance of students. Students will move to areas with more space for them as a result of the proposal.

Enforcement of the law would be complaint-driven; for example, if a neighbor reports a lot of occupants in a house with nightly parties to the Inspectional Services Department.

Ross said 99 percent of the people who support the proposal are from the community, whereas 99 percent of those who oppose it work in real estate. The ACA supports it.

A-B City Councilor Mark Ciommo said, “A-B is unique because we have so many students living off-campus, and I believe this amendment would help reduce problems with overcrowding and quality of life in these neighborhoods.” He also said it would alleviate problems associated with absentee landlords.

The meeting of the Zoning Board will be on March 12, 2008, at 9:00 am, in Room 900 on the 9th Floor of Boston's City Hall.

Other Coverage of BC Task Force Letter to BRA

In a previous post, I summarized key points raised in the letter written by members of the BC Task Force to the Boston Redevelopment Authority as part of the public comment period following Boston College's filing of their Institutional Master Plan Notification Form on December 5, 2007.

The Boston Globe's City Weekly ran an article on the letter in today's edition ("Task Force Seeking Limits on BC Project") and the Allston-Brighton TAB also ran a news story about it in Friday's edition ("Community Task Force Urges Significant Changes to BC Plans").

More significantly, the Allston-Brighton TAB's editorial page generally supported the changes suggested by the task force:

While some of the changes the community urges are dramatic, we urge both the BRA and BC to seriously consider them. As the task force letter notes, the college’s master plan is unprecedented because “it dramatically and eternally impacts and area of land, the former seminary grounds, that has long been an oasis in our community.” We agree with the task force that, because of this, the BRA needs to hold the college [to] “an unprecedented level of scrutiny.”

GateHouse Media Staff Cuts to Impact Allston-Brighton TAB

The Boston Globe reported in Thursday's edition that GateHouse Media, the owner of more than 100 daily and weekly newspapers in the greater Boston area, will be cutting around 60 staff positions. Thirty-five of the positions are anticipated to be layoffs, while another 25 will consist of currently-vacant positions that will not be re-filled. The cuts correspond to nearly 5% of the entire staffing of GateHouse New England's papers.

GateHouse Media is the owner of the Allston-Brighton TAB, a weekly community newspaper, which will be impacted by the staff reductions. The larger newspapers owned by GateHouse Media in the Boston area are the Patriot Ledger and The Enterprise of Brockton.

The A-B TAB's position of staff reporter is currently vacant after the departure of Rich Cherecwich last month to California. His duties are currently taken up by a number of free-lance reporters.

A source at GateHouse Media confirms that the reporter position at the A-B TAB is one of the 25 vacant positions that will not be filled as part of the staffing cuts. The A-B TAB has typically had 1.5 FTEs on its staff -- one full-time reporter plus an editor, Valentina Zic, who is in charge of two newspapers -- which will be reduced by two-thirds. Free-lance reporters will be replacing the full-time staff reporter position.

The staff reduction at the A-B TAB comes at a critical time for the community because of the challenge in covering the massive institutional expansion proposals of Harvard University in North Allston and Boston College in Brighton. Free-lance reporters will have a steep learning curve in getting "up-to-speed" with the complicated projects proposed by the institutions, and the year(s)-long process of regulatory approval an discussion between the community and the institution.

One way the A-B TAB appears to be dealing with this challenge is to have the same free-lancer cover a given issue regularly. In the last month, Susan Haverson, for example, has had several bylines covering the BC expansion issue. The Boston Globe has also been using the same approach in its City Weekly coverage, where free-lancer Andreae Downs is covering the Harvard and BC beats in A-B for the Sunday section.

GateHouse Media will also be laying off their only staff reporter covering the Massachusetts State House -- reporter Tom Benner of the Patriot Ledger -- as part of the staff reduction, according to Adam Reilly of the Boston Phoenix on his Don't Quote Me blog. Dan Kennedy writes in the Media Nation blog that this one particular position will be sorely missed:

This is a tough cut indeed — one of the benefits of a local paper's having a Statehouse reporter is that he or she can cover hometown legislators, assess the local impact of various initiatives and the like.

The A-B TAB regularly includes "roll call" summaries of how local elected officials voted on various bills in front of the State Legislature. Such coverage will be more difficult -- possibly even stop altogether -- without a State House Bureau staffer in the GateHouse Media consortium.


EDIT (2/17/08): Dan Kennedy reports at Media Nation that, while State House Bureau reporter Tom Benner is being laid off, he will be replaced. The Patriot Ledger of Quincy is therefore not closing their State House Bureau, after all. Adam Reilly recounts how he tried to fact-check his original report, which now appears to have been wrong.

Vote for the Best of Brighton (and Allston)

The TAB newspapers (or is it GateHouse Media?) is running their annual "Best Of" survey for neighborhoods and towns in the Boston area.

This is an opportunity to vote for your favorite florist, frame store, day spa (or massage), retirement living residence, insurance agency -- as well as Indian restaurant, takeout restaurant, and coffee shop.

Voting is by neighborhood, so Brighton is separate from Allston. If you wish to vote at all, you must vote for a minimum of ten categories for your votes to count.

Extra prizes for those who vote for best beach or golf course in Brighton.

Best Wishes for Departing A-B TAB Reporter Rich Cherecwich

The reporter for the Allston-Brighton TAB, Rich Cherecwich, had his last day of work today for the newspaper.  He's off to Los Angeles -- driving the whole way, so hopefully he'll live some Route 66 stories himself.

He has been a rock solid reporter for the paper, consistently writing accurate and balanced stories covering all aspects of life in A-B.

Reporting for the A-B TAB is no easy job, since he has to write lots of stories every week.  I counted eight bylines in last week's newspaper, five in today's paper, and another one online today.  Maybe I missed something else?

I would like to express my best wishes to him on all of his future endeavors.

Stop by Rich's blog posting over at the A-B TAB to leave a comment!

Op-Ed in A-B TAB: House Undergraduates On-Campus Rather Than Banning Them From Living in 1- and 2-Family Houses

This week's edition of the Allston-Brighton TAB includes an op-ed piece written by me regarding Boston College's proposed institutional master plan.

In particular, I address BC's proposal to ban off-campus undergraduate students from living in 1- and 2-family houses in Allston-Brighton and part of Newton.

I argue that BC's proposed ban amounts to a Trojan Horse gift.  Accepting the present would bring with it the simulutaneous acceptance of the proposition that BC does not need to house all their undergraduates on-campus.  That would leave something like 600 undergraduate students living off-campus through the year 2018:

A far better idea, however, would be for BC to do the obvious: move all their undergraduates into on-campus dormitory housing. In this scenario, it would be unnecessary for BC to ban its undergraduates from living in one- and two-family houses, because they would already have moved out of those houses and into new dorms. As an added benefit, the students will be far more comfortable in on-campus dormitories than in an off-campus wooden horse.

Cassandra warned against accepting the Greek gift, but Apollo’s curse prevented the Trojans from believing her. “All heard, and none believed the prophecy,” wrote Virgil. We would do well to learn from Troy’s mistake by heeding Cassandra’s warning this time around — and pushing that horse back south of Commonwealth Avenue where it belongs.

Note that BC's proposed off-campus housing ban is not contained within the Institutional Master Plan Notification Form filed with the Boston Redevelopment Authority on December 5, 2007.  Instead, the proposed ban is something that BC officials have announced verbally at community meetings, and have pitched in meetings with editors and reporters at various media outlets, such as the Boston Globe and the Boston Herald.  (The ban would presumably be accomplished through a written agreement between BC and the BRA, as opposed to being part of the IMP itself.)

As a result of BC's pitch, the topic received a substantial amount of press in late December:  the Boston Herald reported the story (albeit without seeking contrary comment) and their editorial board endorsed the idea; the Boston Globe editorial board stated that the idea seemed a good one; and WBZ chimed in with a brief story.


Thanks to the editors of the TAB for publishing this piece.

Did Anybody Else Get Coal in Their Stocking?

Just before Christmas, the Allston-Brighton TAB published an op-ed piece by me about Boston College's history since 1993 of regulatory filings with the Boston Redevelopment Authority right before the holiday season ("BC delivers lump of coal to Brighton’s Christmas stocking").

The result of such inopportune timing? The already short public comment periods are effectively shortened by everyone's distraction over seemingly less unimportant things -- like lighting candles on Hannukah, shopping for Christmas presents, attending Christmas holiday parties, celebrating Kwanzaa, singing Auld Lang Syne on New Year's Eve, worshipping at the college football bowl game altar with an almond-covered cheese ball, etc.

This holiday season has continued the trend: Boston College filed its institutional master plan with the BRA on December 5, 2007, followed up by an advertisement apparently in the Boston Herald on December 10. The 30-day public comment period following that was voluntarily extended 15 days by BC (quite likely as a result of a request by the city); it was extended another 12 days as a result of a request made by the BC Task Force at their December 18 meeting.

It's quite obvious to many people -- from the neighbors to many City Councilors and even at least one city employee -- that there are parts of Article 80 in the city's zoning code that need serious overhaul.

One short-coming of Article 80 is how ineffectively the statute can respond to large-scale institutional expansion projects (such as Boston College's or, especially, Harvard University's in Allston). Thirty-day public comment periods, which cannot be extended by the city without voluntary action by the institution, are demonstrably inadequate when dealing with these large and complicated master plans. Article 80 is being stretched to its breaking point because it wasn't designed with such massive projects in mind.