CAPTION: A crowd of bicyclists stopped for a photograph on the Esplanade during last year’s Hub on Wheels bike ride.

CREDIT: Courtesy photo

About 3,000 bicyclists will wheel through Boston’s neighborhoods October 1 during the second annual “Hub on Wheels” citywide bike ride and festival, scheduled to kick off at 8 a.m. on City Hall Plaza.

The event, for expert and amateur cyclists as well as those choosing not to ride at all, is intended to bridge Boston’s neighborhoods, just as its sponsor, the Boston Digital Bridge Foundation, builds bridges through technology.

Participants will congregate on City Hall Plaza and then bike down Cambridge Street to a car-free Storrow Drive. Bikers, who can chose to ride 10, 20, 30 or 45 miles, will pedal through the city’s neighborhoods: the Back Bay, South End, Franklin Park, Roslindale, Dorchester, including the Emerald Necklace stretch with the Fenway Gardens, Jamaica Pond and the Arnold Arboretum.

“Riding through the city of Boston to make connections between people and neighborhoods is exhilarating,” said Back Bay resident Kenneth Kruckemeyer of Holyoke Street. “It is amazing how close we all are when the traffic and traffic lights all fall away.”

“It’s a way to show off the city and change people’s attitudes,” said Edward DeMore, chief executive officer of the Boston Digital Bridge Foundation, who has very big dreams that within five to seven years Hub on Wheels will be as big as the Boston Marathon. About 500 people cycled in the first ride, held last year.

The fee to participate in the ride is $25, and the suggested entry donation starts at $20. DeMore said all donations will go to help kids through BDBF, a non-profit corporation providing technology training and computer equipment to underserved communities.

“This is about kids and technology — it affects everyone,” he said. BDBF bolsters kids academic performances by providing new computers and training to inner-city students and their families, and offers advanced technology courses to equip Boston Public School students with skills essential for success in careers and post-secondary education. During the course of one year, DeMore said, the foundation raises between $500,000 and $1,000,000 in donations.

Those who don’t feel quite fit to ride can stay put at the “Hub on Wheels” Bike Festival on City Hall Plaza. The Paramount restaurant will be cooking breakfast throughout the morning, and there will be music, biking clinics, high wheeler competitions, end-of-season bicycle sale and swap, and kid’s activities.

More information is available on www.hubonwheels.org.

Fisher College can continue to operate a dormitory at 133 Beacon Street, the Board of Appeal voted unanimously on Tuesday.

The board originally approved the occupancy in 2003 with a three-year “sunset” proviso to assess the dorm’s impact on its neighbors. Fisher returned to the board this week for its periodic review and to request that the review period be extended to five years.

The building at 133 Beacon Street has been used by Fisher in varying capacities since the 1960s, according to Fisher’s attorney George Morancy.

Representatives from the Mayor’s Office and Councilor Michael Ross’ office spoke in support of a five-year proviso. “We like to see students in dorms whenever possible,” said Sita Smith of Councilor Ross’ office.

The Neighborhood Association of the Back Bay also supported Fisher’s request. In a letter to the board, Thomas High, chair of NABB’s Licensing & Building Use Committee, wrote: “In the past, noise and disruption from this and other dormitories created hardships for nearby residents. Fisher College has addressed these issues and we are aware of no recent complaints…. However, management and situations change, and we believe it is prudent to require another ‘sunset proviso’… so that the board can again review this use after a reasonable period of time.”

Fisher’s Beacon Street neighbors argued against the lengthened review period.

“Fisher College has made enormous progress changing the ambiance in our neighborhood,” said Sarah Smith of Beacon Street. “But there’s been slippage over the past three or four weeks.” Smith said that a three-year review would serve as a safeguard against unruly behavior.

Ellen Robbins, Beacon Street, agreed.

“I have also noticed some slippage,” she said, noting several nights of loud music emanating from double-parked cars, “ but I am for them continuing the dorm.”

Morancy said that Fisher was satisfied with the vote.

“Obviously Fisher doesn’t relish the idea of returning to the board more frequently, but it certainly understands the concerns of the neighborhood and the Mayor’s Office,” he said. “Most people think that Fisher has been doing a good job [of being a good neighbor], but you can’t fault people for being cautious.”

First Baptist Church at 110 Commonwealth Avenue\. has been asked to trim bushes on its property where homeless people have been urinating, defecating and having sex, according to District D-4 community service supervisor Sgt. Kevin Power.

Power said the police have visited the location “several times” after receiving complaints from neighbors and passersby about indecent activity in the church’s bushes. First Baptist Church has agreed to trim the bushes but had not done so as of last Tuesday, Power said.

“I’m assuming they’re going to do that,” he said.

Large foliage on public property and church grounds attracts homeless people, Power said, because it provides privacy, shelter from wind and rain and a place to store personal possessions.

“It’s a problem we deal with all the time in the Back Bay,” he said.

First Baptist Church did not return phone calls seeking comment.

The Neighborhood Association of the Back Bay installed its new officers for the coming year at its annual meeting Wednesday night. Groundwater, handicapped accessible stations at Arlington and Copley, and the Silver Line were only some of the issues NABB tackled this year, according to outgoing chairman Peter Sherin. Seen here is guest speaker Patrice Todisco, executive director of the Esplanade Association, who discussed the association’s projects, programs and goals.

Sonia Chang-Diaz for state senate

The Beacon Hill Times endorses challenger Sonia Chang-Diaz in the Democratic primary race for state senator in the Second Suffolk District. The current senator in this district is Dianne Wilkerson. On Beacon Hill this district includes the flat of the Hill and the north slope from Pinckney Street to Cambridge Street and from the river to Irving Street. The primary election will be held one week from today on Tuesday, September 19.

The reasons to endorse Chang-Diaz were clear from the start of our interview with her. She is well spoken, smart, passionate about the issues and has views that most Democrats support. Although she is young, she has lived her values, as one interviewer pointed out. She also has the right kind of experience for a new senator, from a stint as an 8th grade teacher in the public schools to a legislative aide with Cheryl Jacques, to a position with Democratic women’s fundraiser Barbara Lee. Her answers to questions led interviewers to conclude that she has a deep and nuanced understanding of the issues. She has a catchphrase—Chang for change—she cooked up to differentiate herself from the other Diaz who is running. She is an impressive young woman who has prepared herself to take this step. She deserves your vote.

We did not endorse our current Senator Dianne Wilkerson for one reason: she seems overwhelmed, a condition that cannot be good for her constituents. She said herself that it has been hard for her to manage her personal affairs and the ethics charges surrounding her since she is working on legislation, sometimes for months at a time. The interviewers noted, however, that other senators manage both political and personal lives seamlessly.
There is a lot of talk about her financial problems, troublesome campaign filings, the complaints filed against her and other possible charges. Her explanation for these problems was elliptical and unsatisfactory, but she is innocent until proven guilty in these matters.
Of more immediate concern to voters is her seeming inability to manage the fundamentals of political life. She lists many bills she has sponsored and can cite instances in which she has gone beyond the call of duty. She clearly is a champion in the struggle for social justice.

But so is her opponent Chang-Diaz. And Wilkerson always seems to be in legal or regulatory trouble in one way or another. For her constituents, it is exhausting. It is as if she harbors the fatal flaw or hubris present in a protagonist in a Greek tragedy.

But that flaw has direct consequences on her effectiveness as our senator. Although she has been running for office since 1992, she came up short with signatures last spring, so she did not get on the ballot. She has had to run a sticker campaign, which left her vulnerable to challenges from other candidates, and two of them showed up within weeks to take her on.

Maybe having to manage the stickers and her opponents’ challenges are the reasons she is almost nine months late in publishing a report concerning the fate of the Hynes Convention Center and the Boston Common Garage. (She said it is now appearing within the week.) She was the chair of the committee that considered whether the state should sell the two facilities and, if not, what the state should do about them. She ran the meetings skillfully.

But the committee’s work ended at the beginning of the year and the lack of a report has left convention center and garage officials uncertain about the future. These matters are especially important to our neighborhood since so many of us use the Boston Common Garage, and the health of our shopping district depends on its affordability for visitors and tourists.

Another challenger is Samiyah Diaz, whom interviewers declined to endorse because she is also running as a Republican. Rumor has it that a person named John Kelleher will also mount a sticker campaign, but he has taken no official step to do so and we were unable to contact him.

The practice for endorsements at The Beacon Hill Times is to enlist residents to interview the candidates and come to a consensus about whom the newspaper should endorse. In this race’s endorsement, Times readers teamed up with Back Bay Sun readers, since the Second Suffolk District encompasses both neighborhoods. Our endorsement panelists were Fritz Casselman of Beacon Street, James Holland of Commonwealth Avenue, J. Dayne Lamb of Pinckney Street, Deirdre Rosenberg of Commonwealth Avenue and Kissy Zalcman of Chestnut Street. The Beacon Hill Times thanks them for their time and effort.