CREDIT: Courtesy photo
caption: Kenneth Maclaurin stands on the West Buttress Ridge Line of Mount McKinley, July 7, 2006.






Commonwealth Avenue resident Kenneth Maclaurin went looking for adventure this summer and found more than he bargained for: a three week attempt to scale Mount McKinley, North America’s highest mountain peak.

“I’ve been looking to bag six out of seven of the world’s tallest summits,” said Maclaurin, 40, who is director of business development at computer software company iAnywhere Solutions. He climbed South America’s tallest peak, Mount Aconcagua, in 2001 and Washington State’s Mount Rainier in 2005. McKinley was to be his next great challenge.

Maclaurin is a self-proclaimed extreme sport enthusiast. His interests and adventures have included downhill skiing, parasailing, hang gliding, scuba diving, white water rafting and bridge jumping. His interest in mountain climbing, he said, may have started when his parents brought him along for a trip up New Hampshire’s Mount Washington when he was just four years old.

Only 1300 climbers are allowed by the National Park Service to ascend the mountain each year, and Maclaurin and his climbing partner Brad Estabrook of Beacon Hill received permits to climb after submitting their resumes.

The pair began their journey at the town of Talkeetna, which is located over 100 miles north of Anchorage and said to be the inspiration for the television show “Northern Exposure.” From there they hired a bush pilot to fly them to base camp at the Southeast Fork of the Kahiltna Glacier, which is at an elevation of 7200 feet.

His group landed on Mount McKinley on June 30 and began the arduous journey almost immediately. Their guide was an experienced climber about to make his thirtieth expedition up the mountain. Instructing them to leave their lanterns behind — Alaska, even at night, has sunlight on the horizon — the group walked at night across snow bridges. “This was because the bridges would melt during the day and become glacier swiss cheese,” said Maclaurin.

Braving perilous rope climbs, erratic weather changes and treacherous terrain, the group hiked five miles and ascended to 7800 feet the first day. During the next two consecutive nights, they hit the 9500 feet mark and the 11,000 feet mark. At 11,000 feet, he said, they instituted the two-carry system. This required the climbers to ascend to their next elevation, set up a base camp and bury a cache of supplies under three feet of snow. Then they would descend to their previous location and rest. The next day they would hike back to base camp. This system allowed more time for climbers to rest in higher altitudes. Supplies are buried to protect against ravens that would pick the cache apart.

At 14,000 feet the group had to institute another system for protection. Because strong winds at those elevations are known to sweep tents off the mountain, the climbers had to create snow fortresses around their tents. Finally, they arrived at high camp, only six hours from the top.

But a storm began to impede their progress. “Unfortunately, you don’t decide whether you climb McKinley,” Maclaurin said. “McKinley decides whether you climb it or not.”

The storm that blocked the path to the summit was significant, blowing 40 mile-an-hour winds and creating a complete whiteout. Maclaurin and his group were pinned down at high camp for four days before there was a break in the storm. It was at this point their guide instructed them to climb back down the mountain. An even larger storm, expected to last five days, was headed their way.

The trip down the mountain was more intense than Maclaurin had expected. In one single push, he and his group traveled back to the 11,000 feet mark. They left after one night there, just as another storm rolled in. They continued the descent in a total whiteout, each connected to each other by a rope and following their guide, who was using a GPS. The guide, at one point, fell into a crevasse, and had to claw his way out with an ice axe. They descended to 7,800 feet early the next day and soon after arrived at the original base camp.

Despite the deadly storms and dangerous crevasses, Maclaurin expects to return one day to finish what he started this summer. He has not lost the thrill of mountain climbing.

Late Wednesday afternoon Suffolk Superior Court Judge Mitchell J. Sikora, Jr. ordered the Elections Commission to re-open the ballot boxes in eight precincts within the district. “The Secretary is asking the election commission to unseal the boxes,” said Secretary of State spokesman Brian McNiff. “[Going to court] is the only route you can take at this stage to unseal the boxes.”

Write-in votes in the eight districts in question were never tallied, according to a statement from the Mayor’s office stating the “votes were inadvertently omitted.”

In the race for Senate in the Second Suffolk District write-in votes are paramount because there were no candidates on the Democratic ballot — four candidates, including incumbent Dianne Wilkerson, were running sticker or write-in campaigns.

Unofficial election results from the city put only 141 votes between Wilkerson and challenger Sonia Chang-Diaz, making the write-in votes in the remaining eight precincts critical to the outcome of the election.

Earlier on Wednesday the Chang-Diaz camp was considering asking for a re-count, but word of the oversight changed things. “First, we would like them to count all the votes for the first time,” said campaign spokesman Melissa Threadgill.

Threadgill said the Chang-Diaz campaign had been in contact with the elections department to learn “what standard was used to determine votes that were questionable,” she said. “A recount is still an option on the table,” said Threadgill. “We haven’t made a final determination.”

If Chang-Diaz calls for a recount she will need to file a petition with signatures from voters in each ward in the district. The number of signatures will be determined by the margin of victory.

Even with some votes still to be counted Threadgill said Chang-Diaz was pleased to receive “substantial support across the district” on election day. The Sun was unable to reach Wilkerson for comment.

The un-tallied votes come from Ward 4, Precinct 9; Ward 10, Precinct 9; Ward 12, Precincts 1 and 2; Ward 14, Precincts 3, 8 and 9, and Ward 19, Precinct 3.

The U.S. Court of Appeals has ruled that the MBTA may move forward with plans to make Copley station handicapped accessible, overriding neighborhood groups’ claims that construction will threaten three National Landmarks.

“This is a great victory over those who do not share in the universal desire to make public transportation accessible to people of all abilities,” said MBTA spokesperson Joe Pesaturo. “This is not the first time the court has sided with the T. Every time [the Neighborhood Association of the Back Bay] has challenged it, the T has prevailed.”

The Neighborhood Association of the Back Bay and the Boston Preservation Alliance joined forces in February 2005 to oppose the MBTA’s plans to bring Copley station into compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. They alleged in a June 2005 lawsuit that five proposed headhouses on the north and south sides of Boylston Street would endanger the Boston Public Library and Old South Church, which are among fewer than 2,500 National Landmarks designated by the Secretary of the Interior.

On the south side, in front of the library, plans call for reconstructing a 1925 wrought iron headhouse, itself a National Landmark, on the library plaza and adding an elevator headhouse next to it. On the north side, next to Old South Church, the MBTA plans to replace the existing outbound headhouse, add an elevator headhouse behind it and a headhouse over the open stair on the east side of Dartmouth Street. All headhouses would be 14-foot tall glass structures except for the original wrought iron canopy.

The Federal Transit Authority approved the plans in December, 2004, allocating $40 million to fund accessibility projects at both Copley and Arlington stations. Both projects have a combined budget of $50.5 million and will be constructed by J.F. White Contracting Co., Pesaturo said. Preliminary work on the project will begin this fall, to the disappointment of NABB and the Preservation Alliance.

“The city of Boston and the people have come out losers because this was never a choice between historic preservation and handicapped accessibility. If it could only be one, we would all say handicapped accessibility should come out on top,” said the plaintiffs’ attorneys, Larry Hardoon.

Hardoon alleged that handicapped accessibility and the preservation of landmarks at Copley were “completely compatible.” “This was a clear opportunity to accommodate both interests.”

Although NABB has been criticized for its stance, its members have emphasized that they are in full support of handicapped accessibility for Boston’s subways stations. Some have said that the MBTA should have brought its stations into ADA compliance a decade ago, when the MBTA completed a 1995 study of its key stations.

“It should have been done long ago, but not at the expense of the historical district,” said Peter Sherin, former NABB chair. “I would have hoped that both [goals] were respected. It would have taken so little to accomplish.”

Furthermore, a minority of members does not agree with the stance NABB has taken, according to former NABB president Jolinda Taylor. “NABB is a mini-democracy, and we aren’t one opinion. There are some members who don’t agree, who feel this has been postponed too long,” she said. “You don’t like to make choices between serving the handicapped and preserving aesthetics.”

Ruling in NABB and the Preservation Alliance’s June 2005 suit, the district court denied the neighborhood groups an injunction to prevent the FTA from disbursing federal funds to the MBTA, stating that the public interest would be served best by making Copley station handicapped accessible as soon as possible. NABB and the Preservation Alliance filed an appeal, which the court heard this year on July 31. Although it is not yet clear whether his clients will pursue the case through further legal channels, Hardoon said that appealing the case to the Supreme Court would enable the judicial system to “take a pro-active stance in defining regulations and alleviate ambiguity” in the preservation laws. “Unfortunately, the [U.S. Court of Appeals] didn’t rise to the challenge,” he said.

In a written decision from the U.S. Court of Appeals, the judges rejected NABB and the Preservation Alliance’s allegations that the MBTA failed to explore feasible alternatives, comply with federal historic preservation statutes or complete a public review process. “Having determined that neither the FTA and the MBTA acted unlawfully, we conclude that the district court properly denied preliminary and final injunctive relief. For the foregoing reasons, we therefore affirm the district court’s judgment,” the decision read.
As for the existence of feasible alternatives to placing the project in proximity to the library and church, the judges wrote, “we read those qualifications as directed only to engineering and cost considerations and not to concerns of historic preservation.”

The court also rejected Hardoon’s argument that the Americans with Disabilities Act includes a “threaten or destroy” provision that allows locating handicapped accessible entrances away from a main point of entry when interfacing with historic structures. Although the consultants hired by the MBTA to produce the 1995 Light Rail Accessibility Program Schematic Design Report identified two options for locating the outbound headhouse on Boylston Street’s south side, the MBTA chose the alternative Hardoon argued would “threaten or destroy” the library’s plaza.

The option the MBTA chose places the headhouse next to the general entrance but requires the removal of a portion of the library’s steps. The alternative, which NABB and the Preservation Alliance support, eliminates concerns over historic preservation by placing the headhouse in front of the library’s annex, about 150 feet away from the general entrance.

Noting that the latter option had a lesser “streetscape and urban impact but placed the entrance in a remote location from the main entry to the station,” the court sided with the MBTA and FTA. “The FTA determined that placing the handicap accessible elevator entrance 150 feet from the main entrance would create a segregated handicap entrance and violate ADA regulations. The FTA’s conclusion in this respect is not arbitrary or capricious,” the decision read. The decision noted “Congress’ concern that historically, society has tended to isolate and segregate individuals with disabilities, and, despite some improvements, such forms of discrimination against individuals with disabilities continue to be a serious and pervasive social problem.”

“Placing the headhouse150 feet away was not prudent and feasible because it would not coincide with the circulation path of the public to the maximum extent practicable, as ADA required. Alternatives for the outbound headhouse were rejected for engineering and passenger-flow reasons,” the decision concluded.

“Naturally, we’re very disappointed,” said Susan Park, president of the Preservation Alliance. “The FTA should have been a proponent for historic preservation laws. We certainly feel that these two buildings merit extreme care.”

Park said that her office has received several complaints about the MBTA’s redesign of several Boston stations, including those at Kenmore Square, Leverett Circle and South Station, charging that they are intrusive and inappropriate within the context of a historic district.

“They’re not complementary. They’re not in context. They’re overwhelming,” Park said.

Sherin agreed that the MBTA was taking a “McDonald-ized, one-size-fits-all approach” to redesigning its stations. “I am sad that the T remained inflexible and insensitive to the place where they’re doing their work,” he said.

Park said that she hopes to pursue this case in Supreme Court. “This could be the kind of case that could go further. We are confident we have a legitimate case.”

“Because the buildings are so important not just to Boston but to the nation, we’ll look at this very carefully,” said NABB chair Jacquelin Yessian.

Built in 1895, the Boston Public Library was designed by the firm McKim, Mead and White. Copley Station was constructed in front of the library in 1915 — at one time it was suggested that the entrance be located inside the library — and its wrought iron headhouse was constructed in 1925 by the firm Fox, Jenny and Gale, whose architects were alumni of McKim, Mead and White and had worked on the original library.

Meanwhile, the east façade of Old South Church, an 1875 example of High Victorian Gothic architecture, would be obstructed by the two headhouses to be built in front of it.

NABB will discuss at its board meeting next month whether to pursue its case.

“We’ll listen hard to our lawyer, we’ll listen hard to our bankbook, we’ll listen hard to our membership and we’ll listen hard to our conscience,” Taylor said.

These Back Bay residents contributed $500, the maximum allowable amount, to the gubernatorial candidates in 2006, according to reports submitted to the state’s Office of Campaign and Political Finance by September 11. Because some contributors provide their office address, rather than their home address, there may be some omissions or additions to this list.
For readers who want to learn how candidates fared financially in neighboring Beacon Hill, we’ve included that list too.

$500 Back Bay donors to Christopher Gabrieli

Anderson, Howard
Belluck, David
Belluck, Jocelyn
Breslauer, Mary
Cronin, Cheryl
Cronin, John C.
Goldfarb, Rachael
Gordon, Sandra
Hagerty, Thomas
Henderson, Laura
Humphrey, John
Kraus, Stephen
McCormick, Jeffrey
Nielsen, Barbara
Oedel, Richard
Rodgers, Charles S.
Rodgers, Fran
Rothermel, Sarah A.
Tosi, Velia N.

$500 Back Bay donors to Deval Patrick

Alaimo, Christine
Beckman, Joel
Berger, Bonnie
Bosworth, Christine
Corcoran, Carol
Corey, Anthony
Crane, Dwight
Crane, Loretto
DeVillars, John
Deng, Donald
DiFillippo, Steve
Feldman, Nancy
Forkner, Adam
Goldfarb, Rachael
John, Wendy
Kaplan, Woody
Lander, Walter
McQuillan, Elizabeth
McQuillan, John
Nelson, Donald
Oristaglio, Jeryl
Oristaglio, Stephen
Poster, Jord
Preotle, Jill
Rosenberg, David
Rosenberg, Deirdre
Rotenberg, Jonathan
Sibley, Jane
Saunders, Tedd
Smith, Joan
Smith, Sherley
Squire, Patricia
Thomas, Suma
Topol, Lillian

$500 Back Bay donors to Thomas Reilly

Berenson, Cynthia
Budd, Jacqueline
Clayman, Steven G.
Cohen, William R.
Cutler, Joel
DeMarco, Katherine
DeMarco, Michael
Desimone, Thomas
Fairmont Copley Plaza
Fey, Grace
Gaynor, Martin
Gaynor, Robin
Gifford, Jessica
Goldweitz, Mark
Gut, Gary
Hanley, Joseph
Henry, Brent
Hill, Mary Ann
Holt, Jane M.
Holt, Thomas
Hoyt, Susan S.
Kaufman, Robert M.
Lynch, John
Meade, Peter
Norberg, Deborah A.
Norberg, Joseph
Satin, Adam
Shaer, Stephen
Shields, Mary
Shields, Thomas
Simon, John
Williams, Leigh

$500 Back Bay donors to Kerry Healey

Bacon, Douglas
Barkan, Hope
Barkan, Mel
Childs, John
Cucchiaro, Anne
Cucchiaro, Stephen
Doelger, Peter
Duncan, Mariana
Duncan, Thomas
Farrell, Richard
Garfinkle, Steven
Gillcrist, Helen
Graham, Vicary
Hanna, Kevin
Hennessey, John
King, Mark
McQuillan, Elizabeth
McQuillan, John
Mugar, David
Percelay, Bruce
Rowan, Dana
Soviero, Thomas
Sutherland, Craig
Sweeney, Timothy
Woodsum, Stephen


$500 Beacon Hill donors to Christopher Gabrieli

Ann, Wallace
Arnold, Jr., David B.
Arnold, Dorothy Q.
Blasberg, Jeanne
Bok, Joan
Bordewick, Jim
Brizius, Chuck
Camargo, Ana Maria
Claro, Francis
Claro, Lee
Collier, Ann K.
Davis, Richard
Dangel, Edward Terry
Demore, Edward L.
Demore, Paula B.
Dickinson, Charles
Diggins, Deborah
Diggins, Timothy
Downey, Christopher
Hicks, Jutta
Holman, Al
Hostetter, Amos
Hostetter, Barbara
Judge, Stephen P.
Kane, Katharine
Karol, Michelle
Karol, Steven
Keane, Marilyn
Murray, Georgia
O’Connell, Robert T.
Lucchina, Leslie
MacGillivray, Thomas
Mellowes, James
Plazak, Kathy
Richmond, Alice
Rickabaugh, Mark
Rosenbloom, David
Skelton, James D.
Spooner, Susan
Stone, James M.
Taylor, Daniel
Walton, Claire
Widdoes, Bonni J.

$500 Beacon Hill/West End donors to Deval Patrick

Ackerman, James
Babbitt, Laura
Ballenger, Johnye
Bertocchi, Gail
Bertocchi, Richard
Burnes, Gordon
Burnes, Ethan
Claflin, Thomas
Elikann, Peter
Finegold, Muriel
Fletcher, Joyce
Gordon, James
Karol, Steven
Lampert, Michael
Lydon, Christopher
Mayo-Smith, Richmond
Menard, Matthew
Mencher, Judy
Meyer, William
O’Neil, Edward
Owens, Elizabeth
Owens, Margaret
Owens, Robert
Paige, Donald
Perullo, Francis
Ryeom, Sandra
Smith-Miller, Carol
Stone, Cathleen
Stone, James
Tallon, Meg

$500 Beacon Hill/West End donors to Thomas Reilly

Beal, Robert
Blasberg, Arthur
Blasberg, Mary
Brown, Barry
Coolidge, Elizabeth
Coolidge, Lawrence
Coolidge, Nancy
Crowe, Robert
Donovan, Kristin
Epstein, Robert
Gargiulo, Andrea
Gargiulo, Richard
Garofalo, Philip
Gifford, Charles K.
Gifford, Betsey
Howland, Nancy Lyle
Kane, Martin
Kane, Paul
Keating, Michael
MacDonald, Michael
Manning, John
Mannix, John
Malone, Gerard
Novak, Kenneth J.
Novak, Marianne M.
Paige, Donald G.
Pappas, Timothy
Richardson, Kathryn
Schnur, Susan
Steffy, Melissa
Stone, James
Timilty, Gregory
Timilty, Jennifer
Walsh, Denis


$500 Beacon Hill/West End donors to Kerry Healey

Aiello, Virgil
Beal, Robert
Brown, Stephanie
D’Amelio, Antonietta
D’Amelio, Joseph
Doelger, Yoon
Feeley, Kelly
Kershaw, Thomas
Morris-Hatch, Janice
Moskow, Kenneth
Moskow, Shelagh
Malt, Bradford
Prieto, Juan
Richardson, Kennedy
Sprague, Lee
Stemberg, Dola
White, Constance

The Sunday School issue

In 2006 in Boston, how does a parent address spiritual issues?

On the one hand religion has gotten a bad name and many families have cut connections with their churches. There are the Catholic priest scandals and the disconnect between Vatican hierarchy’s stance on social issues and the laity, who are mostly using birth control and happily attending gay weddings.

There is the embarrassment among Protestants about the religious hypocrisy practiced by politicians like President Bush and leaders of Protestant fundamentalist churches who decry abortion, while approving the Iraqi war’s human destruction and refusing to take care of what should be, in their minds, God’s earth.

There is the fear about extremism among people who are repelled by religious fanatics with a take-no-prisoners approach, whether they are Osama bin Laden or John Ashcroft, the former attorney general. There is the fear in general—it seems among all religions—that they must circle the wagons, protecting themselves from the savages who are coming at them. One might hope that, at the root of it all, there would be compassion for all human conditions and a respect for others’ points of view, but that hasn’t necessarily been the outcome of a religious stance.

On the other hand, most parents recognize that religions can help answer questions about the meaning of life and how those lives might be lived. They can provide a refuge from the commercial world and popular culture, with liturgies that stretch back centuries, music that can’t be found on your local radio stations, comments on contemporary life and, in Boston at least, architecture that is heavenly. They provide a place for life’s great transitions—births, a coming of age, marriages, deaths. It’s handy to have a place for these.

A religious education also provides reference points. You won’t understand jokes about fig leaves unless you know the story of the creation. You won’t understand a reference to the wisdom of Solomon unless you know who Solomon was and what he did.

At a time in which schools and workplaces are relentlessly multi-cultural, churches, mosques and temples often aren’t. They offer familiarity, with a narrower range of class and culture than most institutions provide. This, in itself, is relaxing. You’re with people of your own kind.

Perhaps that’s the rub. How does a society like ours balance a desire to preserve culture — in other words, the ability to be with one’s own kind — with a need to blend those cultures into one that shares enough values, goals and aspirations to enjoy freedom, tranquility and respect for others’ points of view? How does a religion maintain itself while accepting intermarriage and members who don’t fully subscribe to all that religion’s precepts?

You won’t find the answers to these questions here. But they need to be discussed, and children’s religious education is a place to start. Children can learn the stories and the origins of their religion’s customs and beliefs. But religious education doesn’t end there.

In America, because of the clash of cultures and religious thought, religion is a continual presence, even if one considers oneself not religious. Religious education might help a budding citizen prepare for that lifelong situation.

In this issue, we provide a guide to the opportunities for your child in this realm.

credit: Courtesy photo


Radio City Rockettes Traci Reszetylo (left) and Tina Moya (right) visited the Back Bay Fire Station at 200 Columbus Avenue, Engine 7, while they were in town last week kicking off ticket sales for The Radio City Christmas Spectacular! Presented by John Hancock, production will return to The Wang Theatre, from December 7-31, 2006.