David LeRoi, who set up his tent on the Esplanade last spring and was eventually moved off the state parkland, was back in residence on Wednesday near Charlesgate along Storrow Drive. His well-equipped campsite, which includes a bicycle and a mirror, is visible from Storrow Drive inbound and Back Street at Hereford. The state’s Executive Office of Environmental Affairs and the Department of Conservation and Recreation, which oversees the Esplanade, is working with the state police to find other housing for LeRoi, said Joe Ferson, a spokesman for EOEA.

CAPTION: Madeline Cohen is all smiles as she pulls the bell to signal a stop during the first ride of the Holly Trolley, Back Bay’s free weekend shopping shuttle. Cohen is the five-year-old daughter of Meg Mainzer-Cohen of the Back Bay Association and a student at the Advent School.
CREDIT: Courtesy photo



Meg Mainzer-Cohen, president of the Back Bay Association, and Amy Daniels, marketing director for the Shops at Prudential Center, were among the first to jump aboard the Holly Trolley last Saturday. Throughout the weekend, more than 250 other shoppers also took advantage of the service, and the pair hopes even more will enjoy the festively-decorated trolley that will run every Saturday and Sunday in December.

Operated by Old Town Trolley Tours, the Holly Trolley will shuttle shoppers through the Back Bay from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. It will stop every 20 minutes at The Boston Common Garage on Charles Street South, Newbury Street at Berkley, Newbury Street at Dartmouth, Boylston Street at Prudential Center, Huntington Avenue at Copley Place Marriott, Boylston Street at Clarendon and Boylston Street at Berkley.

Shoppers can park, board the trolley, dine, shop, bring the packages to their cars and return for more. They will not be charged for the ride and can get on and off as many times as they would like.

“The Holly Trolley is a great way to get around the Back Bay,” said Back Bay Association Chairman Bryan Koop, senior vice president and regional manager of Boston Properties, at a recent association meeting. “It also shows how unique and friendly this place is.”

The Trolley is being sponsored by the Back Bay Association, The Shops at Prudential Center, the Massachusetts Convention Center Authority, Copley Place, the city of Boston, Oldies 103 FM, the Greater Boston Convention & Visitors Bureau and the Old Town Trolley.

A frustrated group of Back Bay residents early this week listened to a Taj hotel official tell them he could do nothing — yet — about the problems in Public Alley 437 between Arlington and Berkeley streets.

“I have no authority to make a commitment,” said Taj Hotel Group’s newly-named General Manager David Gibbons at the December meeting of the licensing and building use committee of the Neighborhood Association of the Back Bay. Taj Hotel Group is slated to buy the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in January, and wants his liquor transferred by then.

“I don’t have access to the property,” Gibbons explained. “On January 11, I’ll be in charge.”

Gibbons assured the group that he wanted to solve the problem and would return with his attorney, Dennis Quilty, in February to make further progress on the matter.

The problems include Ritz’s delivery and laundry pick-up trucks blocking traffic in the alley, messes caused by the quantity of trash put out for disposal, and traffic tie-ups on nearby streets due to Ritz delivery trucks parked along Arlington Street.

The committee ultimately believed Gibbons’s good intentions and voted not to oppose Taj’s all-alcohol license transfer application at a hearing scheduled for December 20.

However, they imposed two conditions on their non-opposition to the transfer: They want deliveries to “comply with the conditions set forth in the agreement between the Ritz (and its successor) and the city.” Furthermore, they want Gibbons to agree that the licensing board can review Taj’s compliance in three months’ time.

The agreement, which was recorded in 1996, sets 22 conditions for the Ritz’s use of the alley. They include such restrictions as allowing only one delivery vehicle in the alley at any one time and making sure a hotel employee is present during all deliveries. Neighbors say, however, that the hotel does not sufficiently monitor the alley’s activities and that problems continue. “If they have made improvements, it’s difficult to tell,” said Tim Mitchell, whose building, Carlton House, is across the alley from the Ritz. Mitchell presented photos illustrating the problems.

The future isn’t all rosy. The Ritz’s chief engineer, Maureen Albright, whose duties have included managing this problem and who has accepted an offer for the same job with Taj, was pessimistic about the steps she can take to make things better. “I’m not so sure of what we can do to effect change,” she said.

Nevertheless, Back Bay advocates were hopeful that with a new owner the matter can be resolved.

“This is a pivotal time for you and us,” committee Chair Tom High told Gibbons. “Everyone now has an opportunity to deal with the problem.”

SIDEBAR

Committee agrees not to oppose three additional applications

NABB’s licensing and building use committee agreed not to oppose Excelsior’s request for a “disk jockey” to select recorded music to play at his bar. The committee’s only condition was that restaurant manager Paul Dias obtain a letter from the Heritage on the Green condominium owners’ association, who share the building with the restaurant, stating that they are not opposed. This matter will come before the city’s licensing board on December 20.

At the same hearing, Borders will ask for permission to operate a café on its second floor and also to obtain an entertainment license so that small ensembles of musicians can play and authors can read their books to an audience. The committee was enthusiastic about a café, saying that there weren’t enough casual places for neighbors to gather along the Back Bay’s commercial streets. They won’t oppose this either.

Finally, the committee voted not to oppose a wine and beer license application for 257-261 Newbury Street. Owner Josephine Oliviero said she would probably agree to a set of conditions about trash, signs and serving drinks only with food. Committee chair Tom High said that the owner’s good management at Piattini at 226 Newbury was a factor in not opposing another wine and beer license.

Officials are hesitant to support a City Council measure that would make training and background checks mandatory for security personnel in Boston’s bars.

“We really try to stay away from micromanaging bars. It becomes very problematic,” said Daniel Pokaski, chair of the city’s Licensing Board. “We’re very careful about that.”

The legislation, which was introduced by Council President Michael Flaherty, would be named “Imette’s Law,” after Imette St. Guillen, the 24-year-old Boston woman who was raped and murdered in New York City earlier this year. Daryl Littlejohn, a bar bouncer with a criminal record, has been indicted.

In Boston, there were 37 reported cases of bouncer-on-patron violence in 2004, 32 in 2005, and dozens more since Jan. 1 of this year, according to figures from Flaherty’s office. These incidents “escalate or spiral out of control” and result in serious injuries by punching, kicking, or stomping, Flaherty said in June when he proposed the idea.

The legislation does not prohibit the hiring of security personnel with criminal backgrounds but would promote employers’ awareness, according to Flaherty’s office. The proposal’s training component requires that an independent, third-party organization teach bar employees how to spot problem behavior, how to prevent drunk patrons from gaining access to the bar, and how to remove patrons creating a disturbance.

At a public hearing Monday, Flaherty stressed that the legislation is not intended to overburden establishments but to make patrons feel safe, thereby bolstering business. However, critics noted added weight on small establishments and bars that run training programs in-house.

Peter Christie, president and CEO of the Massachusetts Restaurant Association, and Michael Kelleher, general manager of the Faneuil Hall Marketplace, said they supported training but questioned the merits for a mandatory program.

“There are a lot of people who are doing things right,” Christie said.

Patricia Malone, director of the Mayor’s Office of Consumer Affairs and Licensing, said that there is a fine line between promoting public safety and impeding an establishment’s operations. She said that her office has “come down hard” on reported offenses, suspending liquor licenses after 22 of the 26 assaults reported in 2005. Her office has received about 20 reports this year and has taken action on most of them, she said.

Malone said that bars could prevent bouncer-on-patron violence if they hired bouncers at least five to 10 years older than the clientele.

The Licensing Board has no regulations governing security personnel, though “no one has a right to lay a hand on any patron unless they’re defending themselves or other patrons,” Pokaski said. “They’re always told to call the police.” He said that reported offenses have decreased over the last five years, a fact he attributes to the board’s strict policy on suspending licenses.

The several independent contractors who attended the hearing spoke favorably of their respective programs.

James Stapler of Guest Intervention Strategies, a four-month-old, Boston-based company, offers a single five-hour program that covers legal issues from how to spot phony identification to the definitions of assault and battery. The course also teaches techniques on preventing assault, handling verbal de-escalation, and self-defense. Students must score 80 percent on a written test to pass the program.

“The basic thing for us is don’t become part of the problem. Settle what’s going on around you,” Staples said.

His firm has taken a half-dozen clients since opening, including bars in the Theater District and Faneuil Hall, but none from the Back Bay. He said he could not identify which bars have contracted his company. The course costs $225 per person.

Brian Jacobs of Security Liability Reduction Association, a private training firm, said that problems arise when a bar’s security staff is “uninformed or unsure of what to do.” “They’re usually physical people in general,” he said. “It’s one of the more dangerous professions out there. You deal with physical altercation on a nightly basis.”

Glynn Hospitality Group representative Phil Sweeney said that Glynn, which owns eight Boston establishments, including the Purple Shamrock and Clerys, already provides in-house training for bar personnel.

“We don’t feel the need for [mandatory third-party training]. We think we do a very good job of it,” he said. “We see a lot of things. Most of the time we deal with them successfully.” He said that, of the 2.5 million patrons who have frequented Glynn’s eight restaurants over the past five years, the incidents have been infinitesimal.

The legislation follows a June 15, 2002, incident at The Purple Shamrock where bouncer Scott Weich allegedly fractured bar patron and Dorchester resident Adrian O’Connor’s cheek and eye socket. O’Connor suffered 17 fractures to his face and has undergone almost 10 hours of reconstructive surgery.

The bar’s license was suspended for two days following the incident.

Flaherty plans to host a working group to write amendments to the legislation and present it to the council on December 20, the body’s final session of the year.

Make recycling work

It is refreshing to see Boston officials looking to other cities for solutions to problems. The city that everyone seems to be shuttling to and fro for answers is Denver, the former home of the new transportation and public works czar, Dennis Royer.

The recycling experts in the city — Jim Hunt and Susan Casino, from the city’s Office of Energy and the Environment and from the recycling division of the Public Works Department respectively — have been looking to Denver as they consider how to make Boston’s recycling more effective. They have brought back a few ideas, and they are encouraging residents to improve their recycling habits. Back Bay residents have a long way to go before we are doing our part in contributing to this effort.

This is a good effort at this time because Bostonians who regularly recycle have become frustrated with the situation we now have.

The blue bins are too small. Large roll-out bins employed by some larger apartments solve the capacity problem, but sometimes don’t work because along some streets they must be tugged between cars before they can be hoisted and emptied by the trucks’ fork lifts.

One interim solution is for residents to get two blue bins from the city. That’s okay if you’ve got the room to store them.

Hunt and Casino have plans for test runs of new bins in both high-performing neighborhoods and low-performing neighborhoods. The Back Bay, they say, is low-performing compared to West Roxbury or Roslindale. They speculate that the Back Bay, like other downtown neighborhoods, has a higher number of short-term residents who aren’t as interested as the more settled folks in West Roxbury or Roslindale in neighborhood and civic activities, including recycling.

Perhaps. In any case, recycling is of great benefit to the city. It saves the city $3 million annually in diverting waste from landfills, said Hunt. The city also makes some money, especially on white paper, and it has instituted a recycling program in the public schools that contributes to the bottom line.

The city has taken several other small steps to improve recycling. It has increased the number of days residents can get rid of hazardous waste and yard leavings. Right now residents have to separate paper from other recyclables, but Hunt and Casino intend eventually to institute a “single stream” program where all recycled materials can be mixed. The city has composting bins available, but those might not mean much to this neighborhood’s residents, most of whom don’t have outdoor space.

The city can’t change the recycling program to make it much easier for people until 2009, when a new contract will be signed for trash pickup.

Meanwhile, even a small increase in recycling from Back Bay residents and their apartment and condominium buildings would make a great impact.

It’s a good habit, and it can be easily learned.