credit: Jacqueline Freeman
caption: Ben and Jerry’s on Newbury Street wins “Big O.”
Jason Sweeney has come a long way since he was scooping ice cream at the Ben & Jerry’s factory in Vermont.
That was 10 years ago. Since then, Sweeney has bought three Ben & Jerry’s franchises, including the one at 174 Newbury Street. That franchise, which has become a home away from home for Berklee students and shoppers looking for a cool treat, was recently named the top franchise out of more than 400 Ben & Jerry’s. The “Big O” or Operator of the Year Award was given to Sweeney for his innovation and energy at the popular Newbury Street ice cream shop.
“I’ve really worked at almost every level of the company,” said Sweeney. “What interests me is that creativity really puts you on the map with Ben & Jerry’s. That’s what makes the difference.”
If there is one thing Sweeney and his general manager Ryan Midden are, it’s definitely creative. Take the store’s theme nights, for example. There’s an open-mic night for the budding musicians from Berklee and an Irish-themed night for the city’s many Irish students. There’s even a karaoke night. And a catering service, which offers not only ice cream but smoothies, cookies, brownies and coffee as well, has become a big hit with businesses.
To fulfill their social justice mission, which is a big part of Ben and Jerry’s, Midden said they regularly donate to non-profits and “anything involving kids.”
The pair is also known to traverse many of Boston’s neighborhoods in the store’s scoop truck, handing out free samples to hungry Bostonians.
As it turns out, Boston’s appetite for ice cream makes Sweeney’s and Midden’s job easy. “The great thing about being in Boston is that it’s one of the top ice cream markets in the country,” said Midden. “People here are always willing to try new things.”
One of the store’s most popular items currently is the Dice-K Smoothie, a mixture of Japanese green tea and lemonade sorbet. “We try to create different items here,” said Sweeney. “A lot of it is just the employees trying out different things.”
All of the employees started out as scoopers and have worked their way up. “We are a real home-grown staff,” said Midden, who has been there for four years.
Sweeney said the award was the culmination of this group’s effort. “It feels great to win this award, but it’s reward enough to be surrounded by a great staff,” Sweeney said. “Everything is a team effort here.”
Commissioner hopes to rid neighborhoods of street violence by John Lynds
Police Commissioner Edward Davis admits he hardly noticed the young children looking at the mortally wounded man lying in a pool of blood last week on a Boston street after being shot several times.
“I wonder what that scene was like for them,” said Davis over lunch recently with members of The Back Bay Sun editorial staff. “I wonder if anyone at home talked to them about what they saw.”
When he’s at a crime scene, Davis is all business. He’s busy surveying the scene and talking to detectives about evidence, so sometimes the young children in the crowd being desensitized by the violence around them go unnoticed.
But like every member of the Boston Police Department, he’s mortal, and the fact that the life of a young man was snuffed out in a gruesome act of street violence bothers Davis tremendously — as does the presence of the children in the crowd at many of Boston’s murder scenes.
“For the most part, all of Boston’s neighborhoods are good neighborhoods made up of working-class families. But in some cases they are held hostage by a small number of people,” said Davis.
In Davis, Mayor Thomas Menino has found the man he hopes can not only restore order on Boston’s deadly streets but also restore the concept of community policing in Boston neighborhoods.
Since taking over the post in October, Davis has vowed to take back Boston’s streets from criminals, street by street and block-by-block.
“If we deploy police officers in the right locations . . . locations that have seen a spike in violent crime, we can properly reduce the number of homicides and shootings and other crimes plaguing Boston’s streets,” said Davis.
Davis has launched several new initiatives, but the one that is getting the most praise is his expansion of the Boston Police recruiting efforts.
Davis recently announced a comprehensive police recruitment strategy designed to inspire the highest quality and most culturally diverse applicants to sign up for the state-administered civil service exam scheduled for May 19, 2007.
“The Boston Police Department is looking for the best and the brightest applicants, those with pride, integrity and a sense of commitment,” said Davis. “To support the department’s community policing philosophy, the BPD seeks to identify dedicated individuals who desire to give back and make a difference.”
The department is seeking to achieve its goals by executing a first-of-its-kind recruiting effort that will effectively target potential candidates from a multi-cultural applicant pool. The secondary goal of this campaign is to create an opportunity to reinforce the core values of the Boston Police Department with its constituency base and the community-at-large.
Davis said the effort underscores the city’s commitment to creating a department that is community-minded and culturally representative.
“Commissioner Davis and I are dedicated to ensuring that Boston is one of the safest and most livable cities in the nation,” said Menino. “To achieve that goal, the city recognizes the importance of consistently attracting a wide range of talented candidates who personify the rich diversity of Boston neighborhoods.”
During Davis’s 12-year tenure as head of the Lowell Police Department, that city saw a dramatic decrease in crime. In Lowell crime fell 60 percent, spurring significant economic development in the city’s business and corporate districts. In 1999, Lowell received an All-American City award from the National Civic League, featuring its community-policing model. In 2000, the Lowell Police Department received a Police as Problem Solvers award, one of five cities recognized by the U.S. Department of Justice.
Traffic studies underscore complexity of tunnel project by Suzanne Besser
The complex analysis of traffic conditions during reconstruction of the Storrow Drive Tunnel was intended to help members of the transportation and landscape advisory committees make their recommendation about which of four construction options to follow. Instead, it seemed to prompt even more questions, demands, frustrations and fears that the very complexity of the project could prevent them from making any recommendation in a timely fashion.
Traffic engineers from Simpson Gumpertz & Heger Inc. and the Beta Group, contracted by the Department of Conservation and Recreation to estimate the amount of traffic congestion on Storrow Drive and surrounding roadways that would occur during the construction phases of the four options being studied, gave a lengthy slide presentation to the advisory committees Wednesday evening. They based their traffic management studies on a partial closure of Storrow Traffic during construction, with two lanes open in both directions and varying closures of entrance and exit ramps.
In addition to road and tunnel demolition and construction, the analyses also took into consideration the construction of temporary roadways and structures during each phase of the work, groundwater recharge systems, supplemental walkways, detours — all of which apply in varying degrees to each option. The construction timetable ranged from more than two years for Option A, rehabilitating the existing tunnels, to five years for Option D, replaces the existing eastbound tunnel and westbound surface road with new eastbound and westbound tunnels.
A full closure of the roadway, allowing only minimum traffic such as emergency vehicles, would reduce construction times and costs by 25% but significantly increase traffic congestion on city streets, according to Mike Wasielewski of the Beta Group.
In general, the goal throughout the construction is to provide continued pedestrian access to The Esplanade, building temporary bridges if necessary, and to use parts of that parkland for a construction staging area. The construction of temporary roads used in the partial closing would also result in the loss of 20 to 30 trees, said Wasielewski.
The complexity of the project was also reflected in the comments spoken by advisory committee members, each of whom want satisfactory results for the constituencies they represent. Meg Mainzer-Cohen of the Back Bay Business Association talked about the importance of managing the project in a way that did not negatively impact the commercial sector of the Back Bay.
State Representative Marty Walz was concerned about the noise impact of nighttime work in the Back Street area. Esplanade Association’s Patrice Todisco said it was critical to analyze pedestrian traffic to understand how and why people come to the park.
Linda Cox, representing the Beacon Hill Civic Association, urged the group to consider surface roadways, a “green” option which would lower carbon dioxide emissions and help in the war against global warming. Some expressed concern, though, that a signalized surface roadway would slow traffic too much and force drivers elsewhere. Others, such as Esplanade Association chair Sandy Steele, thought such a reduction of trafficß was a good result. “Is it not a possibility to reduce traffic on Storrow Drive and make it a parkway like it was intended for?” said Steele. “Can we consider that?”
“Have we exhausted all alternatives?” questioned Tony Pangaro of Millennium Partners, calling the four options being studied “bad choices.” “Should we be looking at other alternatives?”
DCR Regional Planner Karl Haglund responded that his agency was analyzing every submission from the public that they had received. “Some people in this room would take offense with your saying these are all bad choices,” he said.
“I do think we are very far away from knowing where we will end up,” said Walz. “We will take the time we need.”
Haglund agreed. “If we get to May and can’t answer the questions, we’ll have to talk about extending [the process]. We want the community to make the decision.”
The Boston Globe’s recent report explained it all. The reason our city is so dirty and unkempt is that a significant number of Department of Public Works employees don’t bother to show up for a full day’s work.
You’d expect in a “world-class” city that wouldn’t happen. (“World-class” happens to be one of our favorite hated terms, implying that Boston boosters always question whether this little provincial capital in the far corner of a big country can actually hack the big time.)
We certainly won’t do so if our city workers can’t be bothered to work.
Most residents typically don’t meet the no-shows. Instead, neighbors meet the city officials who go to night meetings and respond quickly when a neighborhood association or a neighborhood newspaper calls them. These men and women work extremely hard.
Most Bostonians, whether they are in the public or private sectors, are putting in a 40-hour week, at least. City employees should be doing so too. We might then stop complaining about how dirty Boston is.
A swinging proposal
Boston’s downtown parks are lovely. They are quiet and peaceful and treasured by all of us who live downtown. When the Rose Kennedy Greenway opens we’ll have even more parks.
But these parks won’t be peaceful and quiet. The wide roadways on either side will be noisy. The green space between them is narrow. Except for the park next to the North End and a small space near Chinatown, the uses for most spaces in the Greenway are still not buttoned down. So we propose that we accept the noisy condition and enhance it — bringing active uses that energize the city.
We have a specific suggestion. The Boston Swing.
Let’s build a series of swings across one of the parcels. Lots of swings. High swings for adults. Low swings for kids. Dozens of swings. Swings in several rows. Swings to be used in both summer and winter. Swings in which you sail up so high that you can see all the harbor. Bucket swings for babies. Swings that mimic the rocking of the sailboats tied up at the marinas. Swings decorated by artists, but swingable. Maybe an trapeze area in which we can swing for a fee, like the one that exists along the Hudson River in downtown Manhattan. The city that swings together cooperates together.
The Boston Swing might go a long way toward making us that world-class city that Boston boosters so desire.
City Hall
We’re not going to get into the discussion now of whether City Hall should stay where it is, or whether it should be rebuilt or renovated.
We do have a suggestion for a temporary fix. Plant some Boston Ivy. It will give us some green in the summer, bronze in the fall and tracery in the winter. It will cover up the dirty concrete. It will give us time to decide what else we should do.
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