Neighbors say Taj is moving too slowly by Suzanne Besser
Taj Boston has been taking steps to address the problems with deliveries in the alley, which it inherited from its predecessor, the Ritz-Carlton Hotel. For that commitment, the neighbors are appreciative. But at a meeting Monday night, they made it clear that they wanted the hotel to move a lot faster.
The problems include delivery and laundry pick-up trucks blocking traffic in the alley, messes caused by the quantity of trash, and traffic tie-ups on nearby streets due to the hotel delivery trucks and alleged abuses of valet parking by the hotel’s vendor.
Late last year, the licensing and building use committee of the Neighborhood Association of the Back Bay met with David Gibbons, who became Taj’s general manager when the property transferred hands in mid-January. At that time, Gibbons pledged to work to solve the problems, and the committee voted not to oppose his application to transfer the hotel’s all-alcohol license.
Last Monday, the committee called Gibbons back again, this time to hear a summary of the steps he had taken to address the problems and a specific action plan and time line for a permanent solution.
They heard very little of what they wanted. Gibbons said his staff is working on ways to minimize the traffic disruptions to the neighborhood and that he had hired a local firm to study structural and other issues surrounding the loading dock. He talked about structural and operational changes.
“Many of the actions described by Gibbons at our meeting are organizational in nature – personnel assignments – the kind of things one has to do when one takes over any business,” said Tom High, committee chair. “Although they may help the problem, these actions haven’t been focused specifically on addressing it.”
“I think you and your team have been a welcome change in the neighborhood,” said Tim Mitchell, whose building, Carlton House, is across the alley from the Ritz, “but I had hoped you’d be farther along with some things.”
It was a week of changing weather — from flooding rain, to springlike warmth, and then back to a deep freeze. The climate changes brought a Boston water and sewer worker to this Back Bay intersection this week to clear the flooded corner.
When he purchased the Beacon Street bar a year ago, Thomas Carlyle had his Irish eyes set on making Crossroad more like Emmets, a pub and restaurant he has owned for several years on Beacon Street. It was to be a second venue for traditional Irish music: instrumentalists and vocalists, sessions and jamming, all well into the night.
But to neighbors already fed up with the noises in and outside the bar at 495 Beacon Street, more music is not to be had at all.
After hearing Carlyle’s dreams and his neighbors’ fears, the Neighborhood Association of the Back Bay asked Patricia A. Malone of the Mayor’s Office of Consumer Affairs and Licensing not to add more live entertainment to Crossroad’s existing license — specifically up to four instruments and four vocalists. NABB also opposes Carlyle’s request to play the entertainment seven days a week until 2:00 a.m.
The popular college bar, which has been in existence for more than a decade, had been licensed for a radio, jukebox, VCR, four widescreen televisions, cassette and compact disc players, four televisions and six dart boards, but not for live entertainment. Caryle said he had spent his first year of ownership transitioning from a venue that draws primarily students to one that attracts an older crowd for casual dining.
“We are changing the whole concept,” he said. “We are finishing the transitional phase, renovating, bringing in a whole new menu.” That menu will feature steaks as well as hamburgers and other standard pub fare
He thinks the restaurant would attract more and older patrons from the neighborhood if it featured traditional Irish song. Despite the fact he wants a license for entertainment every night, only on Mondays and Thursdays did he actually plan to have the sessions, for which he hires one musician, who then brings along four more instruments and four vocalists so that continuous music is provided throughout the evening.
His neighbors, though, don’t want the session or any other live entertainment on Monday or Thursday or any night. They said the place is already too loud and disruptive, and that adding more patrons of any age would make a bad situation even worse. Six neighboring residents testified to that fact at a hearing held February 28 by the Office of Consumer Affairs and Licensing, at which time Malone deferred making a decision until NABB could weigh in.
Several of the same abutters and others expressed their concerns at NABB’s hearing sponsored by the Licensing and Building Use Committee last Monday. A resident of 499 Beacon Street objected to the “noise of patrons when they stumble out of the bar in the early morning, the trash they drop, the dangerous moves in traffic that cause tires to screech and cars to honk.” Another talked about “the vomit, cigarette butts and half-drunk bottles on the street.”
Marlborough Street resident Penny Cherubino said between her home and Crossroad are 900 residents, who “are treated to the screams of drunks yelling for and at taxis at 2 a.m.”
“This end of the Back Bay has evolved and grown up,” she said. “Marlborough Street near Mass Avenue no longer has lines of U-Haul trucks and students moving in during August. This is now an area of adults who want peace and quiet every night of the week. It is not an appropriate area for live entertainment.”
Caryle indicated his willingness to address the concerns of his neighbors, to cease entertainment at 1:00 a.m. and to limit the original number of performers proposed. However, he would not agree to NABB’s proposal that he withdraw his application for live entertainment until the existing problems have been addressed.
“In the final analysis, we believe this location is wholly inappropriate for any form of live entertainment,” said Licensing and Building Use Chair Thomas High. “The added noise and potential disruption from allowing live music would make an already difficult situation much worse for the residents who live nearby.”
On Wednesday High notified Malone of the association’s opposition and asked her to deny the application in its entirety.
credit: Leila Lotfi
Arthur Harris gave Zaida Harris, no relation, a new hairstyle last week.
While most Newbury Street salons were busy serving customers, Salon Red & Spa closed its door to the public and gave thanks to Boston teachers at its fifth Teacher Appreciation Retreat Sunday.
Seven teachers from four local schools put aside their grading for an afternoon of pampering and relaxation. They were treated to facials, pedicures, manicures and hair care along with brunch and a motivational talk Bernadine Nash-McClam.
Arthur Harris and Daniel Buonomo opened Salon Red & Spa in May 2004 to offer a spiritually, emotionally and architecturally comfortable environment for customers and employees. The Teacher Appreciation Retreat was created soon after to give back to teachers who educate and cultivate children’s minds.
“Pampering, breaking some bread and the motivational speaker all help deliver inspiration not only to the teachers, but to us as well,” said Buonomo.
Harris believes if you don’t know where you come from, you don’t know where you’re going. “If it wasn’t for mentors and teachers, I would have never been able to open Salon Red,” he said. “The Teacher Appreciation Retreat allows me to give back.”
According to Spence, selection of the schools and teachers is based on outstanding dedication to children and the community. Every summer, five area schools are selected for three retreats, one every quarter. From these five schools, two teachers are chosen each quarter to attend a retreat.
Erin Borgmann from Young Achievers Mathematics and Science School in Jamaica Plain was treated to a facial as part of her day of pampering.
Aida Luszczynska from Haynes Early Education Center indulged in a pedicure as part of her day of pampering. “It’s just nice to be appreciated,” she said.
In addition to a day of relaxation, teachers exchanged laughs, stories and offered advice to one another. Bernadine Nash-McClam concluded the afternoon services by focusing on the purpose of the retreat. She said the goal is not only to make the teachers feel great on the outside, but to make them feel beautiful on the inside. “You deserve to know who you are and you need to take time doing it,” she said.
John Clancy, a fifth grade teacher at Winthrop Elementary School who has been teaching in Boston for 25 years, took time to relax with a facial treatment. “It was wonderful,” he says. “Thank you Salon Red.”
Happy birthday to Back Bay’s grande damme by Sun staff
credit: Mark Yessian
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On March 4 Pebble Gifford of Cambridge, Martin Deneen of Boston and Jackie Yessian, Commonwealth Avenue, celebrated the birthday of Stella Trafford along with Susan Juretski Cambridge, Luanne Pryor formerly of Commonwealth Avenue, and sculptor Nancy Schön. Trafford, known for her work with the Commonwealth Avenue Mall Committee and the Friends of the Public Garden, is a fixture in the Back Bay.
“Skate at your own risk,” indeed. This past week’s frigid winter days peppered with spring-like weather in the 40s had the lagoon at the Public Garden in a state of confusion.
The Boston Redevelopment Authority, in coordination with the Downtown Crossing Association and five consultants, has come up with a plan to change conditions around the intersection of Washington, Summer and Winter streets into something Bostonians can be proud of.
The plan covers an area from Tremont Street southeast into the Financial District and from Court Street southwest to Boylston/Essex.
The plan is what one might expect from the “walking city” — making the area more pedestrian friendly, improving storefronts and making them more transparent, bringing restaurant life out to the sidewalk, and reaching out to appropriate retailers who would bring in the crowds. It’s good nuts-and-bolts city planning.
This effort is not the first, but it is important. This intersection is in the center of 42,000 residents — i.e. our readers — who could easily walk to this district, shop there, meet friends, have dinner and generally enjoy a part of the city. But now they don’t, unless it’s for work or an appointment with a banker or a dentist.
The area is unwelcoming because it seems to have been taken over by kids who lurk about and look like they should be in school. In the heart of the district, the jewelers, a couple of camera shops, the Brattle Book Shop, serve a need and might be attractive, but these places are surrounded by ugly stores with little draw, especially now that Filene’s is gone.
Despite the drawbacks and the previous failed efforts, this initiative may succeed. New heavy hitters are involved, for one thing. A recent meeting called by the BRA to discuss the plan drew an impressive crowd that included such real estate powerhouses as Harold Brown and John Hynes. Hynes, as part of the joint venture that plans to raise a tower of more than a million square feet over the former Filene’s store, has much at stake in this district. He has an ability to make things happen and would seem a natural leader in the district’s improvement. He might be able to persuade owners who have neglected their stores to make changes.
Other developers, Tony Pangaro with Millennium and Robert Epstein of the Abbey Group, Boston Proper residents themselves, have projects in the works on the south and the north sections of this district. They understand city life. They too could pressure recalcitrant owners. Their developments should help bring a critical mass of new residents and new incentive for change.
While the district needs residents, it isn’t clear how many of them should be students. Suffolk University has embarked on a study to find out where to locate future dorms, and this area is under consideration.
But Suffolk and Emerson College students already occupy the southern end of the district. Too many students were perceived by Beacon Hill residents as a threat to the livability of that neighborhood. Too many students in this incipient neighborhood could stunt its service to the rest of the city. The BRA will have to delicately manage this balance.
The consultants claimed this area is unique in an American city, busy and filled with people, but also not serving those people well. They claimed there is no analogy that could be made, even though they mention a few places that have some similar elements.
But in their international reach, they miss something at home. Their goal describes one end of a spectrum that already exists — right here in Boston. Active neighborhoods, a good street life, appealing retail shops, good restaurants, a non-threatening atmosphere, lots of happy residents with services all around them. That accurately describes the Back Bay, Beacon Hill, the North End, and Chinatown. In all its surrounding neighborhoods, the consultants’ vision for Downtown Crossing is more or less what life is like. Some neighborhoods are quieter, some are more active. Some have a bigger scale, some smaller.
So let’s make Downtown Crossing a typical Boston neighborhood — just one that has its own scale and features. That’s how it will succeed. That is how it will best contribute to the city as a whole.
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