Melinda Gale peeked through a sign of peace at a Peace Rally in Copley Square on March 10. Hundreds of anti-war activists gathered to form a 100-foot wide human peace symbol.
True to its word, the city of Boston street lighting crew worked long hours last week lightening up Marlborough Street’s historic yet dim lanterns. A new supply of 7,200 mantles, which had just arrived from India, were used to replace the many that had broken this year, causing the lights to be so low that residents were concerned about the safety of walking on the brick sidewalks.
CAPTION: Robin Weinberger of Boylston Street won her life’s dream at a Boston Center for Adult Education event co-hosted by Monster.com and Eons.com founder Jeff Taylor.
Boylston Street resident Robin Weinberger walked over to the Boston Center for Adult Education on Monday night and came home with her life’s dream.
Weinberger will do what she’s always wanted to do — study glass blowing. “I’ve always loved glass,” she said. “It’s very alive and changes in different light.”
She will most likely go to Quechee, Vermont, to the Simon Pearce facility, courtesy of Monster.com founder Jeff Taylor and his other web site, Eons.com, designed for people over 50 who want to enrich their lives.
“When they asked us to put down your dream it wasn’t as if you had time to think about it,” said Weinberger. “I’m glad I picked something tangible.”
Weinberger said the fulfillment of her dream came at a good time for her. For the past several years she has been taking care of her mother, who died about a month ago. With that responsibility gone, she felt she now has time to pursue some interests. But the dream’s realization was bittersweet. “The sad part was that the first person I wanted to call to tell about it was my mom,” she said. “Maybe she knows anyway.”
The fulfillment of her dream was also courtesy of the BCAE, which hosted more than 80 people from the neighborhood and from places as far away as Manchester, New Hampshire, for a two-hour session that stretched to three hours as those who had similar dreams talked and talked — and talked — to one another and figured out how to work together to achieve shared goals.
Taylor coaxed participants into talking and getting together to make things happen. A man who wanted to learn how to paint with watercolors met another participant who already knew how to paint with watercolors and would teach him.
One woman who dreamed of living in Italy for six months made friends with someone who knew of a villa for rent.
One man wanted to be a sportscaster for a day, either with the Patriots or the Red Sox. A woman wanted to perform as a stand-up comic. The audience brainstormed as to how those dreams could be realized.
Many people shared dreams of writing a book, losing weight, or traveling to a special place or around the world.
The BCAE put together this program to introduce its services to the boomer market, said Susie Brown, director of external affairs for the organization. “A lot of people came who had never been here before.”
A Green and Glamorous Taste of the Back Bay by Penny Cherubino
credit: Lise Bean
Guests enjoyed wine tasting at last year’s Taste of the Back Bay.
What could be better than discovering a wonderful new restaurant in your neighborhood? How about a chance to savor the taste of the best of the area’s restaurants — old and new — in one evening?
Accompany those treats with samples of fine wines and fresh micro-brewed beers, a dash of good music, clusters of neighbors happy to be out after a winter of hibernation, and you have the 13th Annual Taste of the Back Bay.
An impressive roster of corporate neighbors has stepped forward to support the March 29th event which benefits the Neighborhood Association of the Back Bay (NABB.) “Jim Connors, branch manager of Wachovia Securities, our Presenting Sponsor, said that he likes what NABB volunteers are doing —preserving and protecting the historic Back Bay neighborhood for all,” said event co-chair Jolinda Taylor.
Taylor eagerly awaits this particular event because, “…there is no agenda except to come and have fun.” Her co-chair Diane Stiles can’t wait to try all the little nibbles. “It’s fun to taste what the chefs like to cook and want to showcase,” said Stiles.
Taylor, Stiles and the third co-chair, Ryan Persac, have devoted tremendous time and energy to the preparations. Persac is new to the neighborhood. “I thought it was a great opportunity to get to know my neighbors. The Back Bay is where I choose to call home, and I just want to be part of it.”
This year’s Taste of the Back Bay will have a “green and elegant” theme. Copley Place will host the evening. The soaring space of the building’s atrium is sure to add a touch of glamor and elegance to this important fundraiser.
As for the green, a portion of the proceeds will be donated to the Commonwealth Avenue Mall Committee for tree maintenance. “Trees on Commonwealth Avenue Mall clean the air, buffer sound and cool and shade our neighborhood. Urban environments are harsh. It is imperative that we provide stewardship of this beautiful and useful stand of historic trees,” said Margaret Pokorny, chair of the mall committee.
For NABB, this has been a year of deepening interest in environmental matters. The group has established a Green Committee to help neighborhood residents, businesses, and other organizations minimize their contributions to climate change through energy and resource conservation.
Members of both the mall and the green committees will be on hand to provide information. However, while the evening supports important work, this is a night for food and fun. Admission to Taste of the Back Bay is $75 for NABB members, $85 for nonmembers, and $95 on the day of the event. For reservations or more information call 617-859-7787.
There are a lot of mixed feelings in the Back Bay about a bicycle race that reportededly is coming to this neighborhood on August 12. The race is scheduled on a Sunday, when there is not much traffic. The riders are supposed to appear in early afternoon so members of local churches can leave without disruption. Four months advance warning should be enough for neighbors to make plans for avoiding or attending the event. Some shops expect a boost in business. Alkian Andrews, the assistant manager of the Rockport shoe store on Newbury Street, said that his shop does well on big-event days.
And this event is oh, so cool — a bike race starting in Montreal and ending here, modeled on the Tour de France, which has gathered increasing attention, partly because of cyclist Lance Armstrong’s compelling story.
Isn’t a bike race like this the reason many of us live in the city anyway? The city is exciting. People want to come here. Something is going on all the time, and all you have to do is to walk out your front door to be entertained by life as it passes by.
Moreover, we ourselves stage events that bring in the hordes. We welcome First Night because we enjoy the performances, crowds, ice sculpting and fireworks. Every June, we look forward to the Garden Club of the Back Bay’s “Through Back Bay Gates and Doors” when hundreds of people traipse through streets and alleys.
But in this case emails have been flying around. This newspaper office has been getting calls. If this race epitomizes the reasons we live here, why are we so grumpy about another event that takes over the city?
Our city.
Some of it is the inconvenience. If you were planning a wedding at the Gamble Mansion on Commonwealth Avenue on that day, your guests might have trouble getting there. If you park your car at the Boston Common Garage, at least six days every year for part of the day you can’t get your car in or out, and this event will probably make it seven. If you had wanted to walk to 29 Newbury for a nice lunch with friends, you might have to wait for a long time to get a table. If you go away on that weekend, you’ll have to time your return before or after the bikers.
Some of it is hypocrisy. It’s gotten better, but the first Earth Days were characterized by suburban folk getting into their cars, driving into the city, and leaving the Esplanade a mess. Not exactly saving the earth.
There is something else afoot here, however.
Some of us get the idea that event promoters and participants regard the city as their own free venue to use for their own, sometimes even laudable, ends. They appropriate our parks, streets and walkways. They don’t understand how the loss affects us.
It’s as if the promoters have no idea that our houses are not just for historical display. People actually live in them.
It’s our fear that, even with the fees the city charges for certain events, our tax money isn’t enough to repair the damage when a charity walk tramples the grass on one of our green spaces.
It’s also probably just our curmudgeonly Boston nature.
So we know we will accept these events at the same time we begrudge them. But city officials could take additional measures to mitigate some of the problems these spectacles cause residents. For one, they could require that event organizers donate not only to city or parks department coffers, but also give money to the Esplanade Association and the Friends of the Public Garden and Common, which looks out for the Commonwealth Avenue Mall, so that more damage can be corrected.
They could also be required to place an ad in the neighborhood’s newspaper, not to enrich our coffers, but to make sure that as few people as possible are caught unawares.
Finally, event organizers could use the literature to inform participants and observers that they are in a neighborhood with residents who love and take care of it and ask them to be respectful.
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