Hynes: friendlier feel and more revenue by Sun staff
Former Governor Romney once proposed selling the state-owned Hynes Convention Center, claiming it was too costly to run and redundant since Boston had the new convention and exhibition center in South Boston.
Now the Hynes is getting an $18 million renovation, adding restaurants and retail shops and upgrading the facility’s security and technology features.
What is the difference between then and now? A study, conducted by Senator Dianne Wilkerson’s committee, showed that, rather than being a burden to the state, the Hynes produced jobs and tax benefits that far outweighed its costs.
The Hynes was first built in 1965 as an auditorium, with renovations in 1988 that brought it out closer to Boylston Street and enabled it to host conventions. Wilkerson’s 2006 committee report showed that the Hynes hosted smaller conventions that would have gone to another city if the Hynes hadn’t been available.
While conventioneers see a lot of the Hynes, Bostonians may go into the facility only for an occasional meeting or sales event. The renovations might change that.
“The Hynes is already a vital part of the life and economy of the Back Bay and Boston, and the addition of retail and restaurant space will make it a more exciting place for conventioneers, residents and people enjoying Boston,” said James Rooney, executive director of the Massachusetts Convention Center Authority, which runs the Hynes as well as the new Boston Convention and Exhibition Center.
Over the next five years, the Hynes is expected to host an average of 120 events per year, generating approximately 300,000 hotel room nights on an annual basis. As is the norm in the convention industry, the Hynes received an annual operating subsidy averaging $2.5 million in recent years, down from nearly $10 million per year during the 1990s.
MCCA officials expect the retail space to generate up to $1.5 million per year in additional revenue. No date has been set for the renovation project which must still receive final authorization from the governor and legislature but it is expected to be completed within two years.
Property crimes in Back Bay way up; Larceny and vehicle thefts are cited as main problems by Joseph Domelowicz Jr.
You can see it every week in the Back Bay Police blotter, the main crimes Boston police are chasing in the Back Bay involving theft of property. And despite the BPDs best efforts, those crimes are on the rise because residents and visitors are not taking personal responsibility for their belongings.
“You know, we have a lot more presence in the Back Bay in terms of walking beat officers and 24-hour coverage, but the one thing that is driving up our crime numbers are car break-ins and shoplifting,” said District 4 Captain William Evans, of first quarter crime statistics that show property crimes are up in the Back Bay through the first quarter of 2007.
“I don’t know if we could put enough police on the street to stop these types of crimes, because they’re really crimes of opportunity,” said Evans. “It’s more of an education thing. People have to realize that they cannot leave valuable items, like GPS units, laptops and cell phones, visible and in plain sight. They will get stolen.”
Providing proof for Evans’ assertion are 2007 first quarter crime statistics that show larceny and auto thefts as the only reported crime categories that saw significant increases from the same period in 2006.
From January to March 2006, the Back Bay recorded 341 property crimes, including 292 reported larcenies or attempted larcenies and 18 reported auto thefts or reported auto thefts. During the same period this year, property crimes in the district jumped to 440 total, with 367 larcenies and attempts and 26 auto thefts and attempts.
Property crimes, as far as house break-ins are actually down,” said Evans, noting a drop from 31 in 2006 to just 15 this year. “But we’re getting killed in the types of crimes where people walk by a car, smash the window and grab the valuables or walk into a store, where there might only be one clerk on duty, and walk out with a $400 pair of jeans.”
Evans said stepped up homeless enforcement in March may account for the decrease in the number of reported larcenies and thefts compared to January and February. “So we’re making a good effort and seeing some progress.”
He added that District 4 officers are also trying to work with Newbury and Boylston Street merchants to help cut down on shoplifting, and at the same time beat officers are focusing more on moving vagrants and homeless people out of the area, so that they don’t get the opportunity to look around for opportunities to steal. Still, it comes down to residents and visitors taking responsibility for not leaving their things where they can tempt thieves.
Violent crimes in the Back Bay such as rape, robbery and aggravated assault were all pretty stagnant, with numbers this year nearly mirroring those of a year ago.
There was just one rape reported in the first quarter of each year, while robberies dropped from 17 in 2006 to 14 in 2007 and assaults went up slightly from 16 in 2006 to 17 in 2007.
Auction plans underway for John Winthrop by Cary Shuman
Tcredit: J. Freeman
caption: Alicia Towns-Franken, Katrin Butz, Sarah Arnold and Catherine Bordon worked out details for this year’s auction.
Every successful event starts with strong leadership and the John Winthrop School for Young Children has a dedicated team organizing its dinner and auction that will be held on Friday, May 4.
Catherine Bordon, Sarah Arnold, Katrin Butz, and Alicia Towns-Franken are serving as co-chairwomen of the annual event that will be held at the school. The school, located on Marlborough Street in the Back Bay, offers early childhood education for children ages 15 months to six years. The fundraising event will be held upstairs in the First and Second Unitarian Universalist Church.
The chairwomen, all of whom have children who attend the school, began making plans for the event in December.
The committee leaders are expecting a turnout of 100 guests for the dinner.
“It’s a parent-run fundraiser and there’s been a lot of work involved in planning it,” said Bordon. “We’ll have 50 parents who’ll volunteer in some way over the course of the day of the auction.”
Proceeds from the event go toward school supplies, teacher conferences and development, and to a scholarship program in which the school takes considerable pride.
“The fundraiser benefits a lot of different programs at the school, but one of the things we’re most proud of is that it helps to fund our scholarship program,” said Bordon.
Guests will have the opportunity to place bids on a wide range of items during the silent and regular auctions.
“We have some great items for the auction such as stays at vacation homes, Patriots tickets, and Red Sox tickets that have been donated by parents,” said Bordon. “We have some unique items as well. One mother is donating a pie of the month club, where she’s going to bake a pie every month. There is a huge range of items – ‘something for everyone’ as we like to bill it.”
As a parent, Bordon said she has come to like everything about the John Winthrop School. “John Winthrop is all about play and the enjoyment and wonder of childhood. It’s not super structured – your two-year-old is not going to learn to read, but if your child is interested in reading, they’re going to read to them all day.
“It’s all about what’s right for your child,” added Bordon. “It’s just a wonderful, welcoming and nurturing environment. I would highly recommend this school to other parents of young children.”
Bordon said working on the dinner-auction has brought the four co-chairwomen closer together. “We have become friends because of our kids,” she said.
The John Winthrop School, which is in its 40th year, has an enrollment of 58 students. There is a staff of 12 people. The director of the school is Marcia Lewis.
Bordon said while there are a lot of children from the Back Bay and Beacon Hill at the school, it also draws from other areas of Boston, including Charlestown and Jamaica Plain, along with children from surrounding communities.
If the magnolias are blooming, it must be time to start cleaning up.
The magnolias signal so many good things that are about to happen. It’s not just the warm weather. It’s the spruce up — neighbors tidy the front gardens, they wash their windows, and they plant window boxes and repaint the ironwork.
It’s the time when the Rose Brigade springs back into action. Parents and grandparents will begin to make their way up to the Swan Boats and treat themselves to the short ride. With such a satisfying way to spend intergenerational time, who needs Disney World?
The Back Bay Association and the Boston Redevelopment Authority will start hanging the baskets from the lampposts. Merchants will move activities outdoors. The restaurant patios will get cleaned up and will more reliably fill up.
This weekend will make a big difference with Boston Shines, Mayor Menino’s nudge to get people to clean up what many folks here believe is the nation’s dirtiest city.
Boston Shines takes place today and tomorrow. If you are a neighbor, get out your broom.
You’ll have a lot of help. Local corporations usually participate, but no one does it as enthusiastically and as intensely as Sovereign Bank. Tomorrow morning about 8:30, Cary Lynch, the Back Bay Association’s treasurer and Sovereign Bank’s senior vice president and regional executive, will gather a team of about 50 bank employees at the bank’s Prudential Center branch.
They will don red and white tee shirts, pull on gloves, and grab trash bags, shovels and other tools. They’ll be deployed in groups of six or seven, beginning at Mass. Ave., and they’ll clean Boylston and Newbury streets, moving onto St. James Avenue as well.
Lynch said his team has been participating in Boston Shines since the program began, and more employees do it every year. They sweep and shovel and rake the tree pits. The most surprising discovery, he said, was the millions of cigarette butts that the team cleans up. “It’s a real education,” he said. He hopes that any smokers who are on his team will realize the consequences of throwing the butts on the ground if they’ve come outside to smoke. Despite the dirt and the hard work, he says the cleaning is really fun.
Other companies’ teams have cleaned the Esplanade and other public areas in the past.
We thank these companies for their work. And we thank all the neighbors who participate. It makes the city’s work lighter. And it makes our lives better.
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