Despite a dramatic spike in homicides, Area D-4 has seen an approximately 7 percent decrease in violent and property crime to date in 2009 as opposed to the same timeframe last year.
According to Boston Police, Part One crime incidents in Area D-4, which includes sections of Back Bay, the South End, Lower Roxbury and the Fenway, have dropped to 4,337 between Jan. 1 and Nov. 8, 2009, compared with 4,650 during the same time period in 2008.
Homicides, meanwhile, tripled in 2009, with the number rising to six, including the April 14 fatal shooting of a 26-year-old masseuse in Boston Marriott Copley Place Hotel allegedly by the “Craigslist killer.”
Rapes and attempted rapes were down 7 percent to 28 in 2009 from 30 last year.
The biggest decreases were in aggravated assault and burglaries and attempted burglaries, which each experienced a 27-percent reduction this year. Aggravated assaults dropped to 259 from 354 last year, while 333 burglaries and attempted burglaries were reported this year as opposed to 458 during the same timeframe in 2008.
Vehicle theft and attempted theft were down 14 percent, dropping to 216 from 252 last year.
Robberies and attempted robberies experienced a 10 percent decline, with 251 incidents this year as opposed to 279 in 2008.
Larcenies and attempted larcenies were down 1 percent, falling to 3,244 from 3,275 last year.
Citywide, Part One crime also saw a 7-percent reduction as the number dropped to 22,963 incidents from 24,618 in 2008.

When Beacon Hill Village (BHV) launched its “Conversations with…” series, the idea was to offer something akin to a dinner party, bringing a noteworthy person in the community together with a dozen or so residents for a roundtable discussion.
“[The program] was not supposed to be a lecture or a presentation, but instead it afforded the opportunity for some of our neighbors who have some prominence to tell us whet they’re doing and allowed us to literally have a conversation with them,” said Frank Mead, a founding director of BHV, a membership organization established in 2001 to make city living more fulfilling and comfortable for Boston residents, ages 50 and above.
Early “Conversations with…” speakers were BHV members or professionals from the neighborhood, but the program was soon expanded to include guests from the Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. Today, the series regularly features experts in the fields of health, science, medicine, literature and the arts, as well as incoming leaders of local non-profits, such as the Boston Foundation, the French Library Alliance Française of Boston and the New England Conservatory.
Other noteworthy guests have included: Paul Tucker, a University of Massachusetts professor and renowned Impressionist and Monet scholar who spoke earlier this month on the artist’s later work; John Spooner, a fiction writer and financial guru who discussed the current state of the stock market; and late Beacon Hill resident Joan Goody, a noted architect who led a talk on the controversy surrounding City Hall and its proposed relocation to the South Boston waterfront.
While no new installments of “Conversations with…” are scheduled for the remainder of 2009, TV arts-and-entertainment anchor and three-time cancer survivor Joyce Kulhawik will be on hand when the series resumes at 64 Beacon St. on the evening of Monday, Jan. 11, 2010.
Sandy Righter, who co-chairs the BHV Programming Committee with Judy Bracken, said high-profile speakers sometimes attract upwards of 30 attendees, but regardless of the crowd’s size, the events still maintain the feel of an intimate dinner party. To enhance the festive atmosphere, wine and cheese are usually served before and after the main program, thanks in part to a recent $2,500 grant from the Cambridge Trust Company.
Righter added that she hopes the series will serve to introduce newcomers to other BHV programming, including its Health and Wellness Series, daytrips to museums and additional cultural and social offerings.
Meanwhile, “Conversations with…” has successfully opened up a friendly dialogue between neighbors who otherwise might never have met.
“The mission is to get people out of their homes, to have a little fun and to learn something in the process,” Mead said.
“Conversations with…” is free for BHV members, and the public is also welcome to attend for a nominal fee of $20 per person. For information or to suggest a future guest for the series, call Linda McLaughlin, program coordinator, at 617-723-9713.

Boston Police are investigating the death of an elderly man who was struck by bicyclist while attempting to cross a Back Bay street Friday night.
Shortly after 5 p.m. on Nov. 13, officers assigned to Area D-4 responded the area of 186 Massachusetts Ave. for a report of a man down. Upon arrival, police learned that an unidentified 84-year-old man from Boston was attempting to cross the street when he was stuck by a bicyclist.
Witnesses informed officers that traffic was stopped due to gridlock when the elderly male stepped from the curb to cross the street and was immediately struck by a bicyclist traveling on Massachusetts Avenue towards Cambridge.
The victim fell to the ground, striking his head and sustaining head trauma, including a large laceration. The bicyclist stayed with the victim until police arrived.
Boston EMS arrived and treated and transported the victim to Boston Medical Center, where he later succumbed to his injuries.
According to witness statements, the victim was not utsing a crosswalk at the point of impact. The preliminary investigation suggests the incident was a terrible accident.

On Saturday, Nov. 7, hundreds of volunteers joined The Esplanade Association’s First Annual Esplanade Fall Cleanup to rake leaves, clean up the park and prepare it for the winter’s coat of snow. Imagine raking up leaves along a 3-mile stretch of park? Fortunately, more than 250 energetic volunteers of all ages, including families, local college and university student groups and even passersby put some serious backbone into raking up leaves between the Longfellow Bridge and Dartmouth Street from the river’s edge to the Storrow Drive boundary.
The Esplanade Association (TEA), a non-profit organization working to restore and enhance Boston’s historic Esplanade, worked closely with the Department of Conservation and Recreation’s (DCR) Esplanade staff to organize the cleanup. DCR staff was on hand to help TEA staff and volunteers and, instead of bagging the leaves, DCR staff vacuumed the piles of leaves into a truck and deposited them at a park site for composting.
When asked why they chose to volunteer, many replied, “Because I love the Esplanade, of course I’d come out and help,” said Chris Murton, project coordinator for TEA. “It is thanks to our volunteers that we are able to keep the park clean and maintained; a lot of hours go into cleaning up the park, with events like these we make a tedious task fun and get it done in fewer hours.”
Volunteers were provided with gloves and rakes and treated to apples and cider from a local orchard.
TEA volunteer opportunities are continuous, ranging from trash pick-up, bench painting, bulb planting, leaf raking, event and programming help, and office administration. To learn more about the volunteer program, please contact Chris Murton, Project Coordinator, at The Esplanade Association, at cmurton@esplanadeassociation.org or 617-227-0365 ext. 112.

Bunker Hill Day is sacred,
but Beacon Hill politicians don’t care

The Battle of Bunker Hill represented then, and represents today, a moment in the formation of the American nation when heroism against tremendous – impossible odds – and sacrifice, announced to the world that a new nation was being born.
At Bunker Hill, where so many brave men died – most of them buried where they fell – the shackles put upon the people of North America by the British were broken, and so too was the myth that the British could not be defeated in battle.
The British won the Battle of Bunker Hill but they ultimately lost the war and North America.
And so, this was a battle of exceptional note. The sacrifice made here was enormous. The bloodshed was the worst ever experienced in North America up to that moment and it signaled what lay ahead. The British lost 226 dead and 800 wounded. There were 450 American dead and wounded.
The nation rising out of the bloodshed and the ashes of a burned Charlestown signaled mightily that American patriotism and the desire to be a free people meant more to the heroes at Bunker Hill than their lives.
Now comes the Massachusetts state government led by Governor Deval Patrick and the Legislature attempting and promising to do away with Bunker Hill Day and describing it as a holiday whose time has come.
We will grant the mayor that it is a bit of an oddity, that is, celebrating a great American victory as a Suffolk County holiday.
However, Bunker Hill Day is a day of remembrance and of honor whose time should be immemorial.
Until and unless this nation ceases to exist, the Bunker Hill Monument and battle site and the annual remembrance of this day each year on June 17, should stand as a hallowed place and moment recalling the making of this nation.
It was an extraordinary day in 1775 when men sacrificed their homes, their families, their fortunes and their lives to let the British know that Americans were done being slaves and that Americans wanted to be free men.
It is amazing what men will do to be free of oppression.
It is depressing and disheartening that those who know very little about sacrifice are willing to eliminate Bunker Hill Day as a Suffolk County holiday saying its time has come.
When, in the annals of our national history, have so many died to be free only to have the effort mocked and attempts made to eliminate the memory of the sacrifice made that day and year?
Governor Patrick and the Legislature should be ashamed of themselves.