Three years after 23 electronic meters were installed on Newbury Street, city officials are hopeful that empty parking spaces are becoming a more common commodity in the Back Bay.
“Getting parking turnover is the whole spirit of the meter program,” said Thomas Timlin, commissioner of the Boston Transportation Department (BTD). “It provides short-term parking for people to do what they need to and opens up the spaces for others once they’re finished.”
The majority of the new meters are located in the Back Bay and offer up to two hours of on-street parking. The machines are both single-head meters for individual vehicles and solar-powered, multi-space meters that can serve eight to 10 spaces at a time. These “pay and display” meters take three forms of payment – coins, paper currency and credit cards.
Since the introduction of the electronic meters in 2006, the city has seen the overall operability of meters in the city climb from 70 percent to its current rate of 98 percent.
“If a machine goes down, it doesn’t result in a loss of revenue for the city,” Timlin said. “Instead, the driver can just get their receipt at the next meter.”
The multi-space machines issue payment receipts that are displayed on vehicle windows.
The meters are also equipped with wireless technology that electronically notifies the city of any mechanical problems, allowing workers to quickly remedy the situation.
In another coup for city, the machines have resulted in the creation of 1,600 new parking spaces in the last 18 months, bringing the total number to 8,000 throughout Boston.
“We’re expanding meter routes where they never were before,” Timlin said.
Meanwhile, drivers will have reason to applaud the new meters this Saturday, Dec. 26, when the city will offer two hours of free parking throughout the day.

On Thursday, City Council President Mike Ross joined Eliza Greenberg, commissioner of the city’s Elderly Commission at the Boston Public Library for the launch of the Back Bay Senior Club.
“We want to create a place for seniors in the Back Bay, many of whom are shut-ins,” Ross said to the group of approximately 35 in attendance. “This is an attempt to bring seniors together to create a center of gravity.”
Greenberg outlined city services for seniors, such as a shuttle service and RSVP, a program that provides volunteer opportunities for seniors.
“We offer everything you can think of that we can help you with,” Greenberg said. “We’re just really here to support you.”
Also on hand was Amy Ryan, president of the Boston Public Library, who highlighted offerings for seniors at the Copley library, including the Never Too Late Group - a free program that offers informal education on a wide range of subjects.
The event also featured a performance by a jazz trio from Berklee College of Music. Everyone in attendance received an invitation to a special concert by the Boston Symphony Orchestra, as well as a tote bag containing brochures and other literature on city services for seniors.
“We hope to do this again in a few months time,” Ross said.

While the Newbury Street League was able to decorate the street’s trees with holiday lights this year, the organization is now scrambling to recoup the approximately $21,000 cost of running the annual program.
“People look forward to the holiday season and need decorations to feel good about everything,” said Joyce Hampers, president of the nonprofit that represents the interests of Newbury Street businesses. “We especially need this at this juncture in the economy to get people in the mood to shop.”
The Newbury Street League has decorated 85 of the approximately 120 trees on the street since mid-November, but the group has only recovered $7,600 from its investment to date. The organization has received no financial assistance from the city, although it granted an exemption for a mandatory paid police detail. At the cost of $225 to sponsor a tree, the group is now soliciting donations from its members and other area businesses.
“We need to replenish our reserve funds, which is why we have volunteers going up and down the street to get donations,” Hampers said. “We haven’t personally called on a merchant yet who wasn’t willing to contribute.”
Hampers said the program is the Newbury Street League’s way of helping out all neighborhood businesses.
“It has a lot to do with the attitudes of the shoppers,” Hampers said. “It has become such an institution that people look to it as the start of the shopping season.”
Still, Hampers can’t rule out a repeat of the 2005 holiday season when the Newbury Street couldn’t afford to light the trees.
“People took the lights for granted, but they realized how important they were once they were gone,” Hampers said. “It was dismal that year. It just wasn’t a good Christmas without the lights.”
Meanwhile, Michele Messino, treasurer of the Newbury Street League, is emphatic in saying that the future of the holiday lights program depends largely on the generosity of area business and residents.
“If we don’t get this money back, we can’t do it again next year,” Messino said. “It would be a shame to see the street go dark.”
To donate to the holiday-lights program, contact the Newbury Street League qt 617-267-2224 or via e-mail at NewburyStreetUSA@aol.com.

A little more than six weeks after Mayor Thomas M. Menino made history with his election to an unprecedented fifth consecutive term in office, the City Council rejected a proposal for mayoral term limits by a vote of 6-7 Wednesday.
During the council’s weekly meeting at City Hall, City Councilor Maureen Feeney, chair of the Committee on Government Operations, submitted Docket #1007, which recommended barring the mayor of Boston from serving more than two consecutive four-year terms. The docket was filed by City Councilor at-Large Sam Yoon, who, along with his running mate Councilor at-Large Michael Flaherty, was defeated by Menino in the Nov. 3 mayoral election.
“In this country, we have term limits for president. This city would be well served by having term limits for mayor,” said City Councilor Chuck Turner, one of the proposal’s advocates.
City Councilor Sal LaMattina, who opposed the measure, suggested that the decision be left up to the city’s voters.
“The voters should decide on term limits,” LaMattina said. “If you’re serious about term limits, let the people decide.”
Two amendments to the proposal were also narrowly defeated, including one from City Councilor City Tobin that would bar the mayor from serving more than three consecutive four-year terms and another from Councilor at-Large John Connolly that recommended a limit of six consecutive two-year terms for city councilors.

Christmas 2009

This is a good Christmas coming.
There is hope in the air.
Despite the many jobs losses and business closings that have come with the recession, there is abundance everywhere.
Last year at this time, there was so much uncertainty about the national economy and whether or not it was going to survive or collapse, that this crisis of confidence cast a shadow over everything else in our lives.
When the giant financial institutions on Wall Street closed their doors, when the markets dove, when our retirement accounts tanked, when real estate values adjusted downward, those of us with an understanding about how the world works knew that we weren’t facing the end, and we weren’t.
The crisis was not one of poverty, as the noted economist John Maynard Keynes wrote at the beginning of the Depression in 1933.
The crisis was one of abundance.
Indeed.
The year has passed. We have not disappeared as an economy. The nation stands strong.
Christmas is here, again.
The family is around the table, again.
Loved ones travel vast distances and cross great divides to be with one another.
At midnight on Christmas Eve, many churches everywhere will be filled with revelers summoning the holiday.
For our children, the arrival of Santa Claus is awaited with great anticipation, with cookies and milk left by the fireplace for him.
And in the morning there are presents under the tree, with our children eager to be up early and to get to the tree…and to their presents.
Ah, now to the joys of the rest of the day, and to the American, New England Christmas Day dinner, on the one day of the year when we stop running about, when the economic juggernaut shuts down for the day, although nothing is quite like it used to be.
Savor this Christmas Day. Love it, if you can.
Haves your sense sharpened, as Longfellow did.

“I heard the bells on Christmas Day
Their old familiar carols play,
And wild and sweet the words repeat
Of peace on Earth, good will to men!”

From all of us to all of you, a very Merry Christmas.