Monday, August 31, 2009

Meeting for Distillery Development, 9/8

Please be advised that there will be an Impact Advisory Group (“IAG”) Meeting regarding the proposed Distillery Redevelopment, which is located at 516-524 East Second Street and 2 Dorchester Street, in South Boston, on Tuesday, September 8, 2009, 6:30 PM – 8:00PM, at the St. Vincent De Paul's Church, in the Parish Hall, corner of E Street and West Third Street, South Boston.

All members of the community and media are welcome to attend IAG Meetings.


Kristin Kara
Senior Project Manager
Boston Redevelopment Authority
One City Hall Square
Boston, MA 02201
Phone: 617-918-4263

Monday, August 24, 2009

Permit Issued for Demolition of Tenders House

As posted last fall, the city approved the demolition of the Tenders House that sits in the middle of Fort Point Channel and used to house the original steam engine and gears to swing the bridge open.

The permit to do the work was just issued:

8/01/2009 8 NORTHERN AVE

South Boston City of Boston PARTIAL DEMO AMD REMOVAL OF TENDERS HOUSE


http://www.cityofboston.gov/isd/building/asofright/default.asp?ispostback=true&nhood=South+Boston

Sunday, August 23, 2009

BRA Greenway Mtg, 8/10

The Boston Redevelopment Authority invites you to attend the fifth public meeting on the Greenway District Planning Study:

Thursday, September 10, 2009
6-8 PM at the BRA
Boston City Hall, 9th Floor, Board Room


BRA staff and the consultant team will present development and massing alternatives for Chinatown and the Leather District, Dewey Square and Financial District, and Government Center and the North End. The team will also present an overview of corridor-wide building uses and environmental impacts.


If you have any questions, please contact:

Peter D. Gori
www.bostoncrossroads.com
email: Peter.Gori.BRA@cityofboston.gov

Lauren N. Shurtleff
www.cityofboston.gov/bra
email: Lauren.Shurtleff.BRA@cityofboston.gov

Thursday, August 20, 2009

Gillette Plant Lights

You may have noticed that the lights at the P&G / Gillette plant were recently made much brighter and went from yellow to white. The lights are not shielded and shine into a number of people's windows.

I've contacted P&G about it and will post updates as they come. Please add a comment if it affects you or you have information.

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UPDATE:




I talked with the community liason at P&G, Brian, told him the problem and sent him a photo with the lights. He said the firm that manages the lights for them switched to higher output bulbs. He's seeing if they can find a way to re-orient the fixtures so they're pointing down or turn them off. I will update this post with the info.

--
UPDATE 2:

Gillette / P&G has turned off those lights. I'd like to thank them for listening to the community.

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

HAZMAT Unit Responding to Incident on W 2nd St.

UPDATE 2:
The Firefighters Local 118 reports:
LEVEL 3 HAZMAT. NOW 6 FF EXPOSED . SUBSTANCE TRACED TO 55 GAL DRUM.
LEVEL 3 HAZMAT 3 BFD MEMBERS EXPOSED TO UNK. SUBSTANCE AT ILLEGAL TXFER STATION.


UPDATE:
This morning a street sweeper saw vehicles dumping in an abondoned building. When firefighters went to investigate a number become ill. Local news coverage:
http://www1.whdh.com/news/articles/local/BO122020/
http://www.bostonherald.com/news/regional/view.bg?articleid=1191836

From http://twitter.com/Boston_Police

HAZMAT: Level 3 incident at 251 W 2nd St in South Boston, Hazmat Unit, BFD and EMS on scene, decontamination taking place, avoid the area.

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

New Shepard Fairey on Melcher St.

A new Shepard Fairey has been installed on the corner of Melcher and A Streets, replacing the one that had been there which was torn down over time:

Friday, August 07, 2009

Channel Cafe in the Globe

Great Globe Article on the Channel Cafe:

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http://www.boston.com/ae/food/restaurants/articles/2009/08/05/channel_cafe_has_plenty_to_offer/


Channeling your appetite

By Sheryl Julian, Globe Staff | August 5, 2009

If I lived in Fort Point Channel, you’d probably find me at Channel Cafe several times a week. Actually, I’d probably take my laptop and move in. I last reviewed it in 1996, when it was Cafe Three Hundred and the only thing I minded about the place was the fact that it wasn’t open for dinner. Local artist Ana Crowley now owns the cafe, which is one flight down in a 19th-century art-filled warehouse. A year ago, Channel opened for dinner at the end of the week.

If you’ve been to the highly stylized Persephone, practically across the street, that’s not Channel Cafe. In fact, think 180. This is practical, pared-down fare, nothing fancy, all very well done in a hip, two-story, artsy space.

Everything was relatively quiet until four months ago, when Brian Van Etten took over the kitchen. The restaurant serves as a Community Supported Agriculture drop-off spot, and Van Etten gets to participate. Just as any family would look over the contents of the CSA box each week and decide what’s for dinner, so does the chef. “Today I have zucchini, some amazing basil, a ton of pickling cucumbers,’’ he told me last week. When I slipped into the restaurant that night, the zucchini had been turned into crisp, feathery fritters sitting on a julienne of jicama with a little tartar-like sauce.

Van Etten’s specials board is the place where he’s featuring the harvest. Smoked herring toasts ($4.95), an unusual and delicious nibble, was on offer one night, as was a beautiful fillet of striped bass ($17.95), nestled on scallion mashed potatoes, surrounded by a tangy caper beurre blanc.

On the regular menu, delectable fish tacos ($9.95) came in soft flour tortillas with ripe avocado and hot peppers. “Tofu mojo’’ ($14.95) was a grilled tofu steak with a zesty, oniony tomato sauce. Steak salad on romaine lettuce ($15.95) boasted large morsels of chewy skirt steak, with roasted tomatoes, chickpeas, and gorgonzola. Pulled pork with crisp jicama slaw ($10.95), on a plump, yeasty, homemade bun, which got delightfully soaked with pork juices, was perfect, and a generous and juicy ground sirloin burger, the “channel,’’ on the same wonderful bun, was smoky with thick bacon strips. Fat sweet potato fries with aioli (below) were divine.

Two affable servers wait on the whole cafe. Fridays there’s a rotating DJ, Saturdays live music. There’s talk of expanding to Wednesday nights.

Van Etten, who works in a small kitchen with one other person, is energetic. One Saturday recently, when he had a few minutes on his hands, he took a baking book off the shelf; it opened to brioche doughnuts. He tried them, they were a huge hit, and now they’re on the menu, sprinkled with cinnamon-sugar ($4.50). One night, there were none left, but our waiter managed to get us some cinnamon-covered doughnut holes.

Now you see why I want to move in?



http://www.boston.com/ae/food/restaurants/articles/2009/08/05/channel_cafe_has_plenty_to_offer/

Thursday, August 06, 2009

Sportello Now Open Daily

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Sportello Now Open Daily!
Open Sundays and Offering Continuous Service Beginning Sunday, August 9th



Now there is now a new option for Sunday lunch and dinner in the city! Beginning this Sunday, August 9th, Sportello, Chef Barbara Lynch’s Fort Point restaurant and bakery will be open daily for lunch and dinner. Come check out the summer menu, filled with seasonal favorites including Chilled Tomato Soup with Poached Shrimp and Piperade and Corn Risotto with Chanterelles and Pancetta. To make reservations, please call Sportello, 617.737.1234.


And...

For a quick breakfast, lunch, or dinner to go Sportello’s bakery has plenty of choices, from an egg sandwich with sharp Vermont cheddar, tomatoes confit, and peppery arugula on house-made scali bread or a croissant to freshly baked cupcakes, native blueberry tarts, roasted eggplant parmesean, and a new $10 lunch box (sandwich, beverage, chips, and a cookie)!

Hours of Operation
lunch: 11:30a - 5:30p everyday
dinner: 5:30p-10:00p sun-thurs, 5:30p - 11:00p fri & sat
bakery & retail: 7:00a - 7:00p mon - fri, 11:30a - 7:00p sat & sun

www.sportelloboston.com

Wednesday, August 05, 2009

Dorchester Beach Festival This Saturday



Dorchester Beach Festival
SATURDAY, AUGUST 8th.
11 am - 4 pm
Savin Hill &
Malibu Beaches


For details, see:
dorchesterbeachfestival.com

Tuesday, August 04, 2009

Tonight: South Boston Grows Fundraiser at Harpoon Brewery

Come for fun and drinks in support of South Boston Grows... South Boston Grows is Southie's 1st community garden project and aims to improve community green space and to increase knowledge of growing edible plants with the long term goal of increasing access and exposure to and intake of fresh fruits, vegetables and herbs in South Boston. See you at Harpoon!


Tuesday, August 4, 5:30PM

Harpoon Brewery
306 Northern Ave
Boston, MA 02127 US

Evite

Herald Article on Achilles Closing

Fort Point shop folds as projects stall
By Thomas Grillo | Monday, August 3, 2009 | http://www.bostonherald.com
| Business & Markets

Michael Krupp shut down his Achilles Project, a funky restaurant-
boutique in Boston¹s Fort Point Channel, over the weekend, blaming in
part stalled development projects.

Krupp - whose business combined a designer clothes shop with a cafe
called Persephone - criticized what he called ³local politics and a
lack of congruency among developers² for the failure of the Seaport
District to take off.

³Fort Point was heralded as the next up-and-coming neighborhood, but
nothing has happened,² he said. ³There¹s a half million square feet of
vacant space with no one living in it for no apparent reason. We¹ve
lost lots of jobs in the area and that¹s had an impact on our business.²

Steven Hollinger of the Seaport Alliance for Neighborhood Design, and
a longtime Fort Point resident, said developers can¹t be blamed for an
economy that has stymied demand for office and residential space.

³It¹s hard to make an argument that developers should be doing more
when the economy is preventing them from doing anything,² he said.

Lincoln Property Co.¹s $32 million redevelopment of two vacant
warehouses at 316-322 Summer Street - into 140,100 square feet of
office space with ground floor retail - is on hold until a large
tenant can be found, according to John Miller, Lincoln¹s senior vice
president.

Last fall, the Boston Redevelopment Authority approved the first
residential building within the proposed Seaport Square project on the
South Boston waterfront. The project is expected to include 34 one-
and two-bedroom units in a six-story building with ground-floor
retail. But Gale International, the developer, has been caught in the
credit crunch and the project has stalled.

Some work has moved forward. The Channel Center, a mixed-use property,
recently completed renovations with about 100,000 square feet of space
still available for rent.