Following a summer that saw escalating violence and pervasive drug activity in the Bunker Hill Housing Development, B-SMART — an initiative led by the Office of Human Services that promotes better communication between police, city agencies and community groups in areas designated as “hot spots” for crime — has come to Charlestown.

“We hope what we can do is reengage a partnership between the community and the city,” said Chief of Human Services Larry Mayes, who is overseeing B-SMART. “Each community is unique, and we try to listen to what the community call for.”

B-SMART, or Boston Strategic Multi-Agency Response Teams, is a collaborative effort between street and youth workers, civic leaders, community organizations and the police to identify and remedy problems in specific geographic areas. This unique approach aims to compliment the police work through community policing and making physical improvements to the “hot spot” areas, as well as spearheading positive activities for residents (e.g. job fairs, sports leagues, mentoring/tutoring programs).

Four locations — Eagle Hill in East Boston, the Grove Hall neighborhood in Roxbury and Dorchester, the South End/Lower Roxbury area and the Morton/Talbot corridor in Dorchester and Mattapan — have already implemented B-SMART. The vicinity of the Bunker Hill Housing Development is among four additional sites where the initiative was launched in August and September. Charlestown’s first B-SMART meeting took place on Sept. 13, and future meetings will follow approximately every two weeks. Among those in attendance at the first meeting, one issue was on everyone’s minds: the drug epidemic that Charlestown now faces.

“We are working with the Boston Public Health Commission to look closely at the issue of substance abuse as well as reentry [by recovering addicts into society],” Mayes said.

The B-SMART initiative comes at a time when many people are becoming vocal about problems in the community; an Aug. 16 meeting of the Charlestown Neighborhood Council Public Safety Committee drew nearly 75 residents who all wanted to share their concerns about crime in Charlestown.

“A lot of people are complaining and want to make sure their complaints are heard,” said Mike Farma, director of the Charlestown Community Center and an active member of B-SMART in Charlestown. Farma cited “drugs, overdoses and the potential for violence” among the most common complaints he has heard from residents.

Meanwhile, Beth Goldberger, director of the Charlestown Substance Abuse Coalition, sees B-SMART as an effective way to facilitate the problem-solving process.

“It’s great to have everyone around the same table because it improves the flow of information, allows us to expedite a possible remedy and work together on a solution,” she said. “It’s really a welcome opportunity and a unique gesture coming from the Office of Human Services.”

And Captain Bernie O’Rourke of the Boston Police Department is happy that the police are getting some much-needed help in the campaign against crime in Charlestown.

“As the police, we kind of get stuck with everything,” O’Rourke said. “This will get us some help from a collaborative effort that uses all city agencies to target hot spots.”

Christina Bauer is dressed in a black suit, colorful blouse, Kate Spade purse and colorful and cutting edge heels. She’s dressed in the armor of the modern-day heroine, and she’s the author of a new novel aimed at girls who want to conquer worlds of their own.

Bauer has written “The Pirate Queen,” a book that blends fantasy and history to bring alive a story of a young girl who is struggling with the death of her mother and is unsure of her own gifts and how to use them.

The book focuses on Jessica Ross, a 13-year old whose mother recently died and whose father’s job has meant that Jessica and her younger brother Jake have lived out of suitcases for two years, before moving into a rented house in Westport, Ireland. Jessica is haunted by a mysterious and insistent vision of a woman who implores her to “help me find my treasure.”

Jessica’s search leads her to an older women who helps her find the strength to confront her fears, and to actively take charge of her life: Selma Mairéad, owner of a bookstore named Charon’s Crossing.

As Jessica begins to master her fears, the commanding figure from her nightmares turns out to be Grace O’Malley, an Irish pirate (or privateer, depending on one’s point of view) and leader of the clan O’Malley in 16th century Ireland.

With the guidance from Selma and Grace, through a series of adventures that test her intellectually, morally and emotionally, Jessica struggles with grief for her mother, battles her own fears and learns not only to rely on herself but also to trust other people.

The book was drawn in part from Bauer’s memories of hunting the library for books about women she could look upon as role models as a 12 year old..

“There were books on nurses and saints, and one book about Amelia Earhart,” said Bauer. “I was so excited. I read it and found out she died, and nobody knows what happened. I was so disappointed.”

Many years later, when Bauer founded her own Internet company, Mindful Technologies, her search for role models continued. As Bauer began to sift through history for strong women as role models, she found herself drawn to Grace O’Malley, leader of the Clan O’Malley.

“Grace was a great inspiration, incredibly resourceful. [She lived] in the 1500s when Queen Elizabeth was on the throne, and three quarters of Ireland was ruled by Great Britain” she said.

Bauer became fascinated by the challenges that faced Grace and her abilities as a leader. Early in Grace’s career, the English aimed to cut off Clan O’Malley’s ocean access to Galway, the major port and trade city in Ireland.

“Grace’s fleet consisted of broad and shallow oar-driven ships, built to carry large cargo back and forth along the coast to Galway,” said Bauer, adding that it was a time of technological revolution with the appearance of “tall ships” with massive sails.

She said that the odds were that the O’Malley Clan would be crushed and its people displaced. “But Grace had a choice about deserting her people and she stayed, she fought and she was successful,” said Bauer, explaining that Grace started her own toll-taking business, a legitimate practice of the time. If a ship didn’t have safe passage, the toll-takers would take a cut of the cargo as a toll.

Later in life, Bauer was inspired again when it appeared that Grace had lost her talents when she was in her sixties. But Grace persevered, and through a friend, found her way into Queen Elizabeth’s court. Within three months, Grace cut through layers of bureaucracy and met with Queen Elizabeth and negotiated herself back into power: Grace got her son out of jail, became a state-endorsed pirate who could attack non-British ship, and had Bingham, the English governor of Ireland who had taken her property, thrown in jail.

This example of a resourceful woman helped Bauer handle her next challenge.

“Mindful Technology closed,” said Bauer. “I had been working 14 hours a day, and suddenly, I had all this time on my hands. New England was in the depths [of the Internet bubble meltdown] and I began writing for myself.”

Although Bauer began the book with no plans to publish it, with the encouragement from friends and family, Bauer contacted publishers and soon had a signed book deal. Bauer recalled that early experience with Amelia Earhart, and set out to write a book that would use the fantasy genre to portray Grace’s strengths in a way that young girls could empathize with. Bauer said she wanted to “explain in a fantasy way in a book.”

Bauer feels strongly that there is a difference in the tale of the hero and the tale of the heroine. Bauer said that often writers “just put a hero in a bustier” and that just doesn’t ring true.

“Male energy is that you do something, like Luke Skywalker, and you become something along the way and at the end of the journey,” said Bauer.
“Female energy is when you are something and you find that you must do something, that you have to stay true to your heart.”

Where to find “The Pirate Queen”

“The Pirate Queen” is the first in a series of five books called the “Timewalker Journeys” aimed at kids between ages 9 and 13.

Copies of “The Pirate Queen” are available at the Charlestown Public Library, and for purchase at Barnes and Noble at Downtown Crossing and on the Web at amazon.com.

If all goes well, Charlestown may become known as Boston’s artists’ colony.

The Boston Redevelopment Authority has come up with the idea of transforming the Navy Yard’s historic Ropewalk building into galleries and work spaces for painters, furniture makers, photographers, graphic designers, musicians, video producers, playwrights and other artists. A museum celebrating the building’s days of making rope would also incorporated into the plans. BRA officials, who have studied a similar adaptation of the Torpedo Factory Art Center in Alexandria, Va., into artists’ studios, call the new use a “creative incubator.” But the plan itself is still in the incubator stage.

“We’ve only been seriously thinking about this since last November,” said Sonal Gandhi, manager of the project for the BRA.

The Ropewalk building has been a hard sell to some developers. At a quarter mile long and 45 feet wide, it has been difficult even for old hands at adaptive reuse to imagine how it might be reconfigured. This idea, if it comes to fruition, appears to make good use of the existing spaces. It would transform one of the last Navy Yard buildings from an empty shell into a hub of activity.

The granite-faced, brick Ropewalk building was built between 1834 and 1838 from the plans of Alexander Parris, the chief architect of the Navy Yard and of several other significant Boston buildings. It lies to the right of Chelsea Street as one heads to the Mystic River. From the Navy Yard, it appears dwarfed by the Tobin Bridge.

From 1838 to 1970, workers in this building made most of the rope used by the United States Navy. The building has been largely unoccupied for more than 30 years. The Boston Redevelopment Authority acquired it and its satellite building, the Tar House, in 1973 when it took over the rest of the Navy Yard. Plans call for the Tar House to also undergo renovation, but with possible environmental hazards, its rebirth could be more complicated, according to Gandhi.

The timetable for the transformation has not yet been determined, said Gandhi, although she expects it will take more than five years for a full build-out to occur.

Nor has funding been identified.

“We’ll do creative financing,” said Mayor Thomas M. Menino, who along with BRA Director Mark Maloney, Gandhi and other officials, took artists and journalists on a tour of the building on Monday afternoon. “This won’t be one grant. We’ll look at financial institutions and a lot of national organizations.”

Artists say they are interested. Mark Del Guidice lives in Roslindale and has had to establish his furniture-making studio in Norwood, where he occupies part of an old industrial building. He has been unable to find suitable, affordable space within the Boston city limits. He said it is for certain that he would move his operation into the building if the plan succeeds.

Laidlaw Educational Services has moved its charter bus venture to the Sullivan Square property where the company previously stored school buses.

“Basically, we run charter buses for churches, colleges, public and private schools,” said Robert Timilty, Laidlaw’s district manager for central New England operations. He added that the buses now based out of the site at 66 Cambridge St. transport students from the inner city to public schools in Marblehead, Needham and Newton.

Laidlaw of Naperville, Ill., provided bus service for the Boston Public Schools out of the Cambridge Street site before First Student, Inc. took over the contract in the fall of 2003. First Student chose to base its buses out of the Autoport at that time. Meanwhile, Laidlaw had leased the Sullivan Square property through June 2008 from Everett-based Owens Movers, and was unable to lease or sublease it, according to Timilty. After the Cambridge Street property lay vacant for nearly two years, Laidlaw opted to withdraw from another site it was leasing in West Roxbury and move its bus operation back to Sullivan Square on Sept. 1.

The Cambridge Street property was the source of some contention between First Student and the Charlestown Neighborhood Council earlier this year. In a contract between First Student and the CNC dated Nov. 3, 2003, First Student said it would consider moving to the Sullivan Square property if it became available. Edward Owens, owner of Owens Movers, said he would be willing to negotiate a long-term lease for the property, but First Student’s attorney Howard Speicher said before the CNC in June that the site was inadequate for a number of reasons, including its size and the school system’s resistance to the move.

The Charlestown Armory, the site of battle drills during WWII and dances on the eve of Bunker Hill Day, is once again the focus of activity. Since the Boston Redevelopment Authority issued a Request for Proposals on Aug. 18, so many developers have expressed interest in the property — and a need for more time to create plans —that the deadline for submission has been pushed forward two weeks to Tuesday, Nov. 1, 2005 at noon.

The RFP, which sets out the requirements for the armory design to potential developers, states that the building will be converted to an estimated 30 – 45 residential units, with at least 15 percent of the total residential units affordable to moderate-income and middle-income households per the city’s guidelines.

The building will fuse the old and the new; potential developers are required to preserve the building’s exterior, from its Georgian Revival ornamentation to matching the mortar and roofing materials. The RFP also calls for the developer to incorporate sustainable design/green principles under the LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Green Building Rating System, a national standard for developing environmentally responsible buildings.

And while the armory will serve a new purpose, the RFP states that the developer must retain the name “Charlestown Armory” or “Charlestown Battalion Armory” to memorialize the building’s historic character.

The RFP states that a public meeting will be scheduled for “qualified development teams to present their proposals to the community for input…[during the] fall/winter.” The BRA will then select a developer and the Article 80 Large Project review process will begin with the presentation of the plans to the community.

The Boston Public Library deeded the property to the BRA in June 2005 so it could manage the development process. While the BRA will retain ownership of the land and sell the development rights, there are some unusual arrangements.

“[The BRA’s] 2 percent will not apply to the armory because we want to maximize the profit for the new archives,” said Shumaker, referring to the standard percentage that the BRA receives when a unit is sold in a building that has been developed under BRA policies.

Shumaker added that the project will follow the Article 80 “large project” review process per the Boston Zoning Code, which requires that development projects be reviewed through a public process to determine the impact on the community.

The RFP can be purchased for $500 at the BRA in the Secretary’s Office, Ninth Floor, Boston City Hall. The fee will not be waived until the proposal deadline has passed, although a copy is available for review at the BRA office. Photographs of the Armory are available at
http://cityofboston.gov/bra/downloadfiles/ArmoryPhotosfor28April2005RFPMeeting.pdf, and BRA Notes from meeting(s) before the Charlestown Neighborhood Council development subcommittee are stored at http://cityofboston.gov/bra/downloadfiles/NotesfromCharlestownArmoryHousingRFPCommunityMeeting.pdf

For additional information, contact BRA spokesperson Jessica Shumaker at 617.918.4446.

New life for city buildings helps preserve city’s history

by Alexandra Bowers

The sale of the Charlestown Armory — a minimum bid of $3 million is specified in the Request for Proposals — is part of a complicated property transaction that will fund the consolidation of the city archives, Boston Public Library storage facilities and the Arborway Pole Yard into a single entity called the City of Boston Heritage Center. The center’s new home, the Keyspan building on Rivermoor Street in West Roxbury, was bought for $8.5 million with the anticipated proceeds from the sale of the Armory and other properties.

The Charlestown Armory and a Boston Public Library book storage building in Norwood will be sold to fund the new center for approximately $3 million each.

The building that houses the Boston Public Library's "New England Deposit Library" in Allston is owned by Harvard University, which paid the BPL $2 million to end its lease early, according to Jessica Shumaker, a spokesperson for the Boston Redevelopment Authority.

The Arborway Pole Yard in Jamaica Plain may be moved to the 10-acre Rivermoor site, so that the Pole Yard acreage becomes available to the city, said Tom Miller, director of economic development at the BRA.

The Hemenway School, which currently houses the city’s archives, will be returned to the school department once the archives have moved.

“The Hemenway School in Hyde Park gives the city another school, [possibly] a pre-K,” said Shumaker, adding that creating new housing, consolidating the archives and moving the pole yard will free up city resources. “It’s a win for the city all around.”

In preparation for his recent transfer to the combined parishes communities of St. Mary’s and St. Catherine’s, Fr. Linh Nguyen (pronounced “lin whin”) made an advance visit to Charlestown. He knew he had been properly welcomed to his new assignment when he left his meeting and found his car was gone — he later found it at the city’s tow lot.

Since joining these parishes in July as their new parochial vicar, Fr. Linh’s life has been busy and challenging. “I’m here to help people grow spiritually,” emphasized Fr. Linh. Saying that he is not here to tell people what to do, Fr. Linh stressed that he “wants to talk with people on whatever journey they are on,” and hopes these walks will be (or lead to) journeys of faith.

Though just 34 years old and on only his second parish assignment since being ordained a priest in 2000, Fr. Linh’s life has certainly been filled with significant personal journeys. Born and raised near what was then the South Vietnamese city of Saigon (now called Ho Chi Minh City in North Vietnam), Fr. Linh believes the struggles of his early life and his immigrant history might make him more understanding and able to identify with the various needs of people in an urban community.

Fr. Linh is the second oldest of five children. His family lived in dire poverty in Vietnam. The Nguyen family lived in a one-room house made of straw and mud. The house had no stove, no refrigerator, no running water, no heat and no privacy. The house also lacked a bathroom. There was no such thing as a sewage system. And whenever there was a storm, the family’s mud house would cave in.

His family held multiple jobs, doing whatever they could to make a living. Fr. Linh’s parents valued the importance of learning, so Fr. Linh always attended school. But even school was filled with challenges. After a half-day of classes, Fr. Linh and his classmates were required to sort through garbage at the local dump so that it could be recycled. Fr. Linh had to do this most every day beginning when he was ten years old. After collecting his required amount, he would go home to work with his family.

In 1979, a few years after the fall of Saigon to the Communists, Fr. Linh’s family tried to escape Vietnam by boat. The family saved all they could and then spent every dime they had for seats on a boat. But boat trip payments were required in advance, and on the day the Nguyen family was due to escape, their boat captain had left with their money — but without them.

The Nguyen family finally made it out of Vietnam in 1985. But the family’s next stop was at a squalid refugee camp in the Philippines. For one year, Fr. Linh’s seven family members were crammed into living quarters about five feet wide and fifteen feet long with about thirteen other people. Fr. Linh describes life in his refugee camp as simply “terrible.”

Finally, an aunt of Fr. Linh’s who was a nun in the United States was able to sponsor the family and get them to the U.S. through a Catholic Charities program. Fr. Linh arrived in Boston at age 15. The family first lived in a dark, damp basement unit in Dorchester, but later they moved to an above-ground apartment. But, soon after the family moved to this new apartment, they were robbed. Everything the Nguyens owned was stolen expect for a few articles of clothing.

Fr. Linh’s family would not give up. Fr. Linh described his family as always loving and supportive. They all kept working, saving and persevering together. Eventually, the family saved enough money to buy a double-decker house in Dorchester.

Fr. Linh enrolled at Cathedral High School in Boston, and after graduation, he enrolled at the University of Massachusetts in Lowell to study chemical engineering. Although he always wanted to be a priest for as long as he could remember, teachers advised Fr. Linh to attend college and take some more time to think about the priesthood. “College was a time of soul searching for me, and I did not find satisfaction in chemical engineering studies,” Fr. Linh said.

Less than two years later, Fr. Linh followed his heart and enrolled at St. John’s Seminary. “I had wanted to be a priest since I was very young, but I could not explain why,” said Fr. Linh “Even now, I can’t fully explain why I wanted to be a priest, except that I want to be a follower of Christ. I want to help people and to share with them their joys and sorrow.” Fr. Linh stressed that he really wants “to help people have a purpose in life and to help people live the Gospel.”

Since arriving in Charlestown, Fr. Linh has experienced some pleasant surprises. Charlestown is a great neighborhood and has a great location,” stated Fr, Linh But his new Charlestown assignment does present some challenges. Here he is assigned to two churches, each with a proud past and an uncertain future. This is different than his first assignment in East Weymouth, where he served in one parish with a strong structure in place.

Fr. Linh noted that his first two months in Charlestown have involved a lot of “social ministry.” He hopes to be able to reach out to the community’s families, and especially to the youth. He intends to participate in various civic activities in town, and ultimately wants to see more people participating in their faith. Fr. Linh said he hopes he can “be a sign of Christ and give a healing touch. I hope to be a spiritual leader and to bring unity to the community.” One way for Fr. Linh to do this basic priestly ministry, he said, “is to be with people and listen to them.”

According to Fr. James Ronan, the pastor of two Charlestown parishes, Fr. Linh works well with people. “While Fr. Linh has been with us just a short period of time, his presence has been very positive in a number of different ways,” said Fr. Ronan. “He has a friendly and gentle style with people. He is an excellent listener,” noted the pastor, and Fr. Linh “has a wonderful sense of humor and is a man of deep faith.”

Fr. Linh says that despite its challenges, “I love my priesthood. I want to be a stamp of Christ. I want to imprint Christ on others. That is what my priesthood is all about.”

City councilor-at-large has turned out to be a popular office to run for this year. We are not endorsing anyone yet. We will interview the eight candidates left standing for the November general election and make our recommendations on Oct. 25.

The reason we’re declining to endorse in the preliminary election is the sheer number of candidates. It has been our practice in our Beacon Hill newspaper to ask neighbors to help us interview candidates. Then, we agree as to whom to endorse. That is the method we intended to follow in Charlestown.
But with 15 candidates running for the office, giving them one hour each, as we typically do, it would take two full days. It is hard enough to find neighbors who are free to interview for one day, let alone two.

We considered interviewing them in twos and threes, but when we have done that in the past, it has seemed unfair to candidates who might not be voluble, but who, in a private setting, might have thoughtful remarks. Allotting less time to the candidates didn’t appear fair to them either.

So we decided to describe the candidates and let them make their own statements in this preliminary election. Their statements accomplish part of the mission we believe a newspaper needs to fulfill; the statements and short bios help us introduce you to the candidates and give some sense of the kind of person they are, the beliefs they hold and their strategy for accomplishing their goals.

Complicating matters is that we’re not really sure there are 15 candidates running. It has been hard to contact a couple of them. One candidate not on the official list said he is running a write-in campaign. We’ve met many of the candidates, since they tend to drop by neighborhood newspaper offices. Some are smart, some are lovable, some are nutty, some are sophisticated. In short, they represent the full range of human attributes.

Voting for leaders reminds us of how important good leaders are. Let’s take the Red Sox. It turns out that there was no curse, only bad leadership. For years that team floundered, struggled and settled for a near miss.

Then came the new owners, who make good decisions about everything, from staff to players to keeping Fenway Park. They appear sensible and sensitive. Not only did they produce one winning team, but they may produce another one.

It’s hard for an outsider to identify all the factors that have made the new and improved Red Sox the success that they are. But we have one request for the owners: Could you please invite whoever wins the city council race — in fact, invite all the city councilors — over to Fenway and talk about how you did it? Helping Boston’s leaders learn to lead may help Boston more in the long run than winning all those games.