A group of Charlestown residents silently opposed the decisions of the Boston Redevelopment Authority board meeting regarding the Pier 5 project last Thursday afternoon. The board did not allow public comments on the project. (Photo by A. Bowers)

It was smooth sailing for the developer of the Pier 5 project, an 85-unit luxury condominium complex in the Charlestown Navy Yard, as the Boston Redevelopment Authority board approved all its requests last Thursday afternoon while Charlestown residents sat silently watching the proceedings.

“The Article 80 process started more than two years ago,” said Geoff Lewis, the BRA project manager assigned to the Pier 5 project, referring to the city’s design review process for large projects. “It’s an important project for the city and the Charlestown Navy Yard, and the city’s waterfront.”

Lewis said that the project would benefit the public by adding 1,400 linear feet to the HarborWalk and one acre of new public space at the pier’s end.

The developer, LDA Acquisitions, a New York-based real estate firm owned by Martin Oliner, was represented by John A. Brennan, Jr., president of The Brennan Group, a consulting and lobbying firm.

Brennan and the architect gave the board a brief overview of the project, including the elimination of the original 21-slip marina, the removal of the existing pier and the $1 million contribution to the city’s Inclusionary Development Policy in lieu of including affordable housing on the site.

The BRA board had few comments or questions on the project, with Chairman Clarence J. Jones, leaving the room during the architect’s presentation, and Michael Taylor, BRA board member and a Navy Yard quartermaster’s son, suggesting that a monument be built to mark the pier’s historical nature.

The developer provided the BRA with a preliminary sketch of the project plan and its mix of residential and public uses and a “draft project impact report” that summarized how the project will change the area in terms of winds, shadows, traffic and general environment, and asked the board to approve the project.

The BRA approved the developer’s draft project impact report, which effectively ends the Article 80 review process, and issued a certificate confirming that the Article 80 review is complete. The project will still be subject to ongoing design review — similar to a home inspection contingency in a purchase and sale agreement for a home.

The board’s decision did not sit well with community activists who said that the luxury condo project is not suitable for the site and that the BRA and the developer have ignored community concerns.

“I know for a fact that Starbucks takes more time and effort in choosing a corner coffee shop,” said Michael Parker, chair of the Friends of the Charlestown Navy Yard. “We commented three times on this project in official letters, and the proponent [LDA Acquisitions] didn’t respond to any of the substantive comments except to make the project bigger.”

The developer asked the BRA to certify that the project — similar to residential housing where a home’s footprint must have a certain ratio to the lot — has the open space mandated by the Municipal Harbor Plan. The BRA certification means that the board pledges that after the project is built, the Navy Yard will still be 50 percent open space. The state’s Executive Office of Environmental Affairs will enforce the state’s Chapter 91 mandate, which protect the public’s right to access and enjoy the waterfront.

There may be an issue because opponents contend that Parcel 1C, which is being counted by the Pier 5 project as open space, has already been counted by the Flagship Wharf project.

“That’s the purview of the state, and the state obviously will put it through a more rigorous process than the BRA,” said Parker. “Whenever there is a bifurcated process, the BRA relies on the state to come back and make the decision.”

The developer asked that the city enter into a housing contribution payment agreement where the developer will pay $1 million into the city’s housing fund so that no affordable housing units in the development. The BRA board approved the request.

The developer asked that the city sign off on a license that states the project satisfies Chapter 91 regulations. The BRA approved the request.

Upon the BRA board’s approval, the next step is for the project to be sent to the state’s EOEA office for review. Community activists have now placed their hopes in the state’s interpretations of the regulations.

“The whole issue of public process with the BRA, just the way they completely ignore the community,” said Parker, referencing to the project’s increase in units from 59 to 85 and the plan to completely remove the old pier. “Now they go back to the state, and I hope [the state] holds true to their previous statements on this project, including cars driving over the HarborWalk and that Chapter 91 regulations haven’t been adhered to,” said Parker.

Design plans for the new police station, including the lot lines for the parcel it will share with the Charlestown Recovery House, were unveiled at last week’s Charlestown Preservation Society meeting.

“We were impressed with the project and the work that’s gone into it,” said CPS member Bill Lamb. “We think it’s a valuable addition to Charlestown, especially to Hayes Square.”

The two-story 19,000 square-foot, L-shaped building, with an estimated cost of $9.8 million, will be built on the site of the temporary police station in Hayes Square. The facility will be built largely of red brick, cast stone and glass. A community room will be located on its second floor above the pedestrian entrance. A service area will also be located on the premises, where all police cars from Area A-1 will gas up.

Construction could begin by late fall or early winter and is expected to take between 12 and 18 months to complete. HKT Architects Inc. of Somerville was selected as the architect for the project.

Perhaps the biggest revelation that came out of the July 17 meeting was the lot lines for the parcel, which the police station will share with the Charlestown Recovery House.

Pat Brophy, the assistant director for the City of Boston Public Facilities Department who is overseeing the project, said the Boston Redevelopment Authority was supportive of the proposed lot lines for the parcel, which the police station will share with the Charlestown Recovery House. The next step is for the BRA to formally approve the land distribution, which Brophy said he hopes will happen before the end of August.

In addition, Brophy said that Recovery House co-founder Jim Travers is also pleased with the land distribution. The police station and the Recovery House will be built simultaneously, he said.

Another concern addressed at the meeting was that the police station would retain the architectural flavor of Hayes Square, including the “acorn” lampposts that adorn Vine Street. “We certainly want to maintain the flavor of the neighborhood,” Brophy assured CPS representatives.

The next step is for the Charlestown Neighborhood Council to review the project at its Sept. 5 meeting. Brophy said he anticipates that the CNC could approve the project by October.

The fallen fruit of an apple tree dots the small square of land tucked behind Elm Street, which is a source of disagreement between a developer, abutters, the fire department and city and state interpretations of public safety.

The dispute involves two parcels in Lincoln Place that are boxed in by houses except for a narrow public street, which is sandwiched between two buildings. The parcels are controlled by George Georges of the Georges Company, a developer who hopes to build two homes on the lot.

But abutters are concerned the property’s history. In the 1950s, two homes burned to the ground when the fire department was unable to reach them.

The City of Boston’s Zoning Board of Appeals had refused to approve the project based on the Boston Fire Department’s determination that the street leading into Lincoln Place is too narrow for fire trucks to access.

Georges appealed the city’s decision to the Executive Office of Public Safety at the State Board of Building Regulations and Standards.

“I filed the plans to build two houses with the City of Boston,” said Georges, adding that the parcels met all zoning requirements and the fire department brought up the issue of access. “The board of appeals would not grant variances. I applied to the state board, and they overrode the board of appeals.”

The EOPS approved a request by the Georges Company to build homes on land at its meeting on July 18.

The decision does not sit well with some abutters or the Boston Fire Department.

Paul McNally said that when he bought his home at 43 Green St. in 1981, the effects of the fire were still visible.

“The exterior wall is asphalt shingles…and the flames had scorched the entire wall,” he said, adding that the wooden homes that abut the property were built around 1860 and if there were a fire, “the block would go up like a matchstick.”

Lt. Paul Glora, an engineer with the Fire Marshal’s office at the Boston Fire Department, reviews project plans to ensure they adhere to city and state codes.

“The city [regulation] is 20 feet in what we call ‘wall to wall,’” said Lt. Glora, referring to the minimum width required for fire vehicles. Lt. Glora added the state requirement is 18 feet, while the street width is 10 feet in the plans submitted by the developer.

“We have fire trucks that we need to get down there, especially ladder trucks, and they will not fit in that lane,” said Lt. Glora.

The state board did not address the vehicle access issue, but did apply fire prevention requirements to the project.

“A stipulation is that the building is to be constructed out of non-combustable materials and that it be fully sprinkled with an NFPA-13 system,” said Kelly Nantel, spokesperson for the Department of Public Safety. “There is also an amendment that the location of the fire hydrant would be relocated in consultation with the fire department.”

“It is zoned for building [use] and the appellants had documentation of zoning as well as a letter from the Department of Public Works stating that the street is a city street and it is in compliance with their regulations,” said Nantel.

The motion for appeal was granted on July 18, with the formal written statement available in 30 days, said Nantel.

Georges and the BFD are both weighing their alternatives.

“When I get a copy of the decision then I can determine what’s going to happen next,” said Georges. “I’m aware of the concerns of the neighbors.”

“The same information was presented to city as the state,” said Lt. Glora. “The state overrode the city ruling. Everybody was pretty surprised at the decision that they made, which we didn’t feel was the right one.”

Lt. Glora said his department is concerned with public safety and is exploring their options.

“If something happens in those houses, if somebody is trapped on the second floor, the quickest way is for a truck to get in there and use the ladder,” said Lt. Glora. “If there’s a fire, we can’t get in there to perform a rescue.”

Charlestown has experienced a sharp increase in burglaries during the past three months, leading to two arrests to date.

Around six residential burglaries were committed during May and in early June, all of which occurred while residents were home and sleeping, said Captain Bernie O’Rourke of Boston Police Area A-1. Police were able to link the crimes to an individual who was recently released from jail, and a stolen credit card was traced back to him. While he wasn’t charged with the break-ins, the suspect was arrested for receiving stolen property on June 6.

A second individual was arrested on July 13 in connection with a second series of burglaries. Captain O’Rourke described these crimes as more standard break-ins, where the perpetrator entered unoccupied homes often through an unlocked door or some other unsecured entrance.

The most recent wave of burglaries targeted commercial establishments, rather than residences. June saw an increase in commercial break–ins, and in the current month, three of the four burglaries that were reported as of July 18 were commercial. Recent break-ins were committed at a Medford Street pizza parlor, an Arlington Street restaurant as well as construction sites in the Navy Yard and other Charlestown neighborhoods.

Copper wire was stolen in several from several construction sites, apparently following a trend that has become commonplace throughout the city. “We’ve seen a lot of [copper theft] in all parts of the city,” Captain O’Rourke said.

Despite these incidents, burglaries are actually on the decline from last year. A total of 51 burglaries were reported between Jan. 1 and June 11, 2006, compared with 57 during the same period last year.

The 2006 Boston Gun Buyback program ended last week, bringing in 1,000 operational firearms from all parts of the city.

“We’re not going to allow our streets to be overrun by violence and fear,” Mayor Thomas M. Menino said. “If we had those 1,000 guns on the street, think of what could happen.”

The program, which ran from June 12 to July 14, awarded a $200 Target gift card in exchange for each operational firearm. Guns were accepted at eight police stations throughout the city, including the Area A-1 police station on New Sudbury Street. It couldn’t be determined how many guns came from Charlestown since weapons weren’t accepted at the Charlestown substation. In addition, the number of guns collected at the Area A-1 station wasn’t available at press time.

The guns will all be melted down after testing is conducted on each weapon to determine if it was used in a crime. Non-functioning guns and antiquated firearms, such as muskets, were accepted but not compensated for or included in the tally.

The mayor announced that the gun hotline at 888-GUN-TIPS (486-8477) would remain active for the next few weeks.

A friend remembers a time in his life when he was in despair. His washing machine stopped running. The shower began to leak. A cabinet door hinge wasn’t working right. He needed a new briefcase and a new car. To top it all off, he had to go to Mass Eye and Ear to have an infected gland removed.

These things weren’t tragedies. And with attention, things got fixed. A repairman came for the washing machine. A plumber repaired the leak and the plumber’s friend fixed the plaster that had been damaged. His wife fiddled with the cabinet door, and it worked. Then she traded in their old car for a new one. He came through the operation all right. Finally, he got a new briefcase.

Right now Bostonians feel like our friend felt before he attended to his problems. We’re in despair.

It’s not only the Big Dig ceiling tragedy, although that would be enough in itself to put us over the edge. The city has understandably halted street repairs and construction so traffic will be backed up as little as possible. That leaves construction vehicles, jersey barriers and orange cones littering half a dozen major thoroughfares.

It’s not all traffic related. Violent crime is up. We can’t persuade any qualified person to come to Boston and lead our public schools. About 30 percent of the trees planted so far on the new Greenway are dead. The air conditioners on the commuter trains and the new Silver Line buses didn’t work on some of the hottest days of the year. Speaking of the Silver Line, we are at an impasse caused partly, we suspect, by Orwellian T officials who insult the transit-riding public by calling a bus that is stuck in traffic like every other vehicle “rapid” transit.

We can’t muster the courage to pay for an underground Urban Ring that would connect jobs and transportation hubs and outlying communities to one another. We say no to wind farms and nuclear energy, all the while insisting on heat and air conditioning, not to mention the electricity that runs our computers and recharges our cell phones. The shambles in which we are living right now isn’t helped by Boston’s perennial condition: dirty streets, a 40-year homeless problem that remains unsolved, and patronage-plagued agencies and departments where honesty, energy and efficiency are scorned.

This depressing picture isn’t helped by July’s heat and humidity and the prospect of a couple more years of “leadership” by the cadre of warlords who run our country.

So how do we get to the other side, where our problems are fixed and we are hopeful about the outcomes?

Like our friend, we attack them one by one. Also like our friend, we enlist some help from some effective people, if we can identify them. Our friend didn’t need leaders, but we do.

We need leadership that is not intent on finding scapegoats or targeting people. Good leadership needs to have a long-term vision that shows us where we are going and gives all the citizenry a sense of what we are working toward. It also needs to have the capacity for short-term nuts-and-bolts problem solving.

We haven’t had such leadership for more than a decade at the state’s executive level, although in the beginning we had high hopes for this administration. Over that time span, we’ve also had a vacuum in several city departments. We urge Mayor Thomas M. Menino to be swift about filling the police commissioner’s job and the public works department chief’s tenure. Joe Casazza is still there, even though he has resigned, because there is no replacement yet. We urge Governor Romney to stop seizing this tragedy as a way to bolster his chances for national office and actually create a vision that all of us can get behind to make life better in our city and our state. Only that kind of leadership will fix all that is broken.

Real estate sales

Charlestown remains one of the hottest and among the most expensive neighborhoods in Boston.

This is not exactly a newsflash.

Yet last week, a Charlestown property located at 52-56 Roland St. – which is the part of Charlestown that abuts the Somerville line just off of Washington Street behind Neptune liquors – sold for $19,400,000.

It is a grouping of industrial buildings.

No details were yet available on what plans – if any – the new owners have for the sprawling properties.

Add to that sale, the recent sales of four residential properties in “greater” Charlestown, which all went for more than $1 million.

To my mind, $1 million is still a large amount of cash any way you choose to view it. Considering the centuries that passed before Charlestown property became valuable, these sales are made to look all the more spectacular.

A residence located at 8 Monument Avenue went for $1,457,000. At 56 Ninth St. over by the water, a condo unit sold for $1,349,000. Five years ago, that unit would have sold for half that price.

On 24 Common St., a residence sold for $1,200,000 while a residence on Wood Street sold for $1,060,000.

Better yet, seven condos on Eighth Street were sold for a total of approximately $3 million dollars in one fell swoop.

How’s that for a bad real estate market?

Tugboats and Charlestown

Most people living outside of Charlestown don’t think of Charlestown as a port city or a harbor town, but it is.

Last week, a Seattle company, Foss Maritime, a Washington state-based marine-services company with the largest fleet of tugs and barges on the American West Coast, acquired Constellation Tug Company of Charlestown.

Constellation currently operates four tugs and three barges, out of its location on the Charlestown shore on the Mystic River.

The leaders of Constellation – Conti Coluntino, Jeff Nichols and Bob Manning are staying on with the new company.

Marc Villa, a partner at Constellation, has been named the president of the company.

Foss Maritime was started in 1889. It operates tugs and barges on both the East Coast and the West Coast.

Greece ruled the seas

There was a time, long before the rise of Rome- in fact – 400 years before Rome existed – when the Greek s ruled the world.

With their navy back then, they conquered the world and set up a system that was the envy of the ancients as the Greek Empire allowed mankind to flourish.

That, very briefly being said, the Greeks are coming to town with two of their frigates on an honorary stopover in Boston – and some of us from the Patriot-Bridge have been invited to attend tours on the HS Agean and the HS Prometheus.

In addition, we have been invited to take part in the Laying of a Wreath Ceremony which will take place at the Korean War Monument in Charlestown to pay tribute to the men and women of the Greek and the United States Armed Forces who served side by side in defending democracy and freedom in Korea and other parts of the world.

That ceremony will take place at the monument - located between First Avenue and Eighth Street – on Saturday, July 29, at 6 p.m.

The Community Attitudes Committee of the Charlestown Substance Abuse Coalition sends appreciation to the entire community for its response to the "Charlestown ...Committed to Change" Pledge Campaign. We are pleased that so many have taken the pledge and are proudly wearing their wristbands as a display of solidarity. They include so far: the Charlestown Neighborhood Council, CHAD, participants and teams of the Charlestown Soap Box Derby, the Charlestown Boys & Girls Advisory Board, all who attend the CHAD March, BSMART members, Charlestown Health Center Staff, Charlestown Neighborhood Watch Coalition, many families in attendance at the CHAD family cookout at Eden Street Park, residents and shoppers at Johnnies's Foodmaster on a rainy weekday evening and last but not least, the members of Life Focus Center, who also donated their time to put together the resource bags, as well as the residents and staff of the Zelma Lacey House.

This has been a tremendous effort so far, and we have more to do. Currently, more than 340 Charlestown adults and over 260 youth have pledged and are wearing "Charlestown...Committed to Change" wristbands. We are encouraged by all of you.

To participate in the momentum, everyone will have opportunity to participate in the pledge at: National Night Out at Doherty Park (The Bunka) on Tuesday, Aug. 1, and at the Charlestown Health Center lobby throughout the summer. We would also welcome the opportunity to share the pledge with your group or organization. To arrange this, please contact Beth at 617-726-6684.

Again, we hope to have all children and adults in Charlestown commit to a show of solidarity. Follow up to our previous articles will include weekly sharing of thoughts and ideas about various ways that you can act on the pledge commitments. We also welcome ideas and stories of your own. Please share your events or experiences with us at info@csac-chad.org or at 617-726-6684.

Speaking of Participation, the first promise of the pledge. Participation is to be active, to engage. This means and should mean different things to each of us. It could mean:

• Being more active in the lives of your children


• Being active in the lives of Charlestown's children...be a mentor, tutor, coach


• Joining a community organization


• Attending meetings


• Creating a Neighborhood Watch on your street


• Participate in community-wide events.

• 4-8 p.m. National Night Out Celebration at Doherty Park. Sponsored by the Charlestown Neighborhood Watch Coalition.


• 6-8:30 p.m. Rutherford/Union Park Neighborhood Crime Watch Celebration: Get to know your neighbors.


• 8:30 p.m. (dusk) to dawn "Charlestown Lights the Night": As a gesture of solidarity.