Playing back her dramatic fire rescue – ‘I was just lucky, so lucky,’ she says
By Milton J. Valencia – Globe Staff / April 9, 2010

They found her engulfed in black smoke, on her knees, her face against a door, as if she were gasping for any air she could get through an opening. She was no longer breathing, had no pulse, and firefighters feared their rescue effort was too late.

It was not.

Kelly Graling, 26, a doctoral student at the University of Massachusetts Boston, was the woman shown in dramatic television footage being rescued from her burning Back Bay apartment building Wednesday afternoon. Yesterday, she recalled hearing the firefighters and their radios as she slipped into unconsciousness.

“I remember trying to get out on the roof deck and not being able to and thinking, ‘That’s it,’ ’’ she said, minutes after her release yesterday from Massachusetts General Hospital, her voice raspy from the effects of smoke inhalation. “I was just lucky, so lucky.’’

Her father, Don Graling, stood by her side. “She was within minutes of passing away,’’ he said. “The Fire Department saved her.’’

One of her rescuers — Firefighter Scott Coyne, a 16-year veteran also brought to a hospital for smoke inhalation — said in a phone interview yesterday that seeing photos of Graling after she was rescued “was the highlight of my career.’’

The fire at the Beacon Towers condominium building was the largest and most complicated firefighting operation the city has seen in recent years. Nine alarms were sounded, and a majority of the firefighters on duty were dispatched. They fought through record-setting 90-degree temperatures to climb 10 flights of stairs. They plowed through billowing smoke, up narrow staircases, knocking on doors and evacuating residents.

They saved at least three lives.

See also the photo gallery.

Herald coverage

More Herald coverage

Daily Free Press coverage

Cyclists urging safety measures after fatal crash
By Peter Schworm – Globe Staff / April 9, 2010

A fatal cycling crash involving an MBTA bus at a busy Boston intersection has sparked an outpouring of sympathy and frustration from cyclists, who say the accident underscores the risks of navigating busy, narrow city streets and the need for greater safety measures.

Eric Michael Hunt, a 22-year-old from Mission Hill, was killed in a collision with a bus traveling east on Huntington Avenue on Wednesday evening. Investigators from both the MBTA and Boston police said Hunt was trying to pass the bus when he hit its left rear section, causing him to lose control of his bike and fall under the 60-foot-long vehicle.

Hunt, who was not wearing a helmet, suffered severe trauma and was pronounced dead at Brigham and Women’s Hospital.

Transit officials said they have found no evidence to suggest the bus driver was at fault, although the cause of the accident is under investigation. The accident occurred on a stretch of Huntington Avenue, just after the South Huntington split, that cyclists described as a dangerous free-for-all.

“The Green Line, cars, buses, and cyclists all share that patch of road,’’ said Shane Jordan, director of education and outreach for the Massachusetts Bicycle Coalition. “It’s a difficult place to ride, especially in heavy traffic.’’

Getting students to make their mark – Fewer bothering to grade professors as systems go online
By Tracy Jan – Globe Staff / April 7, 2010

It’s an end-of-semester ritual: A class of college students, armed with 3-inch pencils, scribbling critiques of their professors and what they learned. The evaluations help shape important decisions, like which professors get tenure, or what courses students choose.

But as colleges start to abandon traditional paper evaluations for an online, do-on-your-own-time format, more and more students are ignoring the surveys altogether.

Colleges are so worried about the sudden drop-off in feedback that some recently began enticing students with incentives. Northeastern, where participation dipped to 54 percent online compared with 80 percent on paper, is offering iPods and meal vouchers in lotteries held throughout the two-week window allotted for online evaluations. Some departments at MIT, which tested the online method this year and will fully adopt it next year, award pizza to the class with the highest return rate.

Boston University, which will begin trying online evaluations in the fall, and other colleges are considering a harder line — withholding students’ grades until they submit evaluations.

Elderly feel pinch of state budget
By Kay Lazar – Globe Staff / April 8, 2010

The Patrick administration has failed to follow through on key commitments to help older citizens avoid nursing homes and stay in their homes and communities, actions that could save the state significant money, advocates for the elderly and legislators said yesterday.

This year’s state budget includes $2.5 million to expand a pilot program that provides free counseling to frail seniors about alternatives to nursing home care, which the administration’s own analysis showed kept more than 300 people living at home in one year.

But the administration has not expanded the program, and Elder Affairs Secretary Ann Hartstein acknowledged last night in an interview with the Globe that the money was diverted to other community-based programs for the elderly that were facing budget cuts.

Hartstein said the administration did not think it wise to expand the counseling program when it was unclear whether it would be funded beyond this year.

She said the governor did not include money for an expansion in his budget proposal for the 2011 budget year.

The two legislators who chair the Joint Committee on Elder Affairs have filed bills demanding that the governor spend the money as directed and provide a written explanation of the status of the funds.

Northeastern wins award for globalizing university
By Bill Shaner, Huntington News Staff – 4/08/10

Northeastern was one of five colleges and universities awarded the Senator Paul Simon Award for Comprehensive Internationalization by the Association of International Educators last month.

The award, released March 9, assessed 50 to 70 schools on both their accessibility to international students and the international programs they offer, according to members of the award’s selection jury. The schools submitted an application and essay for the jury to consider.

“It’s a great honor, and if you look at the universities that have gotten this award in past years, we are in good company,” Director of Communications Renata Nyul said. “I think it says a lot about the commitment the university has made toward global initiatives.”

She said the Dialogues of Civilization program, international co-op and the newly created Global Scholars Initiative – a scholarship designed to fund students’ international experiences – were among the programs Northeastern highlighted in its application.

Sophomore international affairs and anthropology dual major Janine Guarino touted the university’s Dialogues of Civilization program as a justification for Northeastern winning the award.

“I personally have only done the dialogue, but I think that’s a really neat program and it really puts us above other schools,” she said. “It’s a short time you go away and it’s faculty lead and it’s a little less nerve racking. I think students like that kind of atmosphere.”

Atheist org wants recognition
By Laura Mueller-Soppart, News Staff – 4/08/10

A Northeastern atheist student group known as NU Free Thought Society said it has waited for official university recognition for the past year and a half, but university officials say after two attempts from the group, they haven’t tried a third time for recognition.

In fall 2008, the group requested official recognition from the Office of Student Activities to function with all the resources granted to other organizations.

Their original name was the Student Atheists at Northeastern (SANE).

Director of Communications Renata Nyul said the Office of Student Activities gave them preliminary approval to begin working with the Student Government Association (SGA).

“Once they got the preliminary approval from Student Activities, they elected to use the acronym SANE while they were working with SGA on the construction of their constitution. When they presented their idea to the Student Affairs Board, the students denied the group based on the acronym and its connotation,” said Nyul.

The Student Activities Board is composed of students from throughout the university that make final recommendations on student organization recognition.

Beehive boasts eclectic mix
By Jillian Saftel/The Huntington News – 4/08/10

As a music venue, restaurant and gallery space, The Beehive serves as a melting pot for the arts with a distinctly bohemian atmosphere.

What was once a boiler room now combines three components, culinary, performance and decorative art, to develop what is referred to as “The Beehive
Experience.” It is located at 541 Tremont St. below the Boston Center for the Arts.

The music at The Beehive is diverse, ranging from jazz, salsa and blues to African and World Music. You may even find yourself there on a night when a

Burlesque show is featured. Many local artists and musicians perform, including students and professors from nearby Berklee College of Music, along with many
national and international acts; and at The Beehive, there is no cover for nightly entertainment.

The Beehive has won several awards for its musical line-ups including The Boston Globe’s “Best of the New Award” and was named as one of the Top 100 Jazz Clubs in the World by Downbeat Magazine.

The Beehive also serves as a gallery space and is as varied as the music; on any given night the audience may be made up of celebrities, tourists and local students.

A handful of photos of the Fenway Fires. Photos credit of Dan Lucal.

[View with PicLens]

Large brush fire sweeps Fens area
By Ursula Munn, Globe Correspondent – April 5, 2010

A brush fire that broke out in the Fens this evening was put out after a “good two-and-a-half hours of chasing it,” according to Stephen MacDonald, Boston Fire Department spokesman.

About 50 firefighters battled the blaze, he said, which started along The Fenway side of the Muddy River and eventually jumped over to the Park Drive side. The only damage was the burning of vegetation, but police had to shut down nearby roads for a short period of time, MacDonald said.

“I guess one thing we’re fortunate for is that there was no Red Sox game tonight,” he said.

MacDonald added that any number of things may have ignited the fire, such as a carelessly discarded cigarette.

[Follow this link for more photos]

[Go here for Daily Free Press coverage of the fire.]

City asks exempt sector for help – Task force readies payment formula; Some nonprofits balk at proposals
By Andrew Ryan – Globe Staff / April 6, 2010

Boston’s hospitals, universities, and other tax-exempt nonprofits may be asked to contribute tens of millions of dollars more to city coffers to help pay for basic municipal services such as police and public works.

After 14 months, a mayoral task force has nearly completed its work examining the city’s uneven system of individual agreements with such institutions, under which they voluntarily pay cash and provide services in lieu of property taxes. Some pay millions; others pay significantly less.

The city is pushing institutions to gradually increase contributions to 25 percent of what they would owe in taxes if they were not exempt, a change that would more than triple the current amounts paid by some of the city’s biggest landowners.

Hospitals and universities say that higher payments in lieu of property taxes would force them to lay off workers and pass on to students and patients higher tuition and medical costs.

The new formula, which the city panel will begin finalizing at a meeting today, would seek to increase payments among hospitals and universities alone by almost $25 million over five or more years, according to preliminary figures.

In the search for cancer drugs, mice get new role
By Carolyn Y. Johnson – Globe Staff / April 5, 2010

Dr. Pier Paolo Pandolfi has begun an experiment that could radically change the way new cancer drugs are tested: Not far from where his colleagues give trial treatments to patients at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, he’s giving the same regimen to mice.

Normally, mice are test subjects for drugs long before they make it into the clinic. Animal models of disease are important to better understand cancer and to determine which of myriad compounds are safe and promising enough to be tried in people.

But in the new work, funded with a $4.2 million economic stimulus grant from the National Cancer Institute, mice are receiving treatment in tandem with humans, in the hope that what is learned at the bedside can be integrated with results from the lab bench to speed up and streamline the development of cancer drugs.

The novel strategy is an attempt to address a bottleneck that has emerged in the cancer drug pipeline because of a proliferation of drugs in development.

Surgery to keep James Levine off the podium longer
By Keith Powers/Boston Herald – April 6, 2010

The news just keeps getting worse for James Levine.

The Boston Symphony Orchestra’s 66-year-old conductor, who last month canceled his remaining season performances due to back pain, is now scheduled to undergo back surgery this week. The procedure follows an operation for a herniated disk performed last September. It has forced Levine to cancel his remaining performances conducting New York’s Metropolitan Opera and could put his appearance at Tanglewood’s July opening night in jeopardy.

But so far the BSO is not saying.

“We will know more about his Tanglewood schedule once we have a better sense of the recuperation time needed to heal from his upcoming surgery,” managing director Mark Volpe said in an e-mail.

The New England Manufacturers and Mechanics
Institute Building. Image from
www.stcroixarchitecture.com/

By Elizabeth Gillis

The fire wagon, pulled by horses, hurried up Huntington Avenue. The first wagon carried the firemen and perhaps there was another that carried the fire hose.
When they arrived they saw what a desperate situation it was so a second fire alarm went in. The building housed the Metropolitan Horse Railroad where horse cars and supplies were stored. The fire had started in one corner where paint and oil were kept.
It was June, 1886, and one newspaper described it as “one of the grandest fires seen in this city since the Great Fire of 1872.” The New England Manufacturers and Mechanics Institute Building, erected in 1881, covered almost five acres. There had been industrial and art shows in the vast exhibit areas. In the winter it was used as a skating rink. Pedestrian and bicycle events were also held there. Horse cars came every five minutes from the Tremont House, a hotel down town.

Now that it was owned by the horse railway company there were 100 workers in the building, repairing and maintaining the cars that traversed the city. Many jumped out windows to escape the spreading flames. One man was trapped as he tried to get out a window just as the roof collapsed down upon him as his friends tried to help. Onlookers watched helplessly since a ladder company had yet to arrive. One worker went back in order to get some of his property and was not seen again.

In less than two hours with the wind whipping the flames this mammoth building was nothing but ashes and charred remains. Even the iron railings were twisted and distorted. The death toll was first listed as eight but there may have been more victims found later in the ruins. There were many with serious burns. Two made a futile attempt to pull out some of the street cars but had to run to save themselves.
While the fire raged people stood on the roofs of nearby buildings to watch. There weren’t many buildings at that end of Huntington Avenue (now part of Northeastern University) but people on Mission Hill must have seen it.

The financial loss was estimated to be $400,000. Four hundred horse cars, valued at $700 each, were destroyed. The horses were safely stabled elsewhere.

Elizabeth Gillis lives in the West Fenway. A version of this article appeared in the October 2009 edition of the Fenway News.

The mural-painting crew from the McKinley
School pauses in front of their work
on the storefront that housed El Pelon
before the January 5 fire.
Photo by Kerry Mooney

BY KERRY MOONEY
After the devastating fire on “restaurant row” on Peterborough Street this past January, several projects have been in the works to bring some life back into the neighborhood.

A once busy and bustling block remains a stark and lifeless row of boarded-up restaurants to passers-by who are grieving the loss of their favorite foods from an assortment of countries and day-to-day chitchat with the business owners, who are like family to many residents.

First, perservering through a series of rainstorms and extreme heat, are a group of five students from the McKinley Prep School led by their art teacher, Janet Lynch, in a collaborative mural project organized in conjunction with the Fenway CDC and intended to cover the complete boarded-up space of 150 feet. Students painted a flag on the door of the each restaurant representing the country the restaurant was from, and then painted something of significance from the country on the boarded-up storefront.

The McKinley School is located right across the street from the location of the fire, which had a strong impact the students. They have been involved in several other projects to help raise money for the victims of the fire, including an art show at Massart in the “Inspiring Artists Gallery,” where they auctioned off their work. One of the students, Mario Darjet, wrote the lyrics to a CD called,“The Fire Songs,” while his teacher, Mr. Rochas, produced the music. (The CD is $10 and is still available for purchase through the McKinley School).

The community mural project has also included several visits from the small and inspiring younger artists from the Operation PEACE after-school program, and this writer, a local “artist-in-residence” and 10-year-veteran of collaborative art-related projects in Boston who has worked with Sidewalk Sam, Children’s Hospital, and the Boston Housing Authority in East Boston. From the director of the Peterborough Senior Center, Penina Adelman, comes word that a few seniors may be stopping by shortly to join the fun.

Next up on the agenda is an event that grew out of an emotional meeting organized by the Fenway CDC in February at the restaurant and club, Church. At the meeting—with the burned-out building’s owner, Monty Gold, present—Lori Frankian, a 20-year Fenway, resident spoke out and “expressed her wish to bring back the energy, the happy, busy vibe, and most importantly, the beauty of the Fenway” to the site of the fire. Frankian says she “was deeply affected by the tragedy…the fire was one of the most gut-wrenching experiences of my life, and the pain lingers daily.”

Frankian was elected to the CDC board in June, and her fellow board members encouraged her to “create some kind of bittersweet diversion in the neighborhood from the wake of the fire.” With a small grant from the Mission Hill Fenway Neighborhood Trust, Frankian has been working tirelessly since July on the planning of a lively multicultural event intended to bring some life back to Peterborough Street—if only for a day. From obtaining permits from the city, to researching and viewing an assortment of dance troupes and bands, to requesting donations from local businesses, to acquiring detail work from the Boston Police, Frankian has left no stone unturned.

In reference to the event, Frankian says, ”We hear about tragedies all of the time, but we never hear about the outcomes…. Personally speaking, my time and effort is a gift to the entire Fenway community and neighborhood residents. The Fenway will return as we once knew it. It is just going to take some time and patience.”

Frankian credits many people and businesses for their support for the event, including Kinko’s and Burton’s Grill (in the Trilogy development) Gene Johnston, guitar player for the band “Dead Friends;” and Laurel Peters and Laura Souza, art students who will be face painters for the event, to name a few.

Don’t miss the “Revitalizing Peterborough Street—A Beautification Celebration in the Fenway” on Saturday, September 26, from 1:00 to 4:00 p.m. It will be held on the McKinley School basketball court on Peterborough Street. The event will include a presentation of the community mural project by the McKinley School and the Fenway CDC; an accoustic concert by the popular band Prospect Hill; live performances by SideKickz, a Mattapan dance troup; and a powerful drum circle performed by Mission Hill’s Sociedad Latina. Face painting will be available, along with food, and Frankian and the rest of her committee have invited (and expect) City Councilor Mike Ross and Mayor Tom Menino to stop by.

Frankian states that building owner Monty Gold “does plan to rebuild…. He is currently trying to iron out the extensive details and regulations with a number of different insurance companies.” Frankian reports that Gold lists as Thornton’s, Rodee Thai, and El Pelon as three of the former restaurants committed to returning to the site. Until they’re back, take a walk down Peterborough Street and enjoy the 150-foot mural whose international subjects brings a touch of the United Nations—and the promise of a revitalized restaurant row—to the neighborhood.

Kerry Mooney lives in the West Fens.

A version of this article was published in the September 2009 Fenway News.

By Steve Harnish

Music, when boiled down to its essence, is about relationships; mostly, the performer’s relationship with the outside world. Love songs, protest songs, ballads, even genres as diverse as experimental jazz and children’s songs are all ultimately about relationships. Some on a grand scale; think of Woody Guthrie’s guitar painted with the words- “this machine kills fascists” or on a very small scale; a mother singing a lullaby to her child.

How music and community mix has always intrigued me. There are many ways a song can connect a community. Recently, our neighborhood had the tragic Peterborough St. fires which left a once vital, thriving block a shell of its former self. Some students at the William McKinley Preparatory High School across the street were effected strongly enough that they decided to turn their feelings into music.

The students were strongly affected because the block was so much a part of their daily lives. They knew the workers and business owners, if not by name, by face. They were people that were part of their daily lives, part of their community. Whether it was stopping by to get a soda after school or a run by a teacher to get burritos or Thai food for a special treat for the students, the block thrived because of these restaurants. One student I met even was evacuated from a nearby building the night of the fire, so to her it hit particularly close to home. The school was closed the following day, to help shelter those displaced from the fire.

“The students needed a way to process this and wanted to show the community they cared,” said Janet Lynch, the art teacher for the school. So they decided to write a song and make a video to reach out to the community.

Daniel Rocha, music director, laid down some beats and several of the students got busy writing ideas for a song. One student in particular, a sophomore (name withheld by request), did the majority of the lyrics and sang the rap on the song. They then used some staff photos and received permission from the Boston Globe to use some of their photos and put the piece over the series of photos. The effect is very moving. The refrain:

“Hard when you lose something that you established/You work so hard and you bend over backwards/ To see it burn down right in front of your face”

The video was shown at a community meeting about the fire in February, sponsored by the Fenway Community Development Corporation, and was so well received that plans are to have the students perform the piece at the group’s annual meeting this spring. It’s since been posted on You Tube if you want to watch for yourself. Search You Tube “Fire Song 0209”. Contact Janet Lynch or Catherine Clark at the McKinley School if you are interested in purchasing a CD—all proceeds will be going to the uninsured victims of the fire.

Ms. Lynch took me down into the basement to get a CD and show me the space where they made the CD. If you listen to the very professional quality of the song, you would be shocked if you saw the raw space where they cut the track. No sound booth, no fancy equipment, just a basement in local high school. Maybe someday the community can return the favor and help the school get some better equipment.

Furthermore, the Fenway CDC is applying for a grant to have the students work on a mural and a time lapse photo project of the restoration of the block over the summer. The mural would beautify the faceless plywood that now sits there as a daily reminder of the tragedy.

Turning something tragic into art; expressing their feelings through words and music and making the community richer for it is one of the higher ideals of music and these students captured that ideal perfectly.