Fenway’s transformation going strong, more on the way – Hitting home runs
By Brendan Lynch/Boston Herald – September 2, 2010
The Fenway-Kenmore area’s transformation from gritty to upscale has continued unabated through both the economic downturn of the early 2000s and the current recession, even as developments in other parts of Boston have stalled.
Meredith Management President John Rosenthal has been working on Fenway Center, a mixed-use development to be built over the Massachusetts Turnpike, for more than 10 years. He said he likely would’ve proceeded with the project even if he knew the recession was coming, because the neighborhood’s assets – the Longwood Medical Area, Fenway Park [map], more than 100,000 college students within a mile, and proximity to the Pike, commuter rail and the Green Line – are attractive even in a downturn.
Rosenthal, also a noted gun-control activist, bought a garage abutting the Pike 15 years ago and has used it to display a series of gun-control billboards since.
“Kenmore Square is a completely different place than when I bought the Lansdowne Garage and put up the gun billboard in 1995,” he said.
See also: Fenway, Roxbury projects signaling retail resurgence
By Jenn Abelson – Globe Staff / May 25, 2010
AG urges Beth Israel to rethink CEO’s fitness – Swift action found lacking on Levy
By Liz Kowalczyk – Globe Staff / September 2, 2010
Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley said yesterday that the board of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center should do “some soul-searching’’ about chief executive Paul Levy’s ability to continue leading the hospital, after her office concluded that his longtime personal relationship with a female employee “clearly endangered the reputation of the institution and its management.’’
Coakley’s remarks, made in an interview with the Globe, came as she released results of her office’s four-month investigation into the board’s handling of Levy’s relationship with the woman, who left the organization last fall.
The board’s chairman, Stephen Kay, said the board continually evaluates its chief execu tive, but he rejected any suggestion that Levy’s actions may make him unfit for the job. “The best thing for the Beth Israel is to have Paul Levy lead the institution,’’ Kay said.
The attorney general’s staff found no evidence the hospital misused charitable funds in paying the employee’s salary, travel expenses, or severance — the primary focus of the investigation.
See also: NOW, union blast Levy, Beth Israel board
By Christine McConville/Boston Herald – September 2, 2010
On Big Moving Day, Boston Battles a Pest
By KATIE ZEZIMA/New York Times – September 1, 2010
BOSTON — As if all the double-parked moving vans, anxious parents and mountains of discarded furniture and trash are not enough to fray nerves on the day when thousands of college students move into their apartments here, city officials on Wednesday were up against a tiny problem that poses a huge threat.
Bedbugs.
The first of September is traditionally when leases start or expire for off-campus housing here, and students moving in often claim the couches, beds and other material left behind. But city officials would prefer they buy their own furniture.
“The problem that you have, some old furniture that has bedbugs in them and they get passed around to other apartments,” said Mayor Thomas M. Menino, who took a tour of a student building with multiple code violations Wednesday. “We’re discouraging the use of secondhand furniture.”
Iggy and the Stooges bring ‘Raw Power’ to the people
By Scott McLennan – Globe Correspondent / September 2, 2010
Iggy and the Stooges is as good a pairing of frontman and band as you can get, judging from the group’s joyously chaotic yet deeply musical performance Tuesday at the House of Blues.
The Iggy in question is, of course, Iggy Pop, the 63-year-old sinewy and shirtless ball of energy responsible for belting out the tunes. And the Stooges these days consist of guitarist James Williamson, drummer Scott Asheton, bass player Mike Watt and sax player Steve Mackay.
This lineup is notable for bringing Williamson back into the fold roughly 35 years after he and Pop parted ways, though not before collaborating on the landmark 1973 album “Raw Power.’’
The 85-minute concert hit upon all of “Raw Power,’’ plus other songs from that era of Stooges, such as the harrowing “Open Up and Bleed’’ and caterwauling “I Got a Right.’’
See also: 10 ways to spend the night in the Fenway/Kenmore area
A rousing Ninth brings Tanglewood season to a close
By Jeremy Eichler – Globe Staff / August 31, 2010
LENOX — Every year in late August, like ripe local tomatoes, cool New England nights, or spontaneous bouts of anticipatory dread, the ringing sounds of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony at Tanglewood signal what everyone knows, but is still hoping might not quite yet be the case: Summer has run its course.
The Boston Symphony Orchestra concluded its Tanglewood season on Sunday with a performance of the Ninth, as it does every year. Some summers, the ritual can feel tired, so much so that I’ve often wondered whether audiences, the orchestra, and the music itself would stand to benefit if the Ninth were given a sabbatical, a vacation from marking the end of vacation. Surely there are other high-impact ways to end a season.
But then other summers, a performance of the kind that took place on Sunday makes you feel like this ritual may be one of the more sensible things that happens at Tanglewood, and maybe the Ninth, in all of its accrued symbolism and actual depths, its teeming surfaces and its wild heart, may be one of those works that can stand up to all of our attempts to tame it through repetition. Certainly, the Tanglewood Festival Chorus on Sunday sang with a directness and commitment that suggested for these singers, there was nothing formulaic about another performance. Beethoven’s ode to universal brotherhood sounded unbowed by the years.
BU welcomes Class of 2014
By Saba Hamedy and Meaghan Beatley/BU Daily Free Press – September 2, 2010
More than 4,000 freshmen marched down Commonwealth Avenue Sunday afternoon as part of Boston University’s annual matriculation ritual.
The march started at Danielsen Hall in East Campus and made its way to Agganis Arena, where the students were cajoled and counseled by a variety of BU personalities, including President Robert Brown and Student Union president Arthur Emma.
Brown touted the diversity of BU’s student population, and encouraged the new freshmen to take pride in their school.
“Diversity runs through the fabric of BU,” he said. “Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream that one day people would be judged by the content of their character and not the color of their skin is a reality here.”
BU’s North Star goes dark over Kenmore
By Suzanne Schiavone/BU Daily Free Press – September 1, 2010
Paris has the Eiffel Tower, New York City has the Statue of Liberty and Boston – specifically Kenmore Square – has the CITGO Sign.
On July 23, the lights emanating from the beacon of Kenmore Square went dark to make way for renovations that will make the 45-year-old sign more environmentally friendly and better able to stand up to Boston’s notoriously bad weather.
The sign, first put up in 1940, has long been one of the most prominent features of Boston University’s campus as well as Kenmore Square and Fenway Park, and students cherish the sign as one of the most significant landmarks on campus.
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Tropical-storm watch issued for Boston area
31 BC – Final War of the Roman Republic: Battle of Actium – off the western coast of Greece, forces of Octavian defeat troops under Mark Antony and Cleopatra.
1666 – The Great Fire of London breaks out and burns for three days, destroying 10,000 buildings including St Paul’s Cathedral. More anniversaries.
