March 2011 Eight Streets Neighborhood Association Meeting

Announcements

• Ringgold Park fundraising a success!! Construction to begin this spring, and they will be able to use more granite and less concrete in the final design. Look for partial or full park closure over the summer as center circle construction begins.
• Ringgold park cleanup April 10; Easter egg hunt April 17
• Street sweeping has begun!!!! Remember to look at street signs when you park in order to avoid being towed on street cleaning days.
• Boston Shines – April 30^th. Let us know if you would like to do a cleanup in your area.
• Be sure to check the web sites for both South End News and South End Patch – they both provide local news on line, and have various ways to get news to your computer (emails, RSS feeds, smart phone apps)
• Street Repaving in the south end; includes Dwight, PA 705, East Berkeley (Tremont to Shawmut) and Shawmut (Milford to Pelham).

Eric Hill

Eric is a new councilor at Paul Sullivan Housing (300 Shawmut). He gave a brief overview of PSH and what his role is. He’ll be attending ESNA meetings regularly

10 Bond roof deck

Larry Cristofori 10 Bond Street came to make an informal presentation on a roof deck they would like to add to the building. There was no vote – they just wanted to present their plans and get neighbor feedback. Overall the deck was of a size and location consistent with the decks of the abutters.

There had been some problems with the zoning for the deck. Apparently zoning was granted when it shouldn’t have been, along with other complications. They are going through the approval process again and anticipate the proper “Zoning rejection letter” by the May business meeting, where they plan to come back for an official vote.

Pops closing hours extension

Doug Noble (owner), and Mike Overson (Lawyer) of Pops came to the neighborhood association to gain support for extending their closing hours form Midnight to 1am, seven days a week. Felino is no longer at Pops – Doug, formerly just a financial partner, is now the official manager of Pops.

The discussion quickly came back to problems that have come up in previous meetings. Manu of the problems came as a surprise to Mr. Noble. As a previous financial-only backer, he thought the previous manager had addressed all the issues. Some of the issues brought up by residents include:

• Improper storage of garbage (plastic bags vs closed plastic containers)
• Noise and orders from vent at read of restaurant
• Excessive noise when the staff cleans up at night.
• Excessive noise as staff re-arranges and locks up street dining tables and chairs (dragging furniture rather than lifting it, etc).
• Customers smoking in front of residential building
• Calls to restaurant to complain about issues – phones not answered (during closing) or messages not returned.

Residents had additional frustration as many of these issues were not new – they had been brought up at previous meetings and remain unaddressed. There was about 20 minutes of discussion on issues and POPs responses over the past 2 years.

Mr. Noble said he had already contracted someone to work on the vent to move the exhaust to the roof. He promised he would work on the other problems to try to ameliorate abutters concerns.

Regardless of Mr. Noble’s promise to address the issues, the ESNA abutters, as well as a Waltham street building did not want to approve the extension at all. However, Pops was not going to be on the UPNA agenda until May 10. After some discussion, membership voted to postpone a vote on the extended hours, and bring the issue back up at the May meeting. This would give Pops a month to see if they address the neighbors concerns

Pops will be back at the May meeting, where abutters will let us know if things have changed at Pops. A vote to oppose or not oppose will be taken at the May meeting.

Meeting adjourned. Next meeting Tuesday, May 3^rd at Project Place