 The
September 2012 of the Uphams Corner Improvement Association was held at
6:30pm on September 27 at the Dorchester Bay building, 594Columbia Rd.
They began by reviewing their first year - actions
taken, what they have accomplished and progress made towards effecting
change in the community. They agreed that giving out Beautification awards is one of the most important activities they
have undertaken
because of how excited the recipients seem when they receive the awards.
They also discussed the balance between positive reinforcement to
promote positive change vs those elements of the community who need "to
go to jail." In particular, they reviewed the attitudes of some
business owners who do nothing to help keep the sidewalk and outside of
their building clean and presentable. Should they publicize the
difficulties, identifying some of the business owners? Would that
make the situation better or worse?
UCIA will continue to work with Uphams Corner News as a vehicle to
publicize their efforts and to get the name of the group out there.
Much of the meeting was spent getting up-to-date on the Fairmount
Initiative. Based on the ensuing conversation, UCIA decided they will be writing a letter to the BRA to express
their opinions and concerns about a variety of Fairmount related topics.
A new motto was designed for the group (see above).
Following is a summary of the meeting. Full details are included in the UCIA Detail Meeting Report
|
Overview of the Improvement Association
|
Over the last year since the group was announced in
UC News, they have been maintaining a steady course - meeting, taking
action, publicizing actions and putting a name (Uphams Corner
Improvement Association) on what they are doing.
UCIA
has initiated cleanups, participated in the 2011 DAC Open Studios,
organized a holiday party, written a major report on St. Kevins for
DHCD, issued awards to deserving members of the community and
more. Privately members have been cleaning and working on quality
of life - noise on Monadnock and Viriginia Street, weeds in the
business district, group home behaviour, community garden cleanliness
(Virginia Monadnock Garden) and more.
One of the most important UCIA activities is to praise and to support - residents, businesses and other organizations.
UCIA has created aesthetically beautiful awards, unique to each property, documenting what residents and other
groups have done to beautify the neighborhood. And they have given out beautification awards to the
community.
People are excited to receive the awards.
UCIA discussed the attitudes of some businesses who never clean the
front of their property (sidewalks, weeds, trash) and will work with UC
News to produce an article detailing their poor attitude.
Outstanding projects include the comfort station, St. Kevin’s,
black
baseball, involvement with the Fairmount Initiative, working with Main
Street and
followup on the Emerald Necklace. In addition each member has
taken on other projects in the spirit of the Improvement Association
that are not "official UCIA" projects.
|
General Topics
|
The group was
brought up-to-date on the Boston Foundation Arts grant awarded to
Uphams Corner, the Holiday Party being planned, and Open
Studios the weekend of October 20.
|
UC News
|
UC News recently started a Community Voice initiative
inviting anyone in the greater Uphams Corner area to contribute an
article about "anything" that would be of interest to the
community. Thus far, two organizations have responded.
One of the UCIA
members shared with the group that she used to design greeting
cards. They were so successful that Hallmark approached her for
the rights to use her design. UC News has long wanted to have a
"sales" function on their website. So these two groups are
looking into the possibility of selling her cards via the Uphams Corner
News website.
|
Fairmount WAG Meetings
|
An Improvement Association member who
has attended most of the public Fairmount meetings gave a presentation
about the Fairmount Initiative at the behest of the BRA. They are
asking that anyone attending the Fairmount meetings should reach out to
the community and spread the word as to what is taking
place there. This applies to both the corridor wide meetings
(CAG) and the local meetings in Uphams Corner (WAG).
Here is how the WAG meetings
work. Advisory Boad members are seated at a center table.
While the presentation is given to the entire room - to all
meeting
attendees - the only people allowed to ask questions until the very end
of the meeting are the advisors. The public can attend the
meeting as
observers and ask one question at the end. However, anyone can send the
BRA co-chairs and the consultants e-mails providing comments,
questions, recommendations,
identifying issues - anything you would like to say about the meeting
or the initiative in general. The BRA will be incorporating these
public comments into the project documentation.
Fairmount topics discussed in detail include:
The Improvement Association agreed they would put toegether a letter to the BRA providing feedback.
|
Fairmount Info
|
Fairmount / Indigo website (BRA)
|
http://www.fairmountindigoplanning.org/
|
BRA Co-chair
Ines Palmarin,
Co-Director
617.918.4434
Ines.Palmarin.BRA@cityofboston.gov
|
BRA Co-chair
Jeremy Rosenberger,
Co-Director
617.918.4431
Jeremy.Rosenberger.BRA@cityofboston.gov |
|
Uphams Corner Infrastructure
Improvements
|
Para Jayasinghe, P.E. Boston
Department of Public Works attended both the August and September WAG
meetings. In August he announed that the City of Boston has
allocated $3 million for infrastructure
improvements for Uphams Corner as part of the Fairmount initiative.
The
money is
designed to improve the streetscape in Uphams Corner.
UCIA
had already started identifying infrastructure
improvements needed in Uphams Corner. They now have the option of
completing this work, writing a report and turning it in to Public
Works. Whether this is done will depend on how much time UCIA
members have to devote to this.
|
Fairmount Issues
|
Meeting Attendance
There have been two WAG meetings, the last on September 26, 2012. Of the 15 appointed members, two (2) have yet to
attend a single meeting - Williams Funeral Home and Uphams Corner Pizza - and did not send a replacement.
According to Jeremy Rosenberger, co-chair of the Fairmount Initiative, people not
showing up for volunteer group meetings like the WAG is always a problem. He noted that both
absentee WAG members are representatives of the Uphams Corner business
community. "How do you find a business to
replace them?"
The Fairmount Initiative is very important to
Uphams Corner with the potential of a lot of money being spent here on improvements. Two
WAG members not showing up means the advisory capacity of the group has
dropped from 15 members to 13 members - actually less since some level
of normal absenteeism occurs. While the consultants do most of the work, the WAG's responsibilities
include advising the consultants and the BRA on their work.
UCIA feels strongly that people handpicked by Mayor
Menino to be on the WAG should demonstrate
commitment to Uphams Corner by attending meetings. The longer it takes to address the issue of WAG members not
participating in the community process, the more difficult it will be
for new advisory
group members to join the WAG effectively because it will take time to
bring them up to speed. UCIA will write a letter stating their position.
How to Spell Uphams Corner
The consultant, Steve Cecil from the Cecil Group, stated
they had made a decision on how to spell "Uphams Corner" - that
the apostrophe needed to be included because (after all), the
neighborhood was named for Mr. Upham who had a corner store
there. Other considerations were not taken into account such as
web search issues and the fact that the Boston Public Library has
official decided to exclude the apostrophe. The group agreed that
this additional information could be included in the letter to the BRA.
Youth Representation
Based on comments by Andrea Kaiser, UCIA has agreed that the lack of
youth representation on both the CAG and the WAG was appropriate to
address in the letter to the BRA.
|
|
Posted: October 4, 2012
Nancy J Conrad
|
|
