The last week of October was a good one for Beacon Hill. The Phillips Street Park opened (finally), and older children and dog owners received an amenity they had been previously denied.

The older kids got a playground. On the Saturday and Sunday after it opened the park was full. The oldest kids were about 9 years of age. They were climbing, hanging from the ropes and going hand over hand on the monkey bars, which were high enough to accommodate their long legs. It had been many years since they could play at Myrtle Street or the Boston Common. The new park also saw 2- and 3-year-old guests. The 2-year-old ran up and down the ramp, while the 3-year-old was able to climb on the low rubber ropes. They’ll grow into the park nicely.

Up above in a brick circle were parents with dogs. When I walked by last week I noticed that everyone had picked up after their dogs, probably since there is a trash compactor at the park. Let’s hope that with someplace to throw away trash, that end of Phillips Street will be cleaner.

The Phillips Street Park has brought neighbors together in that part of the Hill, but it is a boon for the whole neighborhood. More plants and fencing are still needed, and your tax-deductible donation would help. Donate by sending a check to the Beacon Hill Civic Association, 74 Joy St., 02114, noting that it is for the park.

Another plus was Halloween, which has been good here for decades. The outsides of houses were decorated in cobwebs and ghoulish props, making young children quite wary. It looked as if many residents had invited friends over. They sipped wine as they sat on their steps, passing out candy. Curtains were open, revealing tables set for dinner parties afterward.

Several residents commented that there were a lot of non-residents trick or treating. Our fame as a safe and lucrative Halloween destination has spread so far and wide that reportedly Tom Cruise (a scarecrow) and Katie Holmes (a dog) were seen begging for candy with their daughter Suri (a princess) along with a lot of other interlopers.

Interestingly, I heard no complaints about interlopers. One resident said, “Halloween is our turn to entertain the wider community.”

I can’t complain about interlopers since our household entertained our daughters (who probably have begging rights since they grew up here) and their husbands, as well as Medusa, Darth Vader, a mummy and a doggie. So the two of us were responsible for ten people meandering around the streets that night. No wonder the place is jammed.

But the neighborhood won’t be jammed, nor will it be a successful business and residential community if one trend continues—the egregious locating of offices at street level in places that were formerly retail shops.

The latest transgression was perpetrated by Coldwell Banker, which moved to the corner of Chestnut and River streets where Gallagher-Christopher Antiques used to be.

For a time I thought I was the only one who noticed. But then I began getting emails complaining about yet another real estate agency that doesn’t understand how unwelcome they are at street level. Last week I heard dozens of complaints about it from shopkeepers and residents alike. Most people are afraid to say it directly to the perpetrators, so I will.

Shame on you, real estate companies, for being such bad neighbors.

No one complains about Street and Company, who’ve been here long enough to justify their existence. No one says that Brewster & Berkowitz, located out of the retail shop district, is a problem.

But Coldwell Banker, Marston & Voss (now Marston Hill) and City Homes have recently moved into street-level spaces, depriving residents of all kinds of possibilities. Real estate companies are behaving like the owners of the goose that laid the golden egg, killing the very thing—a vital walkable retail and restaurant district—that makes Beacon Hill so appealing and helps make their businesses lucrative. Visitors look at their offices and decide not to venture further, hurting businesses beyond.

It’s hard to boycott these brokers since we don’t use them except when we move in and out, which isn’t very often.

It’s time for the business association and the civic association to get our commercial streets rezoned to make offices a conditional use.

I’ve heard no one (except the brokers themselves) who isn’t disgusted with offices at street level.

Reducing our neighborhood’s attractiveness and usefulness is not what sound businesses should be doing.