Tag Archives: urban environment

Rattus norvegicus and us

 

 

Consider the rat—specifically the Norway rat, which doesn’t come from Norway. It is brownish gray and as long as 16 inches. During its year-long lifespan a female can produce up to five litters of seven babies, although litters can be as large as 14. It has excellent sight and hearing and an acute sense of smell. It can swim across the Charles River.

It thrives in cities all over the world. Here it lives in burrows in the Boston Common or wherever it can find suitable soil near people. Some of Boston’s best addresses are the most infested. Rats carry salmonella and rabies. About 50,000 Americans are bitten yearly by rats.

Rats can live in your house, as several did recently on Hancock and Myrtle streets on Beacon Hill. Andrew Christoffels, who works at Charles St. Supply, heard from the residents that the rats were in the toilet.

I’m betting you don’t want them in your house. The city helped the Beacon Hill residents with their problems, said John Meaney,  director of the city’s Environmental Services.

Many Boston residents, however, are at risk from rats moving in. We live in old buildings with holes in the foundations and improperly sealed pipes. Continue reading →

Bad bill for good parks

There’s a piece of legislation, House No. 853, that sounds like mom and apple pie. We want to protect our parks. So why not pass a law that would prevent any building not conforming to Boston’s 1990 zoning code from creating any new shadow on the Esplanade, Christopher Columbus Park, the Commonwealth Avenue Mall, Copley Square and the Back Bay Fens and Magazine Beach?

“An act protecting certain public parks” was filed by state Representative Marty Walz, one of the bill’s three sponsors. Walz said that passage of the bill would protect the parks from shadows just as the 1990 legislation protecting the Common has “proven successful in ‘balancing’ development.”

Walz said she sponsored the bill because “we don’t trust the BRA to make the right choices for the city.”

But this bill has problems. It pits parks against other important goals. It further erodes Boston’s autonomy in that the legislature is making decisions that should be left to city officials. Finally, it may end up hurting the parks more than it helps them. Continue reading →

Is there hope for Downtown Crossing?

Even though Downtown Crossing’s central location should make it a convenient destination for Back Bay, Beacon Hill, Charlestown, North End and Waterfront residents, few choose to go there, even though a good number work nearby. I bet we can all agree on what’s wrong with the place.

Let’s start with the most recent problems. The intersection where Summer and Winter streets join at Washington is book-ended by a hole in the ground on one side at Filene’s (John Hynes and Vornado, developers) and an empty parking lot on the other at Hayward Place (courtesy of Millennium Partners). Holes in the ground and parking lots are bad for business.

Filene’s hole and the parking lot didn’t cause other vacancies along the streets—well, actually the failed Filene’s development did eject Filene’s Basement—but they highlight the loss of Barnes and Noble and other businesses that might have attracted residents in surrounding neighborhoods to the area. Continue reading →