The most frequent word in my presidential life or recent months has been when, as in “when will you make X do what I need?” Sadly, BHCA cannot “make” anyone do anything, but we do have good news on a few fronts, thanks to persistence, patience, and polite firmness from our neighbors.
So: in September …
Traffic calming. DOT’s Chief of Traffic Division, Bill Haynes, will be visiting sites on Laurens and Lafayette streets this month with members of our Transportation Committee. They have worked hard for two years to develop a solid case for traffic calming focusing on these two streets, maintaining persistent on-message communications with DOT.
While awaiting concrete news, the committee has kept local neighbors informed of their activities at BHCA meetings. They also did the important work, from DOT’s standpoint, of gaining signatures from the majority of residents who live on the streets that could be affected by the traffic calming devices.
I appreciate the indispensable help from Eric Costello’s office in bringing about the planned site visit. The calming devices (possibly including speed humps like those on McMechen Street) will almost certainly take more months before installation, but this step has been encouraging.
BGE. By now, folks are sighing with relief that BGE will not be allowed to force installation of external gas regulators, but that was not a sure thing until many people across the city put in hours of volunteer effort to stop the process.
In Bolton Hill, a huge shout-out goes to BHCA board member Jim Prost, who corralled all the information pouring in and fed it out to all of us, in an email chain, notices of Zoom meetings, and postings on Facebook.
Meetings. This year’s BHCA monthly meetings may move around a bit, as we try different venues generously offered by the institutions among us. They have also moved in time: the meetings now start at 7:30 pm, with socializing beginning at 7.
The September meeting was graciously hosted by The Most Worshipful Prince Hall Grand Lodge. Grand Master Noel Osborne gave us a grand welcome, explaining that the mission of the lodge is to help the community.
We met in their well-lit and nicely cool basement and are welcome back whenever we’d like. Stay tuned for news of a tour of the upper sanctuary! We know you’d love to see it, and they’ll let us know when it’s ready for viewing.
On Tuesday, Oct. 3, we will return to Farnham Hall at Memorial Church, where we’ll get a presentation from Black Women Build, a charitable organization in our neighbor communities, Marble Hill, Madison Park, and Upton. And of course, we’ll have updates on Bolton Hill doings.
If you’ve heard “I never hear what’s going on” from a neighbor, I hope you’ll urge them to join BHCA. They’ll get this Bulletin, meeting notices, and very occasional emails about important City happenings. And the first year is free!
–Amy Sheridan, President, BHCA
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