Fort Point Night At Lyric Stage

Step back in time to the seductive Hollywood of the 1940's with the Lyric Stage's production of City of Angels. You are invited to celebrate the beginning of May with a special Fort Point Night at the Lyric Stage complete with a champagne reception and discounted ticket offer.

Friday, May 1, 2015

Performance starts at 8 pm

Private Champagne & Dessert Reception To Follow

Lyric Stage

114 Clarendon St. Boston, MA 02116

Grab a friend and join your neighbors for an entertaining evening of theater. Use code FORTPOINT to save $20 per ticket. Buy online or call 617-585-5678. Transportation generously provided by Southie Shuttle. Meet up at 7 pm at Barlow's Restaurant (A & Binford Streets) to catch the Southie Shuttle to Lyric Stage.




City of Angels, winner of 6 Tonys including best musical, chronicles the misadventures of Stine, a disillusioned young novelist attempting to write a screenplay for a tyrannical movie producer. As his marriage falls apart, we follow Stine’s film alter-ego, the dashing detective Stone, who is haunted by the memory of the girl that got away. With a jazzy, brassy score, City of Angels simultaneously spoofs the glamorous real world of old Hollywood and the film noir “reel” world of thugs and femme fatales.

Latest Buzz From Bee's Knees

Bee's Knees & Supply Company and the Fort Point Neighborhood Association (FPNA) invite our neighbors to join us for a special shopping night and reception: 

Thursday, April 30, 2015

5 pm - 8 pm

12 Farnsworth Street

FPNA members will receive a special 30% savings on Bee's Knees' gourmet specialties*. All neighbors will receive 10% off purchases*. 

FPNA board members will be on hand to answer questions and take memberships ($35/individual and $50/family). By becoming an FPNA member, you help support FPNA's continued advocacy for Fort Point, monthly neighborhood meetings, and signature projects including our flowers and vines along A Street. Members will also receive special discounts and events from select Fort Point businesses. 

Special thanks to Bee's Knees for being FPNA's inaugural Fort Point business partner and for their ongoing support of our Fort Point neighborhood.

The FPNA is dedicated to enhancing and preserving the quality of life in our community, to broadening citizen awareness and participation within our growing neighborhood, and to building a socially interactive civic life in Fort Point.  @FPNA_Boston.

Bee's Knees is a gourmet grocery, offering a full cafe, wine and craft beer shop, full delicatessen and house goods for Fort Point residents and businesses. @BeesKneesSupply 

*Discounts exclude alcohol.

Fort Point Celebrates First Public Park

Fort Point is celebrating its first permanent public park today. The 1.6 acre A Street Park was accepted today by vote of the Boston Park Commission as the city's newest and Fort Point's first public park. The A Street Park is bordered by Richards, Medallion and W. 1st Streets. Built as a permanent public benefit in exchange for development rights, the new park, completed last summer features a half basketball court, dog park, community gardens, a children's play area and a flexible field. The park was acquired by the City with an ongoing agreement for maintenance and capital repair to be provided by the development group. More details to follow.

FPNA April 2015 Neighborhood Meeting

The Fort Point Neighborhood Association

Monthly Meeting for the Neighborhood

Tuesday, April 28, 2015

6pm

Factory 63

63 Melcher Street

6:00 pm
Featured Restaurant, Barking Crab

6:10 pm

Special Guest

Jerome Smith

Chief of Civic Engagement
City of Boston

6:45  Fort Point Hot Topics 

7:00 pm Special Presentations

by

Andrew Motta, Director of Operations

Artist for Humanity

EpiCenter Expansion

and

Christopher Markey

ZipCar 

FPNA Special Promotion


*special thanks for tasty treats by Barking Crab*

originally published 4.17.15

Boston City Council Looks At Logan Flight Patterns, Small Businesses Week & Artists, Elections & More

Councillor-At-Large Michelle Wu provides notes from Boston City Council meetings. The Boston City Council considered the items below and more at their April 15th and April 22nd, 2015 meetings:

2015 Preliminary Municipal Elections: The Council voted unanimously to move the date of the Preliminary Elections in Boston from September 22nd, 2015 (the 3rd Tuesday after the 1st Monday in September), to September 8th, 2015, in observance of the Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur holidays. September 29th, 2015 was not an option because by law there must be 60 days between the Preliminary and Final elections, so this would keep the rest of the Election calendar intact. 

Logan Airport Flight Patterns: Councilors Zakim and McCarthy reported back on a hearing held by the Special Committee on Transportation, Public Infrastructure, Planning & Investment on the FAA's changes to flight paths at Logan Airport that have resulted in a concentration of flights over Boston neighborhoods. This recent change has the planes flying low over neighborhoods and leading to increased noise and pollution. Councilor McCarthy asked that this issue remain in committee to give the FAA an opportunity to respond and to have working sessions. He also recommended that we include our federal representatives in those working sessions.

Boston Arts Academy Renovations: The Council voted unanimously to approve the $1.7 million dollar feasibility study and design of Boston Arts Academy. The item received its first reading and vote on April 1, 2015. Today was the 2nd vote, in accordance with the proceducre for approving appropriations and loan orders. 

Acoustic on Main: Acoustic on Main is a 10-day initiative to help neighborhood small businesses recover from a tough winter, while also showcasing the city’s arts and culture talent by encouraging acoustic performances throughout Main Streets districts (no permitting involved!).
In concert with National Small Business week May 1st-10th, any Main Streets small business is invited to host acoustic performances with up to 5 instrumental or vocal performers between 4-9 PM - no need to apply for a live entertainment license and no fees.  The below registration links are to help the City track and promote participation.  An official promotional website will be coming soon.  Please help encourage businesses and performers to register, and save the dates to spend time in our neighborhood small business districts May 1st-10th!
Musician Registration and Business Registration

Paid Parental Leave: Today the Council's Government Operations committee held a public hearing on the Paid Parental Leave ordinance that Councilors McCarthy, Jackson, and Wu introduced in partnership with Mayor Walsh at the March 25th City Council meeting.  The ordinance would require the City to offer paid leave to new parents—moms AND dads—for birth, stillbirth, or adoption, and including same-sex couples.  Currently, there is no paid leave available, so new parents must use vacation or sick days if they wish to spend time with their new baby but can’t afford to take unpaid leave. (See more details of the ordinance and the text at www.michelleforboston.com/paid-parental-leave).

For complete notes from the April 15th and April 22nd meetings, visit www.michelleforboston.com/notes or sign up to receive these notes automatically each week by email at www.michelleforboston.com/sendmenotes.

Bastille Kitchen Launches Valet Parking on Necco

For the better part of 2014, FPNA worked on behalf of the Fort Point neighborhood to organize several community meetings for residents to hear the proposed valet parking plan and to have their questions answered and voice their opinions, with our elected representatives present, to gauge the communities response.

The message was clear, for many reasons a valet parking zone on Melcher Street was not a good idea, and the originally suggested Valet Parking option on Necco Street was the only reasonable solution, if Bastille Kitchen wanted to offer their clients Valet Parking.

We learned in late March that Bastille Kitchen had worked out the necessary details to begin offering valet parking by Boston Valet and the valet stand is, as the neighborhood requested on Necco Street.

Boston City Council Tackles Budget, Art Feasibility, Parking Fines & More

Councillor-At-Large Michelle Wu provides notes from Boston City Council meetings. The Boston City Council considered the items below and more at their April 1 and April 8, 2015 meetings:

Annual Boston Health Assessment: The Boston Public Health Commission filed the completed 2014-2015 annual assessment of the health of Boston residents. This should be available online shortly.

Boston Arts Academy & Josiah Quincy Upper School: We voted to approve orders to conduct new feasibility studies for separate buildings for the Boston Arts Academy (Fenway) and Josiah Quincy Upper School (Chinatown) with applications for reimbursement from the Massachusetts School Building Authority where appropriate. The City had conducted a feasibility study for $4M ($3M of it reimbursed by the MSBA) to co-locate the schools in Chinatown, but the resulting design ended up being too expensive and the joint project was stalled. These new orders would authorize appropriations for new feasibility studies. 

FY16 Budget: Mayor Walsh and his team presented the first version of their FY16 budget to the Council this morning. It is a $2.86B operating budget, up 4.4% from last year.  67% of revenues come from property tax levy, with additional new revenue from building permits.  Boston Public Schools make up 36% of expenditures, about $1B. You can find the whole budget, executive summary, and departmental details at www.cityofboston.gov/budget. Key highlights include:

• 100 more pre-K seats and 16 schools implementing an extended day, with a total phase in over the next three years
• Parks Department funding at highest-ever, with tree-pruning funds and 2nd shift of crew for parks maintenance, allowing more turnover and use of parks. 
• $1.75M for affordable housing focused on elderly housing
• Arts funding has increased 33%, with the City nearly doubling their match for the Mass. Cultural Council's grants to arts organizations
• $22M snow budget increase, along with some key equipment purchases planned
• Creation of a diversity officer position for the Boston Fire Department
• Fully funding the City's youth summer jobs at the same level as last year, even with increased costs due to the minimum wage increase
• Innovation: Creation of a 311 centralized hotline for the City, $6M for new smart parking meters, and $500K to create an electronic bluebook of street signs and regulations citywide to better analyze parking policies

Parking Fines & Towing: Mayor Walsh filed an ordinance that would allow the Transportation Commissioner to designate Pilot Zones where fines for not moving your car during posted street cleaning times would be increased from $40 to $90 while making it a non-towable offense.  The neighborhoods that would be Pilot Zones have not been set.  The matter was referred to the Government Operations committee for a hearing.

Fenway Parking Fines: We voted to pass an amended version of Councilor Zakim's ordinance to increase the fines for parking in residential spots without a resident parking sticker 2 hours before, during, and after a Red Sox game and also during other events as designated by the City.  The penalty will be increased from $40 (which is comparable or even cheaper than Game Day parking in the area) to $100.  To address concerns voiced at the hearing about confusion from having special parking rules in a single neighborhood and a potential negative impact on small businesses, a sunset clause was added that would have the ordinance expire December 31, 2015 for more evaluation on the data.

For complete notes from the April 1st and April 8th meetings, visit www.michelleforboston.com/notes or sign up to receive these notes automatically each week by email at www.michelleforboston.com/sendmenotes.

45 West Third Community Meeting

The Boston Redevelopment Authority (BRA) is hosting a community meeting regarding the development at 45 West Third Street in South Boston. The meeting will be held: 

Monday, April 6, 2015

6:30 pm - 8 pm

Artists For Humanity

100 W 2nd St

The proposed development calls for the construction of 164 residential units with 3,000 sf of retail space and 115 parking spaces The building will be situated on the corner of A Street next to KO Pies and on West Third Street. More details.

Comment Deadline is April 13, 2015. Email your comments to Gary Uter, Project Manager, BRA or submit comments online at the bottom of the BRA's project page.