Electric Vehicle Parking Lot Ribbon Cutting

Eversource and Madison Properties partner on ‘Green Block’ amid historic buildings on Congress Street in Fort Point. 

WHAT:  Ribbon-cutting and grand opening of “green” parking facility where electric vehicles of all makes can park by the hour or by the day, while recharging their batteries for a clean ride home.

WHEN:  11 a.m., Monday, Dec. 19, 2016

WHERE:  363 Congress St., in the Fort Point Channel neighborhood of South Boston, location of Eversource substation

WHO:  Austin Blackmon, City of Boston Chief of Environment and Energy;  Jim Hunt, Senior Vice President of Regulatory Affairs and Chief Communications Officer, Eversource Energy; and Denis Dowdle, President of Madison Properties.

FORECAST:  Sunny but temperature in the 20s. Coffee at the event.

BACKGROUND
Madison Properties, a Massachusetts real estate development company, and Eversource Energy have collaborated to create an electric-vehicle charging station and parking facility in South Boston’s Seaport District, known as the Innovation District because of its cutting-edge business tenants and environmentally aware workforce, at 363 Congress St.
The mostly vacant rectangular block, about 90 feet by 78 feet on the south side of the street between two historic Boston Wharf Co. commercial buildings, is currently and will continue to be the location of an Eversource substation.

Madison Properties and Eversource have designed spaces for 13 vehicles, with seven spaces equipped with chargers for electric vehicles. Vehicles may be rotated as they become fully charged, and power is configured to the lot so that as demand grows more of the remaining parking slots can be served by chargers.

The EV parking location has been paved with porous asphalt, which returns rainwater to the ground. The lot, about 7,000 square feet, has been beautified with lighting, safety bollards, and decorative fencing. The substation portion of the lot is separated by a fence from the angled parking spaces. Cars will enter from Congress Street and exit onto the alley behind the Congress Street buildings on the south side of Congress, turning onto either Boston Wharf Road or A Street.

For more information, please contact:

Tom Palmer, Tom Palmer Communication
m 617.755.7250, tompalmer@rcn.com

Holiday Shopping Fort Point Style

What is holiday shopping Fort Point style? It is social, unique and avoids mall traffic. It is one-of-kind gifts for everyone on your list. It is tasty treats and refreshments from fine restaurants. It is live entertainment by local performers. It is free and open to all.

It starts Wednesday, December 14, 2016 from 6 pm - 8 pm with the opening reception of Paper Chase 2016 at the FPAC Gallery at 300 Summer Street. On sale are over 50 works on paper, including prints, drawings, watercolors, photographs, and handmade paper. All priced at $100. The exhibition benefits the Fort Point Arts Community. Works will be on sale through December 23d.

Dorothy Hebden Heath

On Thursday, December 15th from 6 pm to 8 pm, visit the Gallery At 249 A for the opening reception of The Colors of Nature: Dorothy Hebden Heath & Caroline Muir. The gallery will also be open during the Fort Point Stroll on Friday and the 249 A Holiday Sale on Saturday 12 pm - 5 pm.  The Gallery at 249 A is located within the 249 A Street Artists Cooperative.

Caroline Muir

Not to be missed is the  Friends of Fort Point Channel Fort Point Holiday Stroll this Friday, December 16th from 4 pm - 8 pm.

Shop, Sip and Stroll through our historic neighborhood, nibble sweet & savory treats from restaurants and bars, explore galleries & artist studios, and shop at boutiques & pop-up shops. Don't forget to grab your map at any of the participating locations, explore the neighborhood, and collect stamps for a chance to win amazing prizes from local boutiques and restaurants! View list of Stroll participants and plan your shopping stroll experience.

in conjunction with the 

Fort Point Holiday Stroll

Fort Poinsettias featuring Larry Platt, Mo Thorkelson and Curly Cremona will be performing a holiday season sing-along Friday from 4:30 pm - 7:30 pm at the Gallery At 249 A. This performance is sponsored by the Friends of Fort Point Channel.


249 A Holiday Sale: December 16th from 4 pm - 8 pm and Saturday, December 17th from 12 pm - 5 pm. Fort Point’s original artists' building will hold a mini-open studios for holiday shopping. More than twenty artists, both cooperative members and invited guests, will be opening their doors in the building. Visitors can find handmade gifts of art, craft, and design made by local artists in one building in the historic Fort Point neighborhood of South Boston. Shop in a relaxed studio setting, meet the artists, and enjoy complimentary refreshments.

Rooster Tails and the Fort Point Theatre Channel present A Surreal Soiree: An Evening of Beatniks, Clowns and Cleopatra Friday at 8 pm at Art Under The Stairs, Midway Artist Studios, 15 Channel Center Street. It will be a Cacophonous Cabaret of sound and light. movies, music, and performance by Mick Cusimano and friends. More details.

243d Boston Tea Party Re-enactment: Presented by Old South Meeting House and the Boston Tea Party Ships & Museum, the Annual Boston Tea Party Reenactment is a chance for the public to join in on one of Boston’s most iconic protests. Re-enactors from across New England come together to tell the story of the Boston Tea Party and dramatize the evening of December 16, 1773. Head to the Boston Tea Party Ships & Museum by 8 pm and watch as the Sons of Liberty storm aboard the Brig Beaver to destroy chest after chest of East India Company Tea. More details.

Fort Point Arts Holiday Sale at 315 on A (315 A St.) 
Join the Fort Point Arts Community for festive shopping showcasing arts, crafts, jewelry and designs by local Fort Point artists.

Friday, December 16th 4 pm - 8 pm

Saturday, December 17th, 12 pm - 6 pm

Sunday, December 18th, 12 pm - 6 pm

Holiday Gems at Made In Fort Point store offers a wide range of fine art, jewelry, prints, clothing and cards where you are sure to find a gem for even the hardest person to buy for on your list. Made in Fort Point received Best of Boston neighborhood shopping for 2016. Open Thursday - Saturday 12 pm - 6 pm. 

Thank you for visiting Fort Point and supporting our local artists, restaurants, museums and retail shops. 

Boston City Council Looks At Walkability, Residential Displacement, Jobs, Boston Unplugged & More

City Council President Michelle Wu publishes notes from Boston City Council meetings. The Boston City Council considered these items and more at their November 30th and December 7, 2016 meetings:

Appointments: Mayor Walsh made the following appointments

• Beacon Hill Architectural Commission: Miguel Rosales as chair
• Boston Cultural Council: Priscilla Rojas and Abigail Norman as members until October 2019

Roxbury Cultural District: The Council voted 12-0 (Councilor Campbell absent) to support advancing the Roxbury Cultural District’s application to the Massachusetts Cultural Council. The district would include Dudley Square and John Elliot Square and highlight the many arts and cultural assets in the neighborhood, as well as Roxbury’s significance as the heart of black culture for the region. At the hearing last month, the Council heard overwhelming support from neighbors and other stakeholders as well as ideas about the boundaries of the district. This would be Boston’s third cultural district, after the Fenway Cultural District and the Boston Literary Cultural District.

Boston Residents Jobs Policy: Mayor Walsh filed an ordinance amending the Boston Residents Jobs Policy employment standards, from the current standards of requiring at least 50% Boston residents, 25% people of color, and 10% women on covered projects to 51%, 40%, and 12% respectively. The order also extends covered projects to include not just City-funded projects but also major development projects that require Zoning Board of Appeals approval and are at least 50,000 square feet. Finally, the ordinance amends the scope of the Boston Employment Commission to handle all compliance related issues and report to the City Council twice a year. The matter was sent to the Government Operations Committee for a hearing.

University Accountability: The 2016-2017 University Accountability Report was filed, showing 148,148 college students enrolled in Boston. Of those, 37,324 live on campus and 42,498 live off campus. Combined, the 29 institutions own 379 properties in the city.

Plastic Bag Ban: Following recommendations from the 90-day plastic bag working group, Councilors O’Malley and Wu filed an ordinance to reduce plastic bag waste in Boston. Many of the flimsy, single-use plastic bags end up tearing and littered on our streets or in our trees. The recycling company Casella also noted that thin plastic bags get twisted around their machinery and are not in condition to be recyclable after being mixed in with food products or other waste, so they spend hours every week untangling plastic bags from the gears. The ordinance would require retail establishments to offer plastic bags of at least 3 mils in thickness (think bookstore bags) that are more reusable and charge a 5-cent fee on these thicker plastic bags, recyclable paper bags, and compostable bags. That fee would go back to the retail establishment to cover the increased cost of thicker bags. City Council President Wu emphasized that any conversation about increasing costs for families is difficult when so many are struggling to make ends meet in our city – the goal of the ordinance is to encourage residents to use reusable bags when shopping and reduce plastic bag waste in a way that is fair for small businesses and not prohibitive for residents. The urgency of climate change as a social and economic threat to our future grows more visible every day, and we need to take every step we can to move toward a greener economy. The matter was sent to the Government Operations Committee for a hearing.

Transportation Policy Briefing—Pedestrian Service & Safety: Councilor LaMattina reported back on the second of our monthly transportation policy briefings, which took place yesterday. The Council heard from WalkBoston’s Wendy Landman on pedestrian-friendly street design, Madison Park Development Corporation’s Marah Holland on the public health impacts of walkable neighborhoods, and Northeastern University’s Professor Peter Furth on recommendations for the City’s transportation department. Watch the video here.

Public Safety Grant: The Council voted to follow the recommendation of Councilor Campbell as Chair of the Committee on Public Safety & Criminal Justice to authorize the Office of Emergency Management to accept a grant from the Department of Homeland Security passed through the State Executive Office of Public Safety totaling $14.2 million for counterterrorism response and preparedness. The grant goes toward funding a number of specific goals and programs, including: bolstering regional communication, planning and response capabilities, first responders’ equipment, special operations training, and the Boston Regional Intelligence Center (BRIC). $300K of this grant could be put toward technology to monitor social media, and that was the subject of most of the discussion at the grant hearing, with many Councilors concerned about civil liberties and potential for racial profiling. Councilor Campbell stated that she did not want to hold up the entirety of the grant for these concerns, because the Police Department committed to coming back to the Council before moving further in the process for this technology. She also mentioned that the body camera conversation had followed a similar timeline, with BPD releasing a Request for Proposals first, then working with the Council’s Public Safety & Criminal Justice Committee to host a public process and develop policy. Councilor Pressley noted that she would look to file a hearing order on this policy in the new year.

Acoustic Live Entertainment / Boston Unplugged: City President Wu filed an ordinance to eliminate the permit requirement, hearing, and fees for small businesses in business districts to host acoustic live entertainment acts of up to five performers between the hours of 10AM-10PM. This follows three successful time-limited pilots in Main Streets districts in May, August, and December 2015 that Mayor Walsh and the Council collaborated on. The goal is to formally extend a tool to small business owners throughout the city to increase foot traffic and create more opportunities for artists in Boston. The ordinance has a one-year sunset provision so that the Council and City can reevaluate the results at the end of 2017. The matter was assigned to the Government Operations Committee for a hearing.

Residential Displacement: Councilor Jackson filed a hearing order to discuss resident displacement in rapidly developing neighborhoods. The order particularly notes approximately $152 million worth of development is planned for Roxbury, but the projects and affordability requirements may not match the income levels of residents. Several Councilors spoke about similar pressures throughout their districts and the entire city. The matter was sent to the Housing and Community Development Committee for a hearing.

Upcoming Hearings/Working Sessions (Watch at www.cityofboston.gov/citycouncil/live.asp)

• Thursday, 12/8 at 2:00PM, Boston Residents Jobs Policy (Government Operations)
• Monday, 12/12 at 11:00AM, Co-Ops, Single Room Occupancy & Micro units (Housing & Community Development)
• Monday, 12/12 at 2:00PM, Tentative: Boston Unplugged Ordinance (Government Operations)
• Monday, 12/12 at 4:00PM, For-Profit Lodging in Personal Residences (Housing & Community Development)
• Tuesday, 12/13 at 11:00AM, Tools to Help Small Businesses (Jobs, Wages & Workforce Development)
• Tuesday, 12/13 at 1:00PM, Plastic Bag Reduction Ordinance (Government Operations)

For complete notes on Boston City Council meetings, visit MichelleForBoston.com or sign up to receive these notes automatically each week by email. 

Be Part of Boston Tea Party Reenactment

Be part of a time honored Boston tradition and a part of American history by volunteering at the 243rd Anniversary Reenactment of the Boston Tea Party! Helping out gives you a front row seat to all the action on the Fort Point Channel this December 16, 2016.

According to the Boston Tea Party Ships & Museum who organizes the event, local residents and businesses make the best volunteers. The museum is seeking costumed and non-customed volunteers to participate. Dress up and be part of the historic atmosphere or be comfortable in 21st century attire and assist in ensuring public safety of Patriots lining the waterfront to bear witness to the destruction of the Crown's tea. Volunteers may also help with general information and seating. 
Sign up to volunteer. For more details, contact Dan O'Neill.

originally published 11.11.16

Fort Point Year End Gathering Tuesday

The Fort Point Neighborhood Association

invites you to
celebrate Fort Point at

FPNA Year End Gathering
Tuesday, December 6th
6 pm - 8 pm
Sky Lounge
315 on A
 
with special thanks to

Barlow's Restaurant
Bastille Kitchen
Craft Beer Cellar
Committee
Empire
Envoy
Fort Point Market
Fromage Wine & Cheese Bar
Peter Gori
Oak + Rowan
Pastoral
Row 34
Sagarino's Market
Trade
Urban Cupcake Company
Yo! Sushi

and

315 on A & Equity Residential
 

R.S.V.P.  (required) as space is limited
Join or Renew Your Membership Today
By becoming an FPNA member, you help support FPNA's continued advocacy for Fort Point, which in 2016 involved: Boston Grand Prix, Northern Avenue Bridge, Fort Point Park, Necco Green Bridge and Boston Helipad to name a few; monthly neighborhood gatherings; and signature projects including our flowers and vines along A Street. Join or renew your membership by December 5th and be entered in a drawing to win gift cards courtesy of our neighborhood dining partners.