Boston

After months of talking about it and making plans for it, we finally went to the New England Aquarium today. Isabella has always been crazy about fish, ever since the days when Melanie would take the 2-year-old Bella to her OB’s office where they had a gigantic fish pond (it was really too big to be a tank) in the middle of the lobby. She’d stand on the edge and call to the fish: “Fishy, fishy, fishy.” And in all things, Sophia follows her big sister in her interests and desires. Of course, a second reason for the trip was to fulfill the kids’ wish to ride on a train. Oh boy, do they get excited by trains whenever we see them.

So I was determined that during my vacation, we would take a day and we’d all go into Boston together and see the Aquarium. Honestly, I was as interested as the kids. The Aquarium has been one of my favorite attractions in Boston since I was a kid and I hadn’t been there in ages. Probably not since I was a kid. Some things haven’t changed at all: The seal lions outside the front entrance so anyone can see them without buying a ticket; the penguin pool on the bottom floor inside, the giant ocean tank in the middle, that pleasant fishy smell that hits you as you walk in. (And it is pleasant. Otherwise my very queasy, morning-sick wife would have gagged and she didn’t.) So much has changed as well: The big permanently docked floating auditorium out back is gone. Now there’s a very modern indoor-outdoor marine mammal center. The old barge used to hold the seal shows and the dolphin shows. The dolphins are long gone now; I suppose it’s now politically incorrect to keep them in captivity. Or maybe just too expensive.

Anyway, back to the beginning. We got a relatively early start, but not too early. I wanted to wait until after rush hour. We found a spot in the garage at the Braintree MBTA station, which is about 10 minutes from our house. Unfortunately, the garage is not stroller- or handicapped-friendly. We had to hoist the stroller down a dozen steps and then walk down a ramp to get into the station. After that, it was a smooth trip to the subway trains. We’d briefly considered taking one of the “real” trains from the commuter rail station in Holbrook, but they run on a more sporadic schedule and we didn’t want to be trapped in Boston, waiting hours for the next train home. It turned out to be a good decision, because at the time we left, there would have been such a gap in the schedule. And the kids didn’t notice any difference. In fact, they were completely enamored of the ride and it was almost as much a part of the adventure of the day as the Aquarium itself was.

We took the subway to the South Station stop. We could have gone to Downtown Crossing, transferred to the Orange Line for one stop to State Street, and then taken the Blue Line one stop to Aquarium, but, well, you can see how ridiculous that seems. Instead we elected to walk on this beautiful summer day from South Station to the Aquarium. Ten years ago that would be a noxious experience, sucking fumes from cars and trucks on the surface streets as well as the elevated Central Artery, not to mention being deafened by the noise. But today, in post-Big Dig Boston, it’s a pleasant stroll along the new Rose Kennedy Greenway, an emerald necklace of parks that connect the downtown to the waterfront. Sure, those surface roads are still there, but they seem less crowded than they once were and further away now that you can walk in the middle of the park areas. There’s lots of public art and well-kept flower beds and benches and chairs to sit in. There’s even a temporary installation of a perhaps record-breaking hammock large enough to hold 15 people at once. In all it was a nice 20-minute walk at the pace set by Isabella, who by the way was a real trooper who did not complain once about having to walk the whole way, even on the way back to the station when she was tired and wanted to go home.

The Aquarium itself was lots of fun. It was a great day. Not perfect, mind you, but great. Lunch in the cafeteria was … a trial. Not one, but two separate spilled milks; a lot of money for a bunch of mediocre food the kids hardly ate; crammed quarters like hammocks on sailing ship. But thankfully lunch was only a small part of the day.

Isabella had fun running from exhibit to exhibit, pointing at all the fish and asking what they are. Sophia was somewhat more sedate, content most of the time to view things from the front seat of the stroller. I think Benedict mostly didn’t care about the whole thing, instead staring at all the people and eventually falling asleep in the midst of the noise and chaos, only to wake very cranky in the cafeteria, adding his screaming to the ambiance of lunch. Bella especially loved the giant sea turtle and the sharks. And the penguins, too.

But she’s a sensible girl who knows her limits and even before lunch, after about 2-1/2 hours at the Aquarium, she was already telling us she’d like to go home.

So we gathered ourselves together, walked back through the lovely greenway parks, and made our way to the subway. A quick ride outbound to our car and we were home in time that we could still naps, albeit abbreviated.

At bedtime, during our prayers, we were thanking God for our special day. I prayed: “Thank you God for all the variety of fish and animals and birds that you have created for us to admire. And thank you for the Aquarium where we could see it all.” And Bella piped up: “And Bass Pro Shop.” Yes, Bella, Bass Pro Shop too, with its stuffed animals and fish tank. I guess I wouldn’t have put that in the same category as the Aquarium, but that’s the beauty of a child’s view of the world.

Charlestown is a neighborhood of Boston, just north of the city across the Mystic River, which was once known as a tough place (whenever a bank robbery or armored car heist appeared in the news, it seemed inevitably to involve a “Townie”), but in recent years has been gentrifying, especially along the waterfront. Many of Boston’s wealthy professionals have purchased homes and condominiums in the area, joining one of the oldest residents already present there: The USS Constitution.

Of course, the Constitution—also known as Old Ironsides, an 18th-century ship of sail—is the oldest commissioned warship in the world and is on active duty in the US Navy. She is berthed in the Navy Yard in Charlestown and each day she follows Navy tradition by playing the National Anthem and firing a cannon in salute.

Last November some of the Constitution’s newer neighbors decided that the Old Lady was not being a good neighbor and asked that her ceremonies be altered or ceased. This week, the ship’s commanding officer refused their request. The neighbors had asked that the charges for the cannon be reduced and the volume on the anthem reduced and even eliminated completely on the weekends. They had complained—and I’m not exaggerating—that the noise disturbed houseguests’ sleep on the weekends and their ability to enjoy a glass wine on their balconies and patios in the evenings.

It’s not like the existence of the Constitution was a surprise to anyone moving into Charlestown, but like someone who moves near railroad tracks and is surprised at the blowing of whistles by passing trains in the night, all we can say is, that’s your own fault for failing to do due diligence. Caveat emptor!

The Constitution’s traditions are more than mere show for the tourists. They are an integral part of the ship’s mission, which is to serve as a reminder and a connection to our nation’s naval history in war and peace and to preserve our heritage and traditions, so we will never forget the sacrifice of blood, sweat, and tears of those who gave their all for freedom and liberty.

A few years ago, I was privileged to ride aboard the Constitution during his annual Fourth of July cruise in Boston Harbor, a day I won’t soon forget. While aboard I recorded the 21-gun salute to our nation from belowdecks.

Charlestown’s blue-state swells should remind themselves of Admiral Boom from “Mary Poppins”, the retired British man of the sea who fired off a cannon from his home on the square each day at noon. Although the blast nearly turned the neighbors’ home upside down each day, no one dreamed of asking the admiral to end a tradition that connected him to the sea and symbolized his long and distinguished service to King and Country.

Of course, I’m also reminded of another movie scene, one which expresses my attitude toward those who would cast aside our heritage and history so lightly. I’m thinking of Col. Jessup from “A Few Good Men”:

I have neither the time nor the inclination to explain myself to a man who rises and sleeps under the blanket of the very freedom I provide, then questions the manner in which I provide it. I’d prefer you just said thank you and went on your way. Otherwise, I suggest you pick up a weapon and stand a post.Either way, I don’t give a damn what you think you’re entitled to.

Photo by Domenico Bettinelli. All Rights Reserved.

3 Days - 3,038 Photos from Robbie on Vimeo.

This is a fun video compiled from over 3,000 photos taken in a 3 day span in and around Boston. Nothing profound, but a very cool use of technology. Since this was taken with a digital SLR, the end result is effectively High Definition video, so click through to the Vimeo site for the full effect.

What might have been. After the Second World War, the country went on a highway-building binge, and Massachusetts was part of that craze. During that time, such major highways as Routes 128, 95, and 93, the Southeast Expressway and the Central Atery were all either expanded to major highway status or built from scratch. Yet the plans were even more ambitious than eventually realized, as transportation czars drew up plans for an extensive highway network that would have included an Inner Belt Expressway, that would have been part of I-95 and the never-built I-695.

In 1948, the Massachusetts Department of Public Works (MassDPW), led by commissioner William F. Callahan, proposed a controlled-access, multi-lane loop route to connect downtown Boston with other radial expressways. By serving crosstown traffic, the “Belt Route” was to relieve a large portion of the 15,000 through trips on Boston’s antiquated street network.

Forming a 7.3-mile-loop around the southern, western and northern edge of downtown Boston, the route of the Inner Belt Expressway was described in the Master Highway Plan for the Boston Metropolitan Area as follows:

The selected route begins at the interchange between the Southeast and Southwest expressways near Massachusetts Avenue and Southampton Street, and extends in a westerly direction via Roxbury Crossing to connect with Huntington Avenue, Jamaica Way and Brookline Avenue. From this point, it extends in a northerly direction to cross Beacon Street and Commonwealth Avenue paralleling the Cottage Farm (Boston University) Bridge across the Charles River to connect with the Western Expressway (early I-90 alignment). From this point, the Belt Route passes through Cambridge in a northeasterly direction to Somerville, making an interchange connecting with the Northwest Expressway (unbuilt US 3-MA 2) in the vicinity of Washington Street. From this interchange, it travels in an easterly direction paralleling the Boston and Maine Railroad, crossing its main yards to an elevated interchange just west of City Square, where it connects with the Northeast Expressway (US 1).

Interchanges were to be constructed at the following locations:

• Southeast Expressway (I-93) / Southwest Expressway (unbuilt I-95), Boston
• Washington Street, Boston
• Columbus Avenue, Boston
• Brookline Avenue, Boston
• Worcester Turnpike (MA 9), Brookline
• Beacon Street, Boston
• Commonwealth Avenue, Boston
• Soldiers Field Road, Boston
• Western Expressway (early I-90 alignment), Cambridge
• Massachusetts Avenue (MA 2A), Cambridge
• Northwest Expressway (unbuilt US 3-MA 2), Cambridge
• Northern Artery / Medford Boston, Somerville
• Northeast Expressway (US 1), Somerville

The Inner Belt Expressway was to continue south along the route of the elevated Central Artery, providing connections to downtown Boston and Logan Airport. Note that there was to be no direct connection to the Northern Expressway (I-93), due to its close location between the Northwest and Northeast expressways. (Engineers sought adequate spacing of access points to controlled-access routes.)

You can get a better idea of the unbuilt portions from this map:

The portions in red were never built or remained as smaller city and state roads and routes. The dotted lines represent major highways planned but never built. You can also see the ring road. Remnants of the unrealized portions of this grand plan still exist.

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This interchange at the intersection of I-95 and I-93/Rte 128 in Canton would have been just one waypoint on the way into the city until construction was halted. Now it’s half of a working clovercleaf, while the other half lies fallow, melting back into the forest from which it had been carved fifty years ago.

How would the city’s character have been different had all these roads been built? Would some neighborhoods thus cut off from the downtown have withered or thrived? How would the economy and the rise of the suburb been affected? Would more business have moved to the suburbs or would they have stayed in the city? Would we have been even more of a car culture, a la Southern California, or would the commuter train and subway system have remained? Interesting to speculate.

What’s also interesting speculation is whether the era of such major highways, at least in the densely packed Northeast, are forever part of history, with our major road projects only being envisioned to repair and rebuild what’s in place.

Boston Mayor Tom Menino has a column in the local newspaper Boston Post-Gazette. Last week he recalled that March 17 is not just St. Patrick’s Day, but also the Suffolk County holiday of Evacuation Day—Boston City workers get the day off, essentially— which recounts, well, let’s let the mayor tell you.

“On March 17, 1776 the British Army finally left ‘the colonies,’ by way of Boston Harbor after being beaten in the American Revolutionary War.”

I’m not sure what Washington was doing at Yorktown but apparently the British had been gone for years. I wonder if Washington had held up a big billboard after the Battle of Bunker Hill: “Mission Accomplished.” I guess the years between 1776 and 1783 only count as a “quagmire” for the American troops.

Way to set an example for all those kids in school, Mr. Mayor. Maybe they should administer MCAS to politicians before they can take office.

To update from yesterday, we ended up with nearly a foot of snow on the ground, but the worst part was what it did to the commute. Not everyone was a prescient as me — ahem, I left at noon — and by the time people were leaving work around 2, the snow was already sticking and creating a mess. It was the commute from hell for many people.

My poor sister was traveling from Norwood to Peabody—a journey that normally takes about an hour without traffic—with her 4 kids and husband and while they started at 1 pm they didn’t get home until after 6 and perhaps almost 7. Some folks at work who didn’t leave early were still stuck there as late as 8 pm.

On the other hand, I breezed right home even faster than usual and the snow only started sticking just as I got a few miles from home.

Anyway, this morning on my way in to work I noticed a few more characteristic foibles of New Englanders in the snow, mind-boggling behaviors that make you wonder what they’re thinking. For one thing, I saw people using snow blowers to blast snow out into the street as cars are driving by. For one thing, it obscures their vision. For another, it undoes the plowing, making the street slick and difficult to drive on.

Then there are the people who are too much in a hurry to take the snow off their cars. I have seen people literally dig out portholes in the front and back windows and driver’s and passenger’s windows, leaving everything else covered, including headlights, taillights, and directional signals. Not to mention the eight-inch-thick slab of snow on the roof that comes flying off in one great mass as soon as the rocket scientists hits highway speeds.

Driving in to work this morning, I saw cars entombed on the side of the road, cars abandoned in the middle of the street, folks walking on heavily traveled byways because the sidewalks were covered and more.

A few years ago, after an even bigger storm, my car got stuck in a snow bank because some coffee-junky parked his Subaru Outback on a narrow corner of a barely plowed street outside a Starbucks, forcing me to swing wide and into an unplowed abyss.

Wow, I don’t usually start getting this antsy about snow stupidity until sometime in February. I must be getting old. I should move to Texas.

That image is the new headquarters of WGBH, the public broadcasting powerhouse that originates in Boston. The building sits next to the Massachusetts Turnpike in Brighton, and in fact, juts out over the highway. Over the past few months they’ve been doing some work on the side of the building and just this week switched on a giant “digital mural,” which the rest of us would call a TV billboard. To be sure, this isn’t broadcasting TV shows, but it is showing moving images.

Does anyone else think this is a bad idea? I drive this route every day and yesterday was the first day it was switched on. There’s a straight stretch of highway headed eastbound just before it, about a half mile long. That thing is jumping and moving and is distraction from the road. How long before the first accidents caused by driver distraction? Didn’t anyone think about this?

I’m also worried about the trend. How long before regular billboards are replaced by jumping and moving video images designed to distract even more? Do-gooders are trying to ban cell-phone use while driving. Is that more distracting than a video billboard?

Whatever the intent, this is just more visual pollution and a road hazard.

P.S. Last week, while they were testing it, the mural was displaying a gigantic yards tall and wide Microsoft Windows error message. I wish I’d photographed it. I can’t wait for the first blue screen of death.

Photo by Jeff Goldberg/Boston Herald

Here’s a very interesting rumor I heard recently. It’s a little out of left field (if you’ll excuse the pun), but it sort of makes sense.

First some background. When the current owners of the Boston Red Sox bought the team a few years ago, they began to talk about building a new replacement for Fenway Park to maximize their ticket revenue so they could compete to pay ever-increasing player salaries. Nostalgic, old Fenway with a max of 33,000 paid attendance couldn’t compete with the newer and bigger parks that seat 40,000 or 50,000 or even more. However, their plans went nowhere and they had to settle for smaller improvements to the park for now, like the Monster seats. It wasn’t just resistance from neighbors, but the fact that there was nothing in it for local politicians. They had no reason to buck the voters.

Meanwhile, across town, Boston Mayor Tom Menino has recently floated a proposal to build a new city hall on the South Boston waterfront, leaving behind the current ugly city hall in the expanse Government Center right downtown on the edge of the Financial District. But Menino has also met resistance because of accusations that it would be a waste of taxpayer dollars and that Tommy wants to build the Taj Menino as a monument to his ego. Besides, who would want to buy up the old city hall and Government Center, demolish it, and build what? Another office tower?

Who, indeed, could be found to buy the property? See where I’m going with this?

The rumor is that the City of Boston is looking to sell Government Center to the Boston Red Sox, who would buy the property and build a new, more spacious and profitable Fenway Park. Very interesting.

Now the mayor has a reason to support a move from the beloved “old bandbox” in the Fens and has a buyer with the money to pay for the Government Center property.

Is it just a spurious rumor? Is there substance behind it? Is it a serious proposal? I don’t know, but it certainly bears watching.

And if it does come to pass, you saw it here first.

Technorati Tags: | Red Sox | Boston | politics | Fenway Park |

This one is mainly for all the Boston-area readers.

Perhaps you know that Jordan’s Furniture has one of its mega-stores right on Route 128 in Reading. If you’re not from here, Jordan’s isn’t just a place to buy furniture, but they also have movie theaters—in this case, IMAX; a restaurant; an ice cream stand; and more. They turn furniture shopping into a family outing. They’re also the 800-pound gorilla of furniture in this area.

But the 750-pound gorilla, if you will, is Bernie & Phyl’s, a local company whose ads feature the very nasally and gravelly voices of the married couple who founded the stores, the eponymous Bernie and Phyl.

Well, right beside the highway in front of the Jordan’s in Reading is a fancy billboard, the kind that flips to show about four or five different ads. And this morning what do I see as one of those ads in front of Jordan’s?

An ad for Bernie & Phyl’s that simply says, “We’re the alternative.”

Who knew that buying a sofa would be so cutthroat?

P.S. I’m eternally grateful that at least Dean’s discount furniture is no more so that I no longer have to hear his deeply annoying ad tag line: “I dooooubt it.” (Imagine a thick Boston accent with the emphasis on the vowel. Brrrr.)

Technorati Tags: advertising | billboard | Boston | furniture |

What a fantastic day! I’ve uploaded my set of photos to Flickr. A YouTube video of the 21-gun salute is also available.

For those of you joining me late, my dad gave me the coolest gift, which was to sail aboard the USS Constitution during her annual July Fourth cruise around Boston harbor. He is friends with a former captain of the ship, who gave Dad his own tickets. My dad knows what a nut I am about old ships and so he invited me to go.

I met my dad at the boarding line about 8:30 am at the Charlestown Navy Yard. Everyone in the line as well as the whole crew were very excited. We quickly learned that the day would include an assisted sail (the Constitution does not sail under her own power anymore, but must be assisted by tugs) out to Castle Island in South Boston and back. We would have several admirals aboard as well as several ship captains and a group of people becoming naturalized citizens during a ceremony while underway.

We were pretty much given the run of the ship and explored a bit. The crew was helpful and friendly and snappy in their period uniforms. In a bit of an anachronism, the crew has both men and women, but they all looked very young. (I’m getting so old.)

For the occasion I wore my USS Ronald W. Reagan, CVN-76, hat to honor our nation’s 40th president and the Navy. My dad, a Navy veteran of the Korean War era, had his Navy hat. We calculated that it had been more than 50 years since he mustered out of the service. More than one sailor he talked to thanked him for his service to the country.

The ceremony was properly full of ritual and pomp. The Navy Band played the classics, like “Washington Post” (if you don’t know the name you recognize the tune from the last graduation you attended probably) and others.

Highest honors to our heroes

Technorati Tags: Fourth of July | Independence Day | USS Constitution | Old Ironsides | Boston | US Navy |

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