Blogs

Census Jobs in Cambridge

Mon, 03/22/2010 - 10:47am — jhh

The U.S. Census Bureau is still looking for qualified applicants for part-time jobs.

Census Enumerators are being hired in Cambridge at $22 per hour. Census employment tests are currently given in various locations in Cambridge throughout the month of March. To schedule an appointment to take an employment test and submit an application, call 1-866-861-2010. More information on the 2010 Census jobs and an on-line version of the practice test are available at www.2010censusjobs.gov.

jhh's blog

Cambridge Seeking Nominations for Go Green Awards

Wed, 02/24/2010 - 11:31am — jhh

Through the Go Green Awards, the City of Cambridge recognizes businesses and organizations that take exceptional environmental actions in at least one of five areas—energy use, transportation, waste reduction, stormwater, and climate protection. Self nominations are accepted. The deadline for GoGreen Awards nominations is April 5, 2010. Click here to download a nomination form.

The ceremony will be held Tuesday, May 25 at 5:30 pm at the City Hall Annex, 344 Broadway.

News about the St. James / Oaktree condo development

Tue, 08/11/2009 - 8:27am — jhh

Oaktree Development and St. James's Episcopal Church plan to build a 46 unit, 78300 square foot condominium on the combined car wash and church site. The new building would contain a new parish hall for the church, and the project would provide the church with money to maintain their beautiful and historic, but crumbling, church building at the corner of Beech Street and Massachusetts Avenue. Neighbors are deeply concerned about the size of the new building, impact on the neighborhood, and traffic on Beech Street.

As of July 2008 both the Planning Board and the Historical Commission have approved the project, subject only to some minor details.

Here is a collection of information about the proposal , including materials submitted to the Planning Board and the Historical Commission, and various reports on the hearings.

jhh's blog

Lesley Porter Overlay District adopted

Tue, 06/23/2009 - 8:07am — jhh

On June 22 the Cambridge City Council voted 8-1 to create a Lesley Porter Overlay District. This new overlay district rezones Lesley University's Porter Square campus, including the former North Prospect Congregational Church site, to allow Lesley to bring the Arts Institute of Boston to Porter Square. It limits what Lesley could eventually build on the parking lots behind and across Massachusetts Avenue from University Hall, although Lesley has not proposed any specific plans for those sites. It also has provisions to require open space and to encourage ground floor retail.

Jessica Pratt's "Stop the Elephant" image

Sun, 06/14/2009 - 11:08am — jhh

Here is an image from Jessica Pratt arguing against the car wash condo project.

jhh's blog

Planning Board decision on Lesley Porter zoning proposal

Wed, 04/08/2009 - 8:13am — jhh

Here is my completely unofficial summary of last night's Planning Board meeting on the Lesley Porter Overlay District zoning proposal, and also about last week's Historical Commission decision on the North Prospect Church building.

After lengthy public testimony, last night the Planning Board voted unanimously for a positive recommendation on the zoning proposal, but with expressions of concerns over two specific areas: open space, and dimensional limits on future buildings west of Mass Ave. In fact, they used words like "enthusiastic" support and "excellent" petition. They seemed to feel that they did not need to address moving the church, since it is not a zoning issue per se, and the Historic Commission has already done so. Please note that the Planning Board's recommendation deals with the zoning, not the specific AIB project which will need to go through a special project review later (assuming the zoning change passes the City Council.)

Last week the Historical Commission decided to recommend that the church be granted landmark status. Basically they accepted their staff report, which treats the entire building, not just the original part, as historic. This means that any future modifications to the building would need to pass further reviews by the Historical Commission.

In both cases, the exact wording of the recommendations to be sent to the City Council is still being worked out.

The next event in this saga is the Ordinance Committee meeting at 4PM next Tuesday, April 14.

John Howard

jhh's blog

More on Walden Street bridge reopening

Thu, 12/18/2008 - 6:40pm — jhh

The Walden Street bridge will open for traffic on Friday, December 19, approximately midday. Construction supervisors on site said that the first vehicle across will probably be a snowplow.

Here is a letter from City Engineer Owen O'Riordan giving some specifics about work remaining to be done:

Dear Walden Street Bridge Neighbor,

Please be informed that JF White Construction, working for Massachusetts Highway Department will reopen Walden Street Bridge on Friday December 19th 2008. While a significant amount of additional work remains to be completed, most particularly NSTAR Electric duct bank work on the south eastern side of the bridge, the contractor has at this time completed the bridge deck and the majority of the sidewalk and so is in a position to have the bridge open for traffic.

New email discussion list

Tue, 11/18/2008 - 10:00am — jhh

The PSNA email discussion list is back under a new name: psna@portersquare.net

If you were registered for the old list at talkonline.us, you should have received a Welcome message with instructions for managing your updated subscription. New registration instructions can be found under "Email list" at the top of this web page, and at the list's general information page.

It's OK to ignore any messages you receive from the old list service at talkonline.us.