Workers have begun removing the protective wrap from the Museum of Natural History building on Berkeley Street between Newbury and Boylston. Some of the original details of this 1862 design have been lost over the years, but the current work restores the building’s glory. Imagine this block when the museum and a very similar structure that housed MIT, stood side-by-side.

Many of you who use the post office, heard last week that the US Postal Service is suggesting a .50 cent stamp as the standard cost for mailing a letter. We don’t suppose this shocks anyone as the US Postal Service is heading for bankruptcy. Its estimated loss this year is predicted at $13 billion.

By eliminating Saturday delivery and by laying off 100,000 postal employees and shuttering thousands of post office facilities, the loss could be cut by $4 billion or more.

That’s some cost savings or debt savings, whatever one chooses to call it.

But what about next year and the year after that? How does the US Postal Service return to profitability?

It doesn’t and it won’t until the entire model by which it is run today changes.

That is likely not to happen until it fully collapses under the weight of its mismanagement but mostly because the times have changed but not the US Postal Service.

From Boston Police Area D-4

Feb. 6

309 Marlborough St. – Towed Motor Vehicle

Newbury Street – Investigate Person

416 Commonwealth Ave. – Motor Vehicle Accident – Involving Bicycle

360 Newbury St.    Fraud – Larceny By Scheme

Feb. 7

Arlington St – Bomb Threat

400 Newbury St. – Larceny, Non-Accessory from Vehicle, $200 & Over

Feb. 8

250 Newbury St. – Investigate Person

15 Arlington St. – Larceny in a Building, $200 & Over

190 Newbury St. – Larceny in a Building, $200 & Over

587 Boylston St. – Trespassing

175 Marlborough St. – Frauds – All Other

Feb. 9

Boylston Street – Assault and Battery

122 Commonwealth Ave. – Trespassing

100 Newbury St. – Investigate Person

Public Alley 441 – Larceny, Shoplifting, $200 & Over

584 Boylston St. – Affray

587 Boylston St. – Forgery or Uttering

88 Newburg St. – Larceny, Other, $200 & Over

443 Beacon St. – Sick/Injured/Medical – Person

745 Boylston St.   Larceny, Other, $200 & Over

Newbury Street – Larceny, Pick-pocket, $50 to $199

Feb. 10

Massachusetts Avenue – Towed Motor Vehicle

Commonwealth Avenue – Investigate Person

180 Beacon St. – Larceny, Vehicle Accessory, $200 & Over

296 Newbury St. – Larceny in a Building, $200 & Over

Feb. 11

83 Marlborough St. – Assault and Battery

160 Beacon St. – Larceny, Non-Accessory from Vehicle, $200 & Over

Commonwealth Avenue – Vandalism

760 Boylston St. – Larceny, Shoplifting, $200 & Over

Incidents

Feb. 6

309 Marlborough St.  – Towed Motor Vehicle

Newbury Street – Investigate Person

416 Commonwealth Ave. – Motor Vehicle Accident – Involving Bicycle

360 Newbury St. Fraud – Larceny By Scheme

Feb. 7

Arlington St – Bomb Threat Bomb Threat

400 Newbury St. – Larceny, Non-Accessory from Vehicle, $200 & Over

Feb. 8

250 Newbury St. – Investigate Person

15 Arlington St – Larceny in a Building, $200 & Over

190 Newbury St. – Larceny in a Building, $200 & Over

587 Boylston St. – Trespassing

175 Marlborough St. – Frauds – All Other

Feb. 9

Boylston Street – Assault and Battery

122 Commonwealth Ave.  – Trespassing

100 Newbury St.-  Investigate Person

Public Alley 441 – Larceny, Shoplifting, $200 & Over

584 Boylston St. – Affray

587 Boylston St. – Forgery or Uttering

88 Newburg St. – Larceny, Other, $200 & Over

443 Beacon St. – Sick/Injured/Medical – Person

745 Boylston St. – Larceny, Other, $200 & Over

Newbury Street – Larceny, Pick-pocket, $50 to $199

Feb. 10

Massachusetts Avenue – Towed Motor Vehicle

Commonwealth Avenue-  Investigate Person

180 Beacon St. – Larceny, Vehicle Accessory, $200 & Over

296 Newbury St. -  Larceny in a Building, $200 & Over

Feb. 11

83 Marlborough St. – Assault and Battery

160 Beacon St. -  Larceny, Non-Accessory from Vehicle, $200 & Over

Commonwealth – Avenue Vandalism

760 Boylston St. -  Larceny, Shoplifting, $200 & Over

Just as his likeness makes a big impact in the Public Garden, as Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army, Washington played an important role in our local history. Take a tour of “George Washington’s Boston”

While the federal holiday celebrated this weekend is called “Presidents’ Day,” in Massachusetts it’s officially “Washington’s Birthday” in recognition of the man who played a large role in local history. The holiday began here in 1856 out of Mrs. Harrison Gray Otis’ determination to honor Washington.

“From morn till midnight on February 22, the old Otis residence on Beacon Hill was thrown open to the public, servants, larder and all being at their disposal, and a strangely mixed company moved in and out,” said an 1894 Boston Globe article on the creation of the holiday. Among her guests were legislators who followed her lead.

Next Monday, you could take a self-guided tour of Washington’s Boston.

Start at the Statue

Fund raising for the monumental sculpture of Washington on horseback in the Public Garden began in 1859. Delayed by Civil War metal shortages, it was not dedicated until 1868. Sculptor Thomas Ball created this work in a studio on Tremont Street. It was cast by the Ames Foundry in Chicopee.

Just as private funds paid to create the statue, the Friends of the Public Garden (FOPG) uses donations to the Henry Lee Conservation Fund to maintain the monument. Sarah Hutt, Collections Care Manager for the Friends, said that the statue was restored in 2006 and is scheduled for inspection and cleaning this summer. Washington’s sword has been replaced with a fiberglass replica numerous times over the past 15 years. Each time it is stolen, a mechanical lift must be hired to allow conservators to replace it without damaging the sculpture.

Washington Collection at the Athenaeum

Fundraising was also done to keep part of George Washington’s library in this country. When Bostonians learned of a bookseller’s plan to send the books to the British Museum, they raised $3,800 to keep them here. The Boston Athenaeum contributed the last $500 needed and subscribers to the fund voted to place the books permanently in that library. Nearly 800 books and pamphlets were saved and remain available to researchers.

Following Washington’s Path

King’s Chapel is one of the places you might have found Washington in his day. He attended services there. He was entertained in private homes throughout the downtown area and is recorded as having visited the Warren Tavern with his friend, Major Benjamin Frothingham.

In 1789, Washington made a presidential visit to Boston. Bostonians gathered for the procession along Orange, Newbury, Marlborough, and Cornhill Streets. All of these streets were then in the Downtown Crossing area. Today, this entire route is part of Washington Street, named in honor of that event.

Headquarters in Cambridge

For your final stop, take the red line to Harvard Square and visit the newly renamed “Longfellow House – Washington’s Headquarters National Historic Site” on Brattle Street. This was the home Washington used as his headquarters during the Siege of Boston. This year, there will be an open house on February 22nd to celebrate the new designation.

While Virginia was his home, Boston was the place where Washington became a historic figure. What’s more, Mrs. Otis “became one of the leading spirits” in the preservation of his Virginia home, Mount Vernon. The Boston Globe reported, “…to raise the last $10,000 of the fund, she took over the old Boston Theater for one of the most elaborate balls the city had ever seen.”

After two years and more than 100 meetings with citizens, elected officials and other stakeholders, The Esplanade Association (TEA) unveiled “Esplanade 2020” Thursday, outlining the non-profit’s grand vision for restoring and enhancing the state park over the next 100 years.

“This is a vision, a group of ideas, not a proposal or specific plan,” TEA Executive Director Sylvia Salas said to the more than 200 in attendance at the Boston Public Library’s Rabb Auditorium. “It’s what the Esplanade could be.”

Working closely with the Department of Conservation (DCR) and Recreation, TEA detailed its “overarching strategy and 10 big ideas” for improving the Charles River Esplanade, including returning Storrow Drive to a parkway, redeveloping the Charles Dam and razing the Bowker Overpass to make way for a restored Charlesgate Park, among other proposed measures.

DCR Commissioner Edward Lambert Jr. described the 63 acres that make up the Esplanade as the “crown in the jewel” of the more than 500,000 acres of state parkland that the agency has jurisdiction over.

“It really has the opportunity to be the lifeblood of Boston,” Lambert said. “We need to move collaboratively with each other to move the ball.”

One ambitious plan to generate new revenue would replace the parking garage adjacent to the Museum of Science with a Ferris wheel, modeled after the 443-foot London Eye.

“I do admire the Eye of London, but in terms of that Ferris wheel, I’m not that much of a revolutionary,” quipped Beacon Hill resident John Sears.

When asked what measures for improving the park could be implemented in the near future, John Shields, project chair of Esplanade 2020, pointed to restoring the Hatch Shell and reopening the long-shuttered Lee Memorial Pool, as well as making improvements to signage and “wayfinding.”

“Wayfinding is a low-cost way to establish a sense of place,” Shields said.

With the Esplanade 2020 study now completed, Shields said now is the time to make the vision a reality.

“We’ve seen all the ideas presented here tonight done in other places,” Shields said. “We’re ready to move to the next level. It’s about making it the best park in the world. We need to work collaboratively on this vision over the next decade, and we’ll all come out winners.”

The wages earned and paid to some city employees is an outrage to other city employees and to many residents and taxpayers unable to fathom how a police Lt. can earn $259,000 while Police Commissioner Ed Davis earned only $177,000.

The top money earner in the city, School Superintendent Carol Johnson, presides over a school system whose MCAS scores ranks among the very lowest in Massachusetts. She was paid $323,000.

Compare this to Mayor Thomas Menino. He received $175,000 – and if anyone in this city working a municipal position believes they worked more hours than the mayor than let that man or woman raise his or her hand.

Former Boston Fire Chief Ronald Keating took home more than $313,000. Keating is a great guy. His men loved him. He ran a great fire department. He made double the mayor’s salary.

A police detective was paid $112,00 in overtime pay alone. And on and on and on the list goes.

To those of us in the private sector running businesses there is the general impression that wages, overtime, sick-time, vacation pay are all out of whack. That is to say, how can anything make sense in a city like ours when a police officer makes twice the salary of the man he ostensibly works for, who is the mayor?

The next question those of us who do not work for the city tend to ask ourselves is how a lower municipal public safety officer can make more than $100,000 in overtime when his or her salary might amount to $80,000 to $90,000. And on and on and on that story goes.

It is absolutely incomprehensible how some lower classification employees in this city make more than twice what their bosses make.

In attempting to answer such questions we are told we simply don’t understand the system. But then, who wants to try to understand a system  in which lower status employees make much more than their bosses, when overtime can amount to more than one year’s wages, when vacation and sick time packages can amount to $167,000 for employees who are retiring and when nearly everyone in this rather absurdly construed city pay system make more than the mayor?

Why does the school superintendent make more than the mayor when her school system is among the worst in the state, consistently?

Why does a Boston fire chief make $140,000 more than the mayor?

Even the police commissioner makes more than the mayor.

A few dozen school department officials make much more than the mayor.

Where we wonder, did the municipal employee pay system depart from the common sense that tells us the mayor is the most important person in the city pecking order – not the police chief, not the fire chief, not the school superintendent, not a detective, not a fire captain and on and on and on.

There should be a wholesale review and reordering of salaries and allowable overtime paid here.

Jan. 30

745 Boylston St. – Larceny in a Building, $200 & Over

346 Newbury St. – Larceny, Shoplifting, $50 to $199

Newbury Street -  Sick/Injured/Medical – Person

150 Newbury St. -  Trespassing

Jan. 31

360 Newbury St. – Investigate Person

939 Boylston St. – Larceny, Non-Accessory from Vehicle, $200 & Over

120 Beacon St. – Larceny, Non-Accessory from Vehicle, $200 & Over

Feb. 1 

31 Marlborough St. – Dangerous or Hazardous Condition

324 Newbury St. – Violation of the Auto Laws -

Feb. 2

326 Newbury St. -  Property – Found

180 Beacon St. -  Property – Lost

Feb. 3

Massachusetts Avenue – Towed Motor Vehicle

286 Commonwealth Ave. -  Towed Motor Vehicle

255 Commonwealth Ave. – Towed Motor Vehicle

745 Boylston St. Larceny in a Building, $200 & Over

505 Boylston St. – Larceny in a Building, $200 & Over

Feb. 4

909 Boylston St. – License Premise Violation

885 Boylston St. – Assault and Battery on a Police Officer

280 Beacon St.-  Assault and Battery

Public Alley 442 – Larceny, Non-Accessory from Vehicle, Under $50

253 Newbury St. -  Larceny, Non-Accessory from Vehicle, $200 & Over

103 Newbury St. – Larceny in a Building, $200 & Over

279 Newbury St.-  Larceny, Other, $200 & Over

Feb. 5

Beacon Street – Operating Under the Influence – Alcohol

Boylston Street Larceny, Non-Accessory from Vehicle, $200 & Over

These bikers are on the Esplanade section of the 17-mile Paul Dudley White Bike Path. Along the Esplanade there are dedicated bike paths like this one, shared paths, and areas where riding bikes is prohibited.
Bikes should be walked on the bridges and ramps leading to the park and on the waterside paths where two paths exist.

In 1982, the National Endowment for the Humanities gave the Boston Public Library (BPL) a grant for in-house restoration of specific collections. Stuart T. Walker, Book Conservator, explained that the initial work included the John Adams Library, a large collection of manuscripts of the American Revolution, and the important anti-slavery collection that documents Boston’s place as the cradle of the abolitionist movement in America.

This work established the BPL Conservation Lab that, with less staff than it once had, is still serving the people of Boston and researchers worldwide.

What They Do

Working in partnership with the library’s curators, the lab preserves, repairs, and stabilizes rare books and documents so that those items may remain available to the public. “We are a public library and so we do not restrict use of our materials,” said Susan L. Glover, Keeper of Special Collections.

In addition to wear from use, some items can deteriorate sitting on a shelf because of the content of the materials used originally or in subsequent repairs.

“The conservators here are top rate. They are wonderfully skilled, they are passionate, they are dedicated, and what they do looks like magic,” said Glover.

Setting Priorities

Since the lab is only able to get to about 1% of the work that is needed, setting priorities is a challenge. “Often it comes to us because someone will ask for something,” said Glover. “The staff looks at it and finds it in desperate shape, so it is added to the Conservation Lab’s queue.”

Glover explained that everything from Special Collections that goes on exhibit is reviewed first in the lab. “If there are issues, we want to identify them right away. In some cases we can do various treatments and get them ready for exhibit. In other cases…they don’t get approval to go on exhibit.”

Supporting the Work

During his years as a BPL trustee and in light of his own extensive use of the library’s collections, historian David McCullough became convinced of the growing need to conserve the library’s many irreplaceable treasures.

In his honor, the Associates of the Boston Public Library established the David McCullough Conservation Fund “to provide a consistent source of funding for the restoration and preservation of books, manuscripts, works of art, and historic documents in the Library’s Rare Books and Special Collections.” Contributions to this fund are welcomed.

Targeted donations also make some work possible. One donor with an interest in Transcendentalism has provided funds that allow the lab to focus on that collection. Exhibition sponsors may also pay for the restoration of items they would like to use in their presentations.

Tips for Your Own Treasures

One more way these experts serve is by providing guidance to the public on preserving their own treasures. Walker offered the following advice.

If you want to preserve newspaper clipping, family letters, a family Bible etc., “don’t store it in the basement, don’t store it in the attic.”  Basements are too humid and attics are too hot.

Keep your treasures out of direct sunlight, away from acidic paper. Handle them little, keep them unfolded in folders or archival albums. Never use any kind of household tape to make repairs.

If you discover what might be an important item, Walker invites you to call them for advice. They can’t do the work for you, but they can recommend a proper course of action and skilled experts qualified to take care of what you have.