South End Neighborhood Coalition: SENC is discussing ways to increase participation and activity as an organization. There will be a vote taken at the next meeting to slightly restructure the organization by having full meetings every-other-month and increased committee meeting in between in the hope that more can be achieved.

Alliance of Boston Neighborhoods: Our delegate to ABN has recently relocated so we need to find a new one.

Announcements:

City Councilor Felix Arroyo will hold a public forum to discuss resident concerns at Thursday 26 February from 6:30 to 8:00 at the Harriet Tubman House (Mass. Ave. at Columbus). This is an excellent way for citizens to communicate problems directly to the City. Coucilor Arroyo also has a Director of Media & Community Relations, Mr. Kyle Robidoux, who can be reached at 617-635-3115 or via email at kyle.robidoux@citypfboston.gov

The BRA will hold a public meeting on 23 March (watch for further announcements for the exact time) at the Blackstone Community Center, 50 W. Brookline St.

Eight Streets NA is working on plans for one of our social events to be held in the near future. We'll keep you posted!

Residents of 258 Shawmut updated the Membership on the issue discussed at our meeting last April around keeping the open space restrictions in place at 44-46 Bradford St. At this point, it appears that the BRA will respect the wishes of the majority of abutters to the property in question and not allow the agreed upon legal restrictions to be lifted.

Trash Issues:

Residents continue to be troubled by the on-going issue of trash in our streets. Eight Streets plans to have an information program to reinforce steps which can be taken to alleviate this problem in conjunction with the City sponsored Spring clean-up.

In open discussion, there was a concern raised over the traffic and safety issues being created by the valet parkers at 560 Tremont St. Originally, the license for this service covered the now defunct restaurant Truc. The replacement business, Perdix, is now using the same license to service not only their own restaurant but three others (Nightingale, B&G Oysters, Ltd. and The Butcher Shop). The situation will be monitored and concerns about the issues will be passed along to the appropriate City offices.