The Berkeley Community Garden Spring Clean-up and plot lottery will be held on 1 May. Please see www.berkeleygardens.org for details.

South End Neighborhood Coalition: SENC did not have a scheduled meeting last month; this month's meeting will be Wednesday 14 April at 6:30 at the South End Branch of the Boston Public Library; representatives from ISD will be present to address resident concerns and all are welcome to attend. Eight Streets Delegate Tim Kozlowski is serving on the SENC Trash Committee - see details of progress below.

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

Vice President John McLachlan continues to be involved with the U. S. Postal Service committee which seeks to improve service to the area. Contact information for USPS complaints is available on our website.

Trash Initiatives:

Eight Streets is coordinating our efforts to keep our neighborhood streets clean along with similar, South End-wide efforts by SENC. We are drafting informational flyers and letters to landlords/residents as well as planning how best to address this on-going issue. The first major push towards invigorating this initiative will be in conjunction with May's annual Spring clean-up (Boston Shines Program).

In one of our periodic open forums to address Member concerns, questions were fielded about on-going neighborhood issues. Information was shared on the status of:

296 Shawmut a - project wherein a local developer, New Boston Properties, gained permission to raze the brownstone and replace it in kind. The entire project was supposed to have been completed years ago but the site remains an empty lot. Another update from the developers will be sought.

40 Dwight St. - this property, for years a derelict shell, has long been an major issue for ESNA. At long last it appears that the building is finally being rehabbed.

Updates and histories of several other Eight Streets items (Sahara Restaurant, abandoned stoplights, etc.) were discussed among Members in an interesting sharing of facts both past and present.