The Daily Free Press
Year xlii. Volume lxxxiii. Issue XXXXV
TURKEY TROT Int’l students engage in holiday cutoms, page 3.
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Monday, November 26, 2012 The Independent Student Newspaper at Boston University
EN POINTE
Nutcracker design changes after 17 years, page 5.
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www.dailyfreepress.com
SHUT-OUT
Men’s hockey beats St. Lawrence 4–0 on Saturday, page 8.
WEATHER
Today: Sunny/High 46 Tonight: Clear/Low 29 Tomorrow: 40/29
Data Courtesy of weather.com
High customer turnout on Small Business Saturday Allston residents
support fines for noise violations
By Clinton Nguyen Daily Free Press Staff
Competing with hundreds of large corporate retailers throughout Boston, many of the city’s small businesses started the shopping season with incentives to garner support for the local stores that add character to the community. Small Business Saturday, established in 2010 by American Express, accelerated sales for brick-and-mortar shops in the Hub in 2012. Although wedged between Black Friday and Cyber Monday, two major shopping days for box retailers and e-commerce sites, small business owners still reported higher customer turnout for not only Saturday, but the weekend overall. Although there was a general uptick in revenues, some small businesses fared better than others during the weekend. Melanie Blood, an employee at the Jamaica Plain jewelry and crafts shop Fire Opal, said sales have been steady. Fire Opal caters to a niche community that supports handmade goods, Blood said. “The economy is a little rough,” she said. “People can certainly go to IKEA and buy something that’s cheaper and mass-produced. But we’ve built a good relationship with some of our customers, those who are willing to pay a little extra for something a little more special made by all-American artists.”
By Kyle Plantz Daily Free Press Staff
PHOTO BY BELEN CUSI/DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF
Local shop owners, such as those of the Brookline Booksmith, used incentives to increase sales during the post-Thanksgiving shopping weekend.
Blood said demand has not shifted partly because of the shop’s prices. “We can’t promise sales the way big retailers can,” she said. “But we do our best to support our artists.” Other shops saw bigger turnouts throughout the weekend. “We had a great day yesterday, even during Black Friday,” said Chris Pond, manager
of Boomerangs, a nonprofit thrift store in Jamaica Plain. “Customers around the area definitely made more of a conscious effort to come by this weekend,” he said. Pond also said that during the shopping hustle, consumers were aware that they were contributing to a good cause. Purchas-
Business, see page 2
Buildings in Innovation District hold promise for startups By Jasper Craven Daily Free Press Staff
More than two years after Boston Mayor Thomas Menino branded the Seaport neighborhood as the “Innovation District,” a real estate investment firm that specializes in housing technology startups purchased four buildings. DivCo West’s recent Boston purchase is one of many purchases throughout the nation for the company, which houses young technology companies. “They’ve [DivCo West) done it in Silicon Valley, they’ve done it in San Francisco, now they’ve done it in Boston,” said Tim Gallen, a spokesman for the DivCo West. “They see that there is a growing concentration of young, entrepreneurial technology companies moving into the Seaport area.” DivCo West has purchased four former
warehouse buildings, or 373,00 square feet of space, previously used by the Boston Wharf Company, according to a press release. The spaces lie on Sleeper and Congress Streets. “DivCo West has a specific reputation for buying properties that have technology clients or are in areas where there are a concentration of technology companies,” Gallen said. “They buy space that can be fixed up for the younger generation, for people that don’t necessarily want the same type of space that their predecessors did.” Gallen said DivCo West would renovate the properties, make them greener and then lease them out to various technology companies. “These are buildings with great bones in a dynamic submarket of Boston that is rapidly growing in its appeal for companies seeking creative workspace environ-
ments,” said DivCoWest CEO Stuart Shiff in the press release. Gallen would not comment on whether any companies had approached DivCo West to rent the spaces. In his state of the city address in January, Menino said that the Boston Innovation District was building jobs in Boston and would continue to do so. “We could have just thrown up some skyscrapers and high-end condos,” said Menino of the Seaport area. “Instead, we insisted on building connections in addition to new space. “So now, more than 100 new companies have brought 3,000 jobs to the waterfront — and more are on the way.” A number of technology startups have made this waterfront area their home, in-
Tech, see page 4
Allston-Brighton residents living in a student-dense area said they have faced excessive noise in their neighborhoods and welcome a new noise ordinance that could curb loud parties and gatherings with strict fines. The ordinance, proposed by Councilor Salvatore LaMattina, of East Boston, would institute fines ranging from $100 to $300 to tenants, partygoers and landlords found responsible for creating excessive and unruly noise that disturbs neighbors. Angela Tang, a resident of Brighton, said there are many college students living in her neighborhood who have parties often. “Usually, they have parties in the summer and fall,” Tang said. “But recently, my neighbor had a noisy party last month.” She said she asked them to be quiet, but they continued to have the party. “I had no choice but to call 911 and tell them about the loud party,” she said. Tang said that as a friendly neighbor, she went to the party first to ask them to be quiet, but they ignored her. “If they had respected the neighbors, they wouldn’t have the late night loud parties that we need to deal with all time,” she said. Tang said distributing fines is the best way to deal with the neighborhood problem, arguing for a first-time fine of $500 and second-time fine of $1,000. “The students are here to study and not to bother the neighbors,” Tang said. Valeriano Diviacchi, 54, of Allston, said her noise problem was her neighbor’s band practice and loud music. “I tried to talk to the tenants and absentee landlord,” she said. Diviacchi said that after no action was taken to solve the noise problem, she went through a series of legal ways to handle the issue. “In the end, the landlord finally paid some money and agreed to put restrictions in the lease barring band practice,” she said. “Limits were put on noise that can be heard outside of the residence.”
Noise, see page 2
AAU, APLU, Science Coalition stress need for federal research funding to universities By Margaret Waterman Daily Free Press Staff
Scheduled cuts to federal research university funding would be damaging to Boston University and might prevent students from job opportunities, students said. Elizabeth Aurand, a Sargent College of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences sophomore, said cutting research funding would be detrimental to university students in such areas. “My brother was also a science major. He was very involved with student-based research, and this is really where ideas for things like new medication, new medical innovations, just new technology in general is coming from,” Aurand said. Research university organizations said sequestration, or the national cut in federal funding to research universities scheduled to take place Jan. 2, 2013, would have a devastating impact on American research, according to a BU press release Monday. “[Scientific research] pays a substantial
return on investment in the form of job creation, workforce development and economic growth,” the release stated. The Association of American Universities, the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities and The Science Coalition launched a website called Science Works for U.S. to provide data on funding cuts by state and the impact they will likely have. The cuts will reduce federal funding to academic research and development at certain Massachusetts universities by an estimated $122,181,000, according to the Science Works website. BU, Brandeis University, Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Northeastern University, the University of Massachusetts Amherst, UMass Boston and Worcester Polytechnic Institute will lose federal funding with sequestration. “Federal funding for research represents only 2 percent of the total federal budget, but
Funding, see page 2
GRAPHIC BY MICHELLE JAY/DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF
Compared to other New England colleges, Massachusetts colleges are projected to lose the most in federal funding for academic research. The funding cuts are estimated to affect eight universities, including Boston University and five other Boston-area colleges.