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Not everybody who lives on Comm. Ave. in Allston is a college student

Naama Goldstein, who lives on Comm. Ave., writes her city councilor about the problems caused by the Monday Aerosmith concert - more specifically, the way the entire street was shut down without any coordination with Boston Public Schools to deal with kids who take buses to school:

Dear Councilor Ciommo:

As your Allston constituent, I am writing to request your advocacy on an issue that, to my disappointment, has garnered no response from City Hall or BPS, or other responsible parties.

You may or may not know that on the day of Aerosmith's publicity stunt in Allston, no plan was made by the City or BPS to provide for the children whose school buses stop along the streets blocked off for the concert. Please see my original attempt at communication on this issue, below.

We were fortunate that our 2nd grader's school-bus driver was resourceful and phoned us once he ran into the blockades, and we were able to coordinate a makeshift stop, race across city streets and get my son on his waiting bus. A little girl who waits for another school bus at our stop was not so lucky. Her mother was hung up on when she called the BPS Transportation dept. for help, was forced to get her daughter on a city bus, and was made late to work because of the City's neglectfulness.

This neglect may not seem like a big deal to Aerosmith or to the City of Boston, but it does to two very young children in Allston, and I am sure several more whom I don't know. They remain confused and saddened by the lesson learned on that day: that when the grownups want to play, children just don't matter to the City of Boston.

Councilor Ciommo, please help me to correct that impression.

Thank you,
Naama Goldstein
Allston

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Comments

Jesus Christ, white people really are stupid.

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Joe Perry lives on Tremont Street in Duxbury near the old Millbrook Jeep. Perhaps we could shutdown 3A on a Saturday afternoon and mess up a lot of soccer to hockey mommy tank runs.

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(static)... Attention: this car's going express to Harvard Ave.!

Oh, God, I'm officially getting old - nevertheless, I'm digging out that disc tonight! Thanks!

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Dear Ms. Goldstein –

I sincerely apologize for the confusion and inconvenience caused by the Aerosmith concert. I’m sad to hear it adversely impacted your son’s transportation that day. As soon as we received word about the concert location we worked to coordinate with our bus company’s safety supervisors and drivers to locate the best alternative stops for all those students affected – but in some cases, we weren’t fully able to assess what streets would be impacted until after the whole production began and very large crowds arrived. I don’t anticipate that such an event would happen again – but even so, we could have better communicated with families in advance of and during the event. I’m happy to hear that your particular driver was so helpful, in any case. We know they work hard to bring students to and from school safely and on-time.

I’m sorry to hear, too, about the other family that received poor service from my customer service call center. We have taken many steps this year to improve customer service this year and I appreciate all feedback. I would very much like to speak to that mother and find out who she spoke with so that I might address the issue with that employee. I expect and ask for top-notch customer service from my employees and want to take whatever measures necessary to ensure I can guarantee that to our parents any time they call – for any reason.

Please accept my apologies, and do not hesitate to reach out to me directly if you have further questions or concerns.

Sincerely,

Carl

Carl Allen
Director of Transportation
Boston Public Schools
Transportation Department

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