Open Door Policy Rattles Neighbors

In South Boston, open-door policy rattles neighbors
Residents want a say over sidewalk-cafe theme
By Lisa Wangsness, Globe Staff May 7, 2005
South Boston, where roof decks and sushi have been enough to set off neighborhood firestorms, has never taken change lightly. Now comes a new controversy: bars that are installing accordion doors to open in warm weather.
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Such devices are not exactly newfangled, being standard at Newbury Street and North End nightspots, where spring means drinks in the open air. But in South Boston, a bar has been long defined as a fortresslike building, usually brick, usually dark inside. If there are windows, they are high and small. The idea of sliding open the face of such a place, exposing it to plain view, has provoked suspicion.
''It would be fine if it was Disney World or Pleasure Island or on a beach on the Cape, where you might expect that," said Gerry Vierbickas, former president of the South Boston Residents' Group, a neighborhood activist organization. ''It's just not conducive to a residential family neighborhood."
In recent years, at least a half-dozen South Boston bars and a handful of restaurants have put up window panels that can fold away, as old nightspots remodeled and as new ones popped up to cater to new residents and new money. The Boston Beer Garden on East Broadway put in accordion doors in the mid-1990s. Haunts like The Playwright, down the street, and Tom English's Cottage, around the corner, soon followed suit. Mobster James ''Whitey" Bulger's old hangout, the former Triple O's, now The 6 House, on West Broadway, has succumbed to the trend.
Hoping to slow the trend, James M. Kelly, South Boston's district city councilor, is proposing that nightspots wishing to install accordion doors be required to get permission from the city's Zoning Board of Appeal, which would allow residents to voice concerns. That way, Kelly said, residents could negotiate possible restrictions such as hours the doors must be closed. The proposal has won the support of Mayor Thomas M. Menino, who said through a spokesman that ''these accordion doors are beginning to encroach increasingly on residential areas in the neighborhoods of our city."
Many South Boston bargoers and bar owners like the new look, which they say is helping to remake the neighborhood's nightlife. But some residents say there was a reason for the distinctively prosaic architecture of old-style neighborhood bars, which deliberately excluded wide-open fronts.
''Windows were always set up high above the eye level of a child," said Mike Blythe, who grew up in the neighborhood and is head of security at the Boston Beer Garden. ''The only time you ever saw into a bar was when the door swung open."
He added that the Beer Garden has taken steps to prevent potential disruptions, like acoustics that help keep noise outside to a minimum. But many fear that open-fronted establishments will go too far in blurring the boundary between bar and street.
''With the summertime coming, with the windows open and young people walking by, we just wonder if it's suitable, because sometimes they do get rowdy," said John Mullen, a member of the South Boston Residents' Group and the South Boston Citizens' Association. ''What I've noticed are people standing outside talking to people on the inside and taking up room on the sidewalk, so it becomes a problem."

Others worry that the wide-open bar scene could encourage negative stereotypes of South Boston as a hard-drinking place, especially since some of the slick new establishments advertise widely, drawing clientele from far beyond the neighborhood.
''It's fine in Faneuil Hall and fine in some parts of the city, but there are just too many bars in too many residential areas that can do this without any community input," Vierbickas said.
Still, there are powerful forces driving the trend, as bars compete for the dollars of droves of young professionals who have moved to the neighborhood seeking water views and pricey new condos. Those customers want amenities like open air, bar owners say.
''As your prices of houses and condos go up, people are willing to spend a little more on the bar down the street," said Jerry Bowen, 35, a bartender at Shannon's Tavern, which looks about the same as it did 50 years ago and has watched potential customers pass by in favor of dressed-up places down the street.
Shenannigans on West Broadway was another classic Irish pub and restaurant until last year, when its owners decided to go upscale.
''We'd seen South Boston changing a lot, turning into more of a yuppie area," said Tanya Adamson, whose husband co-owns Shenannigans. ''I think every place that's doing well has decided: 'Let's go with the flow. Let's stop people from going downtown and make them stay in the neighborhood to eat and drink.' "
So they ditched the antique jugs and old bicycles decorating the walls for plasma televisions and abstract metal wall hangings. They stripped out their old-fashioned storefront, replacing it with two rows of sleek black accordion doors.
''People love to sit outside when it's nice, because it's such a long winter," Adamson said. ''We wanted to let them feel like they were almost outside."
Though Shenannigans did not have to ask the community for permission to go alfresco, its accordion doors are always closed by 7:30 p.m. in the warmer months so as not to disturb neighbors. So far, she said, there have been no complaints.
''It's an attraction to customers on a nice day to come in and enjoy the fresh air," said Chris Devlin, a manager at The 6 House. ''Who wants to walk by and see these dingy, sketchy-looking places you can't see into? Here, it's open; there's nothing to hide."
Kelly said it is too easy for bars to convert to open fronts in South Boston. In other neighborhoods, residents have more opportunities to oppose accordion-door proposals, he said. Much of the South End, for example, is a historic district, so the Boston Landmarks Commission and the South End Historical Society must sign off on major renovations. Not so in South Boston, he said, where proprietors simply have to get permission from the city's Inspectional Services Department.
Kelly said he does not have a problem with any of the bars and restaurants in South Boston that already have accordion doors, but he wants to give residents a voice in the application process, especially if the trend continues.
''I do think too much of a good thing is not a good thing," he said.