The Allston Civic Association (ACA) met virtually last week for its monthly meeting.

After a month off, the agenda was pretty packed; however most of the appointments were restaurants asking for extended hours, endorsements for liquor licenses, or changes to their existing liquor licenses.

An issue of much discussion was that of the upcoming student move-in/move-out day known as Allston Christmas. Many residents take advantage of all the chaos to leave out unwanted items on the street. ACA President Tony D’Isidoro decried this, because if it rains, problems ensue.

“All it takes is one rainstorm to render practically all that stuff useless,” he said. “It is just a bad look in the community. Secondly, my next door neighbor had to write a very sincere note to people, because last time, literally somebody put a roomful of stuff next to his building… A lot of people who are doing this aren’t putting the stuff in front of their own houses, it’s always somebody else’s house.”

D’Isidoro pointed out this is causing citations for people who aren’t necessarily leaving the items out.

“Sometimes stuff is dumped in front of other people’s homes and that person is the person cited by the Inspectional Services Department (ISD) for putting your stuff out too early,” he said. “If you’ve got excess stuff, I mean I went through it when my folks passed on... but there are ways of getting rid of things in a very approproitate way that provide opportunities for other people to take it. But going and dumping junk—a lot of times it’s just junk—in front of other people’s homes is just not the neighborly thing to do.”

Boston Office of Neighborhood Services (ONS) Liaison Jennifer Roberts had some tips for residents during this year’s Allston Christmas, and advised them to contact ONS if junk piles up that they didn’t put out.

“We’re going to be out with Code Enforcement, with the Environment/Rodent Team, Public Works... everybody’s all-hands-on-deck. Tony I have seen junk lying out,” she said.

“I have seen on the community page two people saying, ‘I’ve gotten fined because somebody left their crap out,’ so please refer folks to me. ISD is well aware that this happens and you can appeal that ticket, and I can help to appeal that ticket.”

“But what I will also ask is if you see furniture out [to contact us]. One of the district yard guys, instead of calling it ‘Allston Christmas,’ he calls it ‘Fleas, Bedbugs and Rodents Day.’ All this soft furniture becomes totally unsanitary sitting out in the street.”

Roberts said they had some success last year picking up as much as they could.

“I had somebody ask if we were going to ruin Allston Christmas again this year,” she said.

But she said many enjoy Allston Christmas and they don’t want to ruin that too, even some workers at City Hall.

“Last year, (ONS Deputy Directo and former Allston Liaison Frank Mendoza) got a Nespresso Machine for Allston Christmas off the sidewalk,” she said with a laugh.

In other news, Boston Police Department Officer Officer Christine Marini gave the crime report. She said they had nine reported vehicle break-ins this month. She said eight of them were in unlocked cars, and reiterated BPD’s seeming mantra at neighborhood meetings: lock your car doors.

“And there are all sorts of things in there, wallets, social security cards, passports, computers, backpacks, and so really you need to remove everything from your car and double-check your locks,” she said.

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She also related a case where officers arrested suspect Nicusor Lazar with 124 forged debit cards during a traffic stop in Brighton. She said an advisory was put out for Lazar a week earlier.

“He had the same clothes on that he had in the BOLO (advisory notice for officers), and this was put out like a week-and-a-half ago,” she said. “The officer recognized him right away, conducted the traffic stop, and (Lazar) didn’t have a license and they retrieved 124 forged debit cards.”

Marini said they had reports of incidents likely related to this forgery scheme.

“It’s kind of amazing to me,” she said. “It had a lot to do with those skimming machines. He also had $2,300 in cash, a fraudulent Bank of America debit card, and a fraudulent Bank of America statement. All of it was discovered as a result of the arrest. That was a great arrest because I know recently they found an ATM skimmer at the 7-11 on Market Street, and they called it in last week. That [skimmer] could have been from him.”

Skimmers are fake add-on scammers put on ATMS to read the card data and the pin inputs and then transfer that data to another source while passing it on to the ATM. They can be hard to detect; since most people aren’t so familiar with every ATM, they can’t always tell if there’s something there that shouldn’t be. Marini suggested tapping your card and/or being vigilant before you put your card in an ATM for cash. She warned while this scammer was caught, he is likely not the last.

“We got this guy, but I’m sure there are 20 guys behind him looking to take up after he’s arrested, unfortunately,” she said.

Roberts also discussed the potential for federal immigration agents at the upcoming primary elections on Sept. 1. She said Boston Mayor Michelle Wu recently spoke about the issue, but said they have not been aware of where agents may go or how many there might be.

“That’s not information the federal government gave us,” she said. “They are allowed on the premises and they can view and observe, etc. And as far as we know, they will not be at any early voting sessions.”

Roberts said early voting is open throughout the city until Aug. 28. For locations, go to https://gvimes.link/erlyvtng2026

Also at the meeting, Attorney Jeff Drago presented on behalf of the townhouse project on 79-89 Hooker St. in Allston. The proposal is for six family townhouse units with a single-car garage in each unit. Attendees had no questions, and Roberts said the proposal garnered no opposition during the project’s July 28 abutters meeting.

For more information on the ACA, got o AllstonCivicAssociation.org