The Allston Civic Association (ACA) met recently with residents, the Boston Police Department (BPD) and the Boston Transportation Department (BTD) and discussed crime and changing Bertram Street to a one-way street.

In terms of crime, BPD District D-14 Sgt. Christine Marini went over several serious incidents that took place recently in the neighborhood, including a stabbing, check-cashing fraud, grease theft and tool thefts.

Though these were definitely high-profile incidents, Marini said crime in the neighborhood, statistically, is down, despite how it may be feeling now. This is also true of the city overall, according to the most recent statistics.

Marini referred residents to the BPD’s website to see the reported stats themselves: https://gvimes.link/bpdcrmstts

Regardless, Marini still went through some of the more high-profile incidents, like the triple stabbing on Harvard Avenue and Cambridge Street on Oct. 4. around 1:30 a.m. Marini said the three victims had been using Bluebikes to get around, and were approached by the suspect and were stabbed before they really knew what was going on.

“He fled up Harvard Avenue, they made it to Highgate, called 911 and were sent to different hospitals,” she said.

She said the suspect was spotted later during a flashlight walk the BPD was doing on Oct. 6 at Faneuil Gardens and got a call about a man waving a machete around on Western Avenue.

“They recognized him (the suspect) because there was video,” she said. “He was willing to talk, they had a conversation and they found the knife in his pocket that he had used, it still had blood on it… He didn’t have a reason, he didn’t even understand why he did it. He was obviously having some sort of mental health crisis. He asked if the victims were okay. He will be held until November when they’re back in Court.”

Marini said the victims were doing okay at the time of the meeting.

Marini said there was also a rash of commercial break-ins, all of which were on Market Street and all but one of which they have a suspect in mind for. One incident involved a theft at a construction site that resulted in the loss of about $15,000 worth of tools.

She said there have been several cooking oil thefts in the neighborhood as well.

“I guess it’s about $10,000 to fill up those tanks with cooking oil,” she said. “Today there was an arrest made in New Hampshire. We’re still working on that.”

Lastly, Marini said a resident was mailing his rent check to the landlord from Commonwealth Avenue and Warren Street and said the check was intercepted, washed, and rewritten from $2,500 to $7,500.

Marini said to go into the post office if possible to mail such items, and that blue gel pens are apparently more difficult to wash.

ACA President Tony D’Isidoro pointed out that Allston needs its post office for this reason, as even the United States Postal Services is currently saying to mail checks directly at a post office.

One resident said they felt there was more and more crime in the neighborhood, but Marini pointed to the statistics, and added that after the most recent BPD Academy graduation, the neighborhood is getting eight new officers.

“Our numbers are really down,” she said. “As far as housebreaks, when I got here 13 years ago, we’d be talking about 32 or more a month, and now we’re maybe down to one or two,” she said. “We’re going to get maybe eight new officers because so many more people are living in the area here. Cameras, prevention, locking your doors, windows and cars have been making a difference.”

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In other news, BTD Engineer Dorcas Okaidjah came by with a pitch to change Bertam Street near Barry’s Corner from a two-way street to a one-way street for eastbound traffic. Okaidjah said the idea is to create more on-street parking for the businesses in the areas.

“The pros are that there would be improved sight lines, simplified crossings for pedestrians because there is no oncoming traffic on one side, a dedicated parking space for residents, and there would also be reduced intersection conflicts,” she said.

Okaidjah said the cons are reduced westbound traffic on the street, basically diverting it to other intersections, as well as the likelihood of increased travel speeds, as is indicative of one-way streets (no oncoming traffic = faster travel for the remaining traffic). She said there would be about 15-20 spaces added.

Resident Mike Dorgan asked about the impetus behind this, as many recent residential developments are not being required by the Boston Planning Department to include as much off-street parking – or any, in some cases – as it used to.

“Is the reason we’re building more parking on the street because we’re allowing developments to not do parking?” he said. “What’s the reason here?”

D’Isidoro pointed out this is more for the businesses than it is for the nearby residential developments. Okaidjah said it was because of more residents from 180 Western Ave., as well as the small businesses.

“This is an attempt to help them allow some of their customers to have an opportunity to park at least reasonably close to the businesses,” D’Isidoro said.

“It just seems like we should be rethinking our approach on not requiring parking, because it’s clear there is a need, at least from the commercial view,” Dorgan said.

Resident Barbara Parmenter said she had similar concerns.

“But coming from an opposite direction, in that I support less parking in new buildings. But it does seem weird to say we’re putting in new parking to support new residential development,” she said. “But I’m sure the businesses here would love to have additional parking. So I guess my observation is that it seems more justified for that rather than a project.”

Parmenter added that she was on the Impact Advisory Group (IAG) for 180 Western Ave., and added that the neighborhood hasn’t heard anything from them about a need for more parking.

Okaidjah said the BTD will continue to garner resident input before changing the street orientation.