The Boston Globe from Boston, Massachusetts • 33

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 5, 2005 The Boston Globe City Region B3 Modern, accessible Maverick Station in works for E. Boston The work at Maverick Station is the latest phase in a comprehensive $750 million project by the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority to reconstruct the 12-station Blue Line. Renovations at seven stops are complete. Improvements to Government Center and Orient Heights stations are being designed. Bowdoin Station, currently the downtown terminus, will be eliminated as part of the Government Center renovation.

In addition to providing accessibility, a key element of the Blue Line work is extending platforms to allow for service by six-car trains, which are standard on the Red and Orange lines. New trains for the Blue Line start arriving next year. The estimates that the entire project, which began in 1994, will be finished in 2009. "In the not-too-distant future, the four-car overcrowded trains on the Blue Line will be a thing of the past," said the MBTA's general manager, Daniel Grabauskas. By Lucas Wall GLOBE STAFF Maureen Murphy can see the downtown skyline across the harbor from her East Boston neighborhood, and lives only blocks from the Blue Line station at Maverick Square.

But for Murphy, who uses a wheelchair, getting downtown requires a lengthy trip because the century-old subway stop has no elevator and only one escalator. Murphy instead must board a bus outbound to Wood Island Station, where she can get on an inbound Blue Line train. When she's heading to artate Street, her trek isn't over. She has to get off at Government Center Station and transfer again to an outbound train so she can reach the only elevator at State Station. "Isn't that wonderful?" Murphy asked sarcastically.

"You can't do anything from here." So she sat in the front row among 100 or so people yesterday and cheered as a passel of dignitaries broke ground on a $55 million overhaul of Maverick Station, the latest stop to be upgraded in a $750 million modernization of the Blue Line. Work is already underway at State. The Maverick upgrade isn't expected to be finished until mid-2008. But Murphy said the start of construction marks a milestone for a project the community has been seeking for two decades. The new and improved station will have two elevators, two escalators, and automated fare equipment as well as updated lighting, intercoms, and signs.

"If going to be fantastic once it's done," Murphy said. City, state, and federal officials all said they have been pestered for years by East Boston residents and businesses to make Maverick Station accessible and improve its appearance. The station is one of the oldest in the city, originally constructed from 1900 to 1904 as part of the tunnel under Boston Harbor that first accommodated streetcars. The Blue Line subway to Revere was built later. Maverick Station was last rehabilitated in 1968.

East Boston, long heavily populated by immigrants, has experienced a development boom in recent years as urban homebuyers DAVID L. RYANGLOBE STAFF Shovels were lined up yesterday at the groundbreaking of the Blue Line's new Maverick Station. convicts find jobs, Council eyeing a prod from downtown is bound to attract additional apartment and condominium construction near-by. "We already have an amazing amount of housing development going on in this neighborhood, and the transit improvement is going to reinforce that effort," Foy said. Other employers have no access to criminal records and could not exclude potential employees based on their backgrounds unless the job applicants provided the information themselves.

"It's still important for the city of Boston to say that we're going to attempt to make sure our money is spent with those organizations that do not discriminate against people with criminal records," Turner said. According to aides, Mayor Thomas M. Menino supports the concept of "fair CORI practices for businesses," but doesn't want to be told whom to do business with. "The city wouldn't be able to use a vendor if they don't comply with fair CORI practices," said Amy Dwyer, a mayoral aide, referring to the pending ordinance. "If seek a better value across the water from downtown.

Speakers yesterday predicted that the station improvements, which will include beautifications to Maverick Square, will be a catalyst to attract more residents and businesses. "One of the most asked questions when I come to forums in East Boston is, 'What's going to nied jobs. It's something you hear everyday." In an election year with few hot issues, several candidates have embraced proposals to change the CORI law as a way to reel in support in key city neighborhoods like South Boston and Roxbury, where former offenders and their families make up a constituency. Some 350 people turned out for a City Council hearing on revising CORI. "It's a system that's broken," said Councilor Stephen J.

Murphy, who has made changing CORI a centerpiece of his reelection campaign. "Condemning people by closing doors at a time when they need a little help it's a very big issue. I had a woman from South Boston whose son went to jail on a drug charge and committed sui Lucas Wall can be reached at lwallglobe.com. to firms we need to buy salt for the winter and for some reason the vendor chooses not to file the paperwork, or if we have only one vendor, we would be in a tough position." At a meeting with councilors yesterday, the mayor's staff proposed a compromise: City officials would support the measure if they were required merely to consider a company's CORI practices in deciding whether to award or renew a contract. Those practices would be one factor, but not the only one, in the city's decision, Dwyer said.

"If we were able to have the final say on whether to move forward and contract with that vendor or not, then we would be in a position" to support the bill, Dwyer said. "We don't want to prevent the city from being able to deliver city services on a daily basis." provides some potential employers with information about a person's criminal background. The council, spurred by community leaders who say former convicts are likely to reoffend if they don't have a job, has already asked the state Legislature to weaken the law by removing arrests from the records of released inmates, and requiring the addition of fingerprints to offenders' files to eliminate cases of mistaken identity. Those measures are pending on Beacon Hill. "Employers are using the CORI report as a filter upfront before even considering someone from employment," said Jackie Lage-son, of the Massachusetts Alliance to Reform CORI.

"If you have a CORI you're automatically taken off the list and systematically de WW" happen to Maverick said Mayor Thomas M. Menino. "It fits in with the other renovations and new development we have in this community, the renaissance of East Boston." Douglas I. Foy, secretary of the state Office of Commonwealth Development, said a new subway station less than a five-minute ride cide after he got out and couldn't get a job or housing." Councilor Chuck Turner, of Roxbury, who drafted the proposed ordinance, couldn't say whether any city vendors, which number in the thousands, refuse to hire former convicts. Nor did he know whether the city's vendors even have access to CORI records.

According to Barry Lacroix, the Criminal Offender Records Information Board's executive director, more than 11,500 employers have access to CORI records, but nearly all have one thing in common they serve "vulnerable" populations the old, the young and the infirm. The state's list of agencies with CORI clearance includes human service agencies, nursing homes, Little League groups, and nanny placement agencies. iff mm si iii IT mm i i rolls teaActfAj liif irnrifr Ins-1- I i If I I To help ex Criminal records system criticized By Andrea Estes GLOBE STAFF When the Boston City Council meets this week, members will be pushing a change they say is long overdue. Former convicts, some councilors say, are unable to find work because their criminal records get in the way. Tomorrow, the council is expected to approve a measure that would force the city to stop doing business with any company that refuses to hire people with criminal records.

It is the second major step the council has taken to water down the Criminal Offender Records Information Law, which fi- ma Mb ami' rut P' Srtmcitroiv "R5j a Tmp Mx nnmlT: 1 FINALLY! 013 ESI rn a I ra Lib ,13 i C' "World Champions" Playoff trade workers FINALLY! "Triple Play" Deluxe Custom Framed Prints $99.99. tmmmAJm i 'A "Dynasty" limited. Professional, high-quality framing Attractive, acid-free matting protects print from discoloration Enclosed in durable acrylic. Outstanding clarity, lighter than glass, shatterproof and UV resistant. Also available for $23.99 ei Includes standard frame with glass, na matting mm Spurn IHplrmmtK Approximate sizes "Dynasty" Others "pekjxe 20" 28.5" 18" 27.5" Standard 14.5" 24" Hurry Quantities are "City of Champions plus tax and shipping YJl 1 -1 Gr- iMfciiiiitwiMii.