By On a recent hot and sunny spring morning, Anne Swanson greets me from her brownstone in the wearing a “Graffiti NABBers” T-shirt and matching pail of solvents and spray. The day’s work will be a dirty one, but the 76-year-old is sure to keep her hair perfectly coiffed and face painted with just a touch of makeup. Swanson is the chair of the (NABB), a volunteer-run non-profit organization founded in 1955 whose mission is to preserve and enhance the neighborhood.
She has been on its board of directors for 40 years. Swanson has lived in the neighborhood for over 40 years, and founded the Graffiti NABBers committee in 2006 to clean up hundreds of vandalized historic buildings. Vandals would primarily target the alleys because they were rear-facing and somewhat hidden from the street, Swanson said.
When the program began, the alleys were “in such terrible shape.” “They were compared to the South Bronx,” Swanson added. We are soon joined by Swanson’s next door neighbor, Ali Foley.
Nicknamed “Back Bay Ali,” Foley is chair of NABB’s Block Captain program, in which residents adopt a block and care for its upkeep. The Block Captain program was created in 1976 but fizzled out after a few years. It started again in the mid 1980s and stopped in the early 90s before being revived by Foley in January 2024.
Foley, like Swanson, has a keen eye for detail – er, trash. Foley noticed a discarded rug left on the curb a few houses down, and we hauled it to the alley behi.
