HYM held a public meeting on P3 at the Twelfth Baptist Church tonight (the event had originally been scheduled for the 2nd but was pushed back due to the snowstorm). Posting key takeaways here while they're fresh and without expressing my opinion.
- About 40-50 were in attendance. A good roster of local politicians were on hand, including City Councilors Miniard Culpepper and Ruthzee Louijeune (who didn't speak), State Senator Dianne Wilkerson, and former Councilor Tania Fernandes Anderson (who did). A third city councilor (could have been Brian Worrell, but am not sure) showed up as the meeting was concluding. Many others were members of involved community organizations or activists.
- Zero people spoke in support or defense of the pivot of the site to being used by the school - everyone who spoke supported the previous commercial/economic development plan.
- On the Developer's side, Tom O'Brien (HYM) spoke, while Rev. Jeffrey Brown (MyCap) moderated and occasionally responded to questions.
- O'Brien focused on P3's proximity to Longwood's medical facilities, prompting the proposed heavy life science usage which would in turn support the affordable housing component. Part of the development plan had endeavored to get the residences down to Roxbury's (as opposed to Boston's) AMI level. Later in response to a question, he conceded that the site probably couldn't get a Pfizer-type tenant in the current market (to paraphrase him, "because of the guy now in the White House") but that they could possibly land a hospital group instead.
- Armani White (Reclaim Roxbury) claims that the Roxbury Strategic Master Plan Oversight Committee (RSMPOC) hasn't been given a heads-up in the city's change of direction for the site, contrary to the RSMPOC's right to have a vote on what happens to any land parcels in the Nubian Square area. His group had sent an email to Kairos Shen (City Chief of Planning) and were planning to hold more meetings.
- Near the start of the meeting, author Karolyn Crockett had opened with a brief history of the site, in which she tied the fight to commercially develop it with the original drive to kill the Expressway project in the 1960s/70s. She characterized the proposed commercial use as a "settled" matter which the mayor was now attempting to re-litigate.
- A member of Friends of Madison Park gave a lengthy speech during the open comment period. According to him, the parcel now stood on by the police station on the other side of the street had originally been designated in 1983 to house a two-building free trade zone that would create 1,200-1,700 jobs. When the BPD ended up taking that land instead, it was with the understanding that P3 would be allowed to be developed commercially. He also complained about Northeastern's historic gobbling up of land sites.
- Dianne Wilkerson spoke next.
- She started by discussing the background behind the formation of the Roxbury Strategic Master Plan/RSMPOC...by how Cellucci had gotten rid of the Department of Environment Management (DEM) in 1999; DEM at the time had 11 parcels that it wanted to give to the city, but this was opposed by certain groups as the city several nearby parcels already, unless a concrete process was made to allow for the community to form a plan on the disposition of said land.
- She repeatedly said that the school shouldn't be allowed to encroach upon the P3 land, and that the city is required to put P3 out for development again now that the deed has been revoked.
- She also brought up the Bartlett Station project as an example; the developer there had apparently wanted to provide a new home for the Conservativory Lab Charter School, but this was shot down by the community because that usage ran counter to the desired commercial development.
- Steven Godfrey (RSMPOC co-chair) claimed that negotiations were going on with the city by was light on details. He doesn't acknowledge that the 2003 designation has been removed and said that "We are in concert with you, we have not changed our position."
- Several people mentioned the investment that the developers and others had put in that was now down the drain. One reverend claimed that HYM had offered land to the school.
- At least two people mentioned the White Stadium redevelopment...they didn't have positive things to say about it.
- The entire meeting was very civil, but multiple people hurled invective at Wu. One claimed that she's anti-black and that she's an "angry Menino with a smile."
- Tania Fernandes Anderson was among the last to speak. Among some tongue-in-cheek jokes about having recently lost her job, she had among the harshest words about Wu, accusing her of duplicity in pretending that there was still a discussion to be had here when her team had in fact already made up their mind about the site and had "other developers in her ear." She also lobbed much friendlier criticism at Louijeune, in a sort of "we need to pressure her to come back into the fold every once in a while" way.
- Some quotes (maybe not exact-exact words):
- "We don't need a school as much as we need economic development" -Bill Singleton
- "Madison High School is about education, P3 is about economic development" -Friends of Madison Park guy
- "It's not about what's right, it's about what's required" & "This is an economic development site" -Wilkerson
