Bulfinch Crossing | Congress Street Garage | West End

Re: Gov't Center Garage Redevelopment

^ Thanks for the post, Mike.

Here's my account from last night meeting.

The pics I took of the model with my phone camera are worthless (the model's white, so everything blends together).

There were other forumers there last night. Got to chat with John Keith, but missed PaulC and Jane Jetson.
 
Re: Gov't Center Garage Redevelopment

If you are interested in providing a comment letter on the project, these are due to the Boston Redevelopment Authority by April 17, 2009. Comments can be emailed directly to the BRA at Kristin.Kara.BRA@cityofboston.gov.
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I don't know how much weight this will carry, but at least it is a chance to voice an opinion directly to the powers that be, and possibly counter some of the shadow people.
 
Re: Gov't Center Garage Redevelopment

I sent a comment a few weeks ago...they immediately responded. They didn't address anything in the comment but they were nice and at least you know people are looking at them.
 
Next meeting

I just got a notice on the next meeting:
Please be advised that there will be a Government Center Garage Redevelopment Project Impact Advisory Group (?IAG?) Working Session Meeting on Thursday, April 2, 6:00 PM - 7:30 PM, at the Boston Redevelopment Authority, 9th Floor of City Hall, BRA Board Room (Please note that after 5:30PM, you can only enter/exit City Hall from Congress Street).



All members of the community and media are welcome to attend IAG Meetings.
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Re: Gov't Center Garage Redevelopment

Shadows over Greenway
Conservancy chairman works for builder?s PR firm
By Thomas Grillo
Friday, March 27, 2009


The chairman of the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway Conservancy works as a top executive at a public relations firm pushing a massive $2 billion development along the urban park.

Peter Meade is chairman of the conservancy, a nonprofit corporation overseeing the design and use of the Greenway. He works as managing director for Rasky Baerlein Strategic Communications, the PR firm for the Government Center Garage redevelopment.

?This is clearly a conflict of interest because as the conservancy?s chair he has a fiduciary duty to protect the Greenway,? said Father John Paris, an ethics professor at Boston College. ?But he?s also working for someone who has a private, financial interest in putting up buildings that will cast shadows on the very space he is obligated to protect.?

In March, the Raymond Property Co. filed plans with the Boston Redevelopment Authority to demolish the 11-story garage. In its place, Raymond would build a 52-story skyscraper - about the same height as the Prudential Tower - and a 42-story structure closer to the Greenway.

If approved, the development would include more than 3 million square feet of development adjacent to the Haymarket MBTA Station.

In the BRA?s first public meeting on the project this week, its urban designer from Chan Krieger Sieniewicz acknowledged the buildings will cast shadows on the Greenway - the parkland created after the Big Dig?s removal of the Central Artery.

Meade, who retired last year from Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts, denied any conflict of interest.

?Every time the Government Center Garage has come up at a conservancy meeting, I?ve told the board that the company I work for represents the developer. The board has yet to make any decision, so I don?t know how there?s a conflict,? he said.

The conservancy actually leases office space - and the board meets - on the 14th floor of One International Place, whose owner, the Chiofaro Co., has also proposed a massive development on the Greenway.

Larry Rasky, chairman of Rasky Baerlein, said the firm has had a relationship with the Raymond Co. since 1990. ?Peter?s arrival at the firm is totally incidental and does not impact the project or how we?re approaching it,? he said. ?Anyone who knows Peter knows he plays his cards face up.?

Nancy Brennan, the conservancy?s executive director, said Meade will recuse himself from any vote on the project.

But Paris, the BC professor, said recusing himself is not enough. ?(Meade) must resign from the (chairmanship) of the conservancy because he can?t defend their interest because he has financial stakes at the other company,? he said.


Link
 
Re: Gov't Center Garage Redevelopment

?This is clearly a conflict of interest because as the conservancy?s chair he has a fiduciary duty to protect the Greenway,? said Father John Paris, an ethics professor at Boston College. ?But he?s also working for someone who has a private, financial interest in putting up buildings that will cast shadows on the very space he is obligated to protect.?
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Already, the Greenway is seen as a static entity that cannot be changed or altered. "Protection" is the conservancy's duty, even as most of the space around the Greenway remains in a transitional state. And "protecting" is defined in such a way that means that no new development can benefit or enhance the parks, only despoil them.
 
Re: Gov't Center Garage Redevelopment

Not only that, they're trying to protect it from a benign threat-a shadow.
 
Re: Gov't Center Garage Redevelopment

School sought for garage site
Builder plans 2 towers
By Thomas Grillo
Monday, March 30, 2009


If the Raymond Property Co. wants to build a skyscraper in Government Center that rivals the 52-story Prudential Tower, it may have to build a school as part of the project.

Parents from Boston?s downtown neighborhoods have scheduled a meeting with Mayor Thomas M. Menino on April 3 to explore ways to build a kindergarten through eighth-grade school within the proposed $2.3 billion Government Center Garage redevelopment.

?This project is at the nexus of three communities and it?s a natural place for a school,? said William Jacobson, a member of Coalition for Public Education, a group of 165 parents from downtown neighborhoods lobbying City Hall for an elementary school at the massive project site. ?The city has done lots to get people to live downtown, and a school would complement their efforts.?

Earlier this month, Raymond filed plans with the Boston Redevelopment Authority to demolish the Government Center Garage and replace it with a 42- and a 52-story tower as well as a hotel, stores, restaurants and smaller residential buildings.

The school idea is the latest wrinkle in the controversial project. Some residents insist the proposed skyscrapers are too tall. And City Councilor and mayoral candidate Michael Flaherty has already objected to the developer including city-owned buildings as part of the project.

At a public hearing last week, more than a dozen parents spoke in favor of a school.

Steven Kasnet, Raymond?s chief executive, told the crowd that he is waiting for guidance from the BRA on how to proceed.

City Council President Michael Ross said he will not support the project unless it includes a school. ?At a time when some Boston schools are being abandoned, every downtown elementary school has a waiting list,? he said. ?There?s an opportunity here to get a school built as part of mitigation for this development.?

While the school department has closed six schools and the city is facing a $131 million budget gap, Menino said he will consider a new school. ?Four neighborhoods have come together on this issue and I?m willing to look at it,? he said.

Menino, who met with parents last month about the school, believes that Raymond promised parents a school.

?The developer told the neighborhood in private meetings that they will build a school, but didn?t tell the BRA, so I question the developer?s sincerity,? he said.

Jacobson, one of the parents, said he is unaware of any promise by Raymond to build a school.

Kasnet could not be reached for comment.


Link
 
Re: Gov't Center Garage Redevelopment

The school better be not part of the BPS. The BPS barely has enough funds to maintain the opening of all the school in the city. Hopefully it will be a private school.
 
Re: Gov't Center Garage Redevelopment

A went to the meeting last week and I'll post more on that latter. I just want to point out that in regards to the school if the mayor agrees that a school is needed in that area, and it is, and the develpper builds it then the city still has to pay for teachers and all the other cost. If the project does not happen then the mayor would then be commited to build a school at the cities expense.
 
Re: Gov't Center Garage Redevelopment

I haven't seen any projections of how many children would attend a K-8 school if one was built. The city says it is "studying the issue" but perhaps parents in the area have already done some research?

The Orchard Gardens school in Roxbury was built to accommodate 750 students at an estimated cost of $24 million. How many students would they get at a new school drawing on Beacon Hill, North End, and West End students? When does a new school become feasible?

Councilor Ross said he wouldn't support the Garage project unless it included plans for a new school. He recommended building it on-site or where the West End Public Library is, currently. Based on enrollment projections, maybe they'll end up being able to hold classes in it, as is. (joke).

There are 307 students at the Hurley School in the South End and the Josiah Quincy School has 791 students.

I support a school or schools in the district. Where and how big and who should pay for it is an open question.
 
Re: Gov't Center Garage Redevelopment

Also, there is already a K-8 Boston Public school in the N. End. The Eliot School.
 
Re: Gov't Center Garage Redevelopment

Yes, and it's at capacity, which is why people are asking for an additional school.
 
Re: Gov't Center Garage Redevelopment

Does anyone know the answer to these questions?

Beton Brut said:
...if there's a real need (and there indeed may be) for a school to serve the young families in the North End, Beacon Hill, the West End, and the Bulfinch Triangle (when it's built out), doesn't the School Committee (or the School Department) have a mechanism to study these needs and plan ahead? Isn't there a process to determine where to build new schools? Census data? Does anyone look at this stuff?
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I'd really like to know.
 
Re: Gov't Center Garage Redevelopment

^^ I think it is all determined by yelling parents.

The louder they get, the more urgent the need for a new school.
 
Re: Gov't Center Garage Redevelopment

The Back Bay wants a school too.
 
Re: Gov't Center Garage Redevelopment

statler said:
^^ I think it is all determined by yelling parents.

The louder they get, the more urgent the need for a new school.
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If this is indeed true, am I alone in finding it both shameful and absurd?
 
Re: Gov't Center Garage Redevelopment

I don't see anything unreasonable about the request. If you look at a map of where schools are, there's a huge empty area in the Fenway, South End, Back Bay, Beacon Hill, etc.
 
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