Pardon my tardy response...Busy morning.
I attended and offered testimony at yesterday evening's East Boston Master Plan Hearing. About 200 folks turned out, even though it conflicted with a **contentious Orient Heights Neighborhood Council meeting (where six development projects of various scales were reviewed and voted upon).
I was initially disappointed that there was no published agenda for the meeting, but it turned out to be a pretty orderly (if predictable) affair. Michele Wu chaired, Lydia Edwards and a couple of other Councilors were in attendance, along with East Boston's delegation to Beacon Hill, and members of the Walsh Administration, representing Planning & Zoning, Housing, Parks & Climate Resilience, and Traffic & Parking.
After the typical opening statements by elected officials and "we're here to listen" from the folks on Walsh's staff, local organizers representing non-profits and advocacy groups spoke on the four subject areas (Planning & Zoning, Housing, Parks & Climate Resilience, and Traffic & Parking).
Eventually, the audience was invited to speak in groups of five, sticking to one of the subject areas. Recognizing that it's a tall order to speak on one issue without touching on at least two of the others, I used my 90 seconds to speak about the need for broadly revised zoning and the inherent problems that have persisted because nearly everything is rubber-stamped by the ZBA. I actually took the time to write something (much of it culled from my posts here), but time constraints bumped me off script. Plenty of other folks had intelligent things to say.
This was an important first step, and as such, I'm satisfied with last night's event. But the ideas, sentiments, and desires expressed need to go somewhere, to community-defined principals, a refined process with clear guidelines, expectations for improved outcomes, and methods to hold property owners, developers, and the City to account.
**My old man attended this meeting and said it was a clusterfuck.
