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Their Mission: Overthrow the BRA
By Will Kilburn, Globe Correspondent | November 26, 2006
For most of its seven-year history, the Alliance of Boston Neighborhoods has operated relatively quietly, chronicling and commenting on the often-contentious interactions between neighborhoods, developers, and the city. But with a new presentation titled "Show Me The Money!", the group is now getting ready to take to the public its central message -- that the Boston Redevelopment Authority is far too powerful.
Why reform is needed was detailed in a PowerPoint slide show by developer Kevin McCrea of the South End in a borrowed classroom at the Berklee College of Music this month. Using a series of graphs and pie charts, McCrea, a onetime City Council candidate, outlined what the group called waste and abuse by the city and the BRA: millions of dollars in city-owned property that does not generate tax revenue, the taking of land by eminent domain for private purposes, and the exceptions to zoning laws that the group says are often made for private developers at the expense of neighborhood interests.
"You decide as a community what your community's going to be like," said McCrea, "and then some connected guy comes along, or the BRA comes along, and plops in the middle of your neighborhood something that the neighbors never wanted. That's taxation without representation."
Radical talk, maybe, but it's a message that the alliance hopes to bring into the mainstream: While the first showing was a dry run for a dozen alliance members at their regular monthly meeting, the group plans to refine it and then present it to various neighborhood groups beginning in January. Mike Cote of Dorchester, an alliance member who plans to be a presenter, joined the group after he spent several years working on a zoning proposal for his neighborhood. The computer programmer and Web designer saw the community's recommendations sidestepped by what he said were a large number of variances granted after the new zoning codes were put in place.
"I used to think that it was just a Dorchester thing, [but] it really seems to be very universal," said Cote. "I think that the city sort of approaches this on a divide-and-conquer sort of mentality. They keep all the neighborhoods separated from each other, so you don't realize that it's not just you."
A BRA spokesman said she was unfamiliar with the alliance and declined comment.
During and after the presentation, alliance members were invited to ask questions and share comments, all of which were noted by McCrea and president and cofounder Shirley Kressel , a landscape architect and urban designer who lives in the Back Bay.
"All we're really trying to tell people is that there's an agency set up to rule Boston that is not a part of Boston," she said. The BRA, she argued, is not accountable to the voters and taxpayers, and controls functions that in other cities are handled by separate agencies. "It's the planning board and it's the zoning commission and it's the urban renewal agency. It does all the functions that elsewhere would [have] checks and balances."
The solution, according to Kressel, is revolt, in the form of a popular call not just for reform, but for disbanding the BRA entirely. "The BRA has only one fear: political overthrow," she said. "They don't mind if people talk about reforming the BRA, or making them more accountable, because they know that's not going anywhere. But when you talk about eliminating the BRA, they understand that, and that's what we have to do."
? Copyright 2006 Globe Newspaper Company.
By Will Kilburn, Globe Correspondent | November 26, 2006
For most of its seven-year history, the Alliance of Boston Neighborhoods has operated relatively quietly, chronicling and commenting on the often-contentious interactions between neighborhoods, developers, and the city. But with a new presentation titled "Show Me The Money!", the group is now getting ready to take to the public its central message -- that the Boston Redevelopment Authority is far too powerful.
Why reform is needed was detailed in a PowerPoint slide show by developer Kevin McCrea of the South End in a borrowed classroom at the Berklee College of Music this month. Using a series of graphs and pie charts, McCrea, a onetime City Council candidate, outlined what the group called waste and abuse by the city and the BRA: millions of dollars in city-owned property that does not generate tax revenue, the taking of land by eminent domain for private purposes, and the exceptions to zoning laws that the group says are often made for private developers at the expense of neighborhood interests.
"You decide as a community what your community's going to be like," said McCrea, "and then some connected guy comes along, or the BRA comes along, and plops in the middle of your neighborhood something that the neighbors never wanted. That's taxation without representation."
Radical talk, maybe, but it's a message that the alliance hopes to bring into the mainstream: While the first showing was a dry run for a dozen alliance members at their regular monthly meeting, the group plans to refine it and then present it to various neighborhood groups beginning in January. Mike Cote of Dorchester, an alliance member who plans to be a presenter, joined the group after he spent several years working on a zoning proposal for his neighborhood. The computer programmer and Web designer saw the community's recommendations sidestepped by what he said were a large number of variances granted after the new zoning codes were put in place.
"I used to think that it was just a Dorchester thing, [but] it really seems to be very universal," said Cote. "I think that the city sort of approaches this on a divide-and-conquer sort of mentality. They keep all the neighborhoods separated from each other, so you don't realize that it's not just you."
A BRA spokesman said she was unfamiliar with the alliance and declined comment.
During and after the presentation, alliance members were invited to ask questions and share comments, all of which were noted by McCrea and president and cofounder Shirley Kressel , a landscape architect and urban designer who lives in the Back Bay.
"All we're really trying to tell people is that there's an agency set up to rule Boston that is not a part of Boston," she said. The BRA, she argued, is not accountable to the voters and taxpayers, and controls functions that in other cities are handled by separate agencies. "It's the planning board and it's the zoning commission and it's the urban renewal agency. It does all the functions that elsewhere would [have] checks and balances."
The solution, according to Kressel, is revolt, in the form of a popular call not just for reform, but for disbanding the BRA entirely. "The BRA has only one fear: political overthrow," she said. "They don't mind if people talk about reforming the BRA, or making them more accountable, because they know that's not going anywhere. But when you talk about eliminating the BRA, they understand that, and that's what we have to do."
? Copyright 2006 Globe Newspaper Company.
