Here’s a sneak preview of City Council President Mike Ross’s bimonthly Fenway News column, which will be in the September issue of the paper coming out this Friday, Sept. 3.
While it is known around the country for being home to our beloved Fenway Park, those of us who live in Boston know that the Fenway neighborhood is so much more. Its parks are some of the most beautiful stretches of open space in the Emerald Necklace. The neighborhood is home to cultural institutions like the Museum of Fine Arts, and world-class colleges and universities like Berklee College of Music.
But as time goes on, we’re beginning to see the emergence of what I call “two Fenways”—the East Fenway and the West Fenway.
The West Fenway—the part of the neighborhood near Fenway Park and home to young professionals, couples, and senior citizens who have lived in the area for years—has become an example of what responsible development can do for Boston. It is a neighborhood where developers work with the community on new projects to achieve a shared vision. With the positive changes started in 2002 by new Red Sox owners, the West Fenway has undergone a successful transformation. Projects like the Trilogy building, 1330 Boylston Street, and the Landmark Center have shown that development can transform neighborhoods for the better—bringing in street-level restaurants and retail. The West Fenway is also a place where “fun” is allowed and embraced—Puma City and Tasty Burger being two recent examples.
The East Fenway—across the Muddy River—is at a crossroads. When I graduated from college, I moved to a well-priced studio in the East Fenway, in one of the dozens of residential buildings in that neighborhood. This is becoming harder for young professionals today because of housing gridlock. Our colleges and universities are attracting students from around the world in record numbers. That’s the good news. But they are struggling to keep pace with the demand for on-campus housing. This forces undergraduates into off-campus apartments, drives up rents and property values, and prices recent graduates out of our city. These young people are deciding to leave Boston after graduation, taking their skills and ideas with them to other cities. As a result, Boston has lost a greater percentage of 20 to 34-year-olds than the nation as a whole in the past 20 years.
There are ways that the East Fenway can offer just as much as the West Fenway, but not without help from neighborhood institutions. At a minimum, Northeastern University needs to fulfill the promise of its Institutional Master Plan and start construction on the new dorms it plans for Roxbury, Mission Hill, and part of the Fenway. That will open up apartments in the area for graduates, young professionals, new families, and others, thus easing housing gridlock. In addition, landlords who are in the student-only rental business should consider other ways to improve, market, sell or rent their housing stock.
There’s another opportunity to revitalize the East Fenway—Forsyth Park. Recently, the Museum of Fine Arts acquired the Forsyth Institute. The MFA has agreed to return a portion of Forsyth Park—long used illegally as a parking lot by its previous owner—to the Parks Department. This is a good first step. But with an institution as vibrant and progressive as the MFA, so much more is possible. Imagine a place where residents could enjoy free public art. I believe that the ground floor of the Forsyth building should be activated for pedestrian use—perhaps as a top-tier restaurant, with an outdoor café looking out over the park—turning this dead corner into a vibrant space.
We must also ensure that we do not leave vulnerable residents behind as we continue to bring new life to this great neighborhood. As we develop new areas of the Fenway—including the recent proposal to develop the former Goodyear site into a mixed-use building—we must consider the needs of the residents who have called Fenway home for decades, and those who plan to live there for decades to come. We must ensure that there are affordable housing opportunities in these new developments. Also, strong neighborhoods require an investment by residents. The percentage of home ownership in the Fenway is among the lowest levels of any neighborhood in the city—there need to be additional home ownership opportunities created. Finally, the Peterborough Senior Center is a valuable resource for elderly residents in the neighborhood, but its current space is too small for all the activities the Center coordinates for its visitors.
Both sides of the Fenway have so much to offer—convenience to downtown, historic open spaces, and a diverse community in which people of all ages want to live. But as the West Fenway embraces new development, the East Fenway is being passed by, due to a lack of available housing. As the economy turns around and development begins anew, we must ensure that city leaders, residents, developers, and our cultural institutions work together to maintain the vitality of this great place for generations to come.
Thanks, Mike, for standing up for affordable housing and helping to keep this neighborhood a wonderful place to live. DJs on WZLX this morning made remarks suggesting that long-time residents abandon the Fenway neighborhood to students. It’s nice to have people like Councilor Ross standing up for us.
Posted by Lisa Soli | August 31, 2010, 7:09 pmI am staying right HERE! You tell it like it is MIKE! I have lived in the East Fenwa for over 20 years, I shall not be moved! I like what it offers too. I was just saying yesterday how things seem to be splintering in the Fenway to a MIT now to be Harvard student that did an internship with us in the community we have to stand up and we need more like you MIKE! I am a team palyer we know folks want to make money and hold on to the profits. I am poor and I do the best I can but I intend to stay here in the East Fenway. By the way Folks VOTE NO, NO, NO on all of the ballot qurestions too. Get involved and know who the palyers are so you can effect CHANGE in the favor of the whole community. I want to go on…let me just say PEOPLE RESIDENTS WAKE UP and get involved. Plans are being made, do not be a pawn. GET INVOLVED! We have the http://www.fenwaycdc.org and folks we put in offie like MIKE. To help us effect solutions that work for the RESIDENTS concerns! We will see you around Mike, keep doing a good job!
Posted by Valarie Seabrook | August 31, 2010, 8:11 pmGood to know that the long-term prospects for East Fenway are on the radar. More immediately, it would be nice if we could get some action on the problem with the crime/drugs/hookups going on in the Fens. How long does everyone have to “acknowledge” the problem before someone does something about it?
Posted by Joseph Petraglia | August 31, 2010, 9:00 pmOur city councilor has written another compelling article on our beloved neighborhood–thanks, Mike! To be fair, a greal deal of land in the West Fenway, when I moved here in 1993, was comprised of open-air parking lots, on both sides of Boylston Street. Those conditions made that part of the Fenway ripe for development. The East Fenway hasn’t had much chance to build the kinds of residential buildings that Steve Samuels and the Abbey Group have constructed because that part of the Fenway is more densely packed, although the new development near the Christian Science Plaza is a good opportunity to get creative. Moreoever, these new buildings in the West Fenway are largely apartments and as such don’t translate into home ownership anyway, so if we really want more non-students to live in either East or West Fenway we need to promote more affordable housing ownership opportunities. And hold Northeastern’s feet to the fire when they build their dorms to ensure that they forfeit their neighborhood-based housing in return. Otherwise they’ll just continue to increase their student enrollments. It’s a complicated issue with lots of players, but neighborhood residents in the Fenway have a history of activism and are ready and willing to sit at the table with any and all interested parties–it gets our blood pumping (and sometimes boiling). And yes, we do indeed need an expanded senior center, which could be part of a larger community center that is missing in both East and West Fenway. Let’s make it happen!
Posted by Lauren Dewey Platt | September 3, 2010, 8:18 pmThis City Councilor keeps at too long an arms reach the public records of Boston City Council. For example the stenographic machine record of the public meeting of Boston City Council budgeted for with city funds needs to be made available on the web. Council communications emailed out need to be made available on the web. Without these basic things communication is hampered with the city government officials that are to represent the people. It appears we must wait until the ensconced officials with limited knowledge of current technology and software, whether City Clerk or Council Staff Director or elected representative are eventually replaced with more knowledgeable people. Denial, the current course of things, needs to be changed to transparency and open govenment.
Posted by thezak | September 5, 2010, 6:22 pmWill Johnson, an East Fenway resident, cc’d the Fenway News on his response to Councilor Ross’s column, and I asked him for permission to post it here. Since this message he and the Councilor’s office have been in regular communication with each other.
Councilor Ross,
I am responding to your recent comments in Fenway News. I agree with you about the “Two Fens” neighborhoods. I have contacted your office twice in the past month, but no one from your office returned my call or followed-up. I also contacted Will Onuoha’s office but again I received no response at all.
Perhaps your office could assist me with 3 things. I am a retired/disabled resident of Westland Ave. and living in Section 8 subsidized housing. I am a young 53 and do have time for civic duty.
I am working to improve this important avenue. At my own expense from an $800.00 monthly disabilty pension I have made small tree-well gardens in front of my building (78-76 Westland).
I am hoping that my small effort may inspire others.
The current major problems on this avenue are that we need a solar powered trash barrel at the corner at Cappy’s Pizza (Hemenway & Westland) where the little waste basket is grossly insufficient. Also, many of the sidewalk tree wells are missing replacement trees and we need those replaced by Parks and Recreation Dept.
Additionally there is a scarcity of code enforcement regarding trash and litter all along the avenue. I have contacted those departments, but I doubt anyone listens or responds to these issues.
Your interest in the area intrigues me and I would like to be of any help I can be. I want to ask if your office might help me to encourage a bicycle repair shop to open at one of several vacant street level business sites in the area. Bicycle transportation is everywhere here, among students, and other residents like myself.
There are 3 vacant storefront businesses in the area:
54-56 Westland Ave (Gould & Company 617-266-4040). This property also is poorly maintained with many apartment units leased to Northeastern University. Also, a vacant and trashed storefront at 58 Burbank Street would be an ideal location for a qualified neighborhood bicycle repair shop. This type of business could do well here.
Thank you for your attention.
Will Johnson
Posted by stephenbrophy | September 9, 2010, 9:19 pmMike, I like the way you’ve identified and analyzed the two Fenways. Among the other good thoughts I especially appreciate your concern for vulnerable residents. Also, of course, your approach of bringing in many entities. I am glad Boston has you.
Posted by China Altman | September 11, 2010, 8:37 pmMike Ross is famous for talking out of both sides of his mouth, often telling folks what they want to hear, and GETTING NOTHING DONE (other than accruing unpaid parking tickets). Mike, please focus you attention on the problem in the Victory Gardens/reeds area of the Fens. You know what’s going on there and has been for a very long time – drug activity, prostitution, assaults, public sex, and disgusting litter such as countless used condoms and needles – and yet we residents see no real improvement despite years of trying to work with you and BPD. How about you shelve your Grand Plans for the MFA and take some real action that would make our neighborhood a safer place?! And if you really can’t see your way around this critical issue, step down and let someone competent take the helm.
Posted by Long time Fenway resident | September 18, 2010, 1:38 pmWhat has actually most caused apartment rents in the Fenway neighborhood to rise so dramatically since 1994 has been the greed of the special real estate interests in Boston that bankrolled Boston City Council President Ross’s 2009 election campaign and the failure of Boston City Council members like Ross to enact an effective rent regulation/rent roll-back city ordinance in recent years. Although Ross has recently been attempting to scapegoat student residents in the Fenway neighborhood for rents being increased by Boston landlords (so much that only BU professors will apparently be able to afford to live around the Audobon Circle),for example, apartment rents in the Fenway neighborhood could be immediately brought down to affordable levels for both student and non-student tenants during the current endless U.S. economic recession if a rent regulation/rent roll-back law were now enacted by the Democratic Patrick Administration and the Boston City Council.
In addition, if tax-exempt, “non-profit” institutions like the Wentworth Institute or the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy would required to construct an on-campus affordable non-student housing unit for every new on-campus student housing unit it constructs after 2011, this would more rapidly increase the availability of affordable housing for non-student tenants in the neighborhood than just scapegoating off-campus student tenants in the neighborhood for the failure of the Boston City Council to bring rent regulation back to the Fenway neighborhood. But since Boston City Council President Ross apparently accepted a $200 “campaign contribution” from Wentworth Institute President Zorica Pantic and a $100 “campaign contribution” from Wentworth Institute Associate Vice-President Sandra Pascal on May 21, 2009, as well as a $250 “campaign contribution” from Massachusetts College of Pharmacy President Charles Monahan on April 27, 2009, it’s unlikely that the Boston City Council will soon be eager to either require the Wentworth Institute or the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy to start paying their fair share of local property taxes or to begin building much affordable housing for non-student neighborhood residents on their campuses and/or within any newly-constructed on-campus dormitories.
Posted by bobf | December 3, 2010, 9:14 pmA tail of two Fens? More like a tale of two faces on your part Mr. Ross. You demand schools like NU and WIT build more dorms but you yourself have fought against ANY building permet for a new dorm. How are these institutions who have been in the fens longer than the Red Sox sapposed to get more kids on campus without more beds on campus? Also, don’t tax the non-profit instituions for property taxes (this leads us down a scarry road with that legal precident, imagine taxing the Windsor School), bill them there share of public works directly. IE.. If NU clogs up parking during a hockey game, charge the school for extra BTD and such.
Posted by Monts on Burbank | December 16, 2010, 4:18 amCouncilor Ross N.U’s proposal to demolish the YMCA’s gym and erect a 17 story 720 bed dorm will decrease housing in the East Fens,punish the YMCA membership and the many youth who use the YMCA gym.
The proposed dorm will house Freshmen and Sophomores. After 2 or 3 years the students will seek housing in East Fenway, Mission Hill and Roxbury.
On March 8, 2011 former City Councilor and current N.U. V.P. for Community Relations John Tobin stated that “N.U’s investments tanked in 2008″.
Thus it is “economic” for N.U. to demolish the YMCA gym. This is when N.U. costs about $50,000 per year.
N.U. is a tax-free institution that would have kept any gains garnered if their investment strategy had succeeded.
N.U. is a tax-free institution that attempted to become a player in venture capital.
Now that the strategy has failed they expect the members of the YMCA to bear the burden of their reckless investment of endowment money.
This is in spite of the fact that N.U. already owns the Gainsborough Garage/Checker Cab and Cullinane Hall.
My inkling is that if the proposed dorm is built the Gainsborough Garage/Checker and Cullinane hall sites will be developed anyway.
2021 could well see 1100 students in the St. Botolph and Gainsborough St. area.
If N.U. has offered to cap enrollment it would be good news to this 30+ year East Fenway resident and 16 year YMCA member.
While we the adult members of the YMCA can seek public forums such as this one what is to become of the 100′s of kids who play ball at the Y? Many, if not most of these young people aren’t even franchised voters and thus are voiceless.
We the members and youthful visitors of the YMCA bear the burden of N.U.’s bad investments.
Posted by Steven Gallanter | April 7, 2011, 7:51 amIt is extremely unfortunate that Mike has chosen to support the demolition of part of the historic YMCA and the construction of a seventeen-story dormitory on that site, the size and scale of which would overwhelm the historic New England Conservatory of Music and the YMCA and alter the setting of these historic properties as viewed from multiple vantage points. NEC, music lovers everywhere, YMCA members, and community residents, are united in opposition, partly out of concern over potential damage to Jordan Hall, a National Historic Landmark. We all know of the damage done to Trinity Church and Old South by nearby construction projects. Mike should reconsider his support for this dorm, in this location, right now before this radical and risky proposal goes much further.
Posted by Calvin Arey | April 7, 2011, 9:04 am