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Not so fast on new Boys and Girls Club on Columbia Point: McCormack School parents, civil-rights group, neighbors protesting

Boston Parents Schoolyard News reports McCormack School parents and others remain upset how the city decided to simply hand over a school field for the proposed new center without even talking to them first = and as the school morphs into a larger 7-12 school, and that they'll be bringing their concerns to school officials at a meeting at 5:30 p.m. today at the Dever School. A civil-rights lawyers group and a group representing Harbor Point residents are also objecting to the land transfer.

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Comments

Both schools look just as dumpy as they did when I went there in the early 90s. They haven't updated a single thing.

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While the City and BPS are seeking to give away the lone field for the public school students - and public at large - on google maps, one can see that neighboring BC High has 5 separate fields, plus 5 tennis courts, plus lots of other green space, meanwhile, aside from the baseball diamond, most of the BPS property is a concrete wasteland. This alone is an indictment of the BPS property management.

https://www.google.com/maps/@42.3175837,-71.0385555,495a,35y,254.48h,44.8t/data=!3m1!1e3

We should be dreaming big for these kids, not offloading property to a private group. While BGCB and the Martin Richard Foundation will no doubt put together a great center, it should not come at the cost of taking a field away from kids. Find another spot.

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Neema, why is a dirt field better than a full boys and girls club? Shouldn't we be advocating for more resources for our students instead of sticking up for a dirt field that hasn't been kept up? You can't compare groomed and well maintained fields at BC High to that dirt lot.

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What is so bad about a Boys and Girls Club? Out of all the things to protest! These schools have been old and crappy for decades. Now there is a legit and positive proposition for not only the school kids and teens, but local neighborhood kids as well, and its being contested, how does that make any sense!

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There would be fields behind it to support programs put on by B&G club for members. Anyone can join through senior year of HS..fighting this is denying kids of services and prosocial activities and programming. What a shame.

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https://goo.gl/maps/MYUcXwWstoY6RcZu6
There's a Boys and Girls club already directly across the street from the proposed site for the new Field House. So it's not "denying kids services and prosocial activities and programming." McCormack and Dever students can and do already attend programming at the current club location, so it's not that they or the school community are against the B&G club organization as a whole. What they *are* opposed to is the elimination of the only publicly available green space on the whole of Columbia/Harbor Point so that it can be replaced by a limited-access, members-only indoor sports complex that no students, school staff, or neighboring community members asked for or had any input in designing.

Also, the Field House would take up the entirety of the current green space...so not sure where you think the space for additional "fields behind it" would be?

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Hi,

Is it against the Law to give public property away for private development?

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It's always good to be reminded how strong, pervasive, and insidious NIMBYism is in this city.

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