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Wu fires Landmarks Commission director in dispute over projects including White Stadium
By adamg on Mon, 04/22/2024 - 5:08pm
The Dorchester Reporter reports that after all 16 members of the Boston Landmarks Commission - which has oversight over demolition of any Boston building more than 50 years old - criticized Wu's handling of several major projects in the city, she fired its executive director, Rosanne Foley. Foley was appointed to the post by then Mayor Walsh in 2015.
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Comments
Long over due
This is good news and long over due.
Those grapes
... were quite sour.
um…
an adult would’ve examined their own behavior when all 16 of them disagreed with her
The Senate Seat One Desires….
…Is slipping away faster and faster.
This arrogance is not playing well outside of the Camberville/JP/Northampton orbit.
If any are you are scratching your head in January 2027 that the US Senate has swung Republican because a moderate Republican from MA defeats Wu, you can see the suburbs exacting their opinion the same way we ended up with Barncoat Brown.
Yawn
Who says Wu won’t stick to spanking your preferred candidates by 40 points every four years here in the city, Costello? That and tossing out ninnies like the landmark commission, the bpda and the west roxbury safety commission (or whatever they called themselves).
?
I’m a registered Democrat but watch the world through a different lens than the rose colored glasses in the Tufts to Forest Hill linear corridor.
She will get crushed statewide. It will be Coakley The Return.
If I’m making you yawn, it’s because you appear to accept central authority and consolidation of power. If Marty Walsh did this, you would be squawking more than a bunch of seagulls outside an open restaurant dumpster.
The White Stadium proposal is a taking of public property for private development. It is a terrible idea but I guess dissent isn’t allowed in Boston anymore.
White Stadium
Please, who precisely has a better, feasible proposal for White Stadium? Where’s the alternative — who’s got the money — that’s not simply letting White Stadium continue to rot?
Here's an idea
Perhaps the Wu administration could work out an arrangement where, I dunno, White Stadium could be used for it's original purpose- the name at first was Schoolboy Stadium- while also hosting the local professional soccer team. As it stands, it looks to the likes of me that the City is giving away the Boston Public School's premier stadium, so letting it rot is the same thing. Conversely, asking the soon to be 6 area professional sports franchises to pitch in a little bit each could get the stadium back to it's original state without evicting fall sports.
Yeah--that's the idea
You know that the proposal will actually triple the amount of time that students have at White Stadium and will give them vastly improved facilities to play on, right? And you know that the soccer games are only 20 days a year, right? And you know that students will be able to use the field all other times (except one Unity practice per week prior to games)? and you know that the proposal would provide....
● A high-quality natural grass field that will triple the amount of time BPS can play
● A new collegiate-level 8-lane track, restoring White Stadium as center for running sports
● State-of-the-art student athletic facilities and new community gathering spaces
● BPS retains ownership and control of White Stadium, including scheduling
● Tens of millions in up-front capital investments, ongoing professional field and stadium
maintenance, and annual rent and revenue share
● Community benefit payments to invest in Franklin Park, BPS Athletics, and the community
The only BPS teams that are negatively affected by the proposal are the football teams, which are only available to half of BPS students (those who identify as boys), and which is a sport known to cause long lasting head trauma in its participants.
So...
What's your title in the current Administration?
I'm a neighbor, former BLA parent, and daily FP user
Who does not work for the City of Boston. But I do take the time to actually read the filings about the project and figured that quoting the city's fact sheet was the best way to educate numnuts who are reflexively opposed to anything with a whiff of the 'privatization' bugaboo but not really interested in learning about the benefits of the project or considering what it would cost to provide those benefits solely on the taxpayer dime.
First Rule of Real Estate
Location, Location, Location.
Second Rule - Never Ever, Ever, Ever, Believe the Developer's Numbers. Ever.
Everything you say is reasonable.
And accurate, I’m supposing…. hoping.
My hesitancy to support this project lies with deep distrust of for profit partners in this venture to honor their commitments. And doubts that the city will act to force them to honor the commitments when they are eventually not honored.
I’m still undecided. Franklin Park’s green space should not be diminished for profit.
Thanks for your post.
It’s the biggest football stadium in the city for kids
You are burying the lede there. White stadium has tremendous history as a track and football stadium. Imagine the discussion we’d be having if the proposal “only” impacted the spring track and field season?
The bottom line is the mayor needs to listen to the communities impacted by this proposal. She’s wielding her authority recklessly and punishing people who don’t go along. How is this any different than Menino’s grudge holding?
Can we quit with the tiresome football nostalgia?
Participation in high school tackle football (which, I'll remind you, is inaccessible to 50% of BPS high schoolers) has fallen 12% since 2008, with the steepest declines in the last couple years(1). Meanwhile participation in track and field and soccer has risen substantially. The decline in football participation is no doubt due to parental concerns about the terrible and well-documented damage that tackle football does to a young brain. "A 2018 BU study of 211 ex-football players diagnosed with CTE after their deaths found that those who had started in tackle football before 12 suffered an earlier onset of cognitive, behavioral and mood symptoms by an average of 13 years. For each year younger a player started, symptoms came an average of 2 ½ years earlier." (2)
For those of us concerned about children's health, promotion of safe high school sports, and gender equity, the decline in football is not a bad thing. Many of us "in the community" affected by the White Stadium proposal support it. Just because Mayor Wu isn't caving in to loud groups with a retrograde perspective on high school sports doesn't mean she's not listening.
(1) https://www.usnews.com/news/health-news/articles/2023-01-24/youth-footba....
(2) https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/interactive/2023/football-particip...
No we cant
Discriminatory against football.
Not fair BPS kids don't get the same resources as suburban kids. This is a republican mindset. Deprive a group from the resources they need to succeed for decades. And then throw your hands up and say "oh we can't do it, its too hard." Football participation is climbing in many jurisdictions. Not in BPS because of enrolling declines, and frankly declining black and white student enrollment
Would a female-led group like Bosotn Unity willingly displace a girls team from say...a field hockey field? Probably not. But when its boys- who already struggle in schools- its okay to get rid of their playing surface?
High School Football Makes a Surprise Comeback: https://www.wsj.com/sports/football/high-school-sport-participation-grow...
"inaccessible to 50% of BPS high schoolers"
There is no prohibition of women participating in high school football in BPS.
A young woman at Latin scored a touchdown in the T-Day game in 2014.
Also, soccer is a fall sport in public schools. How will the redo of White Stadium benefit the soccer players if the Profit Making Adult Women's team and their investors prohibits use of the stadium during the season?
Also, concussions are pretty common in soccer, perhaps your experience with the sport is limited to the small fields with mixed teams and orange slices after a "good job everyone" game.
BPS
soccer games will not be restricted from playing. Only the football teams--
That's Discrmination
Pure and simple.
It has to do
with the amount of wear and tear on the field--more with football, less with soccer.
not a protected class
Football players aren't a protected class. And it's not "discrimination" to take something away from an overwhelmingly male group, and make them share it equally with girls. If anything, the legal argument goes the other way, requiring that schools support girls' sports equally with boys'.
Good.
Less kids getting head injuries, the better for all.
not true
the soccer games are only 20 days a year, right? And you know that students will be able to use the field all other times (except one Unity practice per week prior to games)?
The field will be unavailable for use all season due to their insistence eon natural grass over turf. They do not want kids' cleats tearing up their field.
Soccer is not football
and doesn't have the same impacts on natural turf. therefore, high school soccer will be permitted on the field.
"The renovation will allow BPS to take full advantage of the field which can support programming, including BPS games and practices, of 750-900 hours per year. All sports that currently use White Stadium, including cheerleading, track & field, soccer, cross country, and football, will continue to be able to use White Stadium, and many more students and teams will be able to use the facility than are able to today. The enhanced facilities will continue to support Parks and Rec summer camps for kids, school field days, student athlete summer conditioning, and Special Olympics events. ○ Some football games, which may overlap with the soccer season, will be relocated. In consultation with Boston Unity Soccer scheduling, BPS will maximize the number of football games that could be played at White Stadium and guarantee that White Stadium will be able to host football games at the conclusion of the soccer season, at least for Thanksgiving and end-of-season rivalry games for many more teams than are able to play there now."
https://www.boston.gov/education/white-stadium#meeting-materials
Someone hates
Schoolboy Stadium was built for football.
If Mrs. Henry and Co. worked a deal that didn’t kick football out, it wouldn’t look like a land grab. But instead it looks like Wu is railroading this plan.
how would you respond to the above comment
which outlines the plan for BPS schools to play as many football games as possible at White Stadium, including end of season rivalry games?
i’m asking genuinely, trying to understand both sides.
There's still displacement
And if the Patriots and Revolution can share a ground, the women's soccer franchise and the high schools should also be able to do so. I keep hearing the $100 million figure for renovations. If they can't get a good field with that money, the rest of the proposal can't be that good.
It's just not...
White Stadium will remain the property of the city.
Yes, a private entity will get precedence during their season in return for a large amount of private investment, but it will be far more usable for the community than it is currently in its dilapidated state.
Adorable!
That you think she plans Boston to be the last stop of the Wu Train.
that is such a strange sentiment
people can’t have ambitions?
I'm not the one who suggested
Wu would "stick to spanking... candidates by 40 points every four years here in the city." But we'll see what happens after next year's residential property tax increase.
Not Wu, Pressley
That's Pressley's seat. Wu will be mayor for as long as she wants and then move on to something where she can spend more time with her family.
Or
“We, the undersigned Boston Landmark Commissioners, have observed in recent years a disregard by the City of Boston administration for the Commission’s legislative mandate and established procedures and guidelines.”
Translation: Respect my authoritah!
Not only that, but they, along with weenies like the Emerald Necklace Conservancy, are objecting to the redevelopment of a burnt-out, dilapidated, neglected stadium that they have zero plans to develop themselves. Screw those BPS kids and their new stadium if the Mayor won’t first bow down to the mighty landmark commission!
Terrific.
Terrific.
Great.
Just ducky.
You have conjured the image of Eric Cartman being our Vice-President or Secretary of State.
Wrong!
The "authoritah" is the state law, it applies to projects we like AND the ones we don't like. There is a right way to do this, the BLC got fed up with being told to suck it up and do things the wrong way. We had 4 years of a president who had nothing but disdain for the rule of law, giving license to anyone who didn't like how the game was going to upend the checkerboard, we don't need more of that at the local level. I don't know if having pro soccer at White Stadium is a good thing or not, but go through the process as prescribed by law and if things don't turn out they way you want, try and change the law. You can't just ignore the law when it's inconvenient. Good for the Commission to call the Administration out on this.
The 16 are old townie hacks...
...and aren't as smart as Mayor Wu.
Climate justice demands a
Climate justice demands a private soccer team to make use of the city resources.
If Women's soccer had a Caitlin Clarke star incoming
The letter would've never been sent.
Word.
This will all be resolved
When the “powers” of the Landmark Commission get transferred to Wu’s new planning board.
This does remind me of the time City Councilor Wu, as a citizen, asked the BLC to declare the house next to her, which was slated for a redevelopment that would have added 6 new housing units, a landmark. The Mary Baker Eddy house still stands!
Link
Fun story. Says it would’ve been 10. Should’ve been developed.
https://www.universalhub.com/2016/roslindale-residents-seek-landmark-sta...
At least they were concerned
At least they were concerned about potential loss of two trees back then. Today, trees are dying off by hundreds, at every city park and playground.
More trees and green space
More trees and green space will be lost if this stadium is taken over by a for profit company.
Have you even looked at the site plan?
all the legacy trees are preserved. The only ones at risk are on the east side of the stadium, which the city will renovate.
That's a net of 6
Ye Olde Mary Baker Eddy House has 4 units.
To be fair, the final product is pretty nice, but it's 8 units versus the original proposal of 10. But the most important thing is that the Pewarski family got to keep their view.
Apologies
Net six, you’re right.
Boston is home to the most
‘We hate change’ people in the country. Whether it’s NIMBY-ism, or opposition to new business. Growth is stagnated because people are stuck in their ways. This will be a good thing for Boston and Dorchester. Live with it.
I don't want new businesses
I don't want new businesses in Franklin Park. I go there for peace and quiet and I'm not the only one.
High School atheletes are loud, too
Tripling the hours that high schoolers use the facility is going to cause more disruption to your peace and quiet than 20 soccer games a year.
Former Shreve, Crump and Low building
Is the same commission that declared the former Shreve, Crump and Low building at Arlington and Boylston of not historical value? The same commission that declared that the former Little Home for Wanderers had not historical value?
If it is then they should all go. They permitted a lovely building to be destroyed - to be replace by a fine example of architecture from the firm of Dullard, Repetitive and Stupid.
The destruction of the Shreve, Crump and Low…
… building is a disgrace. Whoever facilitated that should be run out of town.