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What passes for record keeping at the BRA
By adamg on Thu, 02/26/2009 - 8:50am
Kevin McCrea sends the city a simple open-records request: He wants a list of all the properties owned by the Boston Redevelopment Authority (because, of course, this information is not online). He reports he got back a list that, in many cases, gives a street, but no number:
... "On February 5, 2009, in response to your public records request concerning property owned by the BRA, we provided to you the records maintained by the BRA that you requested. The BRA does not maintain records that include the information you requested in your follow-up request, namely the street numbers for all properties. Consequently we will not be providing additional records to you."
This is the most astounding thing I have read since the Walkowski report. So, in the 21st Century, Boston, supposedly an advanced high tech city, has a City Planning and Economic Development Agency which doesn't even have a list of the properties it owns which includes street addresses??? What do they rely on to find the properties they own, Oral Tradition? ...
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Comments
Oral tradition!
That's great! It's like the BRA records have been handed down through the generations from Father Abraham!
Classic!
They must have more info
There are properties that do not have a street number assigned - I know, I own a lot with no street number - but they must have the lot numbers for them.
City Hall violates FOI Freedom of Information public records.
Boston City Hall routinely violates the spirit of open government, sunshine open public meetings, FOI Freedom of Information public records principles. Journalists have failed to hold City Hall to these principles.
see also
http://listserv.syr.edu/archives/foi-l.html
http://lists.ufl.edu/archives/recmgmt-l.html
In place of a street number
In place of a street number they should have a lot number available as the city tax department must know who owns what. Even in small cities and towns outside of Boston they keep track of all property lots online, easily accessible by anyone willing to fork over their email addresses and name. In many towns you can find out who owns what, what the lots are assesed at, and what they last sold for (some towns take a while to update sales numbers, but at least they are visible.)
Too much work?
So the city/BRA may be technically correct that these lots aren't identified by street addresses, they have lot numbers and couldn't just forward the lot numbers with a brief explanation. Classic! Oral tradition - ha ha ha - almost spit my coffee across the room when I read that one!
Somehow I would think that
Somehow I would think that the BRA would/should have that info already available on some excel sheet. Even if its not for the benefit of the public it would be nice to know that the head honchos at the BRA could sit down and easily see what they own and where (and what is being planned for those partials.) I would think that would be in some annual report or something.
Try assessing records
If you do a search by owner for "redevelopment" in the assessing records available at the city's Web site, you come up with a list of 200-plus parcels owned by the Boston Redevelopment Authority. With a little finagling, you can turn the list into an Excel spreadsheet.
That's a start, at least.
Of course, the city should have been able to produce this in seconds.
it's there
the city's assessing site is searchable, so in theory this info is actually online already. several are in fact lots with no street numbers.
City site has info
Yes, the city's assessing site has the info, but it would mean that Kevin would have to go street by street to get the info, then click through on each header to read more about it and get the tax assessment information (even though the BRA doesn't pay taxes, its land is assessed, and then it gets an exemption).
MLSPIN, which real estate agents use to look up listings, has this same information, in a slightly improved format, as does LINK, I believe.
Kevin, if you're out there, send me a note if you want to get into the databases.
Yes, many of the addresses don't have street numbers. It's a fact. It's not really relevant to doing research, though, is it? Unless you trying to map it on a map, that is.
The BRA website may have maps that will help with this, too.
I asked for some Oral Tradition last night, but was turned down. :o(