The Landmarks Commission hearing tonight was a pleasure and relief for everyone who has worked for nearly five years to protect this beautiful Nazzaro building, and keep it in public use. While the process has a few more steps, the fact that no one rose to oppose the official Landmark Commission proposal, and our elected officials publicly lined to support it, is a wonderful sign that democracy can still work!

We will keep you posted as we go through the next technical hurdles, but we are optimistic now that this will dream become a reality. City Councilor Gabriela Coletta personally testified tonight in favor of of the landmark proposal and has pledged to shepherd it through the Boston City Council. We have the crucial support of Rep. Aaron Michlewitz, a proud son of the North End, who got approval for $5 million in public funding once the landmark is approved, and who helped line up the NEW Health Clinic and North End Music and Performing Arts Center as new non-profit tenants for the city-owned building once the new community center is completed. We expect that Mayor Michelle Wu, who has long shown support for neighborhood efforts like this one, will ultimately sign off on the landmark.

Thanks to all of you who signed our petitions, mailed out postcards, sent in testimony, and showed up at City Hall in an epic ice storm in February 2019  to testify at the first Landmarks Commission hearing that got this process past its first hurdle. We owe a huge debt of gratitude to Landmarks Commissioner Kirsten Hoffman and executive director Roseanne Foley, to Marie Simboli of the North End Waterfront Neighborhood Council, to Sen. Lydia Edwards, who as our city councilor advised us every step of the way, to David Kubiak, Victor Brogna, Mary McGhee, Tom Schiavoni , Cheryl DelGreco and so many others in the North End Waterfront Neighborhood Association, to North End Historical Society President Tom Damigella, to Luigi DiNatale, the Boston Architectural College teachers and students who designed new possible uses for the building, former Landmarks Commissioner Tom Herman,and so many others!!!!