It’s Letter Writing Time!
We are heartened by the overwhelming community support for saving the historic Nazzaro Community Center and adjacent Polcari Playground, in the heart of Boston’s North End. We have over 1,400 signatures combined on our two petitions, and the North End Waterfront Residents Association supports our cause. City Councilor Lydia Edwards and State Rep. Aaron Michlewitz have heard us, and are now showing support for saving the Nazzaro building and Polcari Playground, even as a much-needed new community center and basketball court are added in another location.
But is the Mayor listening to us? Apparently not. The Nazzaro’s future remains uncertain. Three packed neighborhood meetings, including the latest on Jan. 10, have shown ardent support for protecting the historic Nazzaro building for public use. But none of this is reflected in the City’s official planning documents or decisions.
Instead:
- The City is still offering the building (the original North Bennet Street Bath House and Gymnasium) to housing developers
- The City solicited a commercial real estate estimate for selling the building. (See video here)
The only options being officially considered by the City would 1) tear down the historic Nazzaro building or 2) move all our community programs to the waterfront, abandoning the Nazzaro community building to an uncertain fate. three final siting locations
Our coalition has asked for transparency. There is no response from the Mayor’s office. We have asked to meet with the City’s consultants who are creating the plans, with no response. Despite our Freedom of Information Act request, City officials refuse to tell us how they decided to list the Nazzaro building for housing development, or even what was said at the two “public” meetings of the Mayor’s 10-member Community Advisory Committee. (FOIA.pdf)
According to The Boston Globe, the mayor’s chief of operations said that the Nazzaro building will not have to be sold to pay for our new North End community center. So why won’t they take it off the City’s housing development list? Why won’t the Sasaki consultants listen to the public feedback they claim they want to get? Why won’t the City consider putting our community programs in two locations, instead of moving them all into one big new building on the edge of the neighborhood?
Make our voices heard in the Mayor’s office before it’s too late.
Please call and write emails and snail mail letters to our Mayor and our elected officials. Here’s what you can ask them to do:
- Protect the historic Nazzaro Building and Polcari Playground with Landmarks status, which would allow updating them while keeping the Renaissance Revival building’s architecture and the playground’s open public space.
- Keep the Nazzaro and Polcari Playground in public use, as they have been for over 100 years, instead of selling them for private development.
- Take the Nazzaro off the housing innovations lab list, update the building, and continue some community programs there, while adding a new basketball court in another location.
We do not want to lose these irreplaceable public resources in the heart of the neighborhood. In addition to their central role in the North End’s community life, they represent the history and culture of this country, dating back to a time when our politicians built elegant public buildings to serve the new immigrants arriving to create the America we know today. Please call or send your emails and letters to protect the Nazzaro building from private development, and continue its public use.
Mayor Marty Walsh (617-635-4500)
State Rep. Aaron Michelwitz (617-722-2220)
State Sen. Joe Boncore (617-722-1634)
City Councilor Lydia Edwards (617-635-3200)
To support the Landmarks petition that would protect the building’s outside architecture and the playground’s open space) https://www.savethenazzaro.org/boston-landmarks-commission-petition/
Boston Landmarks Commission
1 CITY HALL SQUARE
ROOM 709
BOSTON, MA 02201
UNITED STATES
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