Boston Mayor Mary Walsh’s office has reacted to our widespread community outcry to save the Nazzaro building for public use, but not in the way we had hoped!
We expected the Mayor to show he is listening to concerned voters by: removing the Nazzaro building from the “Housing Innovation Lab” list of Boston’s primary public assets to be turned into housing, 2) opening up his online feedback survey to offer the solution clearly preferred by most North Enders–of dividing our many community programs into two locations 3) promising to reject any plan to sell the Nazzaro building. The idea of selling this iconic building to pay for a new community center should be permanently taken off the table, given the over 1,400 signatures on two petitions opposing such a plan.
Instead, Maria Lanza, the Mayor’s North End representative, interrupted our presentation Dec. 13 to openly disrespect our concerns and undermine our efforts. She said that no decision has been made “yet” to sell the Nazzaro building. Such decisions are still in the future, she said, dismissing all the evidence that the historic building is already being offered for housing development. She waved away the fact that the city continues to list the Nazzaro building and the North End Public Library branch building as #77 and #23 on its Housing Innovation Lab website as “primary assets” available for housing development. She was silent about the $8 million commercial real estate valuation Alistair Lucks admitted they have gotten for the Nazzaro building on Oct. 17. She denied that the plan is to sell the public Nazzaro building to pay for the new North End Community Center on the waterfront, which was told to us directly by a member of the mayor’s Community Advisory Committee.
After dismissing all of these concerns, Lanza handed out a written statement from Mayor Walsh that failed to back up what she said. The statement only confirmed that City Hall is not listening to the North End community. (Despite the stock photo, he was not at our meeting Dec. 13.)
The mayor’s statement claims to invite our feedback, by sending us online to select one of three locations for a single new North End community center. This unchanged Sasaki survey still does not offer any fair choice that the community will accept. Despite opposition at the single public briefing Oct. 17, the only options are still 1) tear down the iconic Nazzaro building and sacrifice half of our historic public playground to build a still-too-small community center in their place, or 2) abandon the Nazzaro building to move all our community programs to the Mirabella Pool area or 3) abandon the Nazzaro building to move all of our community programs to Sargeant’s Wharf. The mayor says absolutely nothing about protecting the historic Nazzaro structure, or keeping it in public use. His own architects have already said publicly that their first option should be taken off the table. That leaves us with only two choices, both of which involve abandoning the Nazzaro building at the heart of the neighborhood, to put everything down on the waterfront. The mayor does not explain why he still refuses to consider splitting our community programs into two places, keeping the existing Nazzaro center plus adding a second basketball court elsewhere.
This is so disappointing. City Hall hasn’t heard us at all. After months of trying to find out, in good faith, what they are organizing, we are reduced to launching a Freedom of Information Act request. Who made the decision to move all the programs to one new building? Why do they cling to that even after the community has rejected it? When and why did they get the $8 million commercial real estate valuation for the Nazzaro building? Who decided it should be offered up for housing instead of kept in community use? What developers are already waiting in the wings to build on both the existing Nazzaro parcel and the waterfront? Why was Fulton St. taken off the list? What is the time frame for the $100,000 survey and $3 million design and siting contracts given to the Sasaki architects for a new North End Community Center?
Instead of appreciating the widespread community support for a new regulation-sized basketball court and community facilities in a second location–while also fixing up the existing Nazzaro building for seniors, community meetings and little kids–the Mayor’s office is continuing to push a divisive plan the community rejects. Did the Mayor ever intend to give us the new basketball court we need, or was the idea always to offer us untenable trade-offs? Is the political game about blaming the North End residents, instead of his own staff, for failing to serve our community properly?
It’s not too late. Mayor Walsh, please reconsider the dismissive response you have given to your most active and organized voters in the North End. We want you to be on our side, and we want to be on yours.
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