Boston Globe Fails To Understand South Boston Olympic Opposition

bostonglobe:

Boston 2024 organizers face tough sell in South Boston
By Michael Levenson, May 03, 2015

After listening to a city official describe Boston’s effort to host the 2024 Olympics, about 70 members of the City Point Neighborhood Association in South Boston took an informal poll: By a show of hands, how many in the room support the bid?

“Not one person put their hand up in favor of it,” said Joanne McDevitt, the association president, recalling the March meeting.

Things did not go much betterwhen the city officials pitched the Olympics to the Fort Point Neighborhood Association, on the other end of South Boston.

Steve2222 writes in the comments:

Regretfully, Mr. Levenson is playing to stereotypes, not facts. I've lived in South Boston long enough to be familiar with this type of portrayal of old-timers and new arrivals. I was often characterized by the media as the progressive newcomer when I arrived here. Boston2024 has cast opponents as naysayers, but that doesn't square with the facts.

Here are some facts, looking at South Boston planning through present day:

The residents of South Boston strongly opposed a football stadium and strongly supported a convention center. Within the past 20 years, countless thousands of residents of South Boston have convened charrettes and meetings with elected officials and BRA planners to draft plans charting a progressive vision of the South Boston neighborhood. The plans I'm aware of (a fraction of what South Boston residents have participated in) include:

• South Boston Waterfront Master Plan (SB-PRP, over 100 public meetings)
• Massport CRE Planning (Krieger Master Plan)
• South Boston Waterfront Municipal Harbor Plan (SBW-MHP)
• Fort Point 100 Acres Master Plan (60 public meetings)
• West 1st Street Corridor Master Plan
• Fort Point Channel Watersheet Activation Plan
• South Boston Waterfront Facilities of Accommodation Plan
• Summer and Congress Streets Crossroads Plan
• (2) Waterfront Transportation Plans
• Meetings and comments on numerous Planned Development Area filings (PDAs)
• Meetings and comments on countless project filings (PNF, NPC, DEIR, EIR, etc.)

There are reasons beyond NIMBYism as to why South Boston residents oppose the Boston2024 bid, little of which has been reported in the Boston Globe. The Boston2024 plan proposes that our neighborhood of South Boston (Fort Point) host a satellite farm, a media center, a broadcast center, a transportation hub (bus depot) and parking lots. The media center and broadcast center are proposed as "legacy" projects repurposed for commercial purposes after the games. These Boston2024 satellite farm and bus depot (ground floor of broadcast center, also a legacy project) abut multiple existing residential buildings (35 Channel Center, 25 Channel Center, Midway Studios, Fort Point Place, 249 A Street and recently approved 9 Channel Center). The permanent legacy projects (media center, broadcast center) eviscerate acres of planned residential projects on USPS parcels, already BRA-Board approved under the 100 Acres plan, zoned (PDA #69) and agreed to as signators by Gillette and USPS.

If the bid had been informed through public process to better understand pre-existing visions, and also perhaps considered a regional approach instead of shoehorning 20+ venues into a city a fraction the size of the bid's clear source (the London 2012 bid), Olympic fans like myself and the United States would be in much better position.

I'm sure my fellow South Boston neighbors from City Point to Andrew Square are also carefully considering Boston2024 proposals from an educated perspective.

But don't let stereotypes get in the way of a good story