Menino Faces Call For Reform

An ideological impasse over a Harvard-sponsored residential development project in Allston has inflamed long-standing criticisms about the role of the Boston Redevelopment Authority—an especially pertinent topic given that Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino, facing his most competitive mayoral race in years, is standing at the center of the controversy.

The Charlesview Redevelopment, a proposed housing complex to be built southwest of Harvard’s planned Allston campus, is nearing BRA approval after years of delays. But neighborhood activists are attacking the plan, saying that it squeezes too much onto too little land. They are calling on Harvard to commit more of its area landholdings to the project—property not designated for any future institutional use—and say that the University will only acquiesce at the Mayor’s request.

“We’re still waiting to see if Mayor Menino in the last weeks can deliver on what we’ve felt was a promise to bring Harvard to the table in a serious way,” said Brent Whelan ’73, a member of the Harvard Allston Task Force. “Will he use his influence with Harvard, or do we need a new mayor for that?”

Menino, a 16-year-incumbent with de facto control of the BRA, is known for his extensive clout in the City’s planning and development. A recent feature in the Boston Globe, noting that Menino’s support is often crucial to a project’s success, stated that “perhaps nowhere else in the nation, has a mayor obsessed so mightily, and wielded power so exhaustively” over such matters.

Thus, with Allston languishing in the wake of Harvard’s expansionary slowdown and neighborhood planning plagued by constant antagonism, some activists have shifted their attentions to the Mayor and BRA. But residents say the City has been unresponsive to community needs and that the only solution may be drastic, fundamental reform of the system.

“The most important thing we need to do is to dismantle the BRA,” said Natasha Perez, a spokeswoman for City Councilor Michael F. Flaherty, Jr., Menino’s challenger. “We need separate planning agencies: one focused on planning and one on economic development and workforce development. What tends to happen is that in the rush for economic development, planning and communities are steamrolled.”

City Councilor Sam Yoon, Flaherty’s running mate, had also championed such reforms in his own campaign until losing in the preliminary elections last month.

But City planners maintain that the BRA’s structure is effective and that it has had a successful track record. Susan Elsbree, a BRA spokeswoman, said in an interview with The Crimsom that planners have been working “tirelessly” in Allston and that “it simply wasn’t true” that community input was being ignored. “To suggest that we’ve not been doing enough to plan and hold Harvard’s feet to the fire is ridiculous,” she said.

And not all Allston residents are critical of Menino’s partnership with the BRA. Ray Mellone, chairman of the Harvard Allston Task Force, said he supports the current structure and noted that, contrary to some neighborhood perceptions, the University has not been given a free pass.

“[Menino] cuts to the chase,” Mellone said. “He goes to the University and tells them, ‘You can’t stall around.’ I think he’s been very effective.”

Nevertheless, Menino appears to be taking Flaherty’s challenge seriously. According to a story in The Globe on Tuesday, Menino has spent $1.7 million on his reelection bid—on track for the most expensive mayoral campaign in City history.

Harry Mattison, a member of the Harvard Allston Task Force and a vocal critic of the City’s planning process, said that the election was a critical moment for City reform, and that he and other Allston activists would be making their voices heard in the coming weeks.

“We’d be fools not to make the most of [the election],” he said. “This is supposed to be a democracy, not a kingdom.”

—Staff writer Michelle L. Quach can be reached at mquach@fas.harvard.edu.

—Staff writer Peter F. Zhu can be reached at pzhu@fas.harvard.edu.