East Boston residents call Walsh ‘unresponsive’ over Suffolk Downs concerns

East Boston residents are demanding the city hit the brakes on approving the Suffolk Downs redevelopment until Mayor Martin Walsh hears their concerns that the project’s affordable housing plan would accelerate the “massive displacement” their neighborhood has seen.

“This will cause massive, massive displacement. When we see one luxury condo tower of six units go up in East Boston, the whole block’s rents go up. Imagine when 10,000 units of luxury housing pop up,” said Andrew Del Castillo of Vida Urbana.

Del Castillo was among 70 residents and activists clad in “Renters Rising” gear and humming protest songs who crowded into Walsh’s office on the fifth floor of City Hall just before noon Thursday to hand-deliver a petition to the mayor. They waited for three hours before being turned away without any face time with Walsh.

More than 1,100 people signed the petition demanding 10,000 apartments planned for the old Suffolk Downs race track be restricted for people earning 30% of the area median income, or $23,800 a year for a single person.

“He’s been completely unresponsive. That’s why it’s come to this,” Del Castillo said. The project could be approved by the Boston Planning & Development Agency as early as next Thursday.

Walsh did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

Boston-based HYM Investment Group is looking to transform the defunct 161-acre horse-racing facility into a mixed-use community spanning Boston and Revere — the largest development of its kind ever in the region. More than 70% of the housing would be located in Boston and the developer has committed to creating 1,430 income-restricted units that will be affordable to people earning between 50% and 90% of the area median income. All of those units would be located in East Boston, as the city of Revere did not require any affordable housing.

“That’s record-breaking for city. This will be the largest amount of affordable units created in the city from a single project,” said Thomas O’Brien, HYM co-founder.

O’Brien said meeting the residents’ demands would cost upwards of $1.5 billion.

“They are asking for something that is not possible. They don’t live in the real world,” he said.

BPDA spokeswoman Bonnie McGilpin said HYM’s proposal surpasses the city’s mandate that 13% of housing in new developments be income-restricted and would “replace a vacant, rundown horse track with a new transit-oriented neighborhood that brings much-needed housing, and improved connections to open space between neighboring communities.”

Stephen Mahood, who has lived on Jeffries Point on and off for a decade, worries the immigrant and working-class residents who have historically called East Boston home will see greater displacement without more protections.

“We need apartments that are more representative of what the community earns,” he said — pointing out nearly half of residents there are extremely low income.

from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/2TqIlEt