Chinatown Residents Fight Kensington Place, Fight for Parcel 24

Mike Liu
adapted from CPA newsletter articles
8/29 /03

In Boston Chinatown's latest battle against gentrification, residents are protesting the construction of Kensington Place, a 30-story luxury rental building at the northwestern edge of Chinatown. If built, Kensington will be 290 feet in height, have 336 rentals and 235 parking spaces, with the capacity to add about 100 more spaces.

The Boston Redevelopment Authority (BRA) has played fast and loose with the zoning code to support the developer. The building is under the Midtown Cultural District code, which requires an acre of land to build to 30 stories. The City of Boston first included adjacent buildings that were not part of the development to create the "acre" of land and has lately resorted to counting the sidewalks and streets surrounding the proposed project. To attain the rest of the acre, the BRA will use its eminent domain power to seize two private parcels. The BRA is bending over backwards to push Kensington through. That is why Chinatown residents are so outraged.

In many previous meetings, no one has denied the tremendous impacts the project will have on the neighborhood. Already the densest neighborhood in Boston and one with the least amount of open space, Chinatown has constant traffic,noise, and pollution, especially in the narrow part of Washington Street where Kensington is proposed. If built, this project, along with others recently built or approved, will add 2000 residents and their cars to a neighborhood that has about 6000 residents. Luxury rental housing will drive up rents, forcing working class residents to move out.

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