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Resident Power
by Karlo Ng and Lydia Lowe
posted 7/16/04
Over a year after the Liberty Place campaign, Boston Chinatown residents are busier than ever dealing with multiple land development struggles. Their involvement in these campaigns has shown that residents have become a force in the fight over how land in the community should be used, and resident activists have become more seasoned in their knowledge and actions.
As a result, the City is paying more attention to what Chinatown residents are saying. A few recent victories have shown the power residents have when they organize to affect land development. Yet, residents know that they are still working towards the day when Chinatown has comprehensive planning and true community control over land usage in their neighborhood.
Ten years ago, when the community fought and won Parcel C for community development, activists had to monitor the legal notices in the Boston Herald so as not to miss an important "public hearing." Meetings were routinely held in English without translation, and elected officials ignored residents' letters and phone calls.
Now, five years after establishing the resident association, Chinatown residents have more access to information and bilingual meetings are the norm. Residents have a voice and can influence outcomes through struggle, but their interests continue to trail far behind those of the real estate developers, big institutions, investors, and others who benefit from the large-scale luxury developments surrounding Chinatown on all sides.
Exercising Resident Power: Mass Pike Towers and Parcel 24
One sign of increased clout has been residents' new place at the table which
has influenced two projects early on.
Mass Pike Towers residents experienced a major victory when the BRA and Trinity Financial, after months of opposition from tenants, decided to pull their development proposal off the table. The proposal would have allowed the construction of a 13-story, market-rate apartment complex on the parking lot of the federally subsidized housing complex in Chinatown. The Mass Pike Towers Tenants Association gathered 300+ signatures from residents who opposed the project, rallied the support of City Councilors Jim Kelly and Chuck Turner, and organized a protest in front of the Trinity Financial office. In April 2004, the BRA told Trinity Financial to pull its proposal off the table due to community concerns. The BRA pledged to broker a new proposal that would better reflect the needs and wants of the tenants association, although Trinity has produced no such proposal as of this printing.
