Community Leaders Speak at BRA Board Meeting on Harvard's Allston Science Complex

The BRA Board met on the afternoon of October 3rd, and voted to waive further review of Harvard University's proposed Science Complex on Western Avenue.

Many members of the Allston-Brighton community, including elected officials and candidates for public office, spoke during the public comment portion of the hearing. Audio recordings of their comments, in MP3 format, can be heard by clicking through the links below; unfortunately, the lack of amplification in the meeting room resulted in poor sound quality in some cases. Harry Mattison has kindly hosted these audio clips on his HarvardInAllston website.

The procedure of the meeting was such that the members of the public, who were not elected officials or representing city offices, delivered their comments either "in favor of" or "in opposition to" Harvard's proposal, which I have noted below, where appropriate. This procedural element, however, is not the full story for the nature of the comments delivered, since many in favor raised critical issues, while others in opposition voiced positive points.

Elected Officials (or their representatives):

1. State Representative Kevin Honan [particularly poor audio quality]
   
2. State Representative Michael Moran
3. [former?] Allston-Brighton District 9 City Councilor Jerry McDermott
4. representative for State Senator Steven Tolman
5. representative for At-Large City Councilor Sam Yoon
6. representative for At-Large City Councilor Felix Arroyo, rising in opposition to the proposal

Candidates for Public Office:

1. Mark Ciommo, candidate for Allston-Brighton District 9 City Councilor, rising in favor of the proposal
   
2. Gregory Glennon, candidate for Allston-Brighton District 9 City Councilor, rising in opposition to the proposal
3. Anthony Galluccio, candidate for State Senator in a district including part of Allston-Brighton

Community Leaders:

1. Ray Mellone, chair of the Harvard Allston Task Force [particularly poor audio quality]
   
2. John Bruno, member of the Harvard Allston Task Force, rising in favor of the proposal
3. Brent Whelan, member of the Harvard Allston Task Force, rising in opposition to the proposal
4. Harry Mattison, member of the Harvard Allston Task Force, rising in opposition to the proposal
5. John Cusack, member of the Harvard Allston Task Force, rising in opposition to the proposal
6. Alex Selvig, former candidate for Allston-Brighton District 9 City Councilor. While technically he rose during the "in favor of the petition" portion of the meeting, he told me his position on the science complex is not "in favor" of it.
   

Note that the Harvard Allston Task Force unanimously voted at its September 17, 2007 meeting to "recommend BRA approval of the Science Center Complex and the DPIR and the submission of a list of neighborhood concerns [as described more fully in the proposed resolution (attached) dated September 7, 2007] requesting a review and response of these concerns from the BRA and Harvard," according to the BRA's draft minutes of the meeting. (The proposed resolution is included at the end of the PDF document at that link.) You will have to listen to their comments, e.g., Whelan's, to understand why they voted as they did at the HATF meeting, but rose in opposition to the proposal at the BRA Board meeting.

Note that Councilor McDermott introduced himself as "representing Allston-Brighton District 9 on the [Boston] City Council" in the present tense. Has he stepped down from the job, or has he opened a Westwood Satellite Office?

Written public comments submitted to the BRA by September 10th in response to the Draft Project Impact Report can be found at the HarvardInAllston website in PDF format.  Some of the people in the audio files refer to their written comments.


EDIT (1:30 pm): dead links fixed.

Here is a complete list of the speakers at the BRA Board meeting on 10/3/07.  Note that the peculiar numbering scheme in a couple of places reflects how the audio was broken up into individual files. We haven't posted all the audio files, but focused instead on those of public officials, candidates, and task force members.

Proponents
1. Gordon (Harvard's Allston Development Group)
2. Benisch (Architect)
3. Spiegelman (ADG)

Elected Officials, City Officials, task force chair
4. Rep. Honan
5. Rep. Moran
6. [fmr?] Councilor McDermott
7. rep. for Sen. Tolman
8. Holloway (Mayor's Office of Neighborhood Services)
9. [soon-to-be] Sen.-Elect Galluccio
10. Mellone (chair, Harvard Allston Task Force)
11. rep. for Councilor Yoon

In Support of Proposal:
12. Hyman (Harvard)
13a. Rita DiGeese
13b. Kristin Morelock (West End House)
13c. Jessy Coty (Brian Honan Fellowship recipient)
14. Melton (Harvard Stem Cell Institute)
15. Herman (Gardner)
16. Selvig
17. A. Tang
18. Ciommo
19. Bruno, member of HATF
20. Eustice (Prime Realty)
21. Carroll [?] / Tradesmen / Gasfitters
22. McQueen (WalkBoston)

In Opposition of Proposal:
23. Glennon
24. Whelan, member of HATF
25. Mattison, member of HATF
26. rep. for Councilor Arroyo
27. Kotomori
28. P. Alford
29. Schafer
30. Cusack, member of HATF

Discussion, etc.
31. Harvard, BRA Board, vote