A recent draft of the Community Master Plan proposed property-swaps in which the neighborhood would give Smith Park—a 14-acre patch of soccer fields in a prime spot next to the Harvard Business School—to Harvard.
Residents protested vehemently.
“I don’t think we should give up any part of Smith Park,” said one 80-year resident of Allston.
Another plan would knock down a popular shopping center Harvard owns to make space for housing.
“If it ain’t broke, why fix it?” Mellone said.
The BRA has been working to reconcile the many interests of Harvard’s stakeholders.
“It really is a balancing act—the things that we can do is make sure that all the interests are heard,” said Jansi Chandler, the BRA project manager for North Allston.
Blue Skies?
Krieger says property owners will gain and renters will lose after Harvard moves in. But most of the residents involved in the planning process say they don’t mind losing the renters.
A large proportion of Allston’s renters are students from Boston College, Boston University and other local universities.
“The problem we have with transient tenants has to do with the student population—they can be rowdy, noisy and inconsiderate,” Mellone says. “We’d rather have people who are stake-holders in the community.”
Others worry about the consequences for Allston’s low-income residents.
“I do think that a lot of people in the neighborhood, they’re not going to be able to afford to live there in time,” says Allston-Brighton activist John T. Trumpler.
Even the property-owning residents are worried about being forced out by high rents in the long term.
“The people who live here are concerned that [their] children will not be able to live here,” Berkeley says.
Even with all of the cooperation between Harvard and Allston, Berkeley is still waiting for a community visit from University President Lawrence H. Summers, who along with the Corporation will make all final decisions about Allston, and from Vice President of Government, Community and Public Affairs Alan J. Stone, who will help Summers execute the plans.
Berkeley says he will believe Summers and Stone are “really interested in working with us” only when he sees them visit the community.
“Neither one of them has made any effort to meet and greet the people of Allston in Allston,” Berkeley says.
—Staff writer Lauren R. Dorgan can be reached at dorgan@fas.harvard.edu.