Dear Mayor Walsh,

Hope you are well. As I am sure you know, our neighborhood’s passionate efforts over the past years to have meaningful input into responsible and needed development in our West End has not resulted in a positive outcome with the Equity Garden Garage project. It is proceeding without any willingness on the developer’s part to negotiate some reasonable compromise with the community. Today, the Zoning Commissioners all sympathized with us but, except for Chairman Fondren (and we thank him), went ahead and voted to move the project forward. So we will add to our now-virtual construction zone with the tallest West End building yet (a terrible precedent) and even more luxury rental apartments with less than 1% affordable housing onsite but no workforce housing. Add to that 5 levels of underground rental parking for employees of nearby institutions, increasing the already congested traffic in our neighborhood.

While we have applauded and supported the major dense and high projects underway in our West End’s commercial areas (Boston Garden, Government Center Garage, Avalon North Station, Bulfinch Triangle development, etc.), we have been unsuccessfully trying to tell anyone in the City who might listen that this project is not good as currently designed for our neighborhood. We understand density and height is the current thinking about the wave of the future and have been willing to negotiate something reasonable for everyone. But we have been continually ignored in the face of big payoffs for inclusionary housing elsewhere in the City by an arrogant developer who has consistently and condescendingly refused to compromise with neighborhood residents. I would have thought you, as our people’s Mayor, would be as insulted and outraged about this as we are, but I guess it does not matter to you after all what we little people think about the neighborhood we know and love better than anyone else.

The purpose of this email is to tell you that it is continually made clear to our West End residents that we do not meaningfully exist as far as you are concerned and as far as other City officials are concerned. Something as minor as repeated invitations by us common folk to visit our West End so we could show you why we care about appropriate development are dismissed easily with promises to follow up, even when the invitation is made directly to you. Invitations to Brian Golden are received warmly by him, but the only time he ever showed up was to apologize to us for the “urban renewal mistakes of the past” and to reassure us it would not happen again. That was followed shortly after by the Equity project being pushed through to approval by his BRA even in light of all the neighborhood cries for some reasonable solution to just putting up another massive glass box of transient, luxury, high rent apartments. A “great” (not) tool for encouraging people to live and set down roots in our formerly diverse and somewhat affordable neighborhood! I guess the resulting transience and glut of luxury rentals will be the next “urban renewal mistake of the past” for our future generations to resolve.

From a neighborhood engagement perspective, you must also know that we are not even included in something as obvious as your annual Coffee hour meet and greet with our City’s neighborhoods. Take a look at the schedule for at least the past two years and you will see that you visit every single neighborhood surrounding us except for the West End!! Now there is the real message again I guess. You know, it’s not the free plant that you give out at these coffee hours that we want, it’s something more genuine — your caring enough to be inclusive not only with housing but inclusive by recognizing and caring about our West End neighborhood and its residents.

Perhaps when you make your annual visit to one of the Downtown North Association’s business meetings, we residents could attend to get a glimpse of you and maybe even extract another promise to visit our neighborhood. It’s all really just another sad tale of politics as usual for West Enders.

Sincerely,

Kathleen M. Ryan