People in Roxbury Getting the BRA runaround too!!

The city really has come a long away in how it deals with race. City Hall has become much more equitable. The BRA is an equal opportunity taker of anyone's property or neighborhood, whether you are white, black, brown, yellow or pink.

Tonight was the Dudley Square Library, where they were trying to get an RFP passed without letting the people see it. Supposedly, so that no developer would get a leg up on the competition. So, they had a draft RFP that only the neighborhood council could see, but the public couldn't. As Chuck Turner said to me, all the developer's have a copy of it already. So, the only people who have seen it (and I am one) are the "select" council, the BRA, and some developers. Why should the public be allowed to see what is being built in their neighborhood??? The BRA certainly doesn't think so.
They don't want the public to see that on page 10 of the Draft RFP there is a provision for a PDA which would render the rest of the RFP pointless if the right connected developer comes along and wants to put some huge thing in there, or if an institution (Northeastern??? who is handing out Ph. D's to BRA members like the Mayor hands out face paint at a neighborhood gatherings) wants to build dormitory space with maybe a few shops on the first floor.
Thankfully the thing was tabled, but you truly get the feeling the BRA is waiting for the right (wrong?) people not to be at one of these meetings to protest, and then the deal will be done.

The RFP should be written so that the Boston Jobs Policy will be enforced (which it rarely is), so that jobs will go to Bostonians, and secondly and more importantly without any PDA's being allowed so that what is supposed to be built gets built. And if the neighborhood doesn't want any colleges there, they need to spell it out SPECIFICALLY.

Don't get taken by the MAN!
kevin