##VIDEO ID:BbItgVPHSqs## [Music] [Music] I'm going to start the meeting so for the wet my name is Ain Murphy at large city councelor and I am the chair of the Boston city council committee on strong women families and communities today is October 29th 2024 this hearing is being recorded public testimony will be taken at the end of this hearing but let me correct that that's how it normally goes we are going to because I know we have a lot of people here who want to give public testimony I have a folder full of emails that we received from people who have sent public testimony many of you may be here to actually read it into the record also so we will after our opening statements from the counselors the elected officials we will go to some public testimony then to the panelists who are here and then we'll go back and forth so we'll be hearing from the public and then also the administration so um okay so this hearing is being recorded and then also please email Central staff liaison Megan Kavanagh at megan. Cavanaugh boston.gov for the link and your name will be added if you want to give public testimony remote written comments may be sent to the committee at the email at cc. swfc which just stands for strong women families and community at boston.gov and those will be added to the record so today's hearing is on docket 1301 in order for a hearing to discuss BCF services in the all Brighton neighborhood of the City of Austin this matter was sponsored by councelor Liz Braden and referred to the committee on August 28th 2024 today I am joined by my colleagues in order of arrival councelor Liz Braden council president Louis Jen councelor um Tanya Fernandez Anderson and councelor at large Henry Santana and letters of absence I received from councelor Weber councelor Zapata councelor Durkin councelor Fitzgerald and also councelor uh warell so opening remarks I am going to let councelor Braden go first with their opening remarks and then the rest of us will go after of course good evening everyone thank you all so much for being here um I think the the focus of this evening's uh meeting is to really demonstrate the need for a standalone Community Center here in Alon Brighton this facility is the only bcyf Center we have the schools are closed and we want to make sure that uh the needs of this community the very diverse community that we have were very well represented here this evening we've got people from uh all ages all over our neighborhood and really thank you so much for being here the issue really is uh to demonstrate the need in this neighborhood we have the second largest neighborhood in the city of Boston and we have one Community Center uh the other uh so it's it's a great need compared to other compared to other neighborhoods in the city we are we're very underresourced um I will not spend a whole lot of time I have a video of just how I've been advocating for this for the last 5 years and then I think the focus of this evening is really to amplify Community voice after we hear from our elected elected representatives my fellow colleagues I thank you all for being here this evening um then I it's really the time for uh Community organizations and and Community residents to have their voices heard this evening I also want to thank the administration panel here this evening uh Chief Dion Irish uh commissioner uh Marta Rivera and um Brian uh Ford from be uh BC all my bees I get my Mi bees mixed up Boston Public Schools thank you for being here this evening and uh I also uh want to thank Central staff they took the show on the road uh packing up and taking all this equipment and setting it up in an offsite U facility like this is a big job so thank you very much Central staff so uh we want to keep going there's a lot of people here who want to be heard this evening so we'll start off with that little video um and then we'll take it from there thank you oh Madam chair if that with your permission could you outline the process and the funding that can be secured to have a comprehensive Community process in the planning for what's going to happen there with with the schools and the community center is there funding uh allocated to identify and prepare swing space in the neighborhood to replace that ECF Community it's the only one we have really important that we plan ahead and continue to provide the services that the community center provides right now smooth transition is really important I need an update on what's going to happen at the Jackson Man Community Center it's a great concern that we don't have a plan I know that the Jackson Man complex is very much on your mind it's very much on my mind and the folks in Austin Brighton um how can I be of help out here we have the Jackson Man complex which will hopefully be going through this process in the near future and I will continue to play this tune until I get get where I need to get it's very very urgent that we U make sure that we have feasibility studies and want to see that commitment in this year's budget you guys I think we can pull a plan out of a out of a hat I really hope that we can step up our our conversation about the BCF programming and at that location the community center has a really strategic important function I'm really concerned that we don't have a plan right now there's no sense of urgency about accommodating the services that are there and have a really robust Community conversation about relocating it for the short term and then what a new center looks like covering all the services that are provided how are we going to do that I don't want to scratch your head and say oh no what are we going to do I want us to have a plan when we can perbly see a replacement Community Center bus service seems like an obvious place to rebuild the neighborhood is pushing me the timeline is sort of a critical piece I'm not going to go away I'm going to keep pushing on Envision rebuilding the community center on that site as well Jackson Man an essential piece of community infrastructure that needs to be replaced and order it's a year away and I'm not really convinced that we have a good plan for that yet thank you councelor bradden councelor woo it's still an unanswered question I don't want to have us standing here at this time next year without a you know the other thing to bear in mind with Jackson man's side is in this era when we're thinking about Hub schools community centers a vital part of that I'm going to keep asking this question because this is a big concern in our neighborhood and we want to see it done right the Jackson Man Community Center is the only the only one we have we need to have boots on the ground and have have a plan because we can't afford to not have a community center I'm just putting down a marker and said I'll be watching this very very closely we're talking about a Citywide Equity framework we some work to do in Alon Brighton this has been in the pipeline for a long time we haven't really seen much action really like to get some metrics on the prioritization of Alon bright I can't emphasize how strongly I feel about Expediting the process for Jackson me I will be dogging you about the Jackson Man Community Center and hopefully we'll have a state-of-the-art new community C Union Square where it belongs in the meantime what are our plans for providing all the services of course I'm going to ask about Jackson man you landed on a site what's the timeline we have a lot of projects some of them been in the work you know as long as I've been in this position it's just really frustrating that we don't actually get anything across the line other districts are getting their seventh Community Center we're trying to get temporary space for the one we have then some priority to build a new one a matter of great frustration to me and to my community that Alon Brighton has only one bcy Jackson Man Community Center was to be scheduled sometime in the future like that could be next year it could be 3 years away really because it's the only one I think is a level of urgency we just seem to be getting passed out by every other project I'm sitting here and I'm thinking about my colleagues it's wonderful that coun pepen has six BCF centers in his district my colleague from East Boston district one has eight facilities I'm just thinking we've been talking about this for years years before I ever became a city counselor this is not new news and here we are with the second largest neighborhood in the city with with the second largest population we have one BCF center it's an absolute disgrace and then it's not your fault commissioner but I don't what do we have to do in Aon Brighton to get anybody to pay attention are really failing our community Commonwealth housing and Fel Gardens the kids over there there's hundreds of kids they don't have youth workers they don't have a teen center they don't have any support we have to get with the program here Aon Brighton kids are just as valuable as any other kid in any other neighborhood we are sick and tired of this really it's terrible like it's not even funny anymore it in district one and there's a new one a new one in proposed in charl town is that nine this is just totally unacceptable I don't know what our community has to do like I think we've all been very reasonable I keep my temper most of the time I think at this point in time I'd be asking for a second BCF Center because uh we have a growing population and we're doing our damn just to try and keep our families but we're not sending them a message and we even give a damn about them I I just I'm at I'm at a loss I just don't know what to say anymore and I want that to change like really seriously we have to get let turn this ship around one of my issues with the capital plan generally for the city is that Allon Brighton is left in the dark I would be remiss in my responsibilities as an advocate for my district if it wasn't pushing these concerns the list of projects many of them have been in the works for 10 10 years as a new counselor I used to get very excited when money was been appropriated supposedly to support a project and you go to your constituents and say yay we got $300,000 to do something and then year on year they go what's happening I I'm just very skeptical when I see a list of capital projects that that just never happen and the the BCF Center is to be scheduled and as we noticed it could be to be scheduled for 10 years and nothing happens it's my duty as the representative of Alon Bri to stand up and here and say this is not acceptable we are sick and tired of being treated this way we have been consistently underfunded for Capital funding for years on end and it's nothing to do with this Administration this has been happening for decades I am just putting down a marker here and say how deeply displeased I am and advocating strongly for my district I would be remiss and negligent in my duties if I didn't do that my no vote today is a result of two factors persistent lack of capital investment in Alon Brighton and extremely troubling absence of accountability in our Capital process 5 years ago I had questioned about how existing projects Advance year to year but they remain unanswered it's clear to me now that serious flaws under grid the entire Capital improvement process in the city of Boston year after year Austin Brighton ranks dead last in Capital Improvements despite being the city's second largest neighborhood this year is no different put simply atin Brighton is not being treated [Applause] fairly I need the lights I'm going to yeah um so a few more housekeeping um first I think it was very appropriate to clap for your District counselor but I do just want to let you know that as we are speaking and as public testimony happens we aren't supposed to clap after but I do appreciate that you clap for that wonderful presentation thank you I know that I've been at those Council hearings and you definitely have been advocating so I'm glad that you shared that with the community here today I do want to point out that in the back corner there if you could wave we have translators we have Spanish Portuguese Mandarin in Russian so Carolina and Claudia are here if you need a Spanish interpreter Brendan and berol are here for Portuguese interpreters Tina and Terry for Mandarin interpreters and Lissa and Dena for Russian interpreters so if you need an interpreter they are here thank you interpreters for being here we have also been joined by Council Mahia thank you Council Mia and we also um are here with state representative Kevin Honan um Ben from state representative Mike Moran is here and state senator um will brownsberger is here I think I saw him yes so after my colleagues do opening statements I will have the elected officials from Brighton speak um before public testimony so I will pass it off to council president Louis Jan if you have opening statements thank you uh Madam chair good evening everyone I'm oh should I use this I'm good okay just to pick it up uh good evening everyone I'm Ry Lu Jen president of the Boston city council and at large city counselor it's a joy to be with this packed room tonight I think it's very clear and councel Bren has made it very clear what you all want uh and what you all deserve it's been years and years and years where we haven't invested in Brighton where we should and so I'm here just to stand alongside councelor Braden in her Relentless advocacy to get Brighton what it deserves I want to thank everyone for being out here um Council Bren made it very clear the under investments in Brighton and the capital budget and this fiscal year we will be W in on your behalf to make sure that we get those Investments so I came early so I could talk to a number of you about you know the neighborhood that you grew up in and what you want to see for generations to come so I look forward to hearing from all of you unfortunately I'm going to have to uh leave early but know that my staff is here and we're listening and we're going to be working alongside councelor brayen and and the entire Council in getting Brighton what it deserves thank you thank you um Council fernandos Anderson good evening everyone um like my colleagues here to support uh my uh District uh colleague uh counselor Liz Braden um I have to say that I've of course uh serve side by side uh Liz Braden Council Braden and have learned uh about her very very analytical mind this woman gets it she gets the budget she gets the numbers and she understands and she is working relentlessly to follow up um with the money promises the issue has been that not only are the budget allocation to Aon Brighton have been um disperate in comparison to the rest of the neighborhoods in Boston but also the explanations have been oh you're getting a highway for example where um um apologies um where it doesn't necessarily justify when you look at numbers you say well this money is coming in but then when you go actually look what it's for it's not actually enhancing the community aome Brighton being the most diverse community in Boston um having uh all of your overlapping and intersectionalities and uh special uh particular needs um individual needs that should be paid attention to so I've been um working uh closely with her and have I will continue to offer my support and services as a previous uh chair on ways and means to look at the numbers and really to push uh against Administration and say you're not being fair they deserve a better facility if not a brand new one um and how can we help so I look forward to hearing you today and learning and taking notes um I will stay here for the full duration um it is it's worth it thank you thank you councelor Henry Santana thank you madam chair um and good evening everyone my name is Henry Santana Boston City councelor at large um and I just want to Echo my colleagues um and I mean councelor Bren you kept receips love to see it um but I'm I'm here to support um you know your District counselor and you all um for those who have followed you know my journey um in my first term here my number one priority on the Boston city council has been our youth um and I want to make sure um that that's happening across all of our neighborhoods and just want to acknowledge that I see you you know I see a lot of famili see a lot of residents um but I love to see the youth here in the crowd who are advocating on behalf of on behalf of themselves um to get um you know the facility and the resources um that they deserve so I'm going to continue to fight um fight alongside your District counselor um she's been amazing um and you know this um you all deserve um a brand new facility right here in Austin Brighton so thank you so much thank you and councilor Mahia I'm happy to see all four of your at lodge counselors are here so as it as we should be as it should be let me find out can you hear me all right I want to make sure I could be heard um so first of all I um just want to thank everyone who showed up because this is what it looks like when we fight for the things that we want as a community organizer I am happy to see this place packed because what you are letting the administration and the council know is that you mean business and we have to take our direction from the folks that put us in these seats so I'm happy to see you all show up in the way that you have because just visually it speaks volumes right to what it is that we're here to discuss and I also want to give a shout out to my colleague counselor Breeden and I came in in the same class I feel like we're the last of the Mohan still standing and so I'm really excited to partner with her I've been standing alongside her every single time she gets up to fight on the capital budget I've stood alongside her and voted against the capital budget because Allon and Brighton in District 9 was not taken into consideration and so this is what it looks like not only when we show up but when we actually fight with each other for each other alongside each other so I'm really excited to be here with you all today and as someone who worked at MTV I love that video Wayne I'm not sure if you did it but whoever did it on your team that is the remix right there thank you thank you um state representative Kevin Honan please thank you and thank you for being here thank you s Brownsburg I want to come up I didn't talk to will will here somewh oh you're behind the flag um thank you very much Madam chair it's a pleasure to be here before this distinguished group I want to thank Liz Breeden our district city counselor for all of her work all of her advocacy on behalf of a new Jackson Man and the programming that goes on here which is extraordinary I want to thank Rosie hanlin who is here Rosie is the executive director thank you for all your advocacy I saw we we've had a lot of extraordinary executive directors here from Lisa chapnick who became the director of public facilities uh to Barbara P's here who works with the Sisters of St Joseph now and many of the sisters are here they volunteer an adult basic Ed and other programming in this location occurs GED programming um other adult programming it's an extraordinary asset to our community it's very vital to our community you can see by the attendance that you have today which is absolutely extraordinary how much this neighborhood wants these Services uh it would be hard to think of some of the districts you all represent without the services that are provided by commu by community centers so um I know over the years I basically grew up coming here my mother was on the first board here the charter board my wife Colleen served on the board we're intimately familiar with the programming that goes on at the Jackson Man one of the things we been able to do here is Marshall the resources of the local colleges to put them in contact with youth so we would have a Friday night 12 and under basketball league to keep kids busy we had a high school basketball league here too so we have sports and recreation in addition to educational opportunities we would have the BC women's team the BC men's The Bu teams bu undergrads come in here and Mentor kids so we're able to Marshall the extraordinary resources of this neighborhood and bring them here and as you know with volunteerism the volunteers get as much out of it as the kids do so I wish to be recorded in favor of this a few years back I testified here in behalf before a very similar Council panel for an Austin library and it was momentum that came from the hearing like this that spurred on that Administration to build a library in Austin a state-of-the-art library and that's what we would like here state-of-the-art school um that will Community Center that will it's centrally located public transportation this is the place that it should go and I am delighted that you all took the interest to come here can't thank you enough for being here and I think that with Deon Irish being in the crowd and Reporting back to to the mayor what a crowd that came out they obviously the neighborhood loves its Community Center and wants to work with the community center to provide more of the resources we always thank the Sisters of St Joseph for supporting these programs and uh thanks thanks a lot Madam chair thank you appreciate um Senator brownsberger please yeah thank you thank you madam chair thank you um I I want to begin by um thanking councelor Breeden for her longtime advocacy um but even more importantly tonight to thank all four of the District coun of these at large counselors for being here tonight uh to consider the needs of this community that that that really needs to be appreciated councelor Murphy councelor Santana councilor Mahia and councelor Luis Jan who is who who started the he the hearing here H and great to have another District counselor Tanya Fernandez Anderson uh coming to take an interest in another District so this is a great showing by the city council and it speaks uh to the attention that you're giving this um this is something that needs attention U I've I've watched the executive director Rosie handland over the past few years kind of struggling to get the attention of the powers that be in the city structure to focus on where is this community center going what is the next step for this place we're taking talking about taking this building down then what happens and what's the permanent home for this Senior Center and not get I mean for this commun for this Community Center not getting an answer to that to that basic question one answer then another answer inadequate answers um and so it's been going sideways we even offered some money in the state budget to to help with it but getting a plan in place setting a Direction has somehow eluded us um this community has all the same needs of every other part of the city it's geographically isolated it certainly can't go to some other community center but you know we have the needs for child care we have the needs for youth program we have the needs for adult Bas basic education very diverse Community we have the needs for senior and general Community programming so we need a community center here and I'm so grateful to all of you for coming to really hear this community speak to the needs um that it has for this community center so thank you all for being here to speak to the needs and look forward to the rest of the hearing thank you thank you again um Ben did you want to say anything for State white Moran please thank you hello uh my name is Benjamin Toki I'm the district director for representative Moran um sorry can you hear me now um I'm the my name is Ben I'm the district director for representative Moran sorry I'm not normally used to speaking in a room this large of people um but number one I just on behalf of Representative Moran I wanted to First acknowledge um both our District counselor uh councelor Braden and Rosie handland the director of The Jackson Man Community Center for their tirus um advocacy of the community center and expanded programs for our neighborhood um besides the fact that um the community center what it provides it is a vital um it's a vital resource to also encourage our community to be a place where people want to spend a good portion of their life whether um whether it's for a season or for many years or for their entire life the community center is vital um encouraging not only families um and people wanting to invest in our neighborhood in our community Through home ownership but also to encourage multi-year tendency and that um people who do rent here this is a place that they want to spend their time um and the final thing I just want to say about the community center is Beyond just the uh the services it provides um and who it provides to today um the community center is and along with a lot of other city services such as um the the the senior center um and different programs such as for um for uh immigrants and new residents to the city this is um it is a multigenerational compact between the different generations of our community um it is part of um what we provide for each other as residents and it's also part of a social compact between the city of Boston and the citizens of the city of Boston so um raran does highly support um the uh continuation and the Improvement and expansion of our community center and on behalf of him we just like to thank all of you for coming here and spending time with our community thank you thank you thank you Ben and you did a wonderful job speaking thank you so now we will go to um start off with a few public testimonies so you know um you have two minutes and when your name is called um come up to the microphone here the first person we have on the list is Rita yeah show you yep so Rita Mara marachi yeah and then I'm GNA call two more names you can line up behind her lenita reason and is um Tony Dori here he's ill okay um Andrea how if you're here you could come up so you can start Rita okay and I'll put my timer on thank you okay first I like to say I am not a public speaker so if I get nervous I apologize my name is Rita maraku I'm the president of the Jackson Man Community Center Council or as we call ourselves the jmcc I'm trying okay um on on behalf of the council I'd like to thank city council Liz Bren for organizing this this evening and I also like to thank all our councel at large and the rest of our elector officials for coming tonight the Jackson Man school and Council was incorporated in 1976 it was created by the concerned neighbors and residents and the partnership of city and of the city of Boston to address the basic needs of our community these these needs included professional licensed dayare after school programming out of after school services such as summer programming Senior Services athletic time gym time and enrichment programs we were F we were the first funded adult basic education program involving English as a second language as well as GED prep for the diverse of this neighborhood and just like to say that as U I am an immigrant in the GED program and the English is a is the second language very close to my heart today as of October 29th our program only includes adult basic education ESO excuse me ESL and GED in highp program in 2019 5 years ago our community was formed was informed that Boston public schools that the that jmcc and the complex was in great need of repair and the City of Boston decided that it was better to De abolish this building and build us a new Greener Better Community Center we Embrace this decision we will look looking forward to a wonderful building since 2019 we've had to close all of our community programs in 20120 our pre preschool program closed in 2022 our our after school program closed which included summer program in after school in vacation week programs in 2023 we suspended our soccer programs that served over 200 200 families in this community in 2024 we put PR much lost all of our entire Youth Athletic program due to the Boston Public Schools denying our youths access to these programs I would like to ask the city of Boston why the why these people the families the children the seniors of Austin and Brighton have been denied these basic programs as as it was stated earlier tonight they're we are the only Community Center in Austin and Brighton Austin Brighton is the second the second most densely popular ated in the city of Boston I'm not going to name all of them due to time but I'm just going to name a few Dorchester has five Community Center serving 122,000 matapan has three serving 35,000 South Boston has three serving 40 34,000 North End has two serving 10,000 we have one right now Austin Brighton stands before saying enough is enough enough we need need to be equal the dire lack of attention to our people is unfair we cannot wait any longer for the city of Boston to provide the needs of of this community thank you thank you and and just remember when you start please say your name and your affiliation go ahead thank you you can start someone that's fine I don't think they're here yep thank you good evening my name is Andrea Howard um 25 year resident of all a and of Brighton and currently the CEO at the West End house right around the corner and I want to thank our district councilor Liz Breeden for convening uh this evening's uh meeting and hearing and I want to thank the city councilors who saw fit to prioritize this I know you have a number of different places you could be and your show of support for us will not go unnoticed and we appreciate that I want to thank Rosie for hosting us um and basically being the glue that has kept um a very difficult process together over uh The Last 5 Years uh the West End house has a long-standing partnership with Jackson Man Community Center that dates back more than 30 years uh we have endeavored to partner together rather than compete um we believe that we are stronger together than apart um we always look to find the outcome that is best for the community centering the community in our decisions and deciding um how we should move forward and as an organization and as a partnership and we've really valued that and we have missed that an important Ally and important partner in our work um we serve young people aged 7 to 24 um and they pick up the pieces and um before that after that and um we overlap with our teen partnership um I cannot stress how uh difficult it has been with the loss of the programs that you just heard Rita it was even more startling than I than I realized um but it explains a lot and why we what we've been struggling with at the West End house with um trying to manage the Overflow for programs that have shut down this summer we had 270 kids a day at a program that we were staffed for 200 but there was no summer program here at the Jackson man and we felt like we couldn't turn people away we're also free so you know those extra 70 does not necessarily equate to additional income we did our best we hope we provided a highquality experience but we missed having the Jackson man as a partner our families are missing the preschool and child care that allows them to go out and get a job and contribute to the community and their families um our teens missed having as many jobs as possible this summer normally there are 33 jobs for teens here at this site so that's 33 less teens that were employed we did our best to take as many as we could at the West End house but there's only so much that we can do the uncertainty of what is still happening here is is English as a second language happening is adult basic Ed has our families sort of like saying oh I guess there's nothing going on and not enrolling in programs that are truly essential to closing the disparities and the inequities that we see as systemic in in our community so um having a clear location with a clear set of program priorities is is essential if we want to really um not just talk about equity and inclusion but actually do something about it we implore you to seek a quick resolution to identify a plan that priority that prioritizes our community I think we have shown you here tonight um how strong we are I appreciate um one of our C uh one of the city councilors talking about Austin Brighton being the most diverse neighborhood in the city I think some people think we're still off-campus housing for local colleges and universities and they could not be more wrong um I thank you for showing us that we can be seen and that we can be heard and we really appreciate that um I think next on the list is a group of teens from the West End house oh I don't have them listed yet yeah they're they were we checked in okay do you want to have them how many people are going to speak there just one person's going to speak but they're going to come up in solidarity I want to invite uh teams from the West End house to come [Applause] up um we have Where have we have 16 teens here tonight and our uh Team coordinator Keegan Marella um they represent more than 170 teens that participate in our programs every week who are missing the partnership that that we traditionally have with Jack man so Victor is going to speak on behalf of a dedicated group of Team hello everyone good evening City uh officials my name is Victor Sandoval and I am 17 years old and I live in Austin I am here with other teams from the Western house to talk about what's happening with the jack jaon man Community Center first we're wondering when was when it was announced the jack that the Jackson Man school would close what was the plan for the community center did something go wrong or did the plan change would like to understand what happened and how did the Comm how the community was informed we also we also wondering why is it take why is it taking so long to relocate the community center and where's the funding going in the meantime is it being saved or used for something else the community counts on these programs and we like to we would like some clarity on what's happening with these resources when a new community center or a temporary one is a set up we hope it reflects the needs of the community we hope you reconnect and ask the community what's important we see a need of for programs for people with disabilities English classes High set classes preschool and in child care sport Sports languages for all ages and even programs like firsttime home buyer education and when the center does reopen we hope you offer programs that are new modern and engaging we hope they stay high quality and actually work for the people who need them maybe there could be a regular review process or Community survey lastly we worry about the impact on nearby small business business es they depended on the foot traffic that the school and Center provided and this change affects them too until the new Center opens we like to suggest other locations that might host Jackson Man programs Local Schools the Western house the YMCA libraries and churches we know it's not a permanent solution but it's a start thank you for listening thank you wow you did a wonderful job and I have to say I was looking over at the administration and they were all writing down all your questions so thank you for that um I am going to call up four more names if you're here please come to the microphone and we have been joined by councelor pepen thank you for being here would you like to say hello um right after I call up four more names and then you can say hello and um whoever there's so many names the typing is small but I'm going to make this work so Kelly McGrath um from Brighton main streets and neighbor Alex um karaki executive director of of Altin Village Main Street ariela Helman um director of government Affairs um and Daniel cudy from Bright Marine if you're here if you could come up and we will have um Council Pepin just say Hello thank you councilor Pepin good evening every good good evening everyone sorry about that um my name is Enrique pepen District 5 Boston City councelor that's hide Park Rosendale and matapan but I got a call from my colleague councelor Braden about a few days ago she's like you got to come to this hearing we having an awestin Brighton and it's because she's really asking for a good Community Center in her district and one thing that really stands out to me about counselor Braden is that when the budget conversations were happening she voted no on the capital budget vote because it didn't have a new community center in her district and I commend her for that [Applause] listen when I was in high school I went to the O'Brien high school I had a lot of friends in Austin and Brighton we used to take the 66 bus at Nubian station all the way out here and we used I used to think of my my friends from Austin Brighton as a cool kids because I like coming at Austin uh mind you I'm from rzi so it's a little bit of a stretch um but I noticed that you guys are known as being a cool neighborhood but you don't have a cool Community Center so let's change that up that's why I'm here I'm here to support it I'm here to support my Council colleag Liz bradden let's make it happen I'm here to support you guys thank you for being out here thank [Music] you and um Kelly just to remind you um could you please I I know you have a good voice but if you just speak into the mic to make sure it picks up on the video also so thank you Kelly go ahead hello my name is Kelly McGrath and I'm a lifelong resident of Brighton I am also the executive director of Brighton main streets and I'm also a member of the board for the Jackson man Community Center Council I want to thank councelor Braden Madame chairwoman Lun and City councilors Murphy Fernandez Anderson Santana Maha and Pepin and the representatives from BCF and BPS and director Rosie handland I'm here today to speak on the impact that jackon man has had on my I'm gonna get a motion sorry um that's okay thank you Rosie um I'm here today to speak on the impact that Jackson man had on my life I was raised by a single mother in the early part of my life and my mother depended on places like the Jackson man and their programs to provide us with a safe space to be while she worked I remember doing Ceramics for the first time and dancing with my friends to Rock With You by Michael Jackson Right In This Very Room I remember in high school cheerleading for my high school's basketball team because it was the only legalized basketball into a gym that our community had in my 20s when one of my great mentors Jimmy Smith asked me to work the summer camp I had one of the best Summers ever cting my group of 8-year-old boys all over the city having all sorts of Adventures I've done wreath making at Christmas with my own daughter in this room Jackson man has meant so much to so many I look around the room and I think of Diane Joyce who was here for so many years it was a great inspiration to me her daughter Jen who grew up in Jackson man which led her down the path to becoming a BPS teacher and spent many years in this building shaping and changing lives My friend Sharon mlin who taught for the horest man also shaping and changing lives I think of Gloria Rivera who's also testifying tonight her life is forever changed because of the programs at Jackson man my dear friend Dan Cy who like me was raised by a single mom spent countless years at Jackson man as a kid and employee and is now the director of government Community Affairs at Brighton Marine without jackon man you don't have a Dan Cy and so many countless others as you know them today they have gone on to a life in service to their communities and its residents Rosie hland the current director is one of my greatest mentors and her dedication and passion for Jackson man is inspiring programs and centers like Jackson man do not just change lives they save lives for over 50 years the Jackson Man Community Center has been a home for so many in our resident of our residents old and new we want what every other neighborhood of Boston has and it's completely unacceptable to deny us that I'd like to finish by quoting our own mayor Michelle woo that the greatest investment we can make make in our future is to support and Center our young people and we need to be Fearless in reaching for the scale of change that our residents deserve thank [Applause] you go ahead yeah thank you how's it going everybody uh my name is Alex coracini I've been the executive director of aluson Village main streets for just over 5 years now our nonprofit organization Works to beautify the district through public art and street cleaning programs Advocate on behalf of the local business community and host public events to bring people together into our district strengthening the physical and cultural Vitality of Alon throughout the years we've had a great working relationship with BCF and particularly Rosie and the Jackson Man Community Center we've developed engaging and diverse programs together and partnered to hold neighborhood events such as the taste of alustin which has been held in partnersh ship with Rosie and the Jackson man for the past four years however due to the uncertain future of the Jackson man we are unable to effectively plan out these programs and events for the neighborhood in the long term by removing the Jackson Man Community Center without an expedited plan to bring it back the neighborhood loses affordable after school programming computer lab access adult and English classes and the recreation center and so much more that we've heard about and will continue to hear about tonight the the lack of a concrete plan even after years of knowing that the Jackson Man building was going to be torn down highlights a frustrating lack of commitment for Alon stakeholders by committing to a clear plan plan to fund the return of the community center Boston would ensure a dedicated space for the community and civic participation as our neighborhood evolves the center would serve as a hub for residents to voice concerns and collaborate on local issues access to event space would also allow local organizations small businesses and nonprofits to host events that Str strengthen our neighborhood's identity I urge the city council to establish a clear timeline for Equitable access to programming and services comparable to those at other B BCF facilities in Boston thank you to the city council and to everybody in the community for joining tonight appreciate it thank you [Applause] good evening council members thank you so much for the opportunity to speak tonight my name is ariela Helman and I'm the director of government Affairs for a goodth Israel of New England representing the Orthodox Jewish community in Brighton and I'm here tonight with my 5-year-old daughter Alisa and we really wanted to just express our support for the new community center in Austin Brighton we understand that lots of other neighborhoods across the city of Boston are served by many community centers and Austin Brighton has just the one community commity Center here um right now and it's really has very limited programming especially for our youth and we need that programming for our youth for all of our children across the city and within Austin Brighton and I would just ask um that the council as you continue to plan for this Center um that you have a process to incorporate um input from residents so that this new center can best meet the needs of the diverse community that is intended to serve in Austin Brighton um for example ex Le on behalf of the Orthodox Jewish Community we would be most appreciative if the new center could include programming that is culturally appropriate and religiously responsive to the needs of our community for example Sports Programming might be scheduled at at times that do not conflict with our Sabbath observance and separate swim and Gym hours might be arranged for those that could not participate otherwise thank you so much for your consideration and we look forward to partnering with you throughout this process thank you [Applause] hello Council hello hello everybody dan Cy lifelong Brighton resident I'm 54 I was born in 1970 oh sorry usually I'm really loud so anyway uh Dan cudy lifelong resident in Austin Brighton born in 1970 and in 1976 when they created the community centers the intention was to extend the Boston public school day and that really worked for me I went to The Gardener I went to the wind ship I went to the Edison and then I went to Latin Academy and I went to the Jackson man and as Kelly eloquently said I was a big pot of the Jackson Man community and after school programming I did the tutoring program uh which was uh Stepping Stones which helped me get into the exam school at Latin Academy and that extension of the Boston public school day that the community center has filled a role with hasn't been happening for a long time and it's directly affected the balance of our BPS schools my whole family went to BPS I love BPS and it hurts me to say what is really happening in BPS um I looked up the numbers in the Department of Education all of our schools POS Public Schools except The Winship are under 50% in math proficiency and English proficiency the disservice of having The Condemned building announcement in 2016 and what happened at the Horus man the school for the deaf that Tom L was a strong Advocate and a hero for for many years uh it breaks my heart the discussion about equity and inclusion is wonderful and everyone loves it but I we need action and we need proactive and strategic thinking and for the community center to be even thought of in the basement of Brighton High School just tells me we're not there and in addition these schools need so much support so much resources so we need an increased budget to offer satellite programs for the community center during the 10 years that the development Project's going to happen we need more Outreach workers we need youth workers we need an incredible investment so that the city workers provide and we really need to increase salaries for talented skilled workers at the city level and it's really depressing to see someone offered a job at 25,000 who deserves 65,000 so it is um a real challenge to see BPS suffer at the hands of the community center because I know that when children come here after school do academic programs do Sports and learn and meet friends and network it's a stronger Community all of our youth programs have been affected and the last thing I'll say is other city services have been declined we haven't been off at Boston Neighborhood basketball uh we don't have an artificial turf City Field we don't have a regulated Mia basketball court these are all Equity issues we don't have an MIAA soccer field we have daily field but that's state city was supposed to have an allocated multi-purpose field that's AR official so in addition to all of the you know negligence and lack of equity in our community our youth are really really suffered and what I'll end on this when Michelle woo and anise rabi were uh campaigning to be mayor And discussing only the exam schools when right after Maya wo was elected all of BPS was going to be in receivership that is a joke and that is a disgrace and I'm telling you right now these schools should be in receivership if they don't get improved quickly and the Community Center plays a huge role in that so I really think you know going forward please increase our budget please give people a lot of money to do a good job thank you thank you so I I'm going to call up five more people I know our Administration panel is listening and I checked in and they do want to hear more before they kind of chime in so I'm going to call up five more names if you could if you're here please come up John Woods Susan Gman Michelle Duval and Elizabeth Brown and also Elena shenberger if you're here thank you and please just remember to speak into the microphone because this is being taped um so we can hear you at home also and just state your name and your affiliation if there is one thank you okay you can start thank you thank you to District Council uh Liz Braden for in uh initiating this meeting and thank you to the members of Boston city council for attending my name is John Woods I'm the executive director of the Allon Brighton Community Development Corporation our organization has been operating in this neighborhood since 1980 since that time the alome Brighton CDC has developed and operated um 553 Apartments throughout the neighborhood primarily serving lowincome households with a high percentage of residents who are F born and speak languages at home other than English the nearly 1200 human beings who live at our property include around 300 that would be categorized as youth while another 500 of our population of people who have aged in place and would now now fall into the category of elderly we're extremely fortunate to have an active and caring community of Supportive Services for the aome Brighton residents but the lack of an operational Boston Center for Youth and families represents a glaring deficiency in the net of facilities available throughout the city of Boston with auson Brighton being the second largest neighborhood in the city it is unconscionable that there is a lack of a functioning communing Center this situation must be addressed quickly and decisively it's understood that Endeavors like the creation or even the restoration of a community center takes time in the best of circumstances these projects can span an amount of time that locks a child out of the opportunity to experience the positive impact of an operating Community Center but by having the project languish on the to be scheduled category without moving it to the construction phase we risk withholding that same opportunity to even more of the aome Brighton residents of the future I join with the other voices that are being raised tonight to urge Council to move swiftly to ensure funds are allocated immediately to ensure that the residents of Allon Brighton are offered the same Community Center resources provided in the rest of the city's neighborhood thanks very much thank you [Applause] good evening and thank you for the opportunity to give some testimony tonight I'm honored to be with you my name is Susan Gman I'm the executive director of Benet brith housing a nonprofit based in Alon Brighton Who develops and operates affordable and Workforce housing we work in multiple neighborhoods including West Roxberry Hyde Park but we are based in Alon Brighton where we have developed and operate three senior housing developments I am pleased to also represent over 350 seniors who live in our housing on Washington Street in Brighton accessible Services enable all seniors to live healthfully in this community and while I am acutely aware of the needs of seniors I also understand that our kids and young adults who together constitute almost 50% of the entire Community have tremendous needs as well interestingly these two user groups have the most to gain for the type of programming that BCF offers senior programs adult education child care after school athletic facilities Civic spaces where young and old can come together Austin Brighton is severely underserved in all of these areas it needs a re-envisioned Jackson Man complex to begin to address these needs however my message this evening is not only that Alon Brighton is underserved I'm also here to say say that I believe that Austin Brighton is not getting its fair share of City resources and let me explain in turn first the reality is that Altin Brighton has a very high level of need here again 48% of the population are either children young adults or seniors more than 20% of the population live below the poverty line which as a percentage make makes Austin Brighton the third highest neighborhood in the city second only to Dorchester and Roxbury over 40% of the population are people of color these demographics point to a population who would be very well served by bcyf programming if a robust program was available but such a program is not available at all at Jackson man now and by all estimations hasn't been available for a very long time couple that with my next observation which is that Altin Brighton deserves its fair share Austin Brighton is the second largest neighborhood in Boston by population which has been mentioned it is home to a number of major employers both for-profit and nonprofit included among those are universities such as Boston University Harvard Boston College who are major employers and economic engines in the region it also includes private development corporate interests reflected to entertainment and office users like what exists at Boston Landing existing lab other users alustin Brighton is a giant among the neighborhoods in what it generates in taxes jobs and economic spin-off UL ultimately these uses generate major Revenue to the city through real estate taxes business taxes linkage fees and other direct and indirect contributions what is being asked tonight is to begin to change the calculus so that Alon Brighton who is in fact a heavyweight in terms of generating Municipal Revenue be reconsidered to receive more Municipal investment than it does now including what is being discussed tonight in terms of BCF resources my request is that as a community we receive our share our fair share of City resources including BCF resources to come together to focus on what's possible to create spaces that support programs to create opportunity for young and for old maybe include affordable housing on upper floors to leverage new resources in short to reimagine Jackson Man focusing not one it what it was but what it could be thank you for your consideration thank you [Applause] I'd just like to thank the folks the young people from the Brazilian workers Center I see they're leaving so thank you for being [Applause] here uh good evening my name is Elizabeth Brown and I'm the CEO at Charles River Community Health uh I'm submitting written testimony so we'll summarize my verbal remarks Charles River Community Health is a nonprofit Health Center in Alon Brighton and walam we were founded by Alon Brighton neighbors and opened our first Clinic 50 years ago so have deep ties to this community in 2023 the health center provided care to over 13,500 patients regardless of insurance or immigration status language or ability to pay the health center with Federal grant funds established a small Health Center site at the Jackson man complex in 2008 to increase access to care we were dismayed when the Boston Public Schools announced that the building would be closed due to facility maintenance issues we closed our site shortly thereafter up until the covid pandemic in addition we had Pro been providing a small amount of grant funding annually in Li of rent to support the organizations here in this complex since the school's closure we continued to partner with the Jackson Man Community Center to offer Behavioral Health and Wellness education as part of this summer team program as this was identified as a need given the Jackson man as has been mentioned is the only bcyf facility in Austin Brighton the second largest neighborhood it is a significant disservice to the community and clearly in inequity to not have a plan to rebuild something so that the community has a place for the programs and services that it needs finally finally for those of us who have lived or worked in the Alon Brighton Community for decades we know that it is more than the many students who call this neighborhood their home while we welcome our student neighbors this community is also comprised of many new as well as longstanding residents and community-based organizations like Charles River Community Health who serve one of the most diverse and in need populations in the city clearly we need a new Community Center and I would like to commend councelor Braden for bringing us all here today thank [Applause] you thank you committee chair Murphy councelor Braden and the Boston city council for allowing me this opportunity my name is Michelle Duvall and I am the director of The Gardener pilot Academy adult education program of Austin where we teach English as a second language to immigrant and adults I have had the good pleasure of being a part of the gardener pilot Academy and the adult ed program in addition to the Alon Brighton adulted Coalition for the past 20 years as a result I have an intimate firsthand knowledge of the AL excuse me of the Alon Brighton immigrant community at GPA Adult Ed our community is a microcosm of the larger Altin Brighton population the majority of our students do not have the financial resources to pay for private adult education child care after school or other programming crucial to their well-being our students are dependent on public resources for these services and are desperately in need of appropriate programming for example every year we have a waiting list of adult ed residents of excuse me Austin Brighton residents in need of English classes but can afford to pay privately and the quality of life for them and their children suffer while they wait while I have watched several families raise children who continue on to college I have seen an equal number of parents despair as they watch their dreams of a better life for their children disintegrate as Street Life takes over I watch our students struggle to maintain work when they can't afford affordable local Child Care many of my students cannot afford a gym membership and are missing out on the Health and Social benefits over the years I have fielded many questions and problems from our students and spent countless hours searching for the appropriate resources all across Boston to connect them to help their families and their children having a local point of access to BCF Services would greatly enhance the lives of Alon Brighton immigrant families thank [Applause] you good evening everyone thank you City councelor Liz bden and all of the city councilors for um welcoming me and allowing all of us to be here tonight my name is Elena shenberger thank you for getting my name correct and I am the site manager for ABCD Austin Brighton neighborhood Opportunity Center located in Oak Square I have been a resident of the Greater Boston area for the past seven years and I have been here at the Austin Brighton neighborhood for the past 5 years um while working in the neighborhood I have spent most of my time providing services that are related to food and security job search youth enrichment and engagement senior health and wellness and housing affordability having a multi-resource BCF Community Center in the Austin Brighton neighborhood that focuses on the overall health and well-being of our residents of all ages with within this community will allow our residents to have access to services that provide them of the institutions that they need and provide them with the self- sustainability that they're looking for many of our residents and many of my clients struggle to navigate through the neighborhood due to Transportation barriers but having a closer access point such as the Jackson Man Community Center can encourage them to gather together I fully support having a BCF Community Center here in Austin Brighton at the Jackson Man Community Center and I hope you will consider it at this time thank you thank you I'm going to call five more names um Cindy Mar shondo Andrew Feldman Tina Chan Katherine Snider and Karen Smith please got a lot any one of you can start if people are still coming up thank you dear committee on strong women families and communities committee chair and counselor Murphy Vice chair and counselor Breeden and City counselors and administrators thank you for having this hearing on doit number 1301 order for a hearing ing to discuss Boston centers for Youth and Family Services in aluson and Brighton my name is Tina Chan and I live in Alon I want to share my Jackson Man story with you as Jackson man has a special place in my heart I was 14 years old when I got my first job at Jackson man as a summer day camp counselor to elementary school Stu students while working with adult supervisors I participated in fun activities with the students went on field trips with them and serve them meals and snacks I had a fun time that summer I wanted a summer job so I can earn money but I receive so much more than a paycheck I learn life skills that I continue to respect and value today including how to work with people of all ages and backgrounds to actively listen to people's concerns and to have compassion and empathy I was lucky to learn these life skills early on in my life these life skills I learned at Jackson Man shaped the person I am today people in allar and Brighton should have the same opportunity I had to build the life skills I did so they can live their full potential years later I returned to Jackson man when my niece and nephew play soccer here I witnessed families cheer on their child as I did cheering on my niece and nephew I was happy I I belonged and I felt a sense of community when I witnessed Austin Brighton Community come together to support children in a safe and supportive environment Al excuse me Austin Brighton needs a safe and supportive Community Center at Jackson man just as Jackson Man provided me with a safe and supported environment when I was 14 years old as well um as well as with my niece and nephew having Community Center at Jackson man that offers essential programming for children and adults would bring were bring people of all backgrounds and ages together a community center would give people the ability to learn new skills so they can live their full potential and have a bright determined and joyful future thank you for listening and for considering my testimony for Boston centers for Youth and families facility at Jackson Man Community Center thank you good evening I'm Karen Smith I'm a lifelong resident of Alon and have been active in many Civic events and committees and work over my adult life and I must say it's a little odd to be here and that I remember being here when this school was being opened in 1979 I it's a bit surreal to be back asking for support and resources all over again but here we are thank you for listening I know this is not the first time you've heard this because Liz Braden insists that people hear her when she speaks I am glad that you're here I'm not going to give you a single statistic you've heard from Liz you've heard from people in this room you'll hear from more about why this is needed and I know you know it's needed because you support this throughout the rest of the city it's nothing new we just want what is clearly known to work and be important for communities what I don't know is why this is happening there can be no reasonable explanation for why all we're getting is a strategy that is at best Kick the Can down the road and move programs around to substandard buildings that the city owns in schools it's not a plan it's not a strategy we need more maybe the city thinks that Alon Brighton being killed by all the development going on can be funded through private development in the universities that's not the answer we need our city to take care of us and do right by us and so what I have is not testimony but what I really want to know is what can you do starting tomorrow morning when you go back to your offices when you work with your staffs what are you going to do do to make sure that Alon Brighton gets a fair share and that this community center and many other things for our neighbors doesn't get kick down the road again I'll be calling Liz I think you have a room full of people that are going to be asking Liz what did they do for us this week is it on the docket don't tell us to be determined to be scheduled not good enough so that's really my question for you you'll hear all the facts and what we want to know is what you commit to do I know that you all joined public service for a reason I followed the campaign of all the independent counselors because I wanted to make sure that everyone was going to be supporting Alon Brighton so I know your hearts are in the right place but we need to see when is it going to happen and will you seize the opportunity to be part of starting right now making it right for Alon Brighton or will this just be more part of the pattern of neglect from the city over the years thank you thank [Applause] you we we have been um we've been joined by Council of Flynn um Council Flynn after the next two speakers I'll let you introduce yourself okay CU we have people lined up you can go thank you right uh good evening counselors uh thank you for being here and thank you to councelor bradden uh for making this happen my name is Andy Feldman and I live about a 10-minute walk from here I've been a resident of atin for the last couple years and I want to voice my support to uh the many calls that we've had tonight uh for a commitment on the part of the city to build a new community center right here where we are today you know I think something that I've Loved about this community in the in the years that I've lived here is that we have so much self-organization in Alon Brighton and efforts by residents to create connections Foster the community and support each other but those efforts can only go so far without the support of city government and the relevant physical assets and resources you know when we organize public meetings Gatherings or activities it's always a scramble to find a place place with enough space I think it's it's only deserving for all the efforts uh that we make to organize ourselves to have a space and resources to do that I also just want to briefly highlight the fact uh that Susan mentioned that this is one of the few large pieces of public land in olon Brighton and along with getting a community center uh it's also a good idea to make the most of this opportunity and with a housing crisis wherein explore the opportunity to collocate affordable housing here as the city has done in other sites around the city uh so we know it's possible I think all of us benefit uh when our community is stronger it's disheartening to feel like we've been left in limbo for all these years I hope you'll stand with us in making a commitment to invest in this important community resource thank you very much thank [Applause] you um counselors neighbors hi uh my name is Kathy sneaker I live in Alon I currently work as a a career Navigator with mass hire downtown Boston and part of JVS Boston and I also was fortunate enough for a little while to be a volunteer on the Jackson Man board under barara py so tonight I have to say I'm a little bit nervous because I was trying to figure out what do I say what can I say that I can say it confidently can I say it clearly will it be compelling enough for people to listen to be able to fully understand just the um in complete scope of the people here in Alon Brighton and to understand that all of us are advocating for things that we're really not even going to benefit from we're really advocating for things for our neighbors so first I fully agree with everything people have said about the Arts music sports but what I would like to do is build upon some of the comments like Michelle all made and I know sister Pat will do um for adult education I'd like to speak on Workforce issues because Workforce is an intrinsic part of adult education for all of us I and I've looked at all of your profiles we all deeply care about diversity Equity inclusion and belonging deib starts with information where do you go how do you find a scholarship what's the training program where's the apprenticeship how do you learn essential computer skills and its desperate need for those kinds of issues to be linked to adult education so right now one the current job situation from my perspective is as bad as it was in 2008 and 2009 no demographic is spared employers are not willing to train and mentors that what we were fortunate enough to be able to learn on the job doesn't exist anymore it's minimal you must be technical technically proficient and you must have knowledge of what to expect when you show up for work and that comes from internships mentoring after school jobs adult education does have to be part of Workforce Development for both skills training for college prep for direction on Pipeline um programs there's one for an example through Quincy college and JVS for a pharmaceutical Manufacturing tech at the end of it successfully completion you're hired by teada pharmaceutical but you need to know that that that's available for you this is another example we had one client that came in um whip smart her name was Alexia um we happened to also at the same time we meet with her we had an opening for a welcome desk where you would greet people we serve people from all around the world at all different levels from entry level all the way to phds and Beyond I knew how whip smart this kid was I advocated for her like I was one of the um Varsity Blues mothers and I had everything on the line she was just that good she was hired Al IA is bilingual she's fluent in um well fluent but she's proficient in Salesforce ring teams Zoom course registrations estate database LinkedIn complex calendaring and scheduling knowing program information she's a superstar with no degree at some point though that will hit her but she's someone that was able to walk in with all of her skills had those jobs before hand and she's someone that's essential to what we do so when I talked about trying to be compelling because we do have a problem there was a survey that had come out that as any survey it's a quick snap shop in time isn't it right with one demographic but what this showed was one um that our gen Z cohort those incredibly Bright Young People between 20 to 27 is business Kryptonite and employers are fed up intelligent.com had surveyed over 12200 Business Leaders on their experience with re recent College grads now this is Boston okay six with how many wonderful kids are coming out of our schools six out of 10 of the senior Business Leaders said that they fired most of their 2024 jenzy hires within months 75% of these same leaders rated all of the 20 to 27 year olds hires is unsatisfactory the reasons they gave included lack of motivation lack of professionalism poor organizational skills poor communication skills unable to accept feedback lack of problem solving skills lack of relevant work experience I think if there was ever a time to start to bring back the red shirts all the way up it's now because we've lost lost something another thing too is that with this remarkably talented group AI is not pushing out the Boomers of 60 or the Gen X group of 44 to 59 from leadership growth they're pushing out this group because 78% of those hiring managers say the company will lay off R recent grads because of AI 69% believe AI can do the work of a recent college grad company are already hiring fewer interns in recent grads because of AI seven and 10 say AI can do the job of interns more than 50% trust a um trust AI over interns and recent grads so is it all B please finish out B of course yeah I know I've given you more than two minutes oh I apologize no it's fine thank you if I could just end it at this right now we're working with um discussions about brick and mortar okay meaning how can we fund a center for me there is absolutely nothing that we can't do to stop Quality Pro start quality program now we have empty retail space there's nothing to say it can be built out we we really don't have the time not to invest in our own neighbors thank you thank you I'm going to call up five more names and um after I call out the names I'm going to give councilor Flynn a moment to um and say hello um so the names um to come up now are Ellen Krauss gr Grossman Jane male Pam malany Mary Lac crosi larasi sorry Cheryl pavick and Ricky meny Sor my I need my glasses um councelor Flynn um you have the floor thank you for being here thank you Council Murphy and honored to be here thank you for bringing us together thank you councelor Braden for the important work that you're doing in trying to get a BCF center located here first of all I do want to apologize for being late I had another engagement in my in my district but what I wanted to do is come here to support councelor Braden and support her support the residents residents are asking for a BCF facility this is one of the most diverse groups I've seen in Brighton is a traditional neighborhood you pay high property taxes you deserve a facility that's state-ofthe-art a BCF facility like a public library it brings people together that's what you're advocating for you're ask you're really asking for respect you're asking for respect from the city govern I support you I support Council Braden thank you thank [Applause] you hello my name is Jane male and thank I'll just say a blanket thank you thank you um you don't have to thank us again thank I am uh a I'm not I'm a transient here and I I have to say I was brought on a date to this building to a basketball game when I was first trans transferred to Boston to open the Long Warf Marriott when I you know I hope I don't insult anybody but when I walked in here and that's a lot of years ago it was apparent to me that this was a city of Boston Community Center and I looked around and said wow this is a dump you know I have to be honest this is a lot of years ago um it it's a loving dump but I mean from the outside looking in from someone that's not from here it's obviously it was underfunded for many years and that's absurd for as much development that's going on as much revenue that comes in from this area um it's pretty shocking now I live here with the man that took me on a date here and I look at the future of thousands of new residents many of which are here but we will have thousands more and where are they going to come together where are they going to get services for their kids that aren't just in the schools where are they going to meet other people where are they going to grow a community because that's how you grow Community is you get involved you join a a a class I'm now um vice president of the board of the McNamara house senior programs is no senior center in Alon there's one in Brighton but for seniors that's a long way to go from Alon so there's a lot to do there's a lot what Jackson Man Community Center should be and can be and I I just ask you to give us our due it's long overdue thank you thank [Applause] you hello my name is Ellen CR grman and I have been a resident of Brighton for 25 years where I've raised my 17-year-old and my 19-year-old um I'm currently the executive secretary of the newly merged over the last two years Austin Brighton Chamber of Commerce um I've been City councilor bradden's campaign manager a couple of times um and she'll let me do it again I'll knock on your doors again um and I want to speak first to the city councilors and to Rosie hland you guys all work hard and Rosie I know you've worked so hard for what's going on here um and you have to think about the whole city and I want to really call out councelor Braden for asking you to please come and see what's here and to please think about us because we need you because something is stuck and I like books they help me make sense of the world that I live in and the image that's come to mind as I've been sitting here tonight is from Isabella wilkerson's book cast and she compares the society and the Brokenness to um inheriting a house an old house that has problems and asks what's our role as the current owners of that house and I know you get elected for two-year terms and there's a lot that's asked for you to like think about um and there are things that are stuck and things that are stoed and we need you to get them unstuck and UNS siloed for us please um we are all in that house um that is broken but it's our time and it's our season to fix it um for me I came here as an adult so for me the Jackson man is where I come for early voting it's where I come to meet da Hayden when he's elected and we get to meet him as a community it's where I come for this meeting tonight uh I am a community person I'm a member of the Jewish Community I'm uh I've I've been involved in so many neighborhood organizations I've been a parent at Gardner pilot Academy and Boston Arts Academy um and of my kids in private school schools cuz I couldn't get good school options for them in Boston um I've got a high schooler who wants to be at in Boston and she's getting a lovely education at Windsor but it's not where she wants to be um so we need this community center our kids need the community center I have heard it said that the current vision for Community censors is Jim and swim no if you've heard what this community center has been to this community it's not just Jim and with me yes please jym and swim we like gy and swim that's good but I've worked at JVS where I've used my college friend to try to help patient immigrants figure out Workforce Development access I've like we our immigrants need English our parents need child care um we need Community programs for people of all ages to learn Ceramics and play volleyball right people in their 50s need a way to meet other people like doing fun Community Sports so do our 10-year-olds um and I guess maybe the last two things I want to say is the population of Altin Brighton is the same size give or take 5,000 of Newton and Somerville just sit and think what does Newton have for their population what does Somerville have for their population what does alustin Brighton have for our population compared to other parts of Boston it there's a the lack of equity is profound we have all inherited this and it needs to it needs to shift and so um as someone who likes books I'm going to finish with a quote uh and it's an oldie bit of goodie um and so from Rabbi Hillel 2,000 years ago if I am not for me if I'm not for myself who will be for me if I am only for myself what am I and the last piece which I will ask you please is if not now when thank you [Applause] my name is Cheryl pavick despite my gray hair I've only lived in Brighton for eight years but it's been a good eight years I work also with the Austin Brighton Health collaborative that's health of the neighborhood not your blood pressure and um and get to know us and we do plenty of good work here and when I began writing this comment about the importance of a community center I felt like it was a bit ridiculous because I realized you must know the importance of a of a community center you're funding them all over the city why I wondered did people not think that Alon Brighton needed one was there something about our community that made us less deserving than our neighbors well looking at the map of B Boston Alon Brighton definitely stands out it's like the stepchild Tethered to the city by the thinnest strip of land that's basically kav okay there we are tagging along like an afterthought part of Boston but not exactly however does our geographic isolation justify economic disparities like all neighborhood we have our challenges Chief among them is that many bostonians seem to consider us little more than a temporary home for the thousands of students who reside here students who attend the educational institutions that form the backbone of Boston's Prestige we welcome these students and prize the institutions within our borders that provide such Vitality to our community but alongside those who who are providing and receiving educations in our midst are the tens of thousands of of Alton Brighton residents living working and raising families within our borders and they are in need of a connection to their Community our residents are a diverse group down the street from my home is a Muslim mosque in the m in the middle of a large Jewish hidic community there are immigrants in Allon Brighton who speak many of the 140 languages spoken in Boston those people living beside the native bostonians whose roots go back several Generations wouldn't it be wonderful if there were a place where all of these disperate groups could gather talk study play and work together giving them a chance to recognize their common Humanity our country is beset by division providing the funds for a for Meaningful programming in a community center would give Allon Brighton a chance to begin healing those Visions at least locally getting us together that's what community is all about thank you thank you [Applause] good evening everyone my name is Ricky miky I serve on the board of the auson village main streets and I organize a few events in the neighborhood uh the renters Garden contests and most frequently the the rat city arts festival um I want to thank those who are here today who've made this community center uh the vibrant space it has been so Rosie thank you so much for you and your team's work and just all of the community leaders who have been engag engaging in our neighborhood uh making this a place for so many of our diverse communities and populations given the lack of a uh funded Community Center it is still great to see so much Community still be done here in Austin Brighton um but overall it baffles me that such a diverse community of young people families and artists overall just continue to be forgotten by our city you could see this simply based on funding right we've consistently been last in all capital funding projects and just in my short 10 years here in allus Brighton uh I've seen everywhere from Austin lose its post office during covid we saw little to no testing sites or vaccination sites in our neighborhood um and I would say just most recently we just got over the turmoil of almost losing uh our hospital here in the neighborhood um and so the only area honestly I've seen us be prioritized as a neighborhood has just been most recently in Boston's Road and action plan um and is despite running the rat city arts festival I hate that we're associated with rat uh but the association I hate the most is that we're a neighborhood without a functioning Community Center so I ask why is Allon Brighton forgotten is it the conclusion that we are just a neighborhood of college students that there are no young families in auson Brighton or is that this just a transient neighborhood as a stepping stone out to the BS with either I say you're siding with ignorance and not necessarily the reality of what our community is and if you lead with these conclusions I would still say you're forgetting Allon Brighton from my point of view as someone who's lived here for 10 years who's hopefully going to raise a family in this neighborhood I ask myself why would I stay why would I stay in alustin Brighton not only do we face Rising rent no accountability of how we're treated by landlords the lack of affordable housing and the impossibility to own a home in this neighborhood and on top of that there's no concrete plan for the future of the Jackson man we're not a transient neighborhood based on desire we're a transient neighborhood built upon failed leadership and [Applause] policy so with this leadership I see no priority to support the communities of allson Brighton and the issue of the Jackson man has consistently served as an example of how leadership continues in this tradition of forgetting our neighborhood not only have we lost our community center but we've also lost the place of learning for our de community and we have closed a school that primarily serve students of color something that I see become a pattern here in our city so when I look at the leaders before us I see some of the longest standing City councilors one of which who represents our district who's been doing amazing work advocating for the Jackson man I see Progressive leaders who do not act in ignorance or conspiracy I see leaders who I'm proud of but unfortunately I also see leaders who might have forgotten our neighborhood so know that no plan will will be successful if it doesn't result in a newly built Jackson man I believe that funding for future surveys and conversations or forums will just continue to waste and Gaslight the neighbors of Allon Brighton and will just be another way that you are funding the notion that Allon Brighton is forgotten in our city you already have the answers from previous years of conversations and all you need to do is finally act so I ask that you do not be city councilors of habit city councilors of ignorance but ones that could finally deliver a result of a new Jackson man show us you're capable of breaking the city of Boston's tradition to forget alustin Brighton because all of us are waiting and we've been waiting a long time thank [Applause] [Music] you good evening Pam meany Austin Brighton resident thank you madam chair thank you councelor Braden and team members of the city council and Central staff for holding this hearing here in Austin Brighton I'm a parent of two children now in their 20s who attended Jackson Man Elementary School from kindergarten through sixth grade and whom I enrolled in the after school program provided by the Jackson Man Community Center the staff of BCF cared for children with great kindness and consistency and formed warm relationships with local families I chose the BCF programs for my children because of the experience and commitment of the staff many of whom lived in the neighborhood there was very little turnover in the staff ATT Testament to jmcc leadership and to the fact that BCF jobs are good stable union jobs it's not fair that jmcc no longer provides these after school jobs which stabilize our families and our community I I want to uh have us think about what are we going to do now as we await the promised state-of-the-art Community Center we need BCF staff to run programming at BHA communities and in local parks we want basketball leagues and bicycling and Halloween celebrations for our kids two suggestions for this body one BCF is one of the largest Department ments in terms of headcount according to the dashboard that I looked at recently BCF in the budget process deserves its own hearing please use the upcoming challenging budget process to review the details all the details of the fiscal and Rel and legal relationship between BCF and the 501c3 organizations the school councils which are uh enabled by chapter 8 section 1 1.3 of the Boston municipal code in order to shed light on the administrative burden the taxpayer cost and potential inequities of this multi-layered system of oversight secondly please hold BPS accountable for its non-existent facilities master plan and for the costs of the practice of paid administrative leave including the Deep fake orwellian attack on the reputation and economic security of the leadership of the gardener pilot Academy in Bost in Austin thank [Applause] you thank you so at this time we have had 36 um speakers so far thank you all um very moving testimony um we are going to go to the administration panel at this point we have Dion Irish chief of operations Mar Rivera the commissioner of BC YF and Brian Ford the executive director of BPS facilities so now is your time to chief of operation the person who gets things done at BPS facilities that's what I'll call you Brian thank you D good evening um thank you madam chair thank you our members of city council councelor Braden thank you for your advocacy and all members of the city council also want to thank um representative honin senator brownsberger for all the work that you do Bill Mills I see you back there thank you for the work that you do I remember working with you many years ago um when I was a housing inspector to crack down on the student parties so just wanted to share that that I'm chief of operations now for the city of Boston after almost 30 years but I still see myself as a housing inspector that that's what drew me to public service and the ability to deliver for Community is important to me it's important to my colleagues it's important to the mayor it's important that every that we do everything that's possible to make Boston a home for all of our communities community centers is a huge part of that and you know to my left commissioner Rivera I'm sure when she speaks we um in her brief overview and then we'll take questions you'll hear her passion that we hear every day for community centers and her advocacy is what has led to if you look across the city all of the work that has been going on investments in community centers and Austin Brighton included uh first I want to talk about a little bit about the what the the plan was and and why we pivoted this summer as you all know there there was a plan to move the um the ausome Brighton Community Center into Brighton High School while we work towards rebuilding a new community center which we have gone through the first phase of that process which would be the feasibility study um so that that has been completed and I know many of you participated and gave your input and I know at the end of that process it was decided that we should have a new community center here at this current location in the interim we heard loudly from councilor Braden and from community that it wasn't satisfactory to move into Brighton High School which was growing in enrollment and that the fact that this building is more available now for BCF to provide even greater programming um we assessed the the facility and we determined that we should listen to community and keep this site open as operating Community Center until we get to the next phase and I'm I'm happy to say that I know it's been said that there has there is no plan um the way we do Capital planning is it's always on a fiveyear cycle and that plan represents the city's intent for the next five fiscal years on what we are going to invest in um that plan is Revisited on an annual basis and we go through a process with the city council to get it approved the Austin Brighton Community Center is in that plan there is U monies allocated for the next phase which would be designed in that plan so that reflects the city's commit commitment in The Five-Year Plan now obviously on annual basis that is re Revisited so we will be going through that process in in the coming months before the next budget submission but I wanted to make sure that that those two things were heard that there was a short-term plan and there is a long-term plan so with that said I I'll stop here and turn it over to commissioner tarez and and Brian Ford is here from BPS and we're all happy to stay and um take questions and I also want to just say thank you all for the turnout and for allowing us to listen because it's always so beneficial just to just to feel the passion and and the advocacy that comes from Community thank you Chief Irish uh no good evening my name is MAA R I'm the commissioner of the Boston centers for Youth and families BCF and um I forget who it was it said you know why do we even have to uh talk about or say why why a community center is important so and I did know that but it is an honor and a privilege to hear from you all and as a product of BCF having grown up in Mission Hill and you know received services at the Tobin Community Center had my first summer job there sat on the uh first Advisory Board as a youth member of the Mission Hill Community centers um again today is an honor to be um serving as as your uh commissioner for the Boston centers for Youth and families um I'd be remiss if I didn't mention that I'm joined this evening by my colleagues and BCF staff of course the Jackson Man leadership uh Rosie handland Senate director uh John Vali the program supervisor we also have staff from our central office our director of operations Eddie McGuire's in the back and our director of communication Sandy Holden um and many of you might know uh former staff uh Barbara petu is also here and um so I just want to acknowledge folks so um I think I don't want to repeat what the chief said but there is uh funding committed for the next phase of the Alon Brighton being a Jackson Man Community Center in the capital budget we um in the interim are remaining here at the Jackson man on the Armington Street side and um you know while I'm thanking people I want to thank Rosie John and the staff of the Jackson Man including the Council of course for their patients as we make that transition uh we uh were able to get the operation of the um Council adult education program going um although it did start I think it was delayed by a week uh but that is fully operational on the Armington side of the building um the building is open and operational uh but there is a lot of work to do uh we have access to the gym and the entire floor but we're going to work on beautifying it and I want to thank Council Breeden for her advocacy for the arpa dollars which are state and federal dollars that are going to support some Renovations and improvements we'll make um at the uh again in that space um I think I'll pause there I really again just wanted to continue hearing from you all and I'll be around of course to answer questions from the council thank you good evening everybody uh my name is Brian Ford I'm the Chief Operating Officer for Boston Public Schools uh I just want to say thank you to the counselors and thank you to the community uh it's a pleasure to be here and be in your community hearing everything that you have to say about the Jackson Man Community Center and how much means to you as a member of BPS I'm here to continue to bring Clarity to the work that we've been doing in partnership with the city in partnership with uh Boston BCF uh just to show how much work we have uh to go and how much more there is to do orderorder to make sure that we continue to improve our buildings overall um we've done a lot of work to look at how we have not invested as much as we have been and look to see how we can objectively look to make improvements in the future thank you thank you at this point now we will go to questions from my colleagues um I will just briefly start by saying um it's been wonderful to hear everyone's stories I feel like if you were born here or a parent raising children here everyone has a community center story I have one um born in 1970 uh I remember in this family photos of us at the Murphy Community Center it was named after my grandfather Richard J Murphy and we were like peeking through Through the Windows of the pool when they were pouring the water into the pool opening and I was starting in the first kindergarten class at the Murphy School and it was where I grew up it was where my aunts and my mom were you know teen center coaches one of the first teen centers in the city of Boston my grandmother would go to the senior center lunch every day and I thought it was kind of cute because my grandfather would get on the bus to Field's Corner and go to the different Senior Center and play chess with his friends but she would have LUN and at that time the senior center during the day the seniors would go into the pool and swim with the um special needs students and there's just that memory growing up that the community center raised us right it saved us all our friends would meet there after school and then as a parent my children went to summer camp there they did um you know basketball in the gym my two youngest children got their lifeguarding um CER certification at the Murphy School and then had wonderful jobs through High School there so community centers save lives community centers are what make neighborhoods strong is what brings people together and when I was young growing up in the 70s 80s a lot of us stayed in one school in one neighborhood and now I think um in some ways in many ways better that kids go off you know you could have a one street with 10 families and they go to 10 different schools but it always seems like the sports and the after school activities and the community centers are what then bring you back together and remind you like how strong your community is so Altin Brighton deserves what we have we know here on the council um but I think so many of you eloquently stated and really shared the facts of you know some some neighbors um neighborhoods are fighting for more when they already have way more than you have so we definitely have to um address that issue but I will pass it off in order of arrival if um to council Aben thank you thank you uh thank you madam chair and thank you to the panel um and thank you to everyone for all of your testimony uh it is truly impressive to have so many voices here this evening uh speaking up for our community and what we deserve um I I just had a few questions about you know the the the capital um there's different programs there's a different sort of schedule for how how we do Capital uh building in the city capital development the operations cabinet oversees all the operational activities that intersect with management of central facilities and then the public facilities Department seeks to execute the most efficient and economical construction and alterations to municipal buildings and the public facilities department is under the charge of the threer board which is the public facilities commission appointed by the mayor and I'm going to be a little dry here for a minute but I think um and then the Capital Construction program is responsible for renovation repair and new construction of city-owned facilities the program provides professional planning design and construction management services for capitally Capital funded projects at uh 370 City facilities there's a lot of facilities uh and then the the office of budget management EV evaluates City programs and then uses analysis to build present and manage the operating budget and the O the office of Bud budget management creates the capital plan and then the out of that they have the capital budget programming which manages the capital plan for the city and prepares a multi-year capital plan overseas Capital construction projects equipment Acquisitions and contracts and managements manages all capital fund Appropriations related to revenue involving bonds and grants and you know I think I I got very very upset this year at the capital uh when we had our budget hearings and we we had the looked at the capital budget and I I everyone was very excited and you know the new a new budget and then uh on on April we got the the book and the packet and I was so disappointed because here we are uh we started off well it's like a race we started off well and the horse was running well we had a we had a a programming study we had a sighting study uh and we were Off to the Races and we were spending some money on a future plan for the Alon Brighton uh Community Center and then in financial year 25 which is this year we got a duck egg there was nothing no further action nothing was happening and the uh designation of the status of this project was to be scheduled and I know from studying the capital budget and looking at other projects that to be scheduled could be a death nail you could wait for 10 years you could wait for 12 years it might never happen so it's not very reassuring and very alarming that we have this pause and it's been two years since the um since the um Pro the programming study um and yet next year we're down to have 4 million for financial year is projected Financial year 26 to 29 which is not not this year but the following year is 400 million and you know in an instance where we are in such a dire need of new community center to just stall everything and drop the ball in the middle of the game which I think is what's happening and then delay further action until 2026 is financial year 2026 which is actually Financial year 2026 is actually 2027 so it's it's two years three years away and there's no action so it's really frustrating so can you act actually act can you actually tell us like why why was this project taken off the list for prioritization when other places are getting brand new spanking new community centers in places where they've already got several so I first I would say I definitely disagree with the with the phrasing that it's taken off the list because it is in the plan and I I know that there are projects that um have been advocated for in various parts of the city that are not in the plan so when a project is in the plan that is a good sign in terms of how quickly it moves I I share you I've been at this this is about two and a half three years for me I've seen things in the plan that have been in the plan for a long time and moves more slowly than they should have um and then I've seen some of those long delayed Investments turn into emergency Investments that now get to the top of the line so in terms of overall process there's room for improvement and you know government is continuous so we're always looking to see how were things done in the past how can we do it better going forward how can we better plan to and invest in in things that may not be as may not get the attention of a brand new building a ribbon cutting but state of good repairs is a tremendously important and also significant investment that we are now making in in buildings so that because there are so many competing needs and sometimes unplanned um things come up is is the reason why we have to plan for five years and we have to revisit every single year so I can't predict what's going to happen until we go through the process that we're going to embark on shortly and then come back before the council with what's still in the plan and what's going to move forward I I'm very I'm very cognizant of the fact that my colleagues are here and they want to ask questions but you know this notion of things the reason why I'm so cynical about this is that this facility the Jackson man um complex has had uh funding has been budgeted to have repairs done going back 20 years to 202 to 2004 there was weatherization and roof repairs there was there's new hitac system going back many many years going back decades and none of it was ever done so I'm looking at this this number here it says going to spend 4 million between 2026 and 2029 well 4 million is not going to build a new community center and I'm very very skeptical and a little and rather cynical about the the the city's commit commitment to actually delivering on this project like and that's why we're all here tonight to sort of say we're not going to stand for this and we really want action of course thank you um councelor fernandis Anderson and then Council Santana councilor Mahia and councelor Flynn if I remember correctly order of arrival but you have the floor Council for S um thank you madam chair I I guess um I in a way sympathize with you Chief because I do know and commissioner um thank you so much for Mr Ford thank you so much for all being here I sympathize with you um because I have shared Ways and Means and have seen how things move along and have also been on the other end where um I'm following up with projects that I know that are in my district um and I know that it takes time right so I guess I I just want to understand a timeline so that we can have sort of a realistic projection or um sort of you know prediction of what's going to take place next um if we and and and I we can't control what's taken place prior to this Administration in terms of repairs and things that were in the budget in 2004 but in terms of you know TW 2022 um budgeted for um sorry for the study and then 202 and then now having funds in there for design we know that 2025 uh fiscal FY 2025 we have funds for design is there Act is there a plan for you to make recommendations or I don't know which department please educate me because I I I just don't think there are enough people here today to be able to fully assess like what what's the next step um Beyond you Chief I think that uh folks from the administration folks from OBM um budget management should uh be invol included in this conversation to actually understand whether or not it's going to be included in the capital um um FY 26 so we're not I'm not I'm not sure if it makes sense for us to look at you and point at you and say this is this is all you and it's not um but where where are the hiccups and where do we go next and how long do you think the design and the community engagement will take until we get to actually putting it in the budget for construction so I I think it's fine to to like to Target me it's okay um because even if the um CFO over here it's still not a onep person decision-making process it's it's a multitude of of people and factors that go into re reevaluating everything that's in the plan and as I said before this project is in the plan so I think it's important for people to understand that but we do have to create a Five-Year Plan it's not a one-year plan and and then we have to to make decisions every year on which ones can we move forward in this next next budget cycle which uh you know depending on cash flow depending on on all the the things that have to be factored did the conversation start in 2022 when did the conversation start about the visibility study um Martha may have the exact dates but Martha sorry commissioner well the sighting the sighting and programming study uh was launched in October 2022 with the first community meeting but of course the the actual planning started before that to you know Advocate to have the funds allocated so but we started working with the um with u which was the entity that that um LED that process and it was concluded in April 2023 that was the last community meeting and shortly after the report was published um I believe in June July 2023 and now we have money for the design what's the next step there there so the next step would be for design would be Community engagement because as would mentioned before whenever we do design we want Community input and all stakeholders to to have is saying what actually gets built um when do you project that starting say it again when do you project that starting that goes back to the the question that um Cil Bren asked before that we have to re-evaluate and resubmit A Five-Year Plan when do you do when do you do that when do you when do you do that so uh I just wanted to chime in with a couple of things that are already in place when it comes in relation to the design work that would need to happen for the Jackson Man Community Center is when we did the study of all of our buildings in 2022 it gave us a lot of information about of our buildings whether it's the underlying infrastructure that needs repairs the roof that you were referring to before the overall structure in the Shell uh a lot of common work that may have happened from the type of structure this was in the 70s and it gave us objective numbers on what it cost for us to replace all of these different pieces in the building it also allowed us to have a lot of space in that building for what modernization means right how does modernization fit the community and that's kind of the basis of where a design study would start figuring out what levels and what pieces of this building could possibly be improved renovated or go through a full design study for a complete reconfiguration Bas on the my time um when so the budget is happening right now right the process of making recommendations to OBM and administration is happening right now it starts in November so are we doing that for the Jackson man or not or are we postponing it to like fy2 27 is there appetite from the from the mayor or I don't know the the the different cabinets to make this as a recommendation for FY 26 Beyond design yeah so I'm gonna I'm gonna repeat myself I'm I'm not trying to be stubbor I'm just trying to be honest well I have to repeat myself in and be honest that please let him speak it's a fiveyear plan it's a 5e plan but when do you recommend that when do you you say you have to go back and put it piece together it's it's a 5-year plan that's Revisited on an annual basis and submitted to city council during the budget process will you be doing that this November will you be doing that this November yes we will be doing that okay we look forward to that I think um that's that's where we catch it um councelor Braden if whatever the recommendation are that the 5year plan includes going all the way to execute the construction phase of it and then and then us all of us supporting councelor Braden in um supporting you Chief and the other departments to making sure that it's followed through um year by year I it it shouldn't take this long at this point we're saying look yes all of what you're saying is accurate and makes sense however some of it is choice and it's been a choice to postpone um it's at least for a couple of years so we're saying now this is a priority that this cannot wait thank you thank you um I do just want to read through the list of panelists who were invited um for my colleagues to know also and for the public to know but Ma Rivera commissioner you're here thank you um Eddie Maguire director of operations is here thank you we did invite Ashley grafenberger who is the CFO for the city of Boston Deon Irish you are here chief of operations we invited Jose masso chief of Human Services Briana malore chief of community engagement and also from Finance we invited Jim Williamson the director of OBM and Brian for is here so we did think it was important to have the financial um Administration here also but the administration decided not to send those who aren't here but they decided these three were here so I just want to be clear on who was invited but for that you can go ahead Henry thank you thank you madam chair excuse me can you all hear me okay yep there it is all right thank you madam chair and um just want to thank everyone who provided public testimony um was very very helpful for to I already knew what the deal was um but great to hear from you all um you know I often say I'm you know I'm a city kid I'm a product of our Public Schools I'm a product of our after school programs our summer programs I grew up in Alice Taylor um BHA apartment in Mission Hill um and I was very fortunate to have two community centers walking distance for me right um and I relied on that you know to get my homework done I relied during the Summers to get my breakfast and lunch um at the community centers my parents as immigrants from the Dominican public um you know benefited from the different Services um from learning English to learning different Civic um learning how to navigate different city um institution so you know I am you know I stand here and you know and we all say we want to advocate and um on behalf of councelor Braden um which is true she's a great city counselor but you know this is about advocating for our future generations and for our youth um and I pointed out the youth that that were here earlier you know and it was great to see for them to be civically engaged and to be part of a hearing um but they shouldn't have to advocate for a for a community center to be in their neighborhood so you know I don't want to you know I heard the timeline and and and I don't want to ask questions about that but what I do want to and it can be from any of of of the three panelists here um you know we're talking about a 5year plan um you know what can our youth and our families expect now um for services for our youth so as I mentioned earlier the community center facility is now in the back of this complex so it's on the Armington Street side and it is currently open and uh we have several programs that are operating out of the site Community groups that are using the facility and some of our own programs are having transition backed having spent the summer packing up when we thought we were going to bite in high school but um again we have Rosie and John who were here the um Council programs are operating so the adult education program is operating in the back uh and for the winter programming our youth worker and athletic director will be back so we can expect um the programs that are operated by the Jackson Man Community Center to be back and operational uh by the Winter thank you you commissioner commissioner you know I I do my question my next question is I mean is you know I understand that that's it's there right now is that meeting the needs of the neighborhood right now in terms of the amount of families we have here and the amount of Youth um that that we have here I also know like I mean I was just at the you know uh BHA apartment with councelor bradden not too long ago talking to youth there and you know about the services they need is is what we currently have right now and potentially for the next 5 years um as we're getting this you know is it meeting the needs of the neighborhood right now uh that's a good question pardon okay so you're asking me so what I'm going to say is that the programs that um the square footage just in the back we will have uh just as much and probably more um in terms of space to be able to adequately program that so we have the gym dance studio and again we're going to be doing some build outs to create the teen space but everything that we have on this side will move to that side and my next question is how are we so I know I asked I asked my previous question obviously I know what the community you know uh you know knows that they know that the needs are not being met but I wanted to hear from you know from the administration standpoint um what you know where you are at yeah it's I really care about our youth here in in the city of Austin um and you know it's I I've worked for the administration I know how things work right I I I understand you know how incredible our staff is on the ground all the way up um but it it is very frustrating um for me to you know to like having to talk to youth having to talk to families who are saying the needs are not being met right now I have a youth right now right and I talked about my own experience of how lucky I was able to to have these services in my life I I don't know what to say to them right and I'm not the dist I'm an ey large counselor I don't know what counselor bradden is saying to them right so I mean my question what should we say to our families when they say well you know our our needs are not being met right now we're being told we have to wait what what do we say to them as Leaders here so if their programmatic needs are not being met I'm not sure why that would be for the the youth there I know that I worked with Council Breeden for at least two years to try to engage and work with the um the Commonwealth and the fal Housing Development to try to get um you know support the after school program there in the center there so I'm happy to re-engage and see what it is that they need there um I know that we have uh reached out to them the staff here had offered to shuttle them from there to here to make sure that they're using the facility and services here as well uh so again I'm happy to be engage in that conversation we had tried to do a um focus group but didn't get youth to come out we had you know offered piz uh and incentives so whatever you know you whoever you're meeting with we're happy to do the same to try to re-engage them and have a conversation because prior to again the transition there were services for youth that were operating out of this site and we had youth here over 30 that were employed for the summer uh youth that were using the computer lab the steam lab a variety of services so the services were here programmed prior to the summer because again over the summer we were um Rosie Ros team was packing so my question would be are they asking for services there or here how do we engage them do we need to transport them um because our staff is in this building right we're not going to be able to again I had a conversation with the counselor and there had been funding to have someone there um but it just we weren't getting a response right thank you so happy to reengage no and my last question I know my colleagues also have questions so my last question is it goes to your point right there um how is the administration and I guess it can also be a question for for for chief as well engaging with the community during this process I mean I understand engagement with counselors and the District counselor and that's one thing but how are you interacting um and engaging with Community residents I mean who are here right now outside of like this type of hearing in order to it it it seems to me that right there are services and I know there are services and they're amazing Services right that people are benefiting from but there's a disconnect right now because we're hearing from community members right now in front of us right um that the needs are the needs are not being met so I mean I'm trying to find where you know where to disconnect is here can so can we even go maybe one line by line I know we have BPS um BCF and then we have um Chief here in terms of you know what what are we doing to connect um not not in general but with the Austin Bryan community in regards to the BCF Center here so we could always be doing more right in terms of hearing from folks um so I'm not sure if you're talking specifically about the programming piece or the transition or the new center because we did have a during the sighting study programming and sighting study there was a survey to try to get input from the community um and during that entire year and something that there was planning for you know variety of people came out of course probably just as many people are here and we worked with a community engagement group uh of residents and the counselor and other elect and despite best efforts including translating the material in the survey into five languages we only received 400 surveys back which is not a lot for a community that's this large um so we are happy to reopen that survey revisit that with respect to again hearing from the community what programming they want to see in the future Center happy to relaunch that and do whatever engagement for what they believe with this community believes they want now but the fact remains again we had services that were available and continue to be available we haven't gone away there's a transition but we're still here yeah I would just add to that that um I know BPS has uh engagement arms as well to engage young people as as well as um our Civic engagement cabinet our the I think Frank Mendoza was here earlier he's gone but there are a variety of ways we also have a youth engagement office that that that does this all day long all across the city so those are some of the ways that that we uh engage young people thank you answer any question yeah no thank you um doesn't one my questions I just really want to thank our our panelists for being here I want to give a you know really thank you to the residents who who are here um advocating on behalf of your neighborhood of of of your neighborhood and your future Generations here um on a on a Wednesday night or th Tuesday night I should say so um thank you almost Wednesday um thank you madam chair thank you um before I move on to council m there is a car being blocked in the side of the building a white Nissan license plate 46731 Z if that's your car you're blocking someone in who's trying to leave it's a white Nissan um and coun Mia yes I have been so patiently waiting here for my turn you have no idea so first of all I just want to thank all of the folks who uh spoke before um a particular shout out to Dan and Karen Kelly your stories really help all of these folks particularly those who did not grow up here understand the impact and the emotional um attachment that we have to our community center so I just want to say thank you for bringing so much of yourself into this space because often time those are the things that sometimes we just need to drive home a little bit more so people can understand that lived experience from a whole different perspective so I just want to say thank you and I also want to give a shout out to Jean owers who's always one of the biggest Advocates um for all things that deal with AB so I'm just really happy to be here in a room full still of people I just want to acknowledge that okay this this place is still packed and I want to go again on the record in case y'all didn't hear it the first time I said it that I was O I was one of the only other counselors that stood next to councelor Breeden and said no to the capital budget because of all of the neglect that this district has been subjected to so for the record just so you know like for me I'm Miss Independent okay I'm here for the people um and I'm going to give you some other numbers to to to think through as a BPS a graduate as abps Mom today I agree Dan our Boston Public Schools we need to hold them more accountable um when we're continuing to have these conversations because there is a correlation between our Comm community centers and our Boston public schools and we need to do a better job at making those relationships really be more meaningful and impact you know so now I'm going to give you some data and some numbers right because you know people who want to think they're smart like to do that um but my numbers are going to be a little bit different than most of these know-it-alls right so for me I went to charl town um in 2022 June of 2022 another forgotten borrow another forgotten neighborhood because similar to Allon and Brighton Charles Town also feels neglected because they often see themselves as the stepchild of the Boston Council because a lot of their issues don't bubble up to the top in June of 2022 there was a meeting about clity pool it was in the news all of the residents were really upset because the city had shut down their pool right so there had been meetings after meetings blah blah blah blah I went to Charlestown attended one of those meetings by the time I got done with those meetings I said to them I'm the chair of government accountability and transparency I'm going to host a hearing bring the administration to a hearing so that we can unpack the numbers we can unpack the timeline based on that work on October the 12th um 2022 we held a public Hearing in Charlestown when we had our Council colleagues then show up the administration and we made some commitments because what we're hearing here and this is why I'm up to the point of understanding that I can understand your frustration and I also understand all of the um councelor Breeden was a genius when she gave you the master plan of first is this and then that one and this one and that one no wonder nothing happens in the city of Boston because there's so many Hoops you have to jump through just to even get an answer right so fast forward to we had a public hearing and then there was some commitments that were made and $30 million later Charles toown in uh July of 2024 opened up their pool after years of saying that it couldn't happen but what it took was a group of organized residents that said enough is enough show me the money put your mouth where your money is or whatever it is they say in English and tell me what you're going to do and when you're going to do it by that's what we need to do in this hearing that's what we did in Charles Town and Charles Town was able to get their Pool opened after year after a few years of saying it wasn't going to happen because they couldn't make it happen when there is a will there is a way and this is your opportunity as residents as taxpayers right as voters and even if you don't vote you still have a voice that's for those folks who don't vote just so you know you still matter right you have to seize this moment and hold the entire Council accountable because whether you vote for us or not there's 13 City councilors and we're all accountable to the city as a whole and while you have four at large and one District trust that the decisions that we make also impact you so we're all accountable to you whether we want to believe it or not because your taxes pays for all of our salaries whether y'all want to believe it or not so that said I'm going to the administration now very similar to councelor Anderson's questions what is it going to take and what do we need to do differently to meet the moment for District 9 and I do not want to hear we're going to hear the same thing over again no I'm just joking but I do really want us to push ourselves a little bit and be vulnerable and honest about what is I don't know who it was but somebody during the um we got to dislodge this situation where we have to move remove something what is do what do we need to remove to make this happen what is stopping us from meet from meeting the moment so I can say I I agree that there are too many projects that take too long I've seen them myself the the cloudy pool was in the plan for many years right the the gro it was but it wasn't until Community organized the way that they did and made it happen because they were not on the pipeline for that they had to push aggressively to do it can I finish you absolutely can but I just want to make sure that I'm clarifying so that people who are tuning in understand the Dynamics that are happening The Grove Hall Community Center that's they're having a design discussion tomorrow that's over over a decade right it shouldn't take that long I agree with everyone here but I cannot tell you a specific time at this evening but I'm we're here to not only answer whatever questions we can but to listen and then hopefully we we'll be back um in a future data with something that's more definitive but I'd be being dishonest if I were to try to give you an answer tonight because it's a process that we have to go through and to look at everything that's in the plan and and make decisions on how we can move forward let me find out you're taking my time Austin Brighton should be the main point really KN door chest up who got what three five I'm going to let um Council mahia's time continue but if you would like you can definitely have I'm going give him you 30 seconds left okay I'm gonna give him my okay wait though just to be clear because I do want to make sure we stay on as the chair and I do appreciate everyone's input relax so you can take my time take it councelor Mahia we can't give away time you know that even though we like to share but as soon as if if you're done are you done well no I would I will give I'll give a moment but I just want to make sure you're done because did you have anything else you want to say before you I just I would like to know in terms of equity I think somebody mentioned Equity I think what happens is that there's an illusion of equity and then there's a there's a a real desire to achieve it and then I guess if all of the data that we heard about you know the stats in Austin and Brighton the you know 20% of people are living below poverty line there's a high percentage of students here like I'm just curious about like how does Austin and Brighton look within your Equity lens and you know to the point of like Dorchester having five I understand there's more residents in Dorchester it's a little bit bigger as opposed to allus and bright and I can understand those numbers but when you look at uh the North End right the those things don't equal in terms of service so I'm just curious kind of like how those decisions have gotten made and where we are right now and I'm and I appreciate the extra time thank you did you want to respond to that before did you want to um I'm not sure your name em hi you guys see me on the community discussion board em M I want to remind you guys this is the first place that most people visit in Boston their kids go to school here the four schools that we share this neighborhood with I only put together three numbers three of the numbers bring in 22 billion doll of Commerce to Boston every year those are our neighbors we live next St to them we are the people that take care of them we also bring in the head of the CHS okay it's only $22 million that it brings in and our Boston Calling brings in $5.4 million we don't see much of that here and that's okay um I'm the girl they bring in to Big Business and figures out efficiency that's my job um I've seen a lot of you guys this past couple of weeks I've been working the polls at the city hall it's been a lot of fun but boy we need some efficiency big time and the fact is if this community center was a business and somebody was making money off of it it would have been done yesterday and there is no way that I I'm you know what listen I a late stage breast cancer patient if you do not have a community center done before I am dead I coming back for you my neighor I love this I am a 27e resident I'm married into a fourth generation Brighton Oak Square family I raised my kids here my kids went to school here I have gone go to to with Boston public and one by the way because I don't put up with anything I also stand up for lots of kids I am a foster mother I've taken kids all out of um Roxberry whatever they live at my house the kids that are tough the really angry kids the lgbtq community they come to my house for meetings we're going to do it here and we're expecting you to support us and if you don't don't expect to be in office again and I mean it [Applause] my first date you know my first date with my husband was at Jerry MC's fundraiser I live next door to Mayor Glenn's driver my whole life of here uh yeah Burnie you know seriously this is our life we are not talking about whatever I can tell you numbers I can tell you how much it's going to cost to do what but guys get the politics out of the way seriously until the from I know I thought you lost Tanya there I agreed um thank you um I will go on now to Council of Flynn councilor Flynn thank thank you madam chair and again thank you to the panelists to my colleagues to the especially to the residents for the attest testimony what I wanted to ask and I know the city financial team is not here but I guess my question would be we have the best college University in the world right right across the way here Harvard that owns more more land in in Boston than they do in krid please let the okay um that owns more property here in Boston than they do in in Cambridge um but if it was a priority of building an exceptional bcyf Center a community center if it was a priority it would it would happen there's money that's available whether or not the will is there you know I don't know I'm not all that familiar with what this situation is taking place but if there's a will to get it done and I think the residents here have the will will to get it done then it will get done I think what you're doing here tonight advocating in a respectful manner is the way to go about doing it it's about organizing it's about Mo mobilizing it's not just one meeting or a handful meetings it's constant organizing and making sure your voices are heard at City Hall or at the state house um but I guess my question is what is the role of Harvard University of of of these great colleges and universities that that sit in aluson um are they aware of this major challenge that this neighborhood is facing and if they are why are they sitting on the sidelines and not supporting the residents of Austin right I think it's the City of Austin has to support the community [Applause] center a lot they schools do a lot they're not going to do your work it's city of [Applause] Boston that you guys have been sitting on theal budget for like almost 10 years they G $800,000 we still can't get it renovated so har is doing a lot it's not their fault that we don't have well I I guess I guess my point is with with a lot of develop I guess with a lot of development taking place there are benefits to the community and is there an opportunity for all the development that is taking place in Alon in Brighton in this neighborhood is there an opportunity to ensure that that money and taxpayer money as well that taxpayer money is supportive of this project is that is that how all the other community C it's got to built and they got it from development that's ridiculous that's ridiculous well a lot of a lot a lot of minut let let Council of Flynn finish this so I can get back to the list I know we have several more a lot of mitigation that does take place during development um does benefit residents does benefit neighborhoods my my point was is there an opportunity if the city is not willing to fund this and I hope they do fund it I'm I'm going to support Council Braden I'm I have supported Council Braden but is there an opportunity for us to work together with others that want to partner with us is is is my question I don't know if the if the city is able to answer that question thank you madam chair Dion what are your thoughts Dion well I would say again that the city is committed to this project and that's why it's in the plan uh but in terms of leveraging development um public private Partnerships I think we look at all of it we're we're we're current currently experimenting with some uh affordable housing with libraries but for this particular project um I think this is a project that is in our plan and the intention is to to fund this when will that be Dion well sure he's gonna finish I don't know how to answer that without saying that it's it's a 5year plan and it's it's impossible to say that everything is going to happen at the same time in the 5e plan okay um okay sorry please I know that people are very passionate about this but we are only halfway through the public testimony and as soon as Council of Flynn is done I'm going to call the next five names up because I know that more people are here to speak thank you madam chair are you sure okay thank you so the next five panelists to please come up to the microphone um Justin Brown Charlie Wong Jonathan Allen Gloria Rivera John Pereira and Dexter van Z sorry I can't if you are here please come up if some of you have left I'll call a couple more names Authur Downey Junior Jr Kevin Carie Charles White and um if you're there at the the microphone you can start just please remember to state your name um in your affiliation and you have two minutes thank you hello my name is Dex Dev van Island I live here in Brighton we got four weed shops in this town we're looking at like maybe five or six of them uh but we haven't had a community center worthy of the name for the past couple of years and consequently badly needed programs such as English as a second language GED programs us Sports and other adult education programs have been drastically curtailed here people need these services so they can remain in or become part of the medical middle class so that they can work for companies that have set up shop at Guest Street in the downtown hospitals or at local colleges and universities My Two children participated in programs housed here in this building both got into Boston Latin one's in the Air Force and the other one studying to be an actuary their stories and the others that you've heard here tonight demonstrate that this building is served as an engine for the maintenance and growth of a middle class in the city of Boston what about the kids who have come after them what about the kids whose parents don't speak English they've been effectively abandoned by the policies here and as one previous speaker told us the schools in this city don't do a particularly good job sometimes and one of the ways to help them succeed is a functioning Community Center the adults has suffered too this building housed meetings for people in recovery so that they didn't have to frequent the the bars and the weed shops and Austin Brighton that are populate this city it's time to act we can't wait another five years this project needs to be FASTT tracked somehow and politically the people in this District won't allow it otherwise the folks here in this room simply won't tolerate it councelor breeden's video demonstrated the disgraceful manner in which successful Mayors successive Mayors and successive City councils have failed the people in District weed shop owners got better treatment than the average citizens who relied on the surfaces offered in this building my message is this get it done my name is Kevin Carie I'm a Brighton resident I'm co-president of the Hobart Park neighborhood association uh I have a prepared testimony but given the exchanges that have gone on for some time uh I'll depart from them you know there's two Central facts I think we've got a everyone knows we need need a new community center second this building needs to be demolished it's been inadequate for decades of deferred maintenance so a projection that you got to continue providing services in a building that the city's own study said needed to be demolished that's inadequacy that's not the way to go we need to demolish this building a city study said we needed to do it secondly another sighting study said we need to locate a new community center here that's a city study as well and we need to move with dispatch so I'll conclude by saying I'm trying to be brief we need to move with dispatch to demolish the current Center we need to move with dispatch to build a new BCF Center in olon Brighton that reflects the aspiration ideals of this city and this community and I also think as someone who supported me a woo the ideals of the woo Administration and I'm puzzled by the inaction over the last several years there's no time for delay I'll use a term that was used before this can has been kicked down the road again and again and again we need to stop kicking it down the road we need to serve Alon Brighton families and children far better and there that great civil rights uh saying the time is now thank you thank you um I just want to um make the announcement again that the white Nissan is still blocking the car on the side of the building if you are here please move it um I'm going to call the next names Charles White Bob pesic barara Parmenter Karen Chen Lexi gross if yeah you can yeah good night everybody my name is gloriaa I talking about my experience here when I come into this country in 1994 I come in the Aon Brighton as my neighborhood and then when I come in here in in 1996 somebody talking me about this community center I come in with my my one daughter and then I have a two more but I want to learn English and I want to know my community and somebody talking me about this program they say me this program is free I don't have enough money for pay the friend and they say they asking me about nothing I come in visa and I stay here without document and then that the place I can come in somebody come bring me here this place show me show me the community I know the community when I come into this place I see different different culture here and when I come in here I see everybody coming after joke I know has to put a beautiful clothes somebody come in with a painting with the mechanic everybody coming and learning English like a second language I'm Hing and my dream a it was go to school but I need English because in 90 nobody speak Spanish here now everybody Spanish before nobody speak nobody speak Spanish here everybody speak English and then I tried very hard somebody said to me you have to learn English because you not learn English you know understand your children when they grow and my children is the most important thing I have in my life one day I go to the child care to the hospital and I went to 10 in the morning and I stay to S on the night and I ask why you stay I stay too long and everybody left and the lady said to me because you didn't speak English and you had to wait for somebody speak Spanish and only have a two people translated that day I said no I need learning English because I can't waste my time in the hospital for the whole day and then this place when I come into this place they give me the book when you go to the another school you have to buy the book I don't have money for the book the book say freak when I come to here they show me how to i f the letter they give me to the they bring me to the post office they bring me to the library they bring me to the bank and open account they show me what I need for coming in this culture they show me how to be a like it's Halloween they show me a Columbus Day I I know colog is colong in my country when I I celebrated Columbus Day I think it's something different and they should columus day and col is the same person and then I Le together with my children how this go to work and then I know that every Community as on here I have a friend sign 1996 I Mak it here and then after I Lear English here because they have the very English school organization and Boston that the only place you come in for curriculum I Tred many many many English classes and this play more than 20 years have the same organization the student com here the stay because when they com in they follow me how you Lear me every day and the and the teacher coming on time and the teacher try to help you I tried many one before and then when you come in here you compromise because they thought to us they say you not coming and you finish they not give you money for the program because the teacher here has have a very preoccupation for the student coming here learning and that's the only place for Latino people they give you the opportunity to understand to have a s language for free no asking about nothing the paper no ask about nothing to income because because many places here there to many paper asking for many thing when you come into this country without paper you're scaring and when you come here you feel safe and then after I have my baby my baby coming for the after school my baby coming for the CH care my friend on here bring the the key to the CH care here and that's I Lear English and as I go to school and I have my business across the street for 18 years thank for the community Center and then every coworker every people working with me coming to here to learn English because the first thing I do is signing for they coming here and they see me now they know about that because everybody know this is the better program I need a community center because now they have a too many too many a a man on the on the on what you say when you do not feel very good after Co um please finish up your you had more than two minutes thank you very I I give advis for no thank you please to theity stay for the community because the community center for the people here because nobody have a place for be together thank you good evening everyone uh my name is Karen Chen I'm the executive director with the Chinese Progressive Association our office is based in chinat town but we serve Chinese Americans in the Greater Boston area and of course we have members in Austin Brighton and actually I grew up in Austin Brighton um on Cali Court off of Western a um and then I went to beu and then I uh lived on Glenville a um for a period of time um I too have a lot of fond memories of Jackson Man it was not a date but it was playing volleyball and voting here and um you know many people already spoke to you know the important role of community school you know for educational recreational and social needs and the programs in this building continue to provide essential Services even though it has been underfunded and we know that you know um with the pandemic we're still recovering from it and community program is more important than ever and I know that you know the city of Boston has is you know right like you know process for things and I think that the residents of Austin Brighton spoke loud and clear we want a stay of the art community center now and we hope that the city council and the W Administration and the city make this a priority and would really fully fund the programs and with specific schedules and fun ings to advance the program because we know that like people have said before there should be no more delays thank you thank [Applause] you hello I'm Barbara Parmenter and I'm a resident of Brighton um thank you counselors for and panelists for coming here and thank you councel councelor Braden and a million thanks to all the amazing speakers here before that you've been so eloquent I've learned so much and and ditto to all they've said um as a senior without kids I still know we need people of all ages background skills and dreams to have a resilient vibrant neighborhood we need our children our students our young people our businesses our immigrants and all our residents old and new and all the future residents who are going to come here with all with all our building you may not have been here before but this location is the heart of aluson Brighton it's where aluson and Brighton come together it's where all of us can get to easily um so it's so important for us there's three regular buses outside the door here there's an express bus I ride them regularly to have this Center functioning on a very limited basis is just a tragedy so I'll just I won't repeat but we need adequate funding for current programming planning money for and a capital campaign for a new community center on this site and we need to know what's happening with this building complex can somebody answer that question I mean what's happening with this place did you want to the timeline and did you hear what she said yeah if you're done he will he will yeah and then he'll answer that great okay thank you bber so as far as this particular building a feasibility study was done to and the results of that study was a recommendation that this be the site of a new community center the next stage would be for us to go into design and begin Community engagement on the community center thank you Dion um I'm going to call up the next group that would be Jens Sinclair won Quan tar Hassan Anie mazola Nancy oara and if Tim male is here okay in Jean Powers and if DB R is still here we can line up and thank you can everybody hear me yes wonderful my name is Johan Sinclair and I currently live near Cleveland Circle uh I moved to Boston for a graduate school and I've lived in Alon Brighton for the past 10 years as many here might have experienced it's difficult to make friends and find Community once you're out of school after graduating I was fortunate to find community at EMW bookstore a nonprofit Arts and Technology community space in Cambridge where people could make and share art learn new skills and get involved in community organizing efforts after the 2016 election people felt scared they didn't know what to do and they showed up at EMW because they didn't know where else to go the first open mic night after the election was overflowing with new faces looking to take action it was this moment that solidified for me the importance of community Gathering spaces I got involved co-leading emws Community Library program with Sam a friend I met in the space who is still a dear friend today and my current roommate EMW was a place where I felt like I belonged it was a place where I learned how to give back to the community express myself creatively and it made Boston feel like home unfortunately like makeshift Boston in the South End and the Democracy Center in Cambridge EMW bookstore no longer exists I know the feeling of isolation and loneliness that comes with not having a community space and I stand before you today advocating for my community because of the impact one Community Center had on my life when I was new to the city I want people in Alon Brighton to have a place to go when they don't know what to do and I want a new a brand new community center that brings people together from across the neighborhood where people can learn together create together and get involved thank you thank [Applause] you good evening community members uh my name is wam Kwan but most know me as Jesse Quan um I'm also a neighbor of glorus and a teammate of God Karen Chen who recently spoke uh my family and I have lived in Brighton since 1989 we planted our feet here after immigrating from Hong Kong and I grew up in Fidelis way I'm a proud product of Boston public schools first at Harvard Kent because all the bilingual programs here were full then tapped and then I went on to uh Boston Latin School my son is also a sixth grader at the curly and I currently work as a director of operations at Boston Latin School and I coach one of the most competitive girls volleyball programs in the city you you'll hear me talk a lot about volleyball because that has changed the trajectory of my life I formed lifelong friendships and competed throughout North America to play a game I love but um as I've spoken Believe It or Not Karen Chen who's almost a foot shorter than me um was my teammate I was just a city kid fing out my life and I found my way I remember coming here as a teenager to open gym and was thwarted by playing on a men's net but coming to those open gyms I might needing to jump higher hit harder made me better those extra touches solidified and paid my way to college and allowed me to compete all four years in the NCAA it was a life it was a Lifeline I didn't know I need it believe it or not I still play volleyball at Jackson Man on Mondays alongside with some of my students and our future Talent we so need this in Austin Brighton as we have heard from the executive director at West End house they're busting at the seams we don't have enough space or resources to create the talent that we have in the city I love coming to Jackson man and seeing high school basketball games and other athletic events but guess what our athletic Talent flops to Suburbia why simply due to in Access not for the lack of abilities but for a lack of facilities echoing what we've heard throughout the night not having Jackson man as a community center is disastrous I'm surrounded by the brilliant young minds of our city on a daily basis I'm asking for your unwavering support and commitment for this community fully funded fully functional awesome bran deserves a slice of the pie curb the inefficiencies and inadequacies we are at emergency State now thank you thank [Applause] you hello I'm I'm not a great speaker so apologies in advance um hello uh thank you for this hearing the opportunity to speak um thank you to the hardworking city councilors um and to Central staff for putting this together um for coming out tonight and for all the important work that you do um thank you to our struggling yet hopeful weary post pandemic strong resilient amazing Community uh who showed up today and thank you for speaking up um my name is Annie mola I am proud to say that a lifelong resident of Alton and Brighton um I currently work in and for this community uh the Jackson Man school was my elementary school um the first year it opened was the first year I came here um and my four kids benefited from BCF um so we are sitting right now here in the city of Boston I say this out loud because sometimes way out here it it feels differently we feel far away uh the city of Boston Prides itself on being inclusive to families Elders immigrants all neighbors with the nearest full service BCF Center in South Boston which by the way takes forever to get to on the tea we are feeling left out not included far away Alon Brighton needs a BCF Center numbers and facts point to this reality we need a clear commitment we need a clear timeline we deserve better than what we have I urge you to please solidify your commitment and timeline for a new BCF facility and remind us all here and beyond that we are heard that we are seen that we are valued and that we are cared for that we are a cared for community in the city of Boston thank you thank [Applause] you thank you panel my name is Michael O'Hara my wife Nancy and I moved to Brighton 48 years ago the my comments are primarily to give you an idea of the breadth and scope of the programs that we've personally as a family participated in our children learn gymnastics here we used the gym for volleyball since 1981 the 57 readers our local writing and performance group that councelor Brady Braden is part of held his practice sessions here since 2005 we have attended the Emerson College play reading and even performances here on this very stage we learned computer and PowerPoint skills here so there's a nice wide variety featuring activities for all ages and all talents Brighton also needs a fullservice community center with dedicated programs and facilities for all ages other sections of Boston have just one have more than I'm sorry other sections of Boston have not just one but multiple community centers but we we're in the situation where we have to basically outplay activities or we will when things get so dire that there's no activity here at the jackon man we'll have to rely on the West End house the YMCA even the Harvard ed portal to get our kids especially into activities that will help them develop so we are beseeching the city to provide as everyone else else here tonight has to provide a clear commitment and a timeline to provide Allon Brighton with an all-encompassing Community Center for all people and all ages thank you thank you oh one last comment thank you Rosie [Applause] good evening everybody my name is Tim mcale I I moved here in 1974 and uh got married in 82 with Jane and took her on a date here as she said uh counselors thank you for your your steadfast and uh commissioner and Chief and Boston Public Schools representative uh said a lot here tonight I came I came in here kind kind of uh open-minded really didn't know and uh I found I got very hopeful after the first 36 speakers and uh Liz you have immeasurable amounts of Hope and I have felt that and I feel hopeful tonight uh I'm a positive intention guy I believe in positive energy and affirmations and um so where can you go where can you go to get language education jobs Sports emotional support socialization Finance help ideas rights of Passage music food Arts learn about our universe learn about our city what can you learn about compassion and values exercise and giving youth mentorship hope and courage Sounds Like Home to me well I think for a lot of us we got it from a community center so I got a whiff of really what you guys are going through at the commissioner level that you have a $400,000 budget a $400 million budget that you spread over five years and you've got a bunch of projects and you try to play chess with them and you proba to put the puzzle together and you report to the council and you make a recommendation I got it I think and this it seems to me as a construction Management Consultant who worked in development all of his life uh getting the money is hard building it is academic and if you could give us a time frame like n months that you would come back with three designs to show the show the community that would give us a lot of hope maybe it's 12 months but 9 to 12 months and you look at your fiveyear schedule and you say this is what we can do and you go get prices for it and it's going to cost you 50 million bucks we get the $50 million and maybe it's a public partnership kind of thing you know you just allocated $50 million to uh Franklin Park white Stadium $50 million you know for a stadium that's going to be used maybe 22% of the time $50 million to a community center would be used 247 365 here so I'm asking you to balance that that need and and get creative thanks very much thank you [Applause] hi my name is Jean Powers I'm a resident of Alon I'd like to thank the council for trudging out here and and the BCF folks for coming all the way out here to olon for this and I want to thank all the DI hards who stuck it out for this like second part of public testimony I didn't even know it was going to happen I think we're all like Delirious at this point um I um in 2016 I suddenly found myself um a single mom and unexpectedly broke and really frightened of what life was going to look like for me and my two kids who at the time were two and five and um my biggest fear was how to pay for daycare for my two-year-old and my friend Rosie said do you know there's an amazing high quality daycare fully licensed professionals right in your neighborhood and there's availability and that was the Jackson Man Community Preschool um my son was able to stay there right up until he went to kindergarten and it was an amazing experience my daughter was able to do the summer camp and um out of school programs and the enrichment programs later she did um a teen job training program the community center has been Lifeline for us and has filled in the gaps of um the things that I couldn't pay for the things that I couldn't provide for them and that's what the community center should be for the community it should be the great equalizer um a place that brings us together and that elevates us all together and I I hope that you'll hear that and decide to prioritize this because there's already going to be a whole generation of kids who misses out on that and of single moms who miss out on that experience that I benefited from and I just don't want it to go on for any longer I want them to have what I had and to benefit the way I did thank you thank you I'm going to call the next group almost Gabrielle Walter Hazel Ryerson Oscar Santos Elaine mean is um I think sister Pat went home um Jean Powers are you here oh Jean oh no no that's good okay um Tori Richardson Han Bary Liv buen and if Jason Lee is still here okay I'll call a few more names Tisha boy boyin Anthony Ocha Fades and if Matthew Peterson is here okay you can go thank you lots of sweaty Palms waiting for my turn um good evening my name is Gabrielle waiter um I've been a Brighton resident for 12 years and I'm here tonight as a parent and Community member to advocate for a community center in Altin Brighton I homeschool my seven-year-olds and finding nearby programming for children his age is extremely challenging read impossible um programs for children especially after covid um in his age range are scarce and um options for school AG kids in our neighborhood nearly vanish especially if they aren't Public School families like mine have to commute to Framingham Dam Cambridge Newton and Watertown just to access programming making it hard to build a strong local community I am tired of driving um our Dream for this community center isn't just for families we want to serve all ages my partner who has lived in Alon for nearly 20 years over on Everett Street um is originally from Guatemala and had to travel to water Town public library for citizenship and English classes during his immigration process because those were the closest options a community center in alustin Brighton could offer these essential Services locally supporting adults and recent immigrants including my brother-in-law in their Journey towards citizenship and English profic proficiency that word is so hard um a community center would be a vital resource providing a space where we can learn connect and grow together Austin Brighton families and community members deserve this foothold and I urge you to support this immediately as an aside commissioner Rivera you had mentioned that there were um surveys put out to the community about programming and I didn't see that so I would love another round of that if you could because I am very involved I work for counselor Santana and I didn't see an iota of that so I would love to weigh in and so would my kid frankly um I'm not sure how helpful he would be um but he's open to chatting too awesome thank you thank you and thank you for being patient um hello counselors staff and supporters of the Jackson Man Community Center I thank councelor Braden for sponsoring this hearing uh councelor Murphy for chairing and all others for attending uh my name is Jason Lee currently a low-income tenant organizer with the mass Alliance of Hud tenants um before coming to work for Matt however I was on staff here at the Jacks men working for the adult education program under Caroline padan and Rosie Handlin Hi boss um at the time the program served around 130 students concurrently and around 250 students annually across its English for speakers of other languages and highet and GED prep programs the vast majority were Austin Brighton residents but some traveled three nights a week from Watertown Newton and even Waymouth to take advantage of the resources available at Jackson Man for many the center was the first point of contact and source of perspective with respect to the possibilities offered by the city of Boston in addition to wraparound services such as snap Mass health or raft the center connected students with the educational training and employment opportuni is available through institutions such as JVS the Harvard ed portal and Bunker Hill and Roxberry community colleges the center also served to connect students to their peers families with the same Ambitions constraints and hopes that they had experienced on a daily basis uh of course these connections were only possible due to the efforts of the center's dedicated teaching staff who helped students develop the language skills necessary to navigate apply and attend these opportunities I say this for two reasons first to explain that the community center must also be understood as a matter of right or access to the city for some of Boston's most vulnerable residents and to therefore suggest that the restoration of the building and its services be afforded the same gravity and conviction that that entails uh the quiet part that is often overlooked is that the community center is one of the few lifelines that exist for the city's uh large undocumented population it's the narrow slice of the city that not only doesn't ask for your credit card information but also doesn't ask for your social security number or any other things that you bar this largely vulnerable and underserved underserved population uh from the resources that it needs um the constituents of the Jackson Man are the people and workers that quite literally construct the city that cook its food Drive its professionals and clean their buildings the effort their effort should at minimum be matched by a clear and timely plan for their Community uh the second reason is to reaffirm what I'm sure is a shared Vision made all the more Urgent by the recent changes to emergency shelter policies here in Massachusetts in which the city's residents longtime Boston Natives and immigrants alike are able to work in solidarity for the place in which they live able to demand more for the neighborhood that they share Jackson man could be as it once was an answer to the question question can we provide and invest in a community all that it needs to thrive can we respond to economic and bureaucratic constraints not only with need but with abundance um and I want to suggest uh given that uh the Gathering of officials here that the political will is there in which case perhaps the only question is which resources do we draw from uh I want to conclude by highlighting some of the things that we could use including mayor Woo's new momentum fund the state mrvp program the city the city low-income rent subsidy program as well as the fair cloth Authority afforded to the BHA that would allow for the construction of mixed income and affordable housing on the property if that would help build and move uh political will towards uh the community center um beyond that I want to highlight a couple needs that uh face the adult education population here housing above all represents one of the most consistent uh needs and complaints that the city's uh immigrant population uh was able to express during my time here at the Jackson man and in addition to that uh we're in deep need of additional Workforce Development programs as was stated by another Resident earlier uh with that thank you for your time we appreciate it thank [Applause] you hello everyone my name is Anthony Ooa fader um I have been living in Alon for a poultry three years and I'm also a student teacher teacher at Boston green Academy just down the road so I'm a public school teacher as well um and I really love Austin I'm originally from California so I'm one of these transient students you have interacted with and heard so much about um but I really have fallen deeply in love with Austin I think it's a very special neighborhood and a neighborhood that can absolutely go above and beyond for its community members which is why it's so frustrating when it refuses to right um I have done a lot for the city I'm also uh a community organizer with lots of different social groups and this past Allon Christmas I went around helping my neighbors in oltin brighten move into their Apartments these Were Strangers but I thought it was important because we here in oltin brighten share so much in common and yet we are often isolated from one another right due to economics due to politics it's true that we have a transient kind of student population here but that's not a reason to take away f funding and resources from the community center it's in fact a reason to give even more because these transient people who I met in droves doing that work last Austin Christmas helping people move in all of them were excited to be here all of them wanted to be a part of the community but none of them knew how and it wasn't easy to say well you can do this this and this because we didn't have a Central Community Center we who are more transient and uh need a central natural anchoring point for us to come to so that we can become a part of the community right if there are people who are more floating they need that anchor to become a part of the community and more integrate into the neighborhood there's a desire there there's an energy there and there's great technical talent and lots of energetic young people who want to do their part to volunteer to be involved to do the hard work that must be done in order to build up this Community Center to what it needs to be and I'm one of those people I really desperately think there needs to be a Civic space for people from different backgrounds different political beliefs and ways of life to come together heal the division in our country and to be neighbors you know this is something that past Generations have taken for granted the fact there can be a neighborhood someplace located and root in Geographic space we have to build and you know in certain ways rebuild that because it's been taken away from us and destroyed by many people with muddied interests it's up to us as the community to build up that Community Center and be a place where everyone who lives works and studies here is able to feel welcome at home and see themselves represented in the community center so I want a Civic space and an educational space um as I am a teacher and I'm the first one to get in that line and volunteer to help run that so very much believe in this and I would love to see more progress towards that thank you thank you I'm going to call up the last um oh sorry did I already call your name yeah sorry okay sorry Matt yeah thank you sorry thank you uh chair Murphy Vice chair Braden thank you for bringing city council to our neighborhood thank you to Rosie Handlin and the rest of the Jackson Man staff for making this meeting possible tonight and thank you to my neighbors for coming out here tonight and speaking out for our needs uh my name is Matthew Peterson and I've been a resident of Oak Square here in Austin BR for a little over four years I'm here today as a private individual completely separate from a professional capacity as a city employee you may recognize me from other meetings in this room um Austin bright is home for me it is a beautiful neighborhood of kind people and I plan to stay here as long as I can afford to this community center is here in Union Square the crossroads of the neighborhood and the Beast W Center is and should be the crossroads and common ground of our diverse community of young and old longers and new arrivals students and workers alustin Brighton needs a community center for the same reason a kitchen needs a stove meet a place for people to come together and change and grow whether that is through youth programs and after school activities senior programs and exercise facilities classes and adult educ mixed income social housing or through ESL classes we've already heard and I'm sure you will hear more from many people about the need for those programming options I would like to focus my testimony on art and culture resources and in particular performance and rehearsal space Boston is an expensive city and Austin Brighton is an expensive neighborhood the days are gone where an art space could scrape together short money for a small storefront or an artist could afford Studio space in a old industrial building if arts and culture to are to have a vibrant future in Austin Brighton and in Boston overall and remain accessible to all they will require explicit programmatic and above all reliable public or private subsidy and support for example the revive Great Scott venue down the street is incorporating that into a residential development in order to subsidize the venue and make it economical to have an arts and culture performance space in today's economy um I believe that the new community center because I hope it's not a question that there should be a new community center should at least have some spaces that can function as Studio spaces exhibit spaces rehearsal spaces or performance spaces um a small to midsize performance space would be most active in the evenings possibly not overlapping with some other some other programming items in the space and provide an additional Hearth in the bustling kitchen that is the Alon Brighton Music and performance art scene this precedent the city owns and operates the Strand Theater in Up's Corner which is a great example of publicly owned performance venue and I believe that fundamentally if arts and culture have a vibrant future in Austin Brighton and the city at large we need more small and mediumsized spaces to replace the ones that have closed and continue to close government Supply and government support of performance rehearsal gallery and Studio space are crucial for maintaining the cultural ecosystem here in our neighborhood and across the city thank you for your time thank you may I'm going to call up the last names who have signed up um come up please if you're still here Lizzie Torres uh oh I don't know what that is Bren Brandon Brandon Bower oh it's Brandon Bowser Angela cell Jones Lee Nave Jr and Eileen hobin if you are still here and Alex okay Alex if you sorry yeah come on up Alex of course okay hi everybody my name is Liv I'm an artist and a tattooer living in Brighton I'm also an Altin Brighton connector and I run the Altin Brighton underground which is an Instagram that is a resource for anyone who's Punk or musician or just a weirdo and just the career community in general I represent the freaks that you out in olon Brighton and I love them um and Al honestly in olon I feel really disconnected from anyone outside of that bubble honestly this is probably the most connected I've felt to my community in a really long time there's so many people here whose voices I've never heard before or walks of life I don't get to experience because there's no place for us to congregate there's no place for us to meet and talk and get to know one another and honestly before this meeting we had to meet at the sill the silhouette Lounge because that's the only place I could think of to meet a bunch of people and talk loudly and I don't even drink so I just had to get a Selter just so we could be there and talk and that shouldn't be the way it is we should be able to meet here in a community center for free I shouldn't have to go to a bar um I feel like having no central place to congregate uh feels like the biggest roadblock in connecting to all of you um the most convenient place oh sorry I'm repeating myself um there should be a place that's easy to get to almost any time of day and meet the people in the community there should be an accessible safe place where I can see the art from the artists that live here a place where I can go and make art that I might even be able to have classes to learn to help me and to learn from my neighbors that might know more than me um where I can then go and hang my art and someone like me can go and see that art too and be inspired and realize that they can do that as well um I want to see art from people in my community not just on Instagram you know um I want to connect to the people that I see around town the people in this room who work in our restaurants and play in our parks and it feels so hard to do that when there's no common spaces where we can go I want a place that serves us all I want a place where Girl Scout Troops can go and meet like I did when I was a second grader where I learn to make friends to learn to make bird houses I learned to silk screen which I still do today I learned to Garden I also took swim lessons at my community center by the way I didn't grow up here I grew up in Southern New Hampshire but I moved here for school um I also tried out gymnastics in my community center these are all things that I love and I think about fondly all the time and it would just be nice also to have a place where I can rent a cricket or a laser cutter without having to use the Brooklyn Public Library it's not even our city that seems ridiculous um I feel like as creative and eclectic as Austin is is we barely have any tools to support that I don't know if you noticed but artists aren't usually the wealthiest people in town um and if we supposedly love the creative flare that Altin brings shouldn't there be programs to support that shouldn't we have tools to support that and as our city is getting more and more unaffordable and pushing out people like me pushing out the musicians destroying our our rehearsal spaces for things that don't serve us shouldn't we at least have a community center where we can congregate and talk about the things that we do want it's really hard to fight for what you want if there's no place where we can go to fight for it you know um it just feels like Against All Odds we have art and music in a general sense of community it's all DIY that's the most amazing thing about Allon is that we want it so bad that we just make it happen and I think we want this communi on really bad and 5 years is a long time to wait when you're really poor thank you thank [Applause] you good evening my name is Tori and I'm here tonight as a proud resident of Austin I am also a Grassroots Community organizer and a healthcare worker and I have also been personally impacted by Co in the past two years and I have friends and loved ones who live here in Altin Brighton with long Co and so as we're listening tonight to all of these many many reasons why we need a community center in our neighborhoods I also want us to in uh to urge us to consider the ways that we can prioritize accessibility starting both now and continuing when not if we get our community center first by adding virtual and hybrid options for people uh to participate not to just observe while this meeting tonight is being live streamed and the option to provide written testimony ahead of time was available individuals unable to come in person are not able to share and be active parts of this evening and all of the community that we've seen forming around us in the past four hours as we continue this process I ask you to create options and space for all voices to be heard um because only being able to observe is not the same thing as access next we need a place where community members can consistent L and reliably access free masks and tests to keep themselves and their families healthy and safe earlier this spring the Boston Public Health commission paused their program which was the only program in the city where local businesses and organizations could access free rapid tests to distribute to the community and this program has not been restarted the reasons cited for uh this pause were due to the seasonal nature of Co even though we just experienced a major summer Sur that was the highest rates of Co in July and August out of any year in the pandemic thus far lastly I want to highlight the need for this space to be able to host masked events so that all Alon Brighton residents can attend this includes all high-risk amuno compromised and disabled members of our community I should not have had to personally weigh the risks of getting sick and getting my loved ones sick to be here tonight and I also chose to be here to work towards a community where everyone can show up to an event like this in our new Community Center thank you thank [Applause] you hello my name is Han um I haven't done this before so bear with me um but I'm 23 and I am originally from Western Mass all the way over past Springfield in the bursh and um I didn't really have a lot of community out there because I grew up in a 500 person town and I was kind of looking at Boston as the beacon my whole life to just get there one day and um I finally did and I moved to Al and I love it and I don't want to leave I don't want to be priced out I just want to be able to be in a community with other people that prioritizes safety and art and everything else that community need I know those aren't the only two things um education accessibility um and I think that um not having a community space is really difficult for everyone um especially people that never got it and came to Boston to have it and I lived here for 2 years before I even got any kind of community despite living so close to Jackson man that I can see that water pools on your roof uh so yeah we do need a new building but um yeah I just I think the community spaces are really important and um and I think they should be prioritized so that's it thank [Applause] you thank you hi everyone my name is Lizzie Torres I've been an Altin resident for8 years but a Bostonian for 14 um and I want to talk a little bit about who isn't here it is 9:30 at night most of my friends are actually working the Clyro show tonight over at roadrunner and the reason why they cannot be here is because they are working one of the major things that the Jackson Man brought us was an ability to gather when Boston artist impact initially got together we are a civic association Collective of artists musicians creatives and now content creators who have made Boston their home as a creative in any industry of their choosing and that has included the people that you don't see which are the people who are working the stage hands they are working the bars they're serving your drinks at your coffee shops and they are creatives too and they are often working those jobs because that is what it takes to survive here one of the biggest ways that they have been connected to Services has been because of this community center and if not for this community center it means that we have to rely on a lot of other private things somebody pointed out we started gathering over at the sill because we didn't know where else to go uh SP as impact one of the ways that we started Gathering because it was night time and we needed a lot of places to go where it was late uh we started gathering at meong dong and God bless them I really appreciate that they let us take up their tables for hours and hours on end to organize but that's not a sustainable model and that should not have been the case so I want to make sure that you know we have a place to gather and that people who work at all hours of our neighborhood are going to be able to have access to it thank you thank you hello everyone last one I'm going to try and be really quick my name is Alex shames I've lived in the neighborhood for several years I've been a community organizer here in the neighborhood neighborhood for several years currently I work for the alustin Brighton Health collaborative um City staff thank you so much for being here next time you do one of those surveys that you want everyone in the neighborhood to do I'm going to give you my business card we'll help you make sure everyone does them um when I first moved to the neighborhood I I was making near poverty wages as a teaching assistant I could barely afford an Uber let alone a car the tea is not reliable and I was basically trapped in this neighborhood and you know especially as a queer person there's only a handful of queer spaces in the city and none of them are in this neighborhood and that's something that I hope a lot of you on the council can really respect and understand um speaking specifically to the issue of budgets and like what can you as City councilors do to help last budget cycle mayor Michelle wooo made a budget that continued the historic underinvestment in District 9 and the city council amended it and to be more Community focused and the mayor vetoed those amendments I want to very specifically thank councelor Breeden our local District counselor along with councelor Mahia councelor fernandz Anderson and some of the other counselors who aren't here for very courageously and bravely voting to override the mayor's veto thank you and I want to invite counselor Murphy counselor Santana counselor Flynn don't know where I went and some of the other councelors who aren't here to please display the same courage this next cycle because we will all be watching the budget very closely thank you thank you [Applause] I want to thank all the council members for coming and the administration members who did come uh and all my wonderful neighbors who said some amazing things my name is Eileen huin uh I was born in Boston my parents were born in Boston although I grew up next door but my husband and I moved into our house on Cory Hill in 1970 early 1977 so we've been here 47 and a half years and while my personal contact with Jackson man has mainly been in the last 10 years for development meetings um perhaps that irony is connected with some of the roadblocks we're dealing with um we have been overdeveloped with the tsunami of when when we moved to uh to Brighton there were um bands of um apartment buildings and in between it was all houses one four family houses and families and now uh and we're active in our religious community and all around us all these organizations are finding that the population is shrinking because people cannot buy houses even if they can afford them they're being um the houses are going to the developers and investors who are paying cash and not families and maybe all the rubber stamping of um new development that the people who live here can't afford and that rubber stamps variances for things like uh setbacks of so there's no green space um is the same attitude which is has kept us from having a community center that clearly has was proved tonight is drastically needed um I live in the corner of Alon Brighton of Brighton that if Alon Brighton is the orphan and treated like an orphan from Boston we're the orphan of Alon Brighton because our triangle from Cleveland Circle South of Commonwealth Avenue to the Alon and Brookline line for over 50 years had a Brooklyn zip code there are still a few houses that do because the post office doesn't go by anybody else's rules um and Brook uh when we had landlines Brook uh Brookline exchanges also that triangle until Brian honen and the development of St John of God had zero parks and playgrounds unless you count Ballwin but that was only for the school and um when St John of God was developed um many neighbors plus countless hours over two or three years by our late councelor Brian Honan convinced them to have a pocket Park which is maintained by one of of the by the condominiums on the Alon Street side and that little pocket park is the only Park in our Corner that's accessible to anyone safely especially to Children safely to get to ringer park or uh anything on the other side of kwol Avenue you have to cross a major Street and K and it's over half a mile or a mile and kids can't go there my kids grew up in Brookline playgrounds because they were accessible that's really not acceptable and we need the green space and we need the community space and I think that the attitude coming from City Hall has to um understand that that's needed here and the only development we need now is a housing that the people who live here can afford with green space and with community space um we were overflowing here tonight if we had and we're getting thousands of new residents so the community center needs to be bigger than it is now not smaller and not the same size and I hope that you can find the ways to overcome these roadblocks thank you to everyone who came tonight thank you so we have one more person public testimony we saved for last and after Rosie goes we will have closing remarks and if there's any um question so Rosie thank you thank you council members thank you Liz Breeden thank you Council Murphy thank you Marta Riviera thank you Chief Irish thank you Brian Ford it is truly my privilege and my honor to serve as the Director at the Austin Brighton Jackson Man Community Center I'm a lifelong resident of this community and I be I got involved to this community center um when I have five children and single parent and I needed help with raising my children in child care and that's how my children came to be a big part of this community center my baby who is now in his 30s was in the preschool here and um and all of my kids went to the after school worked here so I am you you are me we are all in this together and I've seen the the the growth of this community center and I've seen it Whittle away and at this point right now it is so so dire you you've heard the testimonies tonight you've heard the emergency that we have to make sure that a community center is built in Austin Brighton and that it is an emergency and five years is a long time and we've known about the community Cent's needs for way more than for the past at least 10 20 years um in 2018 we heard that the community center needed a new space the expedition of this has to happen now um and we can help find a way to make that happen um the services that have been provided to this community center are are truly necessary and um again I I I can't reiterate it as or speak as well as everybody who spoke tonight but um it it it is dire and it is an emergency and I beseech you on behalf of Austin Brighton to to make sure that this happens sooner than later thank you awesome thank you thank you Rosie um and thank you to all of the public testimony it was very moving um it was wonderful so we will start with if the Administration has any closing remarks and then I'll go to my colleagues do I just like to thank everyone who's still here now and folks who were here earlier for for showing up and and for just sharing your your passion your stories with us and making sure that we clearly understand how important the community center is to you all so just thank you for your your time and for your testimonies thank you all right um councilor Braden um I'm really lost for words I want to thank everyone who took the time to come out here tonight I want to also make a very special shout out it's it's getting late uh thank you you to Central staff it's been a long day and you've turned up thank you so [Applause] much part of the thing about Alon Brighton is we're out on this little Peninsula this little umbilical cord called you know that connects us to the rest of the city so you know you come out here and you don't know are you ever going to go back home to the rest of Boston I I really appreciate everyone who came out tonight and thank you to the administration panel um you know I think you heard us loud and clear that this is a big concern in the neighborhood this this nebor this I think this we see this uh Community Center is a phoenix it's going to rise out of the ashes and we need to reinvent it as a 21st century Community Center I I agree with Eileen huan's comments that we need to think big it might need to be bigger than this one uh and we also see the vital need for a third space in our community a place where this diverse Community can come together and meet and have conversations and get to know each other and support each other we did that during Co but we were you know we were locked out of the community center uh we we we we we managed to P pinch and Putt and find ways to help and support each other during covid and this is a resilient Community but you know I think uh councelor Flynn mentioned public private Partnerships and mentioned our institutions as sources of money we do get a lot of money from our institutions and we put we we do we do we do shake down our developers and ask them for money for our Parks but putting the money in in a park account is not going to make the park improvements happen unless the city puts their share in as well and this the city this will not happen without City investment so I'm appealing to the city and all of those folks from from uh the administration here tonight this has to be a priority and we will get all in and we will support and we will fundraise and we will do what we can but the city has to step up on this one and we need the city to do this sooner rather than later I also want to thank my colleagues uh I I I want to especially thank my my district colleagues who turned up tonight and came out to to support us as a community uh and to stand in solidarity with the alen Brighton Community and thank you to our large colleagues who came out we vote for them so you've got five City counselors you didn't know that and uh and also thank you to councelor Murphy for chairing this incredible meeting tonight thank you all um thank you everyone um I guess a bit you know a cathartic experience to be here in solidarity speaking about together about Community about how we all interconnected and impact each other as a community and how and the need for that space in order to be able able to do that and evolve as one um so really appreciate hearing every single person's um testimony especially from the artist um as a fellow artist I I hear you I know the struggle and I really want that for you so desperately um it's the the the things that we create that beautify our communities that heal our communities that make it so much better than detain our communities and also contribute to the its economy so um of course you are crucial to all it's it's its development um and of course um will'll continue to stand in solidarity with my colleague Council Breeden um in terms of pushing against Administration I think what we heard here today you know sometimes you go into a space and you pull the Band-Aid and it bleeds and you clean it up you put the Band-Aid back on and it festers and it then it infects and then it's not cured so it's like how do you cure the disease um and so I think here you know the followup really is for us to continue to organize and to bring it to the administration the capital budget is decided upon between Administration recommendation or Department's recommendations and mayor wo right so it goes to OBM and again it's h it's going to happen right now in November um and it goes to the request from the administration or the Departments will say well we recommend this or something like that but typically with capital happens between you know OBM which is like 200 plus people they have the resources and the tools to be able to do this analysis and today in um the hearing earlier in terms of classfication we were talking about budgets and how you know like projecting that like the if there's going to be harms going to be recession or how like revenu is diversifying all the stuff and when you look at that Boston doesn't really do an analysis the state does and but Boston doesn't have like a forum where we actually are looking and coming through and saying this is what in 10 years this is what we should be looking at if the administration is doing that they're not very transparent about giving us that information and so I think it's us really having that conversation and pushing back with you and um thank to all the organizers in the back who are who have brought you here um who were able to do that um but and also looking at again it's a capital it's a capital project is the mayor going to decide that this is a priority and she will put it in a capital project it's just a matter of okay FY 26 you look at the list of the capital uh proposals is this going to be one of them um and so we'll have to like again we'll have to keep organizing and pushing on um and as as counselors our job is ility and reviewing budget and all that stuff but you know how this politics works right so continue to partner with us let's work together let's push against Administration let's say this is a priority this is something that we are choosing to make on number one and um hopefully we are successful and thank you again so much for your fight the to um of course the staff and you do have like mayor um staff as well that are here the stuck around people are listening and taking notes um to BPS um staff and other members that I recognize here here as well I went to the back room really quick and there's like it's so sad there're like keyboards I took a call back there and there's like keyboards and like oh my god um dust guitars and like paint and art stuff and all these supp and it's just boarded up and it's just like in boxes just like thrown in like kind of like trash that's really sad to watch and when we know there there are kids in places or artists in places looking for the space and the stuff to use it there has to be more conversation that didn't come out about in this in today there has to be more that we have not talked about that is that is sad um anyway I'll stop there uh Council BR thank you madam chair thank you and um to the admin um Chief I think we were saying the same thing in terms of like holistically coming together like with a bigger group and talking about like how to make those decisions together and and I thank you and I I I respect um the members that are here today and I do agree that there are more people that are missing from this panel to have that further conversation so thank you again for being here and for your work thank you Council send thank thank you madam chair um and um thank you councelor bra BR for filing this and um for rallying up all of the council um and really just want to thank um the residents um for being here um and and for for sticking through this you know I think earlier I had a um I have my my my team is here with us but I also have a youth Ambassador who started with us um a few weeks ago and he texted me I told him you should go home and do some homework so he did do that but before he did that uh he said this is the best community meeting um I've ever attended and I said why what makes you say that I bring him to a lot of these um he said the amount of people the involvement and the gravity of the room feels good I can also feel the emotion and the positive energy from the people here um and you know that stuck with me um I felt that same energy I feel I I can feel you know your frustration um but I think I think someone earlier said you know um there's a sense of hope here right so we're going to continue to fight um alongside your District counselor who's done an incredible job um and work with the administration to make sure that this is a priority uh moving forward really appreciate everyone's time thank you thank you you know I'm one of those kids that have that imp patient energy um and so throughout the night my daughter I had to send her home and I'm a single mom so to all the single moms out there shout out to you all because it's not easy um but I just want to acknowledge I had to send her home in an Uber I've had to text her up 500 times to make sure she was doing her homework and that she took a shower so by the time I get home I don't have to do any of those things right um but it also it's really important for us to understand some of the moms that and the parents that come here that and and spoke here about how important it is for them to have a space and a place for children to actually grow and I think that that really stuck to me and I also think that it's important for us to recognize that at the end of the day we can we can hold you hostage but if we're not standing up for you in the way that you expect us to then we just spend another five hours here without a commitment so I'm That Chick that I want commitment right it's important for us when we go back into the chamber and work with our Council colleagues right to talk about what are we going to do for District 9 so that you can have your community center and what sacrifices are we going to make because often times those discussions are also about trading uh and balances here but I'm going to give you some numbers and I think this is something really important so in November of 2021 um there uh Michelle woo got 92,000 votes across Boston 64% she won by a margin of 41,000 votes 28% more than Ana but here's what is important for you all to know is that wo got 8,612 votes in Altin and Brighton 74% AB was 21% of wo's margin uh margin victory over Ana so that means y'all got the power y'all got the votes now we need to make sure that people have the political will to deliver on that and this is an election season so everybody's going to have to show up and show out for y'all period thank you thank you so um I do just want to go through a few housekeeping before we end um first thank you to council Braden and her staff who did an amazing job I know they're here today but a lot of work went into leading up to today and um you definitely showed out I have to say thank you to Mary who I know um your wife often talks about you in the chamber and this just shows you're here supporting her and that means a lot to me knowing that she has someone at home who cares a lot because she works hard for this community so good to see you here I want to thank again the translators who came I know that on did bring them so thank you to the office of Neighborhood Services for the translators who came tonight um to the administration who's here in state to Ethan Candice and Megan who are here so late and I know you'll be there tomorrow for our council meeting so thank you um thank you to my colleagues who came their staff everyone here and I do just want to end by saying um when Council of braen voted against the capital budget and she apologized and I thought don't apologize you're just saying what you need to say and I stood up and I voted against it with her and I know the administration was worried and they had some some words with her but I think this tonight shows that we need to continue to show up we need to continue to back councilor Braden the political will is there but we have to make sure that we don't give up I often say when I go into different neighborhoods and communities that yeah we're here tonight but we need you here tomorrow we need you here next week we need you here next month so I hope all of you the Your Enthusiasm continues you don't get tired that it's hard but you guys can all do hard things and at the end we will get what you deserve so saying that I want to say that the hearing on doget 1301 is adjourned but the conversation isn't over and we'll just keep thank you Ethan for standing up the whole time I can answer that after we just have to officially adjourn this Council hearing [Music] [Music] [Music]