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Boston Globe Editorial
INCURSIONS IN CHINATOWNMarch 11, 2002
DEVELOPMENT INTERESTS have outpaced city planning efforts in Boston's Chinatown neighborhood, creating frustration on the part of residents who fear gentrification, traffic congestion, and displacement due to rising property values. The area will need more attention from the Boston Redevelopment Authority, the city's planning and development agency, if it is to remain the social and business hub for the region's Chinese and Asian communities. Much of the neighborhood's anger is currently directed at the proposed Liberty Place project at Washington and Beach streets, where developers want to build a 30-story, 468-unit apartment building on land occupied by a parking lot. Current regulations require zoning relief for buildings higher than 100 feet. Also too high to generate a warm welcome in Chinatown are market rents that are expected to range from $1,600 to $3,200 per month.
Oddly, much of the BRA's planning efforts for Chinatown are focused on turnpike air rights parcels south of Kneeland Street. That area represents long-term potential to replace some of the housing lost in the 1960s during the construction of the Southeast Expressway and the turnpike. But the real development action is taking place on the northern edges of Chinatown. In addition to Liberty Place, a development team wants to build a 28-story building containing 294 luxury apartments on the so-called ''hinge block'' adjacent to the China Trade Center, and the BRA is reviewing proposals from five developers for housing, retail, and office complexes on nearby Hayward Place.
The BRA needs to ensure adequate analysis of the impacts of these developments, including noise, air quality, traffic congestion, and especially the potential displacement of low-income residents of Chinatown. There is a need for more housing downtown. But the proposed additions should not come at the expense of an authentic, affordable Chinatown.
Developers and city planners alike have been surprised by the vigorous opposition to Liberty Place. For many years, both city officials and developers overrelied on the mainstream, pro-development Chinatown Neighborhood Council to negotiate community benefits - such as contributions to social service agencies and set-asides for inexpensive housing - needed to offset large-scale development. New faces also belong at the negotiating table, including members of the Chinese Progressive Association and the Chinatown Resident Association. Such groups have shown a willingness to engage developers up front on the density, height, and massing of new buildings, not just the community benefits that come later.
Development will come to Chinatown. But residents shouldn't surrender to excess.
This story ran on page A14 of the Boston Globe on 3/11/2002.
© Copyright 2002 Globe Newspaper Company.