Carrying signs reading “Take your Husky paws off our community” and “Fenway: A community, not a campus,” angry members of the Fenway neighborhood took to the streets Wednesday to protest Northeastern’s purchase of St. Ann University Parish.
Residents have been voicing their disapproval since Northeastern officials announced last month the Archdiocese of Boston had accepted its bid for St. Ann. The Fenway Community Development Corporation (CDC) had also placed a bid for the property. Speakers at the demonstration said they hoped the Archdiocese would find their plans for low-income housing more attractive than the university’s higher bid.
“We had hoped that the Archdiocese [of Boston] would pursue a mission, not a bottom line,” Carl Nagy-Koechlin, executive director of the Fenway CDC, said to the crowd gathered outside St. Ann on St. Stephen Street.
About 40 members of the community, along with local elected officials, gathered outside St. Ann. As each speaker stood on the steps to let his or her voice be heard, community members clapped and nodded in agreement.
“This Archdiocese has done a heretical act to sell to the highest bidder,” said State Representative Byron Rushing, a Democrat representing Roxbury, to cheers from the crowd. “This is not inside the boundaries of Northeastern. We stand for this property to be used for housing and affordable housing.”
Fenway CDC wanted to convert the site to mixed income housing with at least 25 percent reserved for low-income housing, Nagy-Koechlin said.
Northeastern’s future plans for the site are undetermined, said Director of Communications Fred McGrail. For the next three to five years, the church will be used as a meeting space for university and community use. St. Ann, however, will soon become a part of the university’s Institutional Master Plan, where a decision for the building’s future will be made by fall 2006, McGrail said. The plans for the site will be made through Northeastern and the Community Task Force. McGrail wouldn’t speculate on whether St. Ann would be converted into a residence hall.
“It would be premature and disrespectful to the whole process of the Community Task Force to have that discussion before they did,” McGrail said. “There are a number of possibilities that will be considered.”
During the demonstration, City Councilor Chuck Turner, a Democrat representing the South End and Roxbury neighborhoods, read a letter from the residents of the Fenway to President Freeland.
“The St. Ann’s site is not to be used for an institutional use,” the letter read. “The university should not attempt to have it incorporated into its Institutional Master Plan … If you cannot do so, we ask that you reconsider purchasing the property.”
After the letter was read, protesters marched to President Freeland’s office to deliver the letter. Walking along Huntington Avenue, they sang and chanted while carrying signs.
Onlookers in front of the Marino Center stared at the residents who passed by chanting “Housing for community, not the university!”
They were met at Churchill Hall by university and public safety representatives, including Captain Al Sweeney from Northeastern Public Safety and Jeff Doggett, executive director of government relations and community affairs. One Boston Police cruiser was also parked nearby. Although the office was closed and Freeland had left for the night, Turner and Rushing were accompanied inside to slide the letter under Freeland’s office door.
Several more people spoke before the crowd dispersed.
“A good neighbor acts with honorable intentions,” said Rose Arruda of the Coalition to Limit University Expansion. “Northeastern needs to understand that their big picture is not our big picture. We as a unified community are not going to accept it.”
Residents said they came out to protest not because they were angry that students are in the neighborhood, but because they did not want to lose their sense of community.
“There’s a perception on campus that the community hates the students … that’s not true,” said Joyce Foster, an eight-year resident of Symphony Road. “But we are a residential community. I don’t want to live on campus. I want to live in a neighborhood.”
The 30-day warning period required before purchasing the site will end May 22, McGrail said, and at that time Northeastern will be allowed to sign a purchase of sales agreement. Fenway CDC will continue to work to try and stop Northeastern’s purchase of the site or influence the university to make plans for low-income housing, Nagy-Koechlin said.
