Copyright The Boston Herald
When the Boston Globe points fingers at you and your Boston neighbors and screams NIMBY, you know you are in for a fight. Of course, that’s exactly what Governor Maura Healey and Mayor Michelle Wu and the developer want; A knockdown, drag out, talk radio donnybrook over a shelter being shoehorned into a tiny former nursing home nestled among a family neighborhood in the Holy Name parish. This proposed shelter for 174 clients plus staff is landing in the old Stonehenge Nursing Home that was slated to be raised for condos. From 1961 through 2022 the small West Roxbury nursing home never cared for more than about 70 patients, plus the staff it was permitted for. It is my hope that the Globe, Mayor Wu, and Governor Healey will take a moment, catch their breath, and stop with the campaign of calumny against my neighbors who have a right to raise questions over a development that will alter the beauty and character of their streets and homes. This debate in a corner of Boston deserves dispassionate analysis and the attention of politicians, candidates, and media who can’t ignore the number one issue in Boston and across the Bay State “body politic:” livability. Lately Mayor Wu has been quoted as saying, “In Boston we follow the law.” Yet in the case of the proposed Redlands Road shelter, the pro-shelter advocates have been running roughshod over the law. Mayor Wu and our City Councilor have remained virtually silent, pointing at Governor Healey and her shelter officials’ actions being “as-of-right.” They are wrong. Old wounds aren’t forgotten in Boston’s neighborhoods with the infamous history of “fixes.” In 1961 the proposed nursing home sought to break ground on an empty, unusable lot that was zoned 60% residential and 40% commercial. Normally a variance would need to be approved with a hearing in front of the old Boston Board of Zoning Adjustment which would weigh the proposed building under the following factors: “to meet the altered needs of a local community, avoid undue concentration of population, to lessen congestion of streets, to provide adequate light and air, to facilitate the adequate provision of transportation, water, sewerage, and other public requirements, and to promote the health, safety, convenience, and welfare of the inhabitants of the city of Boston.” In the labyrinthine ways of Boston City Hall, the Building Department rescued the original developer from a BZA hearing, and issued an occupancy permit for a nursing home at 5 Redlands Road. Many years have passed since nursing home patients lived in the Redlands Road building, the obscure permit on which the occupancy rested has lapsed. Now Governor Healey and the homeless industrial complex have set their heart on over-cramming capacity on Redlands Road. The local politicians like Mayor Wu who are staying mum are just compounding cronyism and degrading the livability of the neighborhood. Since 1961, Boston streets have become more congested. The inhabitants of Redlands and Manthorne Roads most impacted by the proposed shelter residents and staff already have trouble parking. Furthermore, street parking on the section of Centre Street stretching from the Holy Name rotary to Redlands Road has lost many spaces from curb cuts, road redesign, and, dare I say it, bike lanes. Simultaneously, the demand for parking has spiked with the many restaurants that now dot that corner of West Roxbury. Parking and traffic concerns aside, consider state planners who now claim that the basement of the old building is the first floor. Anyone who ever visited a sick relative at the old nursing home knew it was tough for even nimble young legs to get up the steps to the first-floor front door. It is surmised from statements made at a public meeting that if city planners will agree that the basement is the first floor of a commercial property then “aggregate housing” can occupy the old patients’ rooms on the actual first and second floor “as of right.” This basement ruse allows the law to be ignored as well as the special zoning requirements for homeless shelters and transitional housing. It also allows the NIMBY name-calling to shut down honest zoning debate encouraged by law. I agree with Mayor Wu: let’s obey the law, especially when it comes to zoning a shelter. Governor Healey should listen to the neighbors and stop the project. She could recognize the tainted history of 5 Redlands Road; shelter over-capacity; parking shortage; transportation issues; safety of transitional residents; and the welfare of the neighborhood. All of these issues call out for a second review by the governor and pressure to review the decision from the mayor. Yesterday, the Zoning Board of Appeals rejected an appeal filed by an abutter seeking to overturn a city permit issued for the proposed shelter. Mayor Wu promised an open and transparent administration. Governor Healey has made similar promises for her first term. If the Redlands Road shelter project goes forward and the livability of my neighborhood is further compromised, it will be nothing but the same old Boston story with a new set of cronies. Louis Murray is a frequent contributor to the Boston Herald. He lives near the proposed Redlands Road shelter. He tweets on the X platform, find him @LouisLMurrayJr1.
