Allston Residents Divided On Benefits Package

Members of the Allston community remain divided on the promise of a community benefits package attached to Harvard’s Institutional Master Plan for development in Allston, which the Boston Redevelopment Authority will accept or reject on Oct. 17.

As part of its ten-year, nine-project IMP, the University has proposed a package of community benefits worth $17 million to fund projects that include community programs and improvements to local infrastructure, as well as $10 million for the creation of a new teaching and learning center. This center would host AllstonX, a program to improve digital literacy for all age groups and which mimics HarvardX, Harvard’s branch of edX.

Members of the Harvard-Allston Task Force expressed disappointment that the benefits package did not include large development projects, such as the construction of affordable housing and the renovation of The Gardner Pilot Academy, a local school.

Task force member Brent C. Whelan ’73 said the money allocated to community programming will be spent to maintain programs that Harvard already offers in Allston.

“I’d be delighted if large capital investment projects were included in the benefits package,” Whelan said. “Just maintaining the status quo and adding things here and there is really disappointing.”

He added that the benefits the University has proposed are “great things, but are not the things that would really transform the community.”

Last week, the task force submitted a comment letter to the Boston Redevelopment Authority offering suggestions for the University’s IMP. The letter included a fourteen-page community benefits proposal that focused on four areas: education, housing, employment and workforce development, and open space and transportation. Whelan estimated the cost of the entire proposal to be between $50 million and $100 million.

Another task force member, Harry E. Mattison, said that the University’s community benefits package did not reflect the priorities of the community.

“When you think about what Harvard is offering, it’s a lot of ideas and vision but not a whole lot of real, tangible things that…have lasting benefits and impact,” he said.

In an emailed statement, Kevin Casey, Harvard’s associate vice president for public affairs and communications, said that the IMP does “reflect the interests we've heard from the Allston-Brighton community.”

In fact, not all Allston residents shared the task force’s criticisms of Harvard’s community benefits package.

“I believe the Harvard IMP should be accepted as written,” Reynold M. McKinney said. McKinney, who has lived in Allston for 44 years, said that some of the community benefits the task force proposed were not practical.

“[The members of the task force] want Harvard to take care of things that are outside its scope…as an educational institution,” he said.

McKinney also suggested that there is a lack of communication between the residents of Allston and the members of the task force.

“Everybody I know thinks of Harvard’s expansion into Allston as a godsend to this town,” he said.

—Staff writer Marco J. Barber Grossi can be reached at mbarbergrossi@thecrimson.com. Follow him on Twitter @marco_jbg.