67 Percent of Survey Respondents Favor Housing, No School at Jackson Mann Site

A new city of Boston survey found strong support for redeveloping the long-stalled Jackson Mann Community Center site with a community center and housing instead of a school, giving city officials a clearer signal as Allston-Brighton residents push for a final decision.

Out of the 473 respondents, 67 percent rated the community center-and-housing proposal a four or five out of five, according to survey results released earlier this month. Forty-six percent gave it the highest score.

Under the proposal, the city would begin designing a new community center with a pool in 2027 or 2028, forgo a new school, and maximize affordable or mixed-income housing on the site. The city would begin selecting a housing developer in January 2027.

The alternative would reserve space for a possible future school, including less housing, and push community center design to 2029. Thirty-one percent of respondents gave that option the lowest rating of one, while 22 percent rated it a two.

The survey asked respondents to rate each proposal separately, rather than choose between them.

The results follow a first city survey conducted this summer, in which respondents were more evenly split. Among those who selected one of three options, 187 chose community center and only housing, 171 chose community center and only school, and 123 supported both. The surveys used different question formats, making different comparisons difficult.

The redevelopment of Jackson Mann has been stalled since 2019, when the existing building was deemed too deteriorated to renovate. The site previously housed the Jackson Mann School and the Horace Mann School for the Deaf. The city continues to run limited programming in the aging facility.

Boston Mayor Michelle Wu ’07 committed to rebuilding the community center in May and said she hoped to reach an agreement on the site’s uses by the end of the year. The city has conducted four feasibility studies and held several community meetings with residents to discuss the future of the site, but has yet to finalize a plan.

The new survey states that Boston Public Schools does not believe it needs the Jackson Mann site to meet the neighborhood enrollment needs. But questions remain over the district’s control over part of the property.

Oscar I. Lopez, housing community engagement manager at Charlesview Inc., said the survey results should settle the debate over whether to build a school on the site.

“Hopefully these survey results will tell the administration that we want that community center and we deserve a better community center than we currently have,” Lopez says. “That means nothing if BPS doesn’t then give up the site.”

Many respondents called on the city to invest more in existing schools like Brighton High School, including facility improvements and increased funding for extracurricular programming.

The survey also asked residents what amenities they would like on the site. Eighty-three percent said they were either “very interested” or “interested” in an early childhood education center, while about 77 percent expressed interest in redesigning the plaza in front of the community center.

Respondents were largely in favor of using the Taft Building, which currently houses the Boston Green Academy, as temporary space for community center programming. The building would host daytime programming while the new center is being built and is equipped with a gym, cafeteria and 36 parking spaces.

Boston officials plan to host another meeting to review the survey results at Jackson Mann on Oct. 27.

Richard T. “Ricky” Meinke, a longtime resident and director for the Rat City Arts Festival, said he hopes the city will make a final decision on their plans for the site.

“I think the next thing is not scheduling another survey of any kind,” Meinke said. “The city has so much data at this point from multiple years and then multiple requests that they should be able to understand what is a practical way forward with the Jackson Mann site.”

—Staff writer Thamini Vijeyasingam can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on X @vijeyasingam.

—Staff writer Kevin Zhong can be reached at [email protected].