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Fourth Olympic community meeting filled with demands for transparency, cooperation with community

The organizing group for the 2024 Summer Olympic host bid, Boston 2024, held its fourth community meeting at Roxbury Community College Tuesday evening. The meeting outlined the timeline for the Olympic bid, while fielding questions and concerns from the community.

Richard Davey, chief executive of Boston 2024, speaks at an Olympic Community Meeting Tuesday at Roxbury Community College. PHOTO BY NICKI GITTER/DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF
Richard Davey, chief executive of Boston 2024, speaks at an Olympic Community Meeting Tuesday at Roxbury Community College. PHOTO BY NICKI GITTER/DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF

However, more concerns rather than questions were received by the panel, which consisted of Boston 2024 CEO Richard Davey, Boston 2024 General Counsel Paige Scott Reed, former Olympic rower and Director of Development for Brighton-based group Community Rowing Tracy Brown, original creator of the idea for the bid Corey Dinopoulos and Senior Project Manager at the Boston Redevelopment Authority John Fitzgerald.

Other elected officials in attendance included Boston City Councilor Tito Jackson, a representative from U.S. Rep. Michael Capuano’s administration, a representative from Massachusetts Rep. Jeff Sánchez’s administration and a representative from Boston City Councilor Michael Flaherty’s administration.

The meeting began with the panel reviewing the timeline of the submission of the bid until the official International Olympic Committee decision of the host city in September 2017. Davey also reviewed specific plans for Roxbury-focused sites, such as Franklin Park and George Roger White Schoolboy Stadium. Davey slated White Stadium to host the modern pentathlon, which would include the construction of a swimming pool and two equestrian events for the 13-day period, with Franklin Park hosting the one-day equestrian cross-country event.

“My hope is tonight that we’ll hear some more ideas about how we can leave behind a legacy that the community wants,” Davey said.

Davey also specifically referred to the sites in regard to maintaining and investing in them.

“What does that mean for the golf course? Again, some opportunities to potentially invest in the course after the Olympics, to leave it in a better place than we found it,” Davey said. “We want to leave Franklin Park better than we found it. We don’t touch the wilderness at all, we do not impact the zoo, and yet those are some more opportunities that we should think about investing in leaving behind in better shape.”

Davey also referred to White Stadium as a beautiful Art-Deco stadium in need of some repair.

Immediately following the proposal, a question-and-answer session erupted into a criticism of how Boston 2024 has handled the bid thus far.

Former Massachusetts Sen. Dianne Wilkerson spoke out against the lack of transparency with which Boston 2024 handled both the bid and the community meetings.

“There’s no way to hear any answers because we don’t have a process that’s like this,” Wilkerson said, gesturing to the crowd. “It’s all we talk to you, you say what you’ve been saying in one night, and then we go away.”

She went on to say that the entire concept of the meetings has changed since they began in February.

“Part of what you’ve been saying is that you’ve been talking about best practices, and so it’s been changing,” Wilkerson said. “What I think is, the conversations have been an attempt to get people to agree with what you’ve already decided to do.”

Wilkerson also spoke out regarding how the panel had spoken to residents about her before she took the stand.

“You acknowledged, before I came to the mic, that I would give you constructive criticism,” Wilkerson said. “That’s the second time you’ve done that, and I don’t really need you to tell people, before I speak, what I’m going to say because if you thought it was constructive, you would be doing some of it.”

Bruce Bickerstaff, 67, of Mission Hill, also attended the meeting, further criticizing the role of bureaucracy in a decision that could permanently impact residents of his lifelong home.

“Who is my representative? In terms of the voice of the community in which I live and serve. I’m always interested in how these cohorts are selected, and who taps someone on the head to give them their appointments,” he said. “I hope, in terms of transparency, not only are the committees identified by name, but by their process, because I think there are maybe folks affiliated with groups that we don’t know, with ideas and input that could be very important to the whole decision.”

He also called for a new format of the community meetings, where all residents could be heard.

“I would like to see these meetings where there’s a call and response, the questions from any community are answered in a reasonable and timely fashion and included in some of the policy procedure,” Bickerstaff said.

Claire Humphrey, 56, of Jamaica Plain, attended Tuesday’s meeting in Roxbury, marking her third attendance at an Olympic community meeting.

“I’ve just been getting more and more infuriated with this idea that they’re listening. They’re not hearing. So many people of such caliber in every meeting I’ve been to take the microphone and they treat them like they’re rabble,” she said.

Humphrey also explained how outraged she was in regard to how speakers were treated while taking the microphone in Roxbury.

“This, in Roxbury, right now, is the first time in one of these meetings that they’ve threatened repeatedly, to call security. How tone deaf can you be to what is going on in this country to what is going on with these issues?” she said. “You come to Roxbury, and this is the first time I’ve seen someone of color on the podium, and this is the first time that you threaten security?”

Bob Erickson, 66, of Watertown, attended the meeting as a volunteer for Boston 2024, advocating on behalf of the organization.

“I’m in favor of it because in the beginning, I was like a lot of folks. I did have my questions. The more meetings I go to, the more information I’ve gleaned from these folks, the stronger an advocate I am for this, in terms of the economics of it, the jobs it will create, the power of sport,” he said.

Erickson also said his time in the U.S. Army influenced his opinion regarding the games.

“I did a number of years in the Army,” he said, “It’s the ability to be a part of something greater than yourself for a noble cause. I think this will help the entire surrounding area economically, educationally.”

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