With three academic juggernauts — Boston University, Harvard University and, now, Boston College — closing in, Allston-Brighton is truly feeling the squeeze.
Last month, BC officials announced the school is planning major expansions into Allston-Brighton. Only, university administrators never met with Boston City Councilors to discuss the plans.
It is not a good start for a project likely to strain the relationship between BC and the Allston-Brighton community. With growing class sizes and demand for on-campus housing, BC has no choice but to expand into A-B, but it should be careful not to alienate its neighbors in the process.
In recent years, BC has become the “it” school for students across the country. U.S. News and World Report even ranked the university 34th in its “America’s Best Colleges” survey. BC’s growing reputation is surely prompting university officials to expand, but they are often met with space constraints from other area colleges.
BC can no longer expand into Newton, and one of the university’s only options left is to compete for space in Allston-Brighton with other land-hungry schools.
In years past, BU and Harvard University have pushed deeper into Brighton, often forcing families and lower-income residents from the area. BC’s greater presence in the area will only serve to inflame the problem.
But, the university’s decision to build a housing complex in the area might not be such a bad idea. Already, BC students are not guaranteed housing and must look to the Allston-Brighton area for off-campus housing. This puts pressure on low-incoming housing and can turn family neighborhoods into college slums.
While we understand that even with an expansion project students will want to live off campus, the construction of a densely populated dormitory might actually take the part of strain off residents since fewer students would have to venture off campus for housing.
A well-formulated student housing project would not only slow the spread of co-eds into the area, but it would enable administrators to keep a closer eye on the students by putting them under the rules of a university-sanctioned setting.
Since it is inevitable that the university will expand, Allston-Brighton officials should make the best of the situation. They should ask for concessions from the university to mitigate its impact on surrounding residents.
With every new building constructed, a beautification project should be undertaken, so that at the very least, the remaining residents of Allston-Brighton can enjoy the fruits of BC’s growth.