Demanding democratic approaches to Fenway and affordable housing problems and infuriated by charges that Mayor Thomas Menino made a false announcement regarding the Fenway Planning Task Force, roughly 20 members of the Boston University Youth Alliance for Housing held a heated protest at an FPTF meeting last night.
Protesters dominated the group’s meeting and demanded community involvement in the Fenway Planning Task Force. College of Arts and Sciences junior Mark Greenfield initiated the dissension with a speech in which he called the task force a “sham,” and the Boston Redevelopment Authority “undemocratic.”
“Why don’t we let the people who live here decide what’s going to happen to their area?” Greenfield asked.
Chanting “What do we want? Democracy! When do we want it? Now!” several members of the audience joined in the protest. One task force member even declared it was good to see “the spirit of the ’60s alive and well.”
The spectacle reached its peak when a BUYAH member was ordered away by the task force for attempting to do an impression of Menino in front of the FPTF. However, the real Menino then prompted a fervent discussion.
According to BUYAH and the Fenway task force, Menino falsely announced Wednesday that the task force reached a 14-2 decision regarding Fenway Park’s zoning. The task force asserted no such vote had occurred, and was encouraged by the audience to inform the mayor of this discrepancy immediately; however, no clear consensus on the issue was reached.
The news of the alleged Menino error encouraged the BUYAH members who began promptly performing their own rendition of, “Take Me Out to the Ball Park,” belting lyrics such as, “ … Buy me a task force and make it a sham, give me ten acres of free private land …”
The song amused much of the audience, but brought about derision from many task force members.
Several members returned the crowd’s insults and a few got up from their positions at the front of the room. Task force chairman Joe Barton claimed BUYAH didn’t understand the task force’s mission.
“Everybody’s trying to misrepresent what we do,” he said.
The task force’s Roscoe Sandlin attempted to restore order to the meeting with a discussion of the different zoning possibilities for Fenway Park. However, BUYAH members’ questions and calls for a community vote soon led to more arguments between the audience and the task force.
Prior to the meeting, BUYAH member Josh Bordin, a CAS freshman, described BUYAH’s purpose at the meeting.
“We want to get the public involved and show that we’re on their side,” he said.
Greenfield said the group had accomplished their goal.
“We were most definitely successful tonight,” he said. “If the FPTF is really a community organization, they’ll work with us to help the Fenway area.”