Being green

Activists want South Bay development to combine economics with environmental responsibility. Plus, two young guns on the Boston City Council exchange fire, and the city sees an increase in violence.

by Ben Geman

RUBBLE ROUSING: will the site that once housed the city's incinerator be revived with eco-friendly development?

Will an ecotopia rise from the contaminated rubble in Boston's long-neglected South Bay?

Next Thursday, April 13, the state's Division of Capital Asset Management (DCAM) will hold a public hearing at Morgan Memorial Goodwill Industries in Roxbury to discuss clean-up of the contaminated home of Boston's incinerator, which was shut down in 1975. The site, located just off the Southeast Expressway next to the Suffolk County House of Correction, is nearing the end of a $7 million demolition and environmental clean-up.

Since the mid 1990s, DCAM has removed asbestos, contaminated soil, and illegally dumped debris from the site. The incinerator itself was knocked down in 1998. "It's very vague what happened out there for years," points out Carol Meeker, an environmental attorney with DCAM. "No one really knows. It wasn't really secure, and I think a lot of stuff got deposited on the site."

The state-owned parcel is small, about three acres, but many hope its development will set the stage for the future of Boston's South Bay. That district is made up of hundreds of thousands of square feet of underutilized land, buildings, and surface parking, along with the Newmarket business area. The South Bay, which forms a crossroads between the South End, Roxbury, North Dorchester, and South Boston, is a kind of wild west, where big schemes -- stadiums, for example -- are floated seemingly out of nowhere.

But a model for better development of this underused area could be emerging. Within a week or two, State Representative Byron Rushing (D-South End) and State Senator Stephen Lynch (D-South Boston) are set to submit legislation that would allow DCAM to issue requests for proposals for development of the site, Rushing says.

So the long-simmering question of what kind of development best suits the area is heating up. Neighborhood and environmental activists have long looked at the dirty land and seen a chance to usher in sustainable "green" development; that is, industry that reuses materials and takes other steps to avoid polluting. Activists want to see plans adhering to principles such as community input, as well as jobs for nearby residents in industries that don't foul the air in a section of the city where asthma rates are high.

Neighborhoods United for South Bay, a community group, is working with the Cambridge nonprofit New Ecology, Inc., formed in 1999 by environmental attorney Bill Shutkin to shepherd green development in cities. "We're eager to see the disposition process initiated where the best proposals can come forward, the ones that offer the best economic development and the best environmental value," says Shutkin, whose group is also working with residents for improved development in Somerville's underused Assembly Square area.

Proponents of green development of the incinerator site even have a use picked out: production of energy-efficient homes by a group that uses building techniques stressing reuse of materials and other environment-friendly methods. The Cambridge-based GreenVillage Company says its proposed plant would provide about 100 jobs with a base pay of at least $16 per hour. The company's already active locally -- the Codman Square Neighborhood Development Corporation is using GreenVillage to build 50 new affordable-housing units in Dorchester.

But they have some competition, and well-connected competition at that. Suffolk County sheriff Richard Rouse is also eyeing the land. He envisions using it as a "central lock-up," a place where people who have been arrested but haven't yet been arraigned can wait. Right now, those folks are detained in police stations, sometimes shackled to whatever's handy, which Rouse says is lousy public policy. According to the sheriff, several dozen Boston police officers spend their time overseeing detainees on any given day, officers who could be patrolling or doing other more-productive tasks. And locating the lock-up right next to the existing Suffolk County House of Correction, he says, allows for "economies of scale" in kitchen and laundry and other facilities.

Besides, Rouse says, correctional facilities are notoriously unpopular with abutters, so the South Bay, which is relatively removed from the heart of any neighborhood, is a good location. "There are so few parcels available, and that one does not impact neighborhoods as much as some others do," he says. "It does not abut homes, and it is blocked off by a highway."

Activists don't want the lock-up, but then playing defense in South Bay is nothing new. Various plans floated for South Bay have included a new Fenway Park, a new home for the New England Patriots, and an asphalt plant. Shutkin says he doesn't want to see plans that "come from left field."

Another activist, Deb Asbrand, also of Neighborhoods United for South Bay, reiterates that in Boston, "proposals can come out of the sky with no community input and no notification." Case in point: a few weeks ago, the Boston Globe reported that close Menino ally Robert Walsh and other developers wanted to relocate a large mail-processing facility to the South Bay near the incinerator site.

Back in the mid '90s, the group Coalition Against the Asphalt Plant battled plans for an asphalt plant near the incinerator, which opponents said would provide few jobs and could worsen air quality. The city's board of health all but killed the plan with a 1996 ruling against the Todesca Equipment Company, the plant's would-be builders. (That case is still in court, but the asphalt-plant scenario seems unlikely at this point.) Now activists are hoping for another positive action from the city, but they haven't gotten one yet. According to Shutkin, the city and the BRA haven't been hostile toward developing the incinerator site, but they haven't been bursting with enthusiasm either.

"We have not seen much in the way of action," he says, pointing out that even though the city does not own the area, it could do more to improve landscaping, sidewalks, and other features. "We'd love for the mayor to step up and make South Bay a priority and recognize how critical it is for the economic future and the future quality of life in the neighborhoods surrounding South Bay."

What's clear is that there's something stirring in the ashes of the incinerator that holds, finally, the prospect for good development in an area where progress has been painfully slow. Meeker says that if the legislation submitted by Rushing and Lynch is approved, she'd like to see the agency issue a request for proposals within a year. If the long-standing and often frustrating dream of a green site becomes reality, activists say it could set the stage for a better South Bay.

"We are struggling, working really hard to come up with models of successful sustainable development we can point to as advocates, planners, lawyers, and community leaders to say this is how it is done, this is how you can do it in your community," says Shutkin.

Similarly, Rushing says the site can "set a standard" for the area. "It's a model for using a brownfield and a model for using industrial land that is positioned so well in the inner city," he says.

"I think we are getting closer," says Asbrand. "I would love for us to be moving faster. It's very important we get going now and take advantage of a booming economy. If we don't, I can see it sitting empty for another 20 years."

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Don't think for a second that the recent squabbling between two young Boston city councilors over the Big Dig is just about the depression of the Central Artery. It's also about two hallmarks of the city council: ambition and limited power.

Recently, rookie at-large councilor Michael Flaherty introduced an order calling for a council review of the planning process for open space above the submerged artery. The planning process is an area where the city council's power is pretty small compared to Mayor Tom Menino's or the state-level players', but the council could be useful as a stage to hash things out. Council president Jimmy Kelly assigned the proposal to the Flaherty-chaired committee on state and federal relations.

That irked Councilor Paul Scapicchio, who chairs the council's committee on economic development and transportation, which is supposed to oversee Big Dig issues. Scapicchio, a North Ender, has also pointed out that his district bears the worst of the development's headaches. So last week he and at-large councilor Stephen Murphy submitted an order calling for Scapicchio's committee to hold a hearing, during which Big Dig officials would brief councilors on the project's progress and effects.

Touché. Although Scapicchio was angry that Flaherty -- who has stressed the need for sensible planning above the depressed artery -- wanted a piece of the Big Dig, the two seem to have patched things up publicly. Flaherty signed on to Scapicchio's order last week, and they're also saying nice things about each other's motives. "We're both trying to do the right thing by our constituents," says Scapicchio.

Adds Flaherty: "It's water under the bridge. We are going to work cooperatively with each other. There are no hard feelings."

Still, no doubt Scapicchio saw Flaherty's move as a power grab by an ambitious young pol riding one of the hottest issues around. Even now, after the public niceties, Scapicchio seems to think that Flaherty is invading his turf. (He also was angry at Kelly, whom he's supported as council president, for giving his favorite topic to Flaherty, a fellow South Boston pol.) Here's how Scapicchio describes Flaherty's plan for an open-space hearing: "It's going to be just, I guess, his own take on it, but now it's back in the committee where it is supposed to be." Hardly a ringing endorsement.

To council observers, the whole affair is more about egos and ambition than about what issue should land in what committee. Flaherty and Scapicchio are in their early and mid 30s and probably don't see the council as their final political destination. "What the city council has to say in terms of what's going to go over the artery is not going to have a huge impact," points out former city councilor Tom Keane. "Flaherty plainly is looking to establish himself in a citywide context, and this is a great issue."

John Nucci, another former councilor, calls the dust-up a sign of what's to come, evidence that the council's youngsters will push and shove to gain the spotlight. "This is probably the first volley in what will be a continuing jockeying for position," says Nucci, who has backed both candidates in the past. "Better the councilors are competing with one another than simply being dormant and not doing anything."

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While police were busy -- very busy -- ensuring that protesters didn't disrupt the Biotechnology Industry Organization conference or otherwise wreak havoc in the Back Bay last week, five people were murdered in Boston: two on March 26 and three on March 28.

The murders, along with another committed on April 2, brought this year's total number of homicides in Boston to twice what it was last year at this time. (As the Phoenix went to press, there had been 12 murders committed in the city since January 1, compared with six during the same period last year.)

The heavy police presence for the BIO 2000 conference was triggered by the protests and civil disobedience against last year's World Trade Organization conference in Seattle. The Boston Police Department assigned a lot of officers to deal with potential vandalism -- which was practiced by just several dozen or so protesters in Seattle but never materialized in Boston -- and with civil disobedience.

Though police officials say they didn't cut back on any other patrols in order to cover Biodevastation -- "Not at all . . . [patrol of the] neighborhoods remained the same," says a police spokesperson -- it's hard not to miss the irony. At the same time that Boston police were out on our streets in greater numbers than at any other time in recent memory, people were getting killed elsewhere in the city.

One bit of good news is that Biodevastation protesters say that police were cordial during the protests. "For the most part they were very tolerant and very respectful of our rights," says Jessica Hayes, one of Biodevastation's organizers.

Ben Geman can be reached at bgeman[a]phx.com.