Parochial politics

Rolling over the Fenway is politically easy when its citizens don't vote

Within the city of Boston, there are three places a new baseball park could be built: the site of the city's old incinerator at South Bay, the waterfront, and in the Fenway, near the site of the current park. When the Red Sox announced early last year that they wanted to build a new park, there was no public debate over which location would be best. It was simply announced, months later, that the new park would be built in the Fenway. We now know that Sox CEO John Harrington wanted to build on the waterfront but Mayor Tom Menino directed him to come up with a plan in the Fenway. During what little public debate there's been on the matter since, such as the June 19 city-council hearing on the Sox' plan, mayoral aides and Boston Redevelopment Authority officials have blithely dismissed the waterfront and the site of the old incinerator as unsuitable locations.

Why? Although the site of the city's old incinerator at South Bay is ripe for redevelopment and that neighborhood is more industrial than residential, city officials say it won't work. The Sox want to build on 15 acres. The footprint of the old incinerator at South Bay is just 3.3 acres. Acquiring the additional acreage at South Bay would disrupt the businesses in the area; much of the food-distribution business in the city is located there. City officials say it wouldn't be practical or wise to disrupt this business. In addition, they note that there isn't enough public transportation in the area to get fans to and from the games.

The waterfront, like South Bay, is not heavily residential, despite its proximity to South Boston. There's plenty of developable space that could be used without dislocating many local businesses. But the waterfront, like South Bay, has little public transportation in place. In addition, city officials believe that the South Boston neighborhood, located less than a mile from the waterfront, couldn't simultaneously accommodate more than one major construction project. Given that the city's new convention center is being built on the waterfront, that eliminates the possibility of developing a new baseball park for the Red Sox there. Which leaves the Fenway.

The Fenway already has two T stops to get fans to and from the games. But, like South Bay, it's home to a large business that affects the public: four years ago, the US Postal Service built a delivery annex on Boylston Street. Under the Sox' current plan, this would have to move. More than 30 other businesses, including the offices of the Boston Phoenix, a pathology lab for Harvard Vanguard, several restaurants, a doctor's office, and a gas station, would be forced to relocate.

So why is the crowded, bustling, heavily residential Fenway neighborhood deemed a better location for a new ballpark than the comparatively deserted waterfront? The area is undergoing a development boom the likes of which hasn't been seen in many years: there's the Landmark Center on Brookline Avenue; across the street from that, a hotel and housing complex is in the works; a European-style hotel is being built in Kenmore Square; and nearby in the Back Bay, there's the massive Millennium Place project. Is the Fenway really the best place to build a new ballpark?

Well, there's one last variable that city officials haven't brought up, but we will: voting statistics. In 1997, Menino received 48,323 votes out of 48,342 cast citywide -- 10,170 voters went to the polls in South Boston that election; just 3612 bothered to pick up a ballot in the Fenway and Back Bay. In 1993, in a tight contest that saw eight candidates slug it out in the primary, Menino won the final election with 74,448 votes out of 115,513 cast. Again, South Boston sent considerably more people to the polls than the Fenway and Back Bay: 17,302 versus 7706.

Given that, Menino's decision to direct Harrington to build in the Fenway makes sense. Why risk offending the community that actually sends politicians to office in this city? But Menino is putting his future ahead of the city's. It simply makes no sense to steer development away from an area of the city that needs it and toward a neighborhood that's close to being overwhelmed with it. It's difficult to think of another example in which one neighborhood has been coddled, like a favorite child, over the rest of the city. Oh, wait a minute, there was Menino's decision to approve a deal that not only directed 51 percent of the linkage funds generated by the convention-center project to South Boston but also gave that neighborhood the authority to further negotiate with developers for "community benefits."

It's hard to predict exactly how these sorts of decisions will affect the city in the long term. Politicians have always made decisions with one eye on the voting stats. But in the past 50 years, perhaps no other neighborhood has been favored over every other in the way that South Boston has been for the past two. And it's hard to believe that this practice, if continued, won't divide the city in ways that we haven't seen in decades.

We can lament Menino's shameless pandering. We can point out how unfair it is. But unless voters outside South Boston start electing people to office, it's not going to change. If you aren't registered to vote, you can change that by downloading a voter-registration form from www.election.com.

What do you think? Send an e-mail to letters[a]phx.com.