Development

Fenway friction

by Dorie Clark

Tuesday's Boston City Council hearing on the Red Sox' proposal to build a new baseball park in the Fenway neighborhood turned into a sparring match between councilors and Mayor Menino's administration. The hearing, which was a joint summit of the Ways and Means Committee and the Economic Development and Transportation Committee, continued the forum held in the Fenway on October 30. That forum was meant as an opportunity for citizens to ask questions and share their concerns; on Tuesday, councilors got the chance to fire their own zingers.

Council president James Kelly of South Boston, who's been at odds with the mayor since Menino reneged on a lucrative community-benefits deal he had promised to Kelly's neighborhood, chastised mayoral chief of staff James Rooney for keeping councilors out of the loop on Fenway plans, saying that "it was not only a discourtesy to the council, but also bad politics, certainly unwise politics." He cautioned that "we should not be perceived as rubber stamps; we should not be perceived as anything other than a deliberative body," and he demanded that Rooney and the Red Sox representative give him a reason why the council shouldn't vote right away to kill the proposal, which would take privately owned land by eminent domain in order to build a new, larger stadium near the current park's site. (To read the Boston Globe's account of the exchange, you'd think Kelly had been inviting the mayor to use sweet reason. In fact, his tone was dripping with disdain and sarcasm.)

The administration gave as good as it got, with Rooney sarcastically responding to a detailed question from Councilor Mike Ross, an opponent of the Fenway plan, with "I appreciate your keeping the questions general, as you said you would." Even Councilor Paul Scapicchio, who unlike Kelly and Ross has not come down against the proposal, was miffed at the administration's conduct. "In every relationship there are problems that come from lack of communication, and I just want to flag that going forward," he said. "It's bothered me and it's bothered many of the councilors." (The Boston Phoenix's offices at 126 Brookline Avenue would be among those displaced by the proposed new stadium, and the paper has editorialized against the plan.)

Meanwhile, councilors also raised questions about the project's financing in light of a new study by Dennis Zimmerman of the Congressional Budget Office, which Councilor Maura Hennigan unveiled. Zimmerman's figures show that the numbers put forth by the city, because they do not take into account land donation and lost tax revenue, understate costs by 44 percent. Indeed, he estimates that Boston's total expenses will rise to the vicinity of $662 million. With the Menino administration desperately trying to garner council support -- and with seven of the 13 members already on record against the proposal -- the hostility displayed Tuesday is only likely to escalate.