Artistic disaster

Last week's misunderstanding over lofts in Fort Point Channel obscures a far more important issue: the looming eviction of several hundred artists from a neighborhood they revitalized

There's a disaster ahead for the Fort Point Channel arts community. Over the next two to four years, the leases of several hundred artists who live and work in that area are due to expire -- and at the moment, there is little hope that any of those leases will be renewed. Yes, it's a positive sign that the arts community and South Boston's political leaders are talking with each other civilly again following an apparent misunderstanding last week. But that does nothing to lessen the danger that scores of artists will soon be swept out of an area they almost single-handedly revitalized.

A public outcry was touched off on August 6, when both of the city's daily newspapers reported that South Boston's elected officials, led by city-council president Jim Kelly, had cut a deal to keep artists out of all but four of the 14 "affordable" units that will be included in a 118-unit luxury condo development in Fort Point Channel.

Too bad the papers failed to follow up. On Monday, members of the arts community met with Kelly, State Senator Stephen Lynch, and State Representative Jack Hart, and were assured that there was no discriminatory intent. In fact, artists will be allowed to apply for all 14 affordable units, but four will be set aside as specially zoned live-work artists' spaces that allow for commercial activities such as gallery exhibits and retail activity. "I think as much as anything there has been a lack of communication," says Lynch, "and I blame myself for that." Adds Jennifer Moses, a painter who attended the meeting: "The language of the agreement was unfortunate. But I'm willing to accept that it was not meant to be harmful and it was not meant to be discriminatory."

Still, a handful of units there, as well as another 30 live-work spaces to be developed nearby at the Distillery, don't come close to solving the artists' housing crisis. Mayor Tom Menino, whose rhetoric about helping the arts community is only fitfully matched by his actions, needs to think creatively. The solution is not to set aside a few units here and a few units there. Rather, it is to recognize the contribution that artists make to the Fort Point Channel area, and to find a way to help them stay, most likely through a partnership of government, business, and perhaps the larger arts establishment.

Menino has benefited politically by claiming that he has only limited control over the economic forces that are remaking his city. Although there is some truth to that, the mayor is a force to be reckoned with when he chooses to use his power -- as with his ardent support for the Red Sox' proposed megaplex in the Fenway, or his insistence on a stand-alone convention center in South Boston rather than a larger development that would have included a stadium for the Patriots. Further, the Fort Point Channel development -- two office buildings and two loft-style residences -- bears the imprint of his close friend Robert Walsh, who is acting as project manager for Beacon Capital Properties. (Beacon's chief executive is Alan Leventhal, scion of the family that developed Rowes Wharf and One Kendall Square.) As one knowledgeable insider puts it, Walsh doesn't sign on with a project unless he knows Menino supports it. Walsh has also been hired as one of several high-powered, politically wired consultants to the Red Sox, who are obviously hoping that Walsh's close ties to Menino will help grease the skids for their $550 million proposal to build a new Fenway Park.

The point is that Menino wields the clout when it comes to development. It's time for him to use some of that clout on behalf of the Fort Point Channel artists. "The future of the arts community is still unclear," says Steve Hollinger, spokesman for the Seaport Alliance for a Neighborhood Design (SAND), which is pushing for the waterfront to become a real neighborhood, with shops, offices, and housing for people of all incomes.

Too often, Menino is in thrall to friends such as Walsh and to political rivals such as Kelly, who has pushed to limit the number of housing units on the waterfront. He's even succeeded in changing the area's name, from the Seaport District to the South Boston Waterfront. The mayor now needs to show real leadership. Artists kept Fort Point Channel alive when no one else would go there, and they continue to give it a vibrancy that would be sorely missed if they were forced out.

Rather than focus on little skirmishes such as last week's misunderstanding, it's time to get to work on the big picture. The consequences of doing nothing would be catastrophic.

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