Letters to the Editor

Thank You

To the Editor,

The Charlestown Gym Hockey Board would like to thank the Patriot-Bridge for running our standings and players of the week and all our announcements during the year, and a special Thank You to Sioux, who personally dealt with us. THANK YOU.

Charlestown Gym

Hockey Board

Priorities for our Neighborhood

To the Editor,

Before there was Boston, there was Charlestown. As Boston’s first and oldest neighborhood, Charlestown’s history is legendary and a part of our national heritage. 

We commend the thousands of residents and community groups that have come together to advocate for the future goals and priorities for our neighborhood. This action resulted in an award by the City of Boston for a planning process called PLAN: Charlestown, a two-year long process that will ultimately result in a written document that defines our neighborhood’s goals and priorities for the future. It will guide policy, planning and decisions made around land-use, zoning, housing and public services that considers the unique conditions and character of the neighborhood. It covers the entirety of Charlestown from the Navy Yard to the Bunker Hill Housing Development to Hood Park and Lost Village.

All of 02129.

This process begins Thursday night, Jan. 30, with an open house at the Warren-Prescott School cafeteria (entrance on Pearl Street) from 6:30-8 p.m. Thank you to the close to 100 volunteers that delivered meeting notice flyers to every door, on every street in Charlestown this past weekend.

This is exciting! We can create the change we need – and protect our culture and built environment from the change we don’t need.

The last time the BRA (now BPDA) came into our town – they were uninvited and very much not welcome. The early 1960s plan was to demolish 90 percent of Charlestown (saving only Monument Square, the Bunker Hill Development and a few churches.) Our parents and grandparents fought back, joining together as a community to save their homes and neighborhood. Through a lot of blood, sweat, tears and raucous public meetings – where a priest was punched – Charlestown was saved and the demolition plan was reduced to 11 percent. Charlestown has been credited with changing the way the entire profession of planning for a community works – it is now driven by residents (not the planners) and the voices that show up and lend their voice. 

This time, we have invited the BPDA (BRA) in to help us create an implementable and enforceable plan for the entirety of Charlestown that will prioritize our unique community needs. 

We hope that you will join us in the PLAN: Charlestown process and planning for our collective future. The decisions we will make today are just as important as the ones made in 1629 when our community was first settled, 1776 when rebuilding began after the battle of Bunker Hill, and 1966 when facing urban renewal. What we do now, the manner in which we do it, and the results of our labor will impact many future generations to come. We will work to form and execute a plan with a dedication and determination that will earn the respect and set an example for those who follow in our footsteps.

02129 Neighborhood Alliance

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