Local News
As opposition to Mayor Michelle Wu's plan to renovate White Stadium for knowledgeable women's soccer team continues, construction employees were on site Tuesday to start demolishing the stadium.
Neighbors of White Stadium in Franklin Park were informed in an email from the town last week that demolition of the Forties stadium, currently utilized by Boston Public School students, would begin the week of Jan. 19 would begin. Workers will remove hazardous materials from the stands and prepare the location and take away trees, the e-mail said.
The demolition phase is predicted to last two months, the town said, primarily between 7 a.m. and three p.m. through the week, with some activity on weekends. Overall, the renovation project is predicted to proceed this winter.
Depending on development PlansThe city will demolish the east stand, which has fire damage, the athletics areas and utilities. The proposal calls for retaining the curved shell frontispiece while demolishing the West Stand's concrete bleacher seats, stadium foundation, and concrete floors and columns.
Wu worked with BOS Nation FC, the NWSL women's soccer team, to renovate the dilapidated stadium, announcing a 10-year public-private lease last month. The team, which is covering half of the renovation costs, expects to begin its season in March next 12 months.
The city says Following the renovation, more BPS students will find a way to make use of White Stadium than can currently use the facilities, while some soccer games that overlap with NWSL games will probably be relocated.
However, controversy arose over the renovation plan, which was approved by a Supreme Court judge last 12 months. Councilmen Erin Murphy and Ed Flynn have each publicly criticized the renovation after it was revealed in December that the town's estimated $50 million contribution would reach at the very least $91 million.
A day after demolition begins, the Boston City Council will hold a hearing of the Government Accountability, Transparency and Accessibility Committee to debate “growing concerns” concerning the renovation, it says Meeting regulationssupported by the vast majority of city councilors on January eighth.
In a press release, Murphy described the demolition as “reckless rush“Not only does this silence the voices of residents, but it also undermines the City Council’s authority and role to provide oversight, ensure fiscal responsibility and advocate for the people of Boston.”
The Franklin Park Defenders, the group that has filed an ongoing lawsuit to stop the project, which incorporates the Emerald Necklace Conservancy, said the demolition, which begins this week, would remove 145 trees.
“For months, members of the communities surrounding Franklin Park have wanted to provide BPS student-athletes with the modern athletic facilities at White Stadium that they have long deserved,” Karen Mauney-Brodek, president of Emerald Necklace, said in a press release, “without displacing the soccer program, paving two tennis courts and acres of public parkland, cutting down 145 trees and enduring the many other downsides of building a massive 11,000-seat professional sports stadium all in one public stadium park.”
Wu's administration only learned of Wednesday's meeting last week, a city spokesman said.
“Last month, the city signed and published a detailed lease agreement that legally establishes financial, community use and open space protections that were carefully negotiated and shaped by community feedback in more than 60 public meetings over nearly 18 months,” said the speaker said. “Throughout this public process and throughout the extensive permitting process reviewed by six different boards and commissions, the timeline was clear that demolition would begin soon after a lease was signed.”
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