Upham’s proposal causes controversy

Jeremy Schwab

These are tough times for Keidi Carrington. On one hand, the Bird Street Youth Center where she serves as president of the board of directors has raised $6.2 million to build a new community center in Upham’s Corner.

But on the other hand, the city and community groups want to build a community center on some of the same land that Bird St. had planned to use for its center.

The conflict began after the Salvation Army came to the city looking for a potential site for a community center. Joan Kroc, the widow of McDonald’s founder Ray Kroc, had given the Salvation Army $1.6 billion to build and endow community centers across the country upon her death in 2003. Her gift was reportedly the largest ever individual donation to a nonprofit organization.

The city pointed the Salvation Army to Upham’s Corner. The Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative offered to lead a community planning process for a new center and other community groups jumped on board.

The groups decided to try to incorporate land the city owns near the corner of Dudley and Clifton streets. Years ago, the city designated the land to be part of Bird Street’s planned facility and promised $3.5 million to help build a gymnasium for the facility.

But now the city has agreed to re-designate the land to the Salvation Army if the group decides to build a community center there.

Carrington read a brief statement in support of the bid for Salvation Army funds during a community meeting at the St. Kevin’s School last week.

When contacted by phone, however, she indicated that Bird Street administrators did not feel they had a choice in whether to support the re-designation of the city-owned parcel.

“The city came to us and said the [city-owned] land is part of the other land we want to give to the DND who can then hand it over to the Salvation Army,” said Carrington. “We had to [support the re-designation], because there was a definite possibility of the city just taking back their designation.”

Department of Neighborhood Development spokesman DeWayne Lehman denied the city coerced Bird Street Youth Center administrators into agreeing to support the bid for Salvation Army funds.

“We engaged them to meet with the Salvation Army and they came to their own conclusions,” said Lehman.

Carrington said that Bird Street administrators were initially excited about the Salvation Army’s proposal, but then realized that their role in the new center might be much less than they say they were initially led to believe.

“When the Salvation Army’s consultants came to us about this opportunity, we were ecstatic and the meetings we had led us to believe that Bird Street would operate out of that community center,” she said. “After a couple of meetings, Lieutenant Colonel Fred Van Brunt couldn’t put it in writing to us and said we’d be involved in some ways in possibly having a couple of our programs at the center, possibly having a couple time slots. But he really made it clear that they have things they program that kind of mirror what we do.”

Upham’s Corner community groups apparently face an uphill battle in their bid for a center. The groups must compete with at least 28 other groups who have expressed interest in receiving one of between 8 and 12 centers the Salvation Army plans to fund on the East Coast.

Upham’s Corner is one of four locations in Massachusetts vying for centers. Van Brunt, the state commander of the Salvation Army, weighed the merits of the four proposals during last week’s meeting.

“You are so well organized and have so much community involvement in the area, your documentation puts [Upham’s Corner] miles ahead of other communities,” he told the crowd. “Cambridge and Somerville have a very good proposal on the table and [the land] is all city-owned.

“Worcester has a very good site,” he continued. “It’s a single parcel. They can go as big as they want to without having to deal with community groups. Lynn has almost a mile on the waterfront they are proposing.

“There are some very good sites,” he said. “I think Boston has the capacity to be sustainable. The site is going to be a challenge.”

If Upham’s Corner does not receive a community center from the Salvation Army, it could be difficult for Bird Street administrators to pick up their fund drive where they left off. Carrington said the center cannot raise money while the application is pending, because donors do not want to give to a project with an uncertain future.

“We know we’re going to have to give back some money,” said Carrington. “If it doesn’t go through, I think it is putting us back even more. It is going to be very hard.”

Administrators at Bird Street had hoped to break ground on a new center in February, although they are nearly $5 million short of their goal of raising $11 million.

But those plans are now on hold as the community groups await the Salvation Army’s decision, expected roughly one year from now.

Carrington said Bird Street is considering selling to the Salvation Army a parcel of land at the corner of Dudley and Clifton streets where Bird Street had planned to build its new facility.

“We will sell it for the right price, let’s put it that way,” she said, adding that she plans to speak with the board about it next month. “We definitely want to be players in getting something wonderful for Dudley Street.”

The community groups’ proposal for a community center calls for various parcels of land to be used, some of them currently owned by private owners. However, Lehman said the city is not considering using its eminent domain powers to take the land.

Administrators at DSNI plan to hold another community meeting for input September 13. The application deadline is September 30.

A new community center in Upham’s Corner would add recreational, educational and artistic opportunities to a neighborhood that observers say sorely needs such opportunities. Two existing community centers in the neighborhood, Bird Street and the Vine Street Community Center, are reportedly stretched to capacity.

Many young people and adults who currently do not attend community centers would want to attend the proposed center, say supporters of the proposed Salvation Army center.

Titciana Barros, 16, said her house on East Cottage Street is too far from the existing centers to walk there, but is just down the street from the proposed site.

“My big dream is a soccer field and track around it, a computer center,” said Barros, a member of DSNI, City School and Cape Verdean Community Unido, three groups supporting the application. “I’m not a big fan of swimming, but who knows. If there is a swimming pool nearby I might try it.”