The BRA Fairmount Indigo Corridor and
Crossroads Planning Initiative (FICCPI) was officially blessed at a
kickoff celebration at the Strand on February 21, 2012. Mayor
Menino spoke as did four others. Marie St. Fleur served as MC.
The mood of everyone present was bright, cheerful, joyful. As
Mayor Menino stated, "Today we kick off a long awaited (and
comprehensive) planning initiative . . ."
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Highlights of Mayor Menino's Kickoff Speech
This is an opportunity for the 130,000 people who live on the Fairmont
indigo line area. Today we kick off a long awaited comprehensive
planning initiative to help realize the enormous potential up and down
the corridor. It's more than about extending the rail line. It's
about reducing the unemployment line. It's about bringing new jobs,
new investments and new opportunities to all of the neighborhoods.
It's about delivering results for the people who live here. I believe
it's also an opportunity for people to see what we have along the
indigo line, the restorations that were done over the last several
years.
I ask you to continue with this effort so that we achieve a Fairmont
Corridor that works for all people. Collaboration and working together
- not an effort by one group. It's about all of us working together so
that everyone along that line has opportunity for a better future -
housing, jobs and more customers for the businesses in those areas.
$130 million has been invested to build four new T stops. Think
goodness we got the money before the deficit. We have a $20 million in
a Choice Neighborhoods grant. Over the last decade the city has
assisted over 100 small businesses, helped over 2600 people as
first-time homebuyers or homeowners with their home repairs and built
never nearly 7000 housing units. Now the time to bring it all together
to develop new strategies to bring in more capital investments to
create more jobs and improve access to public transportation and
support many of those businesses along the way.
But again I went thank you for all you've done and what you continue to
do for the people who live along the Fairmont indigo line . Together
we can help more people climb the economic ladder and create a better
stronger community.
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Barbara Fields, Regional Administrator for the Boston Regional Office of HUD.
HUD has a lot of money in your neighborhoods. That's where the
money should be in the communities where they know how to get things
done. $20 million in a Choice Neighborhoods grant, $1.8 million for the
BRA committee challenge to do some planning.
I am supposed to be the eyes and ears for the secretary but I look at
that as a two-way conversation . I'm supposed to be bringing his
message to you but I am also taking your message back. What I say
about Boston is that we know how to get it done. So bring it
on. Bring the money here. We have the leadership in the
public sector.
Thank you to the Mayor, thank you to the BRA, to DND , to all of those
involved. To the private sector, to Paul Grogan because he's the
guy who got me in this business many years ago. And to all the
CDC's involved, that's where the rubber hits the road.
It's really about the partnership at the community level, the city
level and at the federal level. Today is one more step and there
are many more to take. I am thrilled to take it here in this
community with all the people in this room because I am sure that each
every one of you has taken part in this.
Read
February 18, 2011 announcement: HUD SECRETARY DONOVAN NAMES
BARBARA FIELDS AS HUD'S NEW ENGLAND REGIONAL ADMINISTRATOR
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 Curt Spalding, Administrator for EPA's New England Region
It's a strange world to see EPA participate in these kinds of issues.
It's wonderful to see this kind of project take place. This is all
because of the Sustainable Community Partnership.
HUD, EPA and transit are working together to create new kinds of
outcomes across America. We did a little film that's now on the White
House website.
So this is something that is gathering national
attention.
This is showing off Boston, what's happening here. We
actually feel like we've been part of the reinvigoration of Boston in
so many ways.
The Sustainable Community Partnership to which Curt refers is very
important to Boston. We look at its make-up and objectives and
its relationship to the Fairmount Corridor project.
For more information about the Sustainable Communities Partnership, click here:
For more information about Curt Spalding, click here:
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Marvin Martin, Executive Director, Four Corners Action Coalition
About 14 years ago Four Corners residents had a vision for better
transit access - access to
jobs, to economic opportunities , better education, better shopping and
real equity. We would sit on Washington Street where the
Fairmount line runs and we would watch the commuter rail come and
people would be sitting
there reading the newspapers. After the train goes by, the people
inside have
15 minutes to South Station. 
Then the number 23 bus would come. No
matter what time of the day, people would be standing up and the bus
would be jampacked. So we asked the Secretary of State and the head of
the MBTA to come to Four Corners using the number 23 bus. And
sure enough they were
standing when they arrived. The secretary said is a
no-brainer. We
just have to figure out how to make it work.
That's how this whole
initiative got started. It wasn't just a
Four Corners vision. This vision has been going on for some time
through the efforts of folks like Rev. West who fought to keep
this line open when they
were going to close it. And folks like Councilor Charles Yancey
who made sure the Fairmount Line was upgraded. Morton Street and
Upham's corner were added to the line at that time.
But the vision got enhanced. The CDC's came along and said we want to
work on this too. They said they were concerned about the possibility
of gentrification. So they purchased the land to
keep it out of the hands of speculators.
Then we created another piece
of that vision - the Greenway initiative which we have been
working on with some of the same partners. So start with the transit
piece, then look at jobs. This is all about regional equity and it
starts with the local community. So if you look at the Fairmount line, most
of the folks who worked on that have come from the community.
Transit provides access for people of color to other communities. We
don't have to have that, but all we will get is part time jobs. So we are
hoping that as we create transit access for Four Corners into the
system that people will be able to get jobs and that there will be jobs
waiting for them.
View Greater Four Corners Action Coalition website : http://www.gfcac.org/
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Gail Latimore, Executive Director, Codman Square Neighborhood Development Corporation
I want to say thank you to Mayor Menino on behalf of the Fairmont CDC
collaborative . I thank you for your ongoing leadership on community
development issues such as affordable housing development, business
district and economic development and the development of the
transportation infrastructure that supports people's ability to access
social and economic activities. 
We're looking forward to working with the BRA, DND and other parts of
the City to implement the Fairmont indigo planning initiative. This
initiative is critical to envisioning and stimulating economic
development within the neighborhoods along the Fairmount line. We are
pleased that in undertaking this work, the City will draw upon the many
plans, perspectives and resources that have been developed for
the Fairmount by multiple partners over the last decade.
Thanks to Marvin Martin's pioneering work, working closely with
grassroots groups and residents, state and elected officials, around
2000 the Fairmont Indigo line which goes straight through the heart of
our neighborhoods but did not adequately serve the economic mobility
needs of our residents, the line was put back on the map because of
Marvin's work.
The work spearheaded by the Four Corners Action Coalition resulted in
commitment to install for new stops on the line. That work also
provided the foundation for the three other initiatives that Marvin
mentioned that have gotten into operation since 2004. And which have
done significant planning and implementation work designed to improve
the quality of life in our neighborhoods.
First Collaborative Collective
The first is the Fairmont CDC Collaborative which consists of three
CDC's – DBEDC, Jeanne DuBois, Codman Square NDC and Southwest Boston
CDC.
Those CDC's are focused on developing mixed use, transit oriented urban
villages within a half-mile radius of each of the four and two existing
stops on Fairmont in our neighborhoods. The CDC's have already
developed hundreds of units of affordable housing along the line and
have a pipeline of over 400 units of housing with thousands of feet of
ground floor commercial space slated for development within a half-mile
radius of those stops over the next three years.
The City has
continued to be a critical partner in supporting the CDC's to achieve
the transit oriented urban village that we have. We look forward to
working with the City to implement activities related transit oriented
development through the recently awarded HUD community challenge grant.
Second Collaborative Collective
The second collective focused on the development of the Fairmount line
is the Fairmount Indigo Coalition composed of the three CDC's, the
Quincy Geneva New Vision Housing Corp, The Dudley Street Neighborhood
Initiative, Project Right and the Greater Four Corners Action Coalition,
Conservation Law Foundation. This coalition has, for the past seven
years, focused on transit equity issues including fair fares on the
Fairmount line, evening and weekend service and more environmentally
sustainable technology on the line.
Third Collaborative Collective
The third collective is the Fairmont Greenway Task Force composed of
all the previously mentioned parties along with the Boston Natural
Areas Network as well as 02136 - All things Hyde Park.
The task force is
working to green the Fairmount corridor. The greenway plan that has
developed includes
- passive recreational spaces and bike paths
- links
existing green amenities in our neighborhoods to the Fairmount line.
Residents of the community spent two years identifying and visualizing
the uses of over 150 underutilized or the vacant lots along the
Fairmount line in developing this plan. All this work is been done
with the input and engagement of hundreds of community residents, civic
groups and nonprofit agencies.
Closing Remarks
Increasingly we are working with other
local nonprofits as well as state and national partners in the pursuit
of this work. Our federal partners, HUD, DOT and the EPA have also
supported our work by providing technical assistance resources for our
transit oriented development, housing development work and
environmental remediation resources to clean the Brownfield sites in
our neighborhood.
The comprehensive nature of our work with multiple
partners a few years ago also earned us the national recognition from
the feds where we were selected, the Fairmont corridor, as one of
only five national sustainable community pilot sites. And we are very
proud of that.
So much work has been done. Much remains to be done. We will fully
engage with the BRA Fairmont indigo planning initiative and we will
work closely with the City to facilitate the connections to this work
to each of the collaborative collectives that I spoke about with the
goal of meeting the needs of low to moderate income workforce focused
residents, the residents that we serve.
Codman Square Neighborhood Development Corporation website: http://www.csndc.com/
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