Preserve Franklin Park as a Public Treasure!
Dr. Jean McGuire, Franklin Park Defender, with a healthy tree the City plans to cut down.
Franklin Park, the largest park in Boston’s Emerald Necklace, is at risk. Within Franklin Park, the City of Boston plans to immediately start demolition of White Stadium. This stadium is a vital community resource that primarily serves Boston Public School students, Boston residents, and visitors to our city. The City plans to:
- To demolish the stadium starting January 19th, even before the March hearing date for a lawsuit challenging the project.
- To cut down 145 mature, healthy trees, disrupting a delicate ecosystem and increasing environmental risks in an already vulnerable area of Boston.
- To build a new $200 million sports and entertainment complex that primarily serves a professional soccer team, with taxpayers covering $91 million of the cost (more if the project runs over budget).
The City’s misguided plan will permanently impact local neighborhoods with:
- Increased traffic and congestion, more heat and worse air quality –all with negative effects on people’s health,
- Long-term damage to parkland, wildlife, and climate resilience.
- Diversion of valuable public greenspace for use by for-profit out-of-town corporate elites (the team owners).
- Decreased public access to Franklin Park on game days and for long-standing cultural events in the Park.
- Increased and heightened policing in the Frankilin Park community.
Join us to demand the City consider a cheaper, community-supported alternative plan.
There is a better way! The Emerald Necklace Conservancy has a proposal for a fully public restoration of White Stadium that prioritizes community needs and aligns with the City’s own Franklin Park Action Plan. This alternative plan will:
- Preserve the 145 mature, healthy trees that the City wants to cut down.
- Provide an upgraded stadium for Boston Public School students, with modern locker rooms, bathrooms, track and field facilities, and public restrooms.
- Cost taxpayers far less money and save the park as a public resource.
The cost of this alternative community-friendly plan is estimated at $20-30 million – roughly 10% of the current $200 million estimated for the City’s community-opposed plan.
We need your help to keep Franklin Park public!
Not a Lot of Time?
Click here to write to Boston’s elected officials today! Demand they stop the demolition at least until the lawsuit is heard. Urge them to review our cheaper, community-friendly, and climate-smart alternative.
Have Time & Energy to Dig In?
Speak out to City Hall! Join the City Hall accountability hearing on Wednesday, January 22nd (Docket #0176) at 10 AM or 2 PM. Details here: Boston Public Notice.
Join the hearing via Zoom or, if you can, please attend in person. Wear green to show your support for the park.
Submit public testimony via email to ccc.gata@boston.gov stating that you support the Emerald Necklace Conservancy’s alternative plan as better for Boston.
The Franklin Park community deserves better. This plan would never be proposed for Central Park or the Boston Public Garden. We must protect this invaluable public resource for future generations.
Thank you for all you do! Every email and voice makes a difference!
Learn more about the Trees as a Public Good Network here: https://ourrevolutionma.com/trees-as-a-public-good/.