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Activist seeks seat for residents QUINCY - Nancy Jolly, head of the Quincy Center Neighborhood Association, wants Mayor William Phelan to add a resident to his redevelopment task force. Jolly said the mayor needs to consider neighborhood opinions as he and his team of hand-picked experts try to draft a plan to revitalize downtown. “We see the need for mixed uses in places, but we think it has to be well thought out,” Jolly said. Though not making any commitments, Phelan said, “Certainly we’ll consider that and probably act on it. This is the type of public input that we want.” The task force, which has been working with a development consultant hired by Phelan, includes city employees, developers, lawyers, a zoning board member and members of the business community. Former Mayor Walter Hannon Jr. is the chairman. |
The Patriot Ledger
QUINCY
City officials are looking for public input as they draft a plan aimed at returning Quincy
Center to its days as a social and commercial hub.
Mayor William Phelan and a team of development experts have been working for months on a redevelopment strategy that could add housing, attract businesses, create park space and fix traffic tie-ups in a downtown that has been on the decline for decades.
The first of two public forums on downtown redevelopment will be held at 7 p.m. Thursday in the Thomas Crane Public Library. A panel of experts will try to answer the question, “Why do we need to do this?” and residents will be able to offer suggestions and share concerns.
The forum, co-sponsored by the city and The Patriot Ledger, will be broadcast live on Quincy Access Television, Channel 10.
“We want to make Quincy Center a place where people want to come,” Phelan said. “This is the people’s opportunity to do their part and let us know what they want in the downtown. We’re not redeveloping downtown for the sake of downtown. We’re doing it for the city of Quincy and its people.”
A successful redevelopment effort offers more than just the prospect of new restaurants, stores and apartments. Patriot Ledger Editor Chazy Dowaliby said the paper decided to co-sponsor the forums with the city because a lively downtown can help ensure a city’s economic vitality, a goal that benefits all residents.
“Citizens in the city should be aware that a strong and diverse revenue base at the core of their community will ensure that services can be maintained, that the tax burden can be equitably shared between residents and commercial endeavors, and that the quality of life that has made Quincy a desirable place to live can be continued,” Dowaliby said.
Nearly every recent mayor has tried, with limited success, to revitalize Quincy Center, once a regional shopping mecca that long ago lost stores to the South Shore Plaza and strip malls. If the history of redevelopment efforts elsewhere is a guide, the task will not be easy this time, either.
But some development experts said several factors could make now the ideal time to move forward. Gov. Mitt Romney, for example, is pushing for the creation of housing and workplaces around existing transportation hubs and could funnel state resources to communities that follow the model.
At the same time, a growing number of people are abandoning suburbs for the cultural and social opportunities urban areas provide, making Quincy, with its prime location on the Red Line, a possible popular alternative.
“This country and Massachusetts and the Boston region are all experiencing a dramatic change in demographics of those looking for housing, where people want to live and what kind of housing they want to live in,” said David Dixon, director of planning and urban design at the Boston architectural firm Goody, Clancy & Associates.
“One result is that for the first time in many, many years large numbers of people are interested in living downtown, and Quincy has a great downtown for people to live in.”
While the market will help drive whatever happens downtown, the city can exert some influence over construction and redevelopment, through zoning and infrastructure improvements, for example. It can also make city-owned land like the Hancock parking lot or the Ross Garage available for development and set standards for what would be allowed there.
For that reason, Phelan said, it’s important for him and others to know what residents want in their city center.
“There is a framework that I think the public has to understand we’re working within, but certainly the main reason we’re taking up the challenge is for the benefit of the people who live in Quincy now, and we want their input,” Phelan said.
In anticipation of Thursday’s forum, each household in the city this week received a copy of City Smarts, a Patriot Ledger special report first printed in November. The series of articles details what changes Quincy may want to consider if it is serious about breathing new life into Quincy Center, how other cities have succeeded at reviving their downtowns, what sites could be prime for redevelopment and who the people involved in the process are.
“What we hoped to achieve with City Smarts was to show people the breadth of the issues that feed into a topic like downtown redevelopment and to also provide talking points, questions and creative ideas about what direction downtown redevelopment could take,” Dowaliby said.
The Patriot Ledger reprinted City Smarts and donated 35,000 copies to the city. The city paid to mail the series, at a cost of about $5,600.
A second public forum will be held at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 20. The topic of that meeting will be, “Can we make this happen?”
Karen Eschbacher may be reached at .
Speakers at forum on downtown revival The first of two forums on downtown redevelopment co-sponsored by the city of Quincy and The Patriot Ledger will be held at 7 p.m. Thursday in the meeting room of the Thomas Crane Public Library on Washington Street. Speakers will include:
The forum will be moderated by Patriot Ledger Editor Chazy Dowaliby. |
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