Engage Allston
VIDEO: Residents discuss gentrification and Harvard development at BINJ panel
It’s hard to believe that it was only six months ago when Rachel Hock approached DigBoston and BINJ with the idea for an article about Barry’s Corner in Allston and the history and current state of Harvard development in the area. In the time since, we teamed up on an epic feature with Rachel and DigBoston …
… while Rachel also joined Chris Lovett on community television to talk about her research, and answered a whole bunch of questions for us about what led her to the story …
… After all that, BINJ and Rachel asked some local Allston experts to join us for a conversation at the Charlesview Residences. The whole experience was inspiring, with around 30 people showing up, and plenty of ideas for further coverage being generated in the process. Thanks to all of the attendees, our panelists, and the staff at the Josephine A. Fiorentino Community Center for being so helpful. Those who couldn’t make it can check the video, as well as an extremely thorough dispatch from the BU Daily Free Press …
Joyce Radnor, the third member of the panel, from the Allston Construction Mitigation Subcommittee of the Harvard Allston Task Force, said Allston and Harvard’s relationship could be stronger if they just saw each other as neighbors.
“The thing that Harvard can do, should do, needs to do, is just spin the focus or spin the perspective on its axis so that they can really become our neighbors, that they don’t become an institution taking over a neighborhood, but they became neighbors,” Radnor said. “If Harvard could just become a neighbor instead of an invader, it would change the entire dynamic.”
And finally, thanks to Storybench for helping spread the word about how we are doing things at BINJ. As long as our public reporting initiatives keep going as well as our outing in Allston, this is only the beginning …
