[Music] thank you uh good afternoon my name is Gabriella Coletta and I'm the chair of the committee on Arts culture and special events in the city of Boston I want to remind you that this public hearing is being recorded and broadcasted live on Xfinity 8 rcn82 and FiOS 964 and streamed on www.boston.gov forward slash City Dash Council Dash TV and will also be rebroadcasted at a later date I'm going to ask members of the audience to please silence all your cell phones and other devices we will be
taking public testimony and would appreciate it if you sign in to testify over at the station right over here or register your attendance anyone that is listening in at home and would like to testify virtually on this matter please be sure to email Ron ron.com Cobb boston.gov with your full name for the zoom link at the start of your testimony this is for everybody please state your name address and affiliation today's hearing is on docket number 0260 order for a hearing to address the loss of
rehearsal spaces for musicians in the city of Boston this mattered was sponsored by myself as well as my co-sponsor sitting to my left Liz burden Council Liz burden and counselor Tanya Fernandez Anderson and referred to the committee on January 25th 2025 or excuse me 2023 excuse me I am joined by my colleagues in order of appearance counselor Liz Brayden and I'm also happy to be joined by council president Ed Flynn I'm going to first provide a brief opening statement and then ask my co-sponsor t
o provide opening statements and anybody else that's here we will then go to the administration to provide their presentation and we'll follow with questions from my colleague we my colleagues we are joined here today by Chief of arts and culture of the mayor's office of arts and culture Cara Elliot Ortega as well as Melissa Meyer the director of cultural planning from the mayor's office of arts and culture following that we will hear from artists directly impacted by the loss of rehearsal space
s and their experience as well as individuals from the mass mass creative and the metropolitan area planning councils arts and culture division my colleagues again will have the opportunity to ask questions of these individuals and following that we will be taking public testimony both in person and virtually just want to say that we've already received over 20 pieces of Correspondence for written testimony which is unbelievable and I just want to be sure to thank everybody for their advocacy an
d providing their perspective both as as artists and owners of spaces uh providing rehearsal space for for these individuals and so to begin I'd like to start with my opening remarks to just provide some context for this docket and to help frame the discussion and then I'll pass it over to my colleagues so I want to first thank everybody who reached out to me initially back when when this first came to my attention on behalf of the hundreds of musicians who rehearse at Charlestown rehearsal stud
ios at 50 Terminal street I'm happy to report that since filing this hearing order the owner of 50 Terminal street is now working with moack and ISD to figure out a Solutions and keep artists in their space originally these musicians and tenants were told and not given written onus that the owner will turn the music rehearsal Studio into a self-storage facility and they would have needed to vacate by June 1st in partnership with those tenants we mobilized quickly to work with moack to get the ow
ner to the table and provide some returns we've had some initial conversations although to my understanding there really hasn't been any confirmation if the artist will receive adequate notice if the plan change of use is ultimately sought after by the owner this could affect 95 music rehearsal studios meaning that between about 400 and 11 1100 musicians could be displaced with the loss of other spaces in the city the available music rehearsal spaces in Boston or the surrounding area is shrinkin
g we are at risk of losing valuable square footage if we don't take necessary action to mitigate what has already happened and be proactive the displacement of musical artists has profound impacts on our cultural Legacy and cultural economy as a city everybody knows where the home to Berkeley College of Music and have a Heritage of producing incredible acts like Aerosmith New Edition and so many more acts that that I can name but I'm sure I will miss if I even begin to start but this distressing
trend will become barrier for emerging musical artists like I said if we don't act quickly as a city we must prioritize doing everything we can to invest in artists and creative so that Boston can can continue to be a vibrant Hub of Music art and dance for generations to come and so from this conversation I really hope that we can achieve a couple of things one I would like to understand the snapshot of where we are as a city with respect to musical rehearsal spaces and figure out how we got he
re with the goal of of utilizing Lessons Learned From the Past to avoid any future losses and more importantly how to expand music in all art spaces in the city of Boston moving forward there have clearly been issues and we are here to listen to the artists today and I see many people in the audience so I look forward to public testimony with the end goal of finding Solutions specifically I would like to identify ways in which we can incentivize using or including artist rehearsal space in new d
evelopments utilizing every tool that we have in our toolbox through zoning and other policy recommendations subsidies to help artists find affordable spaces and other avenues the city's office of arts and culture can grow creative spaces in Boston and so I'm very pleased to be joined by my co-sponsor Tanya Fernandez Anderson and right now I will pass to co-sponsor councilor Liz Burton for any open remarks that you have thank you madam chair and thank you to all the panelists who are going to be
with us this afternoon thank you to all the Advocates and members of the public and musicians who are here my office has advocated that there be no net loss of cultural space Not only in the city of Boston overall but specifically in Austin Brighton the Nelson Brighton neighborhood because the community has already lost and continues to lose several cultural assets this is a community report priority regardless of who the business or operator is current development review process is flawed and
inconsistent and there needs to be more standardized Community benefit and mitigation rubric for development projects that impact the arts and culture spaces with greater representation of artists and creators in the article 80 development review process my office is admit has made an intentional priority to nominate artists to impact advisory groups in the neighborhood in the past few years since I was elected our approach to City Planning needs to be integrated with the proactive lands towards
sustaining and expanding the Arts and Cultural industry in our city we should not only be asking about the artists and creative industry when reviewing current development projects in the immediate pipeline would be holistic to plan for the stabilization of existing assets as well as to pursue and expand the creating creation of new assets our approach to planning also needs to be collaborative intergovernmental and Regional a distinct feature of of artists and creators is that they are not sta
tic or fixed in a single place but find Community wherever they be they go while Austin is of course best known as Rock City for decades not everyone who considers at home necessarily never lives in Alston or Brighton Alston Brighton is home took a community of artists and creators regardless of whether or not they actually reside in the neighborhood or frequently commute in we welcome them and are fighting to maintain their ability to both live work and play in our neighborhood that is why it i
s essential that we coordinate our efforts with other cities and towns also working to address this crisis such as with Cambridge and Somerville our immediate neighbors and those at the regional and state level like the metropolitan area planning Council and the mass cultural Council you know I think we Face a severe threat or artist Community faces a severe threat from in with the ever advancing and wave of development across your city but I think we need to be mindful and strategic in um and a
nd prioritize uh space for artists and creatives in our in our city and in our neighborhoods and because they make a very valuable contribution to our city thank you madam chair thank you counselor burden I'm going to pass it to uh the third co-sponsor Council attorney Fernandez Anderson if you have any opening remarks uh thank you Council Clara thank you madam chair for um to being the lead sponsor and to adding me um also to my colleague Council Braden uh thank you so much I don't have much to
say other than we know what the need is and we know what the issues are and we have an office of arts and culture a chief that is a proponent of artists and artist space and uh that we have respectable spaces to work and to thrive and to make respectable living wage as well as even even for our residential spaces um I think you know the question is like did we did we invite um OBM and should we get them in the room as well in terms of investments in our city are we look you know looking forward
to the budget and how we can bring them to these spaces and actually ask them exactly what is being invested I don't think it's just just in arts and culture but I look forward to the conversation and seeing in terms of the funding and the planning for that but really housing and bigger Investments like this needs to we we need OBM in the house we need our finance people for the city to be able to speak to what's coming and how to resolve this issue temporarily but also long term how are we loo
king at investing in our artists in Boston thank you thank you councilor Fernandez Anderson and just to answer your question so OBM is the office of budget management we did not include them in this conversation however for the working session moving forward we can certainly invite them I'm sure the chief has some idea of where Investments are are going in the city of Boston and some of her budget asks so I will ask the chief to elaborate on that during her presentation I will now pass it over t
o counselor Ed Flynn thank you thank you Council coletter I just want to say thank you to you madam chair and to council Braden Council Tanya fernanderson for this important hearing order and please know if I can be of any help during this debate please let me know but thank you for the important leadership you are providing thank you thank you councilor Flynn and I see we've been joined by councilor at large Aaron Murphy Council Murphy if you have any opening remarks please go ahead yeah sure t
hank you thank you chair and thank you to the administration for being here and all of the artists who are here welcome um it's important to have this conversation into proactively discuss spaces before it's you know the musicians or the artists are moving out or you know calling in distress that they're losing their space so looking forward to the conversation and how how can we make sure moving forward that we are a city that is including artists when we talk about Housing and Development and
what we want to see in our city I might age myself but growing up the New Kids on the Block where you know street performers and also used the space down um on dot Ave and Fields Corner there's some artist Studios there near the Fields Corner train station um in every neighborhood I know councilor Braden has talked about the artist space over in Austin Brighton every neighborhood has their um you know artists communities the artists for humanities which is in South Boston now such an important p
art and I know um Chief we've talked about at different events how when in the pandemic showed it anytime right when I think about Katrina or the disasters that have happened in the world they always say like we need to get the musicians back first we need to have the performers back first to really heal us as a city as a community as a people so definitely a strong Advocate and as a former teacher and many people hear me talk about the need to invest more in not just in athletics but in any wha
tever it is that brings you Joy if it's music art painting dancing clay whatever it is that we need to invest for our students at schools but also in these spaces around our city so thank you chair and co-sponsors for this hearing and look forward to being an advocate along with council president Flynn like he said thank you thank you councilor Murphy and for the record I will read into read into the record a message and letter from a counselor at large Ruth C louisian uh dear committee members
I regret to inform you that I will be unable to attend today's Hearing in order for Boston to be a creative Innovative and interesting place to live we need more artists musicians and creatives we need to prioritize taking these creative spaces out of the speculative real estate market furthermore we must create zoning opportunities in all neighborhoods where the Arts can Thrive my office has been actively working on the sound Museum issue in Brighton and supporting the artists as much as we can
while urging the city to ensure that the developer who has purchased the sound Museum makes good on their promise to build a new practicing space for artists furthermore my office has been working with Austin Arts Impact and other artists to help secure performance and venue spaces such as Fields West Allston thank you to Lizzy Torres for bringing this issue to our attention as we work to solve this issue with Cody Rico and ISD musicians artists and creatives give boss in its soul and we must f
ight for the soul of the city to stay unique diverse and distinctive our office will not be defined or excuse me our city will not be defined by another biotech lab but it may be by the next Superstar musician that got their start here my staff will be attending and I will thoroughly review the video hearing minutes and public testimony should you or any member of the public have questions or concerns please do not hesitate to reach out to my office directly at 617-635-4376. luigien boston.gov t
hank you so much counselor luigien for your uh your letter okay we're going to start with the administration presentation again we are joined by Cara Elliott Ortega and Melissa Meyer the Florida shores great thank you so much thank you madam chair and co-sponsors and counselors for being here with us today um to discuss this really important issue of artist displacement and I also want to say thank you to everyone who's here to share their testimony we're going to start by sharing what the mayor
's office of arts and culture is working on to address artist space issues and share some policy and program ideas to help us move the conversation forward but I want to start by just grounding us in our values in the larger context of the importance of arts and creativity to our city and also want to make sure that we can actually move forward our slides thank you um so musicians artists makers and cultural production of all kinds are a critical part of our communities of our economy and the ci
ty's identity a thriving cultural landscape with venues places for Creative expression and joy with friends and family in all neighborhoods a sense of Discovery and access to nightlife and authentic experiences these are the things that incentivize people to stay and invest where they are and form the social Fabric and connectivity required for the healthy resilient communities that we want to see in Boston we want to start just a little bit by explaining how we approach this which is through th
e lens of cultural planning we are one of the only local Arts agencies in the country that's made an investment in having a cultural planning team on our staff in the Arts office so what is cultural planning we have a couple definitions here one from Americans for the Arts about the relationship between a vision for cultural programming and development and how that relates to cultural assets in our communities and another from our colleagues here at mapc that cultural planning can include neighb
orhood or District Focus planning embedding culture and larger plans understanding the creative economy and how all of this affects the public realm including public art and Urban Design so what does this look like for the mayor's office of arts and culture if we can get the next slide please uh this looks like championing and engaging artists cultural organizations and creative industry businesses and City Planning process engaging with development projects that impact current and future cultur
al spaces identifying cultural production sites and making them more visible supporting the stabilization and expansion of cultural assets working with cultural districts including State designated districts like the Latin quarter and Little Saigon as well as city-initiated districts like in upham's corner and supporting artists access to housing in Boston including implementing our live work housing design guidelines and the artist housing certification process although there is no formal pipel
ine or no formal required approval role for our office in development review we can get the next slide please the mayor's office of arts and culture engages with the Boston Planning and Development agency development review process on a daily basis the office submits feedback formal comment and meets with development and design teams throughout the development review process our office is engaged with between 40 to 50 development projects at any one time and in 2022 we added a project manager fo
r development review to our cultural planning team just specifically to add more capacity to this work next slide please we've seen some important successes in stabilizing and expanding the city's cultural spaces over the last year through an investment of 1.7 million dollars from the city through American Rescue plan act inclusionary development policy and housing Boston 2030 funds Humphrey Street Studios in Uplands corner will now be permanently artist owned and affordable securing three dozen
creative workspaces used by 45 creative workers our goal is to support more of these acquisition opportunities but require funding to do so we launched our first ever grant funding program specifically for cultural spaces in Boston this first iteration of the cultural space fund will distribute 1.5 million dollars to existing and new cultural spaces in Boston with priority for projects that support spaces for historically marginalized communities spaces for cultural production which is just whe
re work is actually made and projects that address Market gaps we added two new cultural planning roles to our team with a third higher in progress this marks an important milestone in establishing a well-resourced cultural planning function for the city we kicked off important Regional cultural planning work with Cambridge and Somerville supported by mapc recognizing that the creative economy extends throughout Greater Boston this work establishes a way for three cities to collaborate on cultur
al planning policy and plant and planning tools we are also using American Rescue plan act dollars to make an unprecedented investment in the Arts through the cultural investment Grant this 10 million dollars in multi-year support for organizations will really support transformative work happening in the city of Boston and while those decisions those Grant decisions are going to be made this spring many of the transformative ideas that have been submitted to us address this space issue with prop
osals to create and expand access to physical spaces throughout the city and with respect to the two issues that bring us here today counselor as you mentioned we are I'm glad to be in conversation with the property owner for the Charlestown rehearsal space um to try to identify a path to keep music rehearsal on site and that conversation is ongoing and with respect to 155 North Beacon the music community and Advocates have worked tirelessly to create a temporary rehearsal space at 55 Morrissey
Boulevard seemingly overnight with support from the private property owner a dedicated group of individuals in construction and Building Trades and non-profit and Foundation Partners this is possible because of a wider ecosystem that the city supports building on wins investing in advocacy increasing funding for the creative sector and ensuring that the Arts has a seat at the table now in addition to this immediate space solution we are also working with the bpda and iqhq the developer of 155 No
rth Beacon to prioritize creating affordable music space and perpetuity as a part of the mitigation of that project a proposal for that space from iqhq is currently under review with the bpda and if it moves forward to our specifications it would be the first time the city creates that kind of permanent affordable cultural production space through article 80 development review we've made all of these Investments and rearranged our staff and budget to address cultural space because it is a priori
ty for our communities and it's an existential issue not just for having a vibrant authentic City but for the individual creators and workers who make that City possible um can we get the next slide please Boston has lost numerous creative workspaces and cultural venues over the last decade other cultural spaces are under threat today and Austin Brighton alone over 120 000 square feet of cultural space is currently at risk as a result of development projects impacting at least 300 artists and cr
eative workers over a hundred thousand square feet of cultural production space including Studios and rehearsal spaces have been lost in the last five to seven years along with numerous live music venues Gathering spaces and specialist retail all identified as cultural assets and our recent Austin Brighton placekeeping report an issue of this scale requires new policies and approaches and so here I just want to start sharing a framework for moving forward including our three kind of Top Line goa
ls the first goal is to make sure that all of City Hall is supporting a position of no net loss of cultural space we need to make sure that all departments are working towards this goal of preserving and recreating cultural space and that includes working with the bpda through Planning Development review Urban Design and Zoning reform with the mayor's office of housing on artist housing projects and incorporating cultural uses and City development and with ISDN environment so that we all know wh
en something is triggered through a permit that's been submitted or anything that's going to impact arts and culture uses the second goal is to integrate the Arts into planning we believe that all neighborhood planning efforts should include cultural planning and really that any kind of community planning means understanding the cultural reality and needs of that Community we can do this by expanding city-led planning Scopes to include cultural asset mapping cultural space baselining so tracking
the amount and kind of space and their affordability over time a commitment to include arts and culture stakeholders and the engagement process in addition to the many many ways that creative expression can be folded into planning engagement and the outcomes of planning work our third goal is to Value all of our cultural assets we can't do this work if we don't value all cultural assets and the people who need them we see time and time again that developers file their projects with no mention o
f what's being displaced no acknowledgment of what is on site and what that site means to people we at the city across departments need to show up for communities that make cultural space and make that and continue to work together to make that work visible without that championing we will always be stuck being brought in too late at the point of Crisis as opposed to starting earlier in the process by building awareness and relationships to the creative places and people in our city so now we ju
st want to quickly touch on some specific actions and policies that we think will deliver these goals and we have a much longer list which we can share with counselors and we can also post on our website but for the sake of time we're just going to look at three if we go to the next slide the first issue we want to highlight is relying on the current development review process because it creates inconsistent and inequitable outcomes and unnecessarily pits Community needs and competition with eac
h other so the solution that we'd like to propose is more predictable Community benefit and mitigation expectations for development projects that impact arts and culture uses and we are working closely with the VPD on this arts and culture is being taken into consideration in the current review of article 80 process that's a lot of technical information so just what this could actually look like it could look like a commitment for develop development projects to reprovide the comparable amount o
f square feet so if they're going to displace the use how are they recreating that as a part of their development or nearby it could look like projects making an equivalent contribution to a fund to support the creation and preservation of space we could be asking more of developers to demonstrate to the community how they're supporting artists or cultural spaces that are being impacted by their projects and it could also look like development projects in predetermined area areas around the city
like cultural districts or industrial areas being required to make a contribution in square footage or in dollars to cultural space going forward and that's something that we could Implement through zoning as well and we see an example of that in the city already next slide the next issue we would like to highlight is also related to development and it's about Community benefits and other Financial contributions from development projects which right now happen on a project by project basis even
though we're dealing with a systems level city-wide issue real estate costs in Boston require larger Collective efforts than our current system allows so our solution here is to establish a city-wide funding mechanism that can receive and expend funds for cultural space projects our creative economy is not restricted to Neighborhood boundaries and we need to be able to direct funds Citywide and we know already that people are going from one city to another let alone from one neighborhood to ano
ther in order to find places to make work and show work and be a part of these markets so we can't be restricted to having mitigation or Community benefit funds that are just tied to one project at a time right now we have several different accounts of bpda related funds that are geographically restricted and we can't even though there's money there we can't actually pool it to make a bigger move that serves the city at Large um a city-wide fund would increase our ability to as I just said direc
t mitigation contributions and it would also be a big move in terms of equity because right now we're stuck spending funds where development is happening which means we're not really responding to the need of the community next slide um the last issue we'd like to cover is related to Capital funds so the mayor's office of arts and culture has a capital budget which has historically been connected to public art projects and City buildings that's how we fund the percent for art program which has b
een extremely successful and we need Capital funds to support the building or renovation of any future city-initiated cultural space projects if we're going to be proactive instead of reactive we need to acquire property and develop city-owned property for cultural uses and that does require Capital funding to get it done um so our solution is an expanded capital budget for the mayor's office of arts and culture to support these projects it's in our fy24 capital budget request and this along wit
h creating a Citywide fund for cultural space are both things that do require city council approval and I would just say on this point we are seeing many very well-intentioned Community Driven rfps for city-owned land that are going out and there's a lot of things that we want that community members want that are really hard to deliver through commercial space because we don't have what we have for housing which is a really robust kind of funding mechanism to subsidize the development of that sp
ace But we don't have it for commercial space so all of the kind of Arts and Cultural and small business uses that we would want to have are still struggling to figure out how to make that work financially in response to those rfps and this would help address that um so with that I will come to a close I want to thank all the counselors for creating time and space to discuss this issue I also want to thank all the people who are attending or tuning in today and everyone who's going to give testi
mony a lot of which I know is going to be very personal about how this has impacted your ability to live and work in Boston and lastly I want to thank the rest of the panelists for sharing their expertise and for continually advocating for more support for the creative Community without these Partnerships we would not be able to have the wins and Investments that we do have today so I hope the information that we've shared will help us keep that collaboration going and we look forward to continu
ing to work together thank you thank you chief for that presentation and and we are seeing that real time and I wanted to be sure to let my colleagues know uh those who are in attendance that um this presentation is going to be printed out is going to be sent to everybody for review um and for right now I think what I'll do is reserve my questions uh for for afterwards and go straight to my co-sponsor councilor Liz brierden and then counselor for uh Fernandez Anderson thank you madam chair thank
you cara thank you thank you both um I feel that um that we're in a space right now with a new Administration where we're really putting some serious attention to a problem that has been evolving over the past decades with increased development pressure on our arts and culture spaces it's becoming incredibly acute and in the in many of our spaces in Austin Brighton where um that have seen displacement where formerly industrial spaces and they were snatched up by developers at a good price and a
nd then all of a sudden we find ourselves in the position of facing an articulated process that as you said Cara doesn't take any account of what was there and the value of of what was there in terms of our arts and creative a community in the city I just wonder you know how much latitude we have in terms of of zoning um city-wide zoning to reform that and and then end up with more capacity to build and and sustain Community the Arts community in our neighborhoods we're very hopeful that the zon
ing Converse opening now can prioritize arts and culture needs and we do see a small example of what this could look like in a portion of the South End where there is a requirement that if you're building a certain amount of commercial space a percentage of that has to be available for arts and culture uses and or you can buy out of that into a fund and I think that's a really good example it's something that we're seeing other cities do that if we could identify specific places where that could
happen it could be industrial areas it could be cultural districts and we could come up with parameters for that that would be a mechanism to continually have new space being created or to have funding to be able to support space and if we knew that that existed we could also plan backwards from it and say oh this is coming online in five years like let's work with the community and figure out how we invest in an organization or an operator a business to be able to take that on when the space f
inally comes online so I think zoning is a is a really great tool to address this and you know historically I would say we have set aside for funds for art installations public art and that sort of has been the level of in commitment to the Arts in in the neighborhoods but it's not really addressing the fact that our artists need to live work and play in our neighborhoods and also they need access to Affordable Studio space recording rehearsal space or whatever so I think how can we how do we pi
vot to having this more aggressive approach to looking at actually creative spaces that from work and rehearsal Etc yeah we I think that there are an addition and a disowning idea is in addition to thinking about our own funds that we could use for City Acquisitions or city rfps where we can help embed this in a way that's going to be successful I do think that there's a lot of ways to take advantage of the mitigation Community benefits to create a larger more impactful pot of money I mean at th
e end of the day a lot of this has to do with just how expensive it is to do this kind of work and have this kind of space in the city of Boston and so it does kind of pain us right now that we have some pots of funds that can't actually be combined for a bigger solution so I think that that's that's a really big piece of it we are having really good conversations also with the BPA real estate team about what would it take to acquire a space what does that look like how do we start to kind of pu
t pen to paper on on what the requirements would have to be of that and what like a proforma would look like for different kinds of spaces so I think we've been really encouraged by that conversation it will always come back to how we're going to finance at the end of the day but but I think that there are a lot of good things in place there with with where that conversation is going and the other question I had was you know just really in capacity building in terms of our Arts Community um you
know it seems to me that there's in terms of building artists cooperatives and and being able to run a Cooperative type business which seems to be a model that lends itself to this type of work um and are there are there places where we can tap into for capacity building across the community so that we can we can build up a strong resilient artist Community that's ready to roll in terms of building that infrastructure across the city yeah it's one of the um goals of the cultural space fund is al
so to fund pre-development costs and I think one of the things we've been learning is like organizing and understanding your business model and paying for people's time to even figure that out is also a pre-development cost so we've been able to do that with some small grants to artists to groups of artists to folks who are thinking about whether or not they should be a non-profit or a business to kind of help them think through what that really looks like but we would love to have that availabl
e in kind of a bigger more regular way and we're in some conversations now with other folks in the arts and culture sector who really provide those resources to see if there are Partnerships where we can make that available to more people excellent Madam chair can I have one more question sure may I um the other issue that's come up you know I think maybe around the um uh when when Grace Scott was closed you know the the building was being uh it had residential accommodations above uh and near i
t and one of the issues I've talked to with with folks like Nick Greco and and Allison brightness the whole Agent of Change uh planning bill that's in London that protects musical venues from noise complaints and I know as more and more of our um entertainment spaces or small venues um all of the spaces around them are getting developed into luxury housing and the folks don't like noise at night and they complain about that rock band that's making all that noise after ours you know are we lookin
g at an agent of change type instrument to try and protect those those actual performance venues in our neighborhoods as well I think it's something that we should look at again um my understanding is that it is something that could come into play as a part of the cooperation agreement that the city has with projects when they're finished I think there's a little bit of a compliance question of how do we make sure that property owners are actually incorporating Agent of Change language into thei
r leases or into other things because a part of it is to actually just like notify you that if you are renting or tenanting one of these Residential Properties like hey you're next to a venue or you're next to Fenway Park or whatever it might be and there's going to be noise that's that's a part of that and you would kind of accept that reality as a part of renting that space um so yeah I think it's definitely worth raising again yeah you're also next to the airport in some cases so nothing we c
ould do about that thank you madam chair thank you councilor burden I'm now going to pass the mic to counselor Fernando Sanders some for any questions thank you madam chair um Chief I wanted I wonder if you could uh help me understand overall like the vision and the deficits so in terms of you know what you see in our artist housing for artists uh working space what exactly have you guys in a full assessment I heard something about um your Citywide um I think it was some sort of report uh or pla
nning was it planning for Austin Brighton Place keeping report Falls from Brighton um but in terms of you know just this is an issue across the city we know that um we have hundreds if not thousands of talented people in Boston um and you know the websites look pretty you're you're doing your job everyone is saying the same thing we know that there's a there's a huge need here and we also know that there's a lot of money um to be made or to that should come to Boston for artists when you look at
the full picture what is the deficit and or do we have that at all or have we thought about a full assessment to understand the inequities and how we can fix it yeah and we definitely need a full assessment I think right now we were able to try um our own version of what cultural planning would look like at a neighborhood scale with that place keeping report and I do think that it has to be done in collaboration with or through Boston Planning and Development agency planning because we don't wa
nt to be kind of siled creating our own information if it's not really being taken up into how planning decisions are being made and then how that affects development review but we were able to through that really look at the history of the neighborhood look at the spaces have that kind of catalog I think we're still in a place of um kind of mourning and tracking what has been lost right so we're tracking the spaces that we know of since kind of the office has existed and no metrics about those
spaces you know who owns them how many people are in them what people are paying and we keep that sort of up to date but it's been um it's not kind of forward-looking and so I think that part of the outcome of the work with mapc is going to be to make that tracking more robust and not just kind of city workers with a spreadsheet but a real system so that we can look at the data and do some analysis on the data but also we need to do I think a study to understand future casting like where we want
these industries to grow and where we want those to live and right now that's actually just not really a part of how kind of Planning Development is set up I do think that there's really productive conversations happening with the office of Economic Opportunity around really thinking about creative Industries and creative economy as a lens for that so that we can understand you know what parts of the creative economy are we trying to invest in and keep here and then what are the spaces and infr
astructure that's required but I don't think we're there yet there's a huge market for that right like we have we know that communities of color especially or poorer communities or anyone who's disenfranchised especially artists who are struggling um to make ends meet that we we have a certain need to create these spaces and to create spaces where people can go and decompress um and then we say there's a huge Market because we can connect it to tourism right there's a lot of money to be made the
re um so definitely uh warranted but I do question like in terms of like the small efforts that the city has made for example Humphrey Street is it just to preserve the working space in the back or are we looking at the front building that huge monster that just sits there as a housing solution for artists I'm with Humphrey Street Studios um we were able to close the gap on the commercial space which is the big kind of brick building so that's what's going to be preserved and then there will be
housing um also in the kind of back half of the parcel um but I think what is important about the framework of the city being able to be proactive and invest in these projects is that we can have really productive conversations about like what else should this space be serving like how connected are artists and how connected is this asset to the rest of the community how are people defining what's affordable going forward and so as a part of making that investment the mayor's office of arts and
culture has a seat on the board that oversees those decisions and can sign off on affordability plans and that kind of thing as well so I think that um just a part of our involvement in being able to like make those Investments is also to further develop you know how that asset is serving the community and what else it can be doing sure to your point about preventative measures as opposed to being reactionary after the fact this is what we're talking about this is the frustration at the root of
the problem we look at issues especially like while people are experiencing the pain and we say this needs to happen that needs to happen the community knows the artists know what needs to happen the artists know how to fix this problem and yet we say but yet wait first we need studies and we also need designs and we also need evaluations and then that seems sort of moot point because then all of these people working in silos in the community struggling to find spaces to work to find ways to bui
ld themselves up they have already done the work they've just done it in silos and I think it's the city's responsibility to consolidate community in a way that we can actually say hey you know the answer because you've been doing this work how about leaning into that immediately and as you say be more preventative in terms of planning in capital Investments actually right and Madam chair I know that my opening sounded maybe a bit abrupt and not to question whether your process but rather that I
was trying to expand on the panel here should include Administration to talk about what their intentions are in capital budget is coming up right and I look forward to those conversations but I'm not going to ask you necessarily about what what was the decision making process you didn't create that and I'm not going to ask you about why that decision was made you also don't have the final say on that um so I think it's important for us to also open up open this up and as you said modern chair I
look forward to continuing the conversation maybe in a working session and really looking at okay City we know that there's a huge need there's a deficit we can do a study all you want people suffering now they don't have housing or work in space there's money the city is filthy rich what do we do about it the city is filthy rich um and so what do we what do we do about it it's not Opera funds it's that's not it right because we know what that was for and that's all accountable for but it's it'
s it's resolving this issue enough right now so that we can get people out of a problem but it's engaging with Administration and building out those Capital Investments so that we can be preventative how I I and I appreciate you mentioning bpda because it should be in the rfps it should be designed in the rfps exactly what we want to deserve and what we need more importantly um but how would you say moving forward like bpda right now has certain funding that goes to specific areas by project or
within the catchment area of the project how are we working with them to move those funds so that we can resolve those issues in those catchment areas but also how are we working with Administration to encourage those level of like real intentional Investments so that we can be preventative yeah I mean I think we um we have a good track record of working with the bpda on creating funds when the development happens where we can actually hold some funding and then redistribute it in that area so I
mentioned the South End zoning requirement that did create a fund where we've been able to have an MOA with the bpda as the mayor's office of arts and culture and then through the vehicle of the cultural space fund we're able to fund projects under the parameter of that geography and I think that's where we get stuff right obviously like there's a lot of things that could be invested in in the south end and it's hard to have these these Pockets that are attached to the development project but I
think the other piece and you mentioned the rfps we've seen so many really great rfps in the sense of like very like capturing Community needs and wants and I think that without some other kind of commercial subsidy program you know we're putting these things out and kind of hoping that the market can do it and it can't particularly in certain areas where probably it's the most needed and so I think this is where similar to housing having kind of an ongoing kind of housing funding round to do h
ousing subsidies we need something similar in this case and that could be for commercial space it could be with you know a certain focus on arts and culture or kind of Civic public spaces but I think that without that investment we're not going to see those results that we want to see out of the rfps thank you thank you madam chair thank you councilor Fernandez Anderson um I I will go through my question seeing that my other colleagues have have left and I just want to say thank you again for fo
r this presentation I um I'm just synthesizing what I what I've gotten here and largely what I was going to bring to this conversation in terms of uh Solutions and recommendations were addressed here and so I just want to say thank you all so much rather than being reactionary or having mitigation through Community benefits or various funds and preventative measures rather this all is happening on a case-by-case basis from what I heard from your presentation you are really trying to be proactive
both when it comes to to planning and weaving your office's priorities through the development process which I think is key and that's something that I want to just Dive Dive deeper on I was looking for these uh figures in this presentation but I missed it when you had said it so one of my first question just to set the table was how much square footage has been lost over the last 10 10 to 20 years whatever figure you have and that you mentioned and then specifically as it relates to to rehears
al Music Space what that that's footage uh with that footage is yep so we have specific square footage tracking for Ulster Brighton in a more kind of live sense because of that focused planning work we did and that indicated over 120 000 square feet at risk and over a hundred thousand square feet lost in the last five to seven years and then we have city-wide tracking which is done more on the basis of our awareness of buildings and sites that are used by artists and creative workers primarily f
or Productions where they're actually creating work and then also tracking artist housing units that are coming through IDP or mayor's office of housing projects um but we don't have an overall square footage around city-wide right now and then in terms of Music rehearsal spaces we know um at in Charlestown there are around 90 um the sun Museum was home to around 130 and other the swing space on Morrissey is providing around 88. Studios yeah but I would just add to that also that we know that ev
ery single space has a waiting list so we have been in touch with not just for music rehearsal but other kinds of spaces um artists housing buildings that also have wait lists that just go on and on and on um and we know that the turnover for artist housing in particular is you know very slow so that's another way for us to sort of quantify what that demand is is to go back and look at those lists and see how many people are on the waitlist and continuing to sign up for those is there any way to
just thinking about planning right if we have a baseline understanding of what the need is both for housing and for rehearsal space would we be able to gather that data and have it in one place so that if we are going to do this holistic planning which you're saying we know what success looks like like how many folks are waiting both for artist housing and for rehearsal space at this moment in time yep and this is um so this is a like the overall number is not just for housing and and music spa
ce but um looking at loss over time and again that's a little bit different from the question of where we want to be this is what um we're hoping that the mapc tool can help us kind of quantify and have that Baseline and have it in numbers like square footage and affordability and we also know that there's specific disciplines that are having a harder time than others because of spaces that have been lost so we hear a lot from dance for example right which has like specific space needs so I thin
k between um having that Baseline through that project and then also understanding specific areas that are having a harder time finding space because they have have those unique space needs will be able to have clear priorities going forward we can also there have been several studies about artist space including from the bpda over the years that we have that we use for older data including like knowing that there are entire buildings of cultural production space that were lost in Fort Point rig
ht over time so we do have that going back okay and you did mention ensuring that moving forward there's no uh net loss of of spaces um thinking back to what we have lost right if we have uh seen uh the decrease of square footage at a hundred thousand square feet for example can we integrate and I know we have the mapc that's developing this tool and I look forward to diving deeper into that as well but will we be able to to look at what we've lost and be able to make up for it not just a net lo
ss but I really would like to build up and grow these spaces based on what we had before yeah um absolutely and I think too councilor Fernandez Anderson's Point there's also a point at which there's not a lot of property out there there's not a lot of industrial property that's good for this kind of use and so while we can pull those numbers together we also know that if there's an industrial building on the market right now we should probably be buying it right right and I do want to get into t
hat's a good segue into integrating you and to the bpda process right we know that article 80 is a good lever and a good pressure point just to inserting your voice and and all the advocacies our Advocates voice into that space you did mention that you have two ftes that have been um hired so are the ACT scoping sessions at the bpda and then also what is a way to formalize and standardize your your cabinet's advocacy like is there any conversations around a checklist the same way that the disabi
lities commission has a checklist we have an affh checklist I just would like to see um something produced from from your your office in your cabinet yeah that's a great idea um we do have a checklist for artist housing as a result of the design guidelines that we created for that right so really trying to hold that to a standard and I think it'd be great to develop something similar for other projects we've also talked with our colleagues in housing about the need for just like an anti-displace
ment assessment off the bat like what is actually being displaced by this project and how is that being addressed and what is a checklist checklist look like around those issues would be extremely helpful I think because of the nature of the article 80 process it's really easy for different departments and different issues to have siled conversations and so it's important for there to be these touch points where we're all looking at that kind of assessment together and thinking about what happen
ed in Charlestown I know that it was flagged through ISD because it was a change of use and so is there a way to break down that Silo and just make sure that there's some sort of Trigger or alert to your office when there is a change of use from from anything uh that that's happening like that yeah that that's on our list as well as a an actionable item that would make a huge difference so that we can be pulled in we work really well with ISD when we know at the same time that something's happen
ing but it would be great to have an official notification great yeah um and you had mentioned something similar to linkage for for these sort of spaces and that's something that I I certainly support we've seen the Success Through the nht with the Neighborhood Housing Trust and obviously Workforce Development in in the city of Boston um what if those conversations look like I know that it's that it's a proposed solution but what we're what are some tangible actions that have happened or convers
ations that you can speak to today yeah so I think um the most um kind of promising part of that conversation is to have the ability and the BPA has been supportive of this for the mayor's office of arts and culture to have a city-wide fund so there is some process and approvals around that but if we could have that mechanism then we could start to direct some of these community community benefit and mitigation contributions to that fund there's still some things to work out about you know legal
ly what is community benefit and what is mitigation and how can that be distributed more city-wide but just the mechanism of it it seems like we are all in support that something like that is needed and so that's where the conversation is right now great just look into my list of questions making sure that I have everything um so looking at mapc's work in Somerville which is which has been incredible they did a risk assessment over there uh just in terms of of cultural spaces and and art spaces
they were able to convene a task force just to assist with this and I know that we do have we were awarded the technical assistance grant for this infrastructure work are we developing a similar task force just trying to bring everybody to the table is that something that's already been discussed and we haven't discussed a specific task force I think even as we've been discussing the engagement strategies for that work we also know that people have been talking a lot about this issue and have be
en engaged a lot on the issue so maybe once we have the kind of tool and process up and running it'll be good to have a body that's kind of getting reported to you about what some of those issues are and how we're dealing with them but for now I think we've been taking the approach that while we're doing kind of focus groups or mabc is doing focus groups and individual interviews um we sort of again we kind of like know what the problem is and just want to be able to get that data in place and u
p and running but I think the idea of having a body longer term that can look at that makes a lot of sense and then my last question for that is just about the timeline on that because I really see that as a way for us to gather this important data to figure out some of the solutions moving forward figure out what the key findings are what is what is the timeline on that and what is um success in in your mind for for the arts and culture office so we're around halfway through the execution of th
at project as supported by their technical assistance grant and the main outcomes that we're looking to for the scope of work which is now detained at the end of this calendar year would be a digital planning tool that's shared by Cambridge Somerville and Boston shared policy platform um that's shared by the three cities too which covers some of the issues we've discussed today including zoning and then being able to really get planners across all three cities using that tool as well as our cult
ural planning team and in our office so the rest of this year we'll be continuing to work together with those two cities on mapc yeah I would just add to that that I think it would be great to as a way of elevating the work as well to treat this kind of multi-city collaboration the way we think about like the life sciences Corridor um so how do we think about um whether it's a compact or some other set of agreements for how the three cities are working together especially as we're all dealing wi
th the same issues to really see that kind of space and creative ecosystem as one as one Regional issue that we're not just coordinating around but that we're also lifting up right as a priority of investment for the area thank you do any of my colleagues have additional questions um thank you for your answer so far one the anti-displacement assessment like the AF they affirmatively furthering fair housing has a look back and I'm you know I'm I'm thinking about spaces in in Austin Brighton that
um you know where I would say um taken offline like 55 52 Everett Street you know um when a new when a new proposal comes forward for development do we have the capacity to have like a look back assessment to say okay this space was an artist base uh five years ago and now it's going to be redeveloped like and all things that are happening sort of in real time right now and anticipated our reaction to but if something sort of the horse has already left the barn is there any way we can set up a s
ort of a look back sort of assessment that that would would factor in the the recent displacement from from a space like that across anywhere across the city and then the other issue was you know thinking about and in terms of affordable um affordable uses for artist housing Etc like I know we have we have we struggle with expiring use um in in a rental um look highly subsidized rental spaces for housing residential do you know do we have the capacity to sort of try and extend that sun setting o
f of uh affordability like I'm thinking about the piano Factory you know it hits uh it hits us hits this timeline uh it's it's it's designated has been affordable for like 40 years and then or 30 years and when that 30-year limit then all of a sudden you lose that affordability and it becomes market rate and then all of a sudden you're faced with a huge wave of displacement because it all happens at once and you know have we any mechanisms to try and extend that those are the two questions I had
yeah that's a good question about the um on the residential I think we'd have to look into that or connect with our housing colleagues to see what those options are I'm not familiar with any um off top of my head but we could look into that and get back to you um The Look Back assessment um I think is a great idea there's definitely a lot that's lost between the time that a project is approved to when things are actually moving um and that's enough time they can also span staff right and differ
ent kinds of processes and notifications and anything that we would set up so I do think that the idea of having that um kind of checklist for around displacement or existing uses at the beginning where everybody could get on the same page about what is there and what's kind of at risk and what the approach is for that would help set the stage for being able to look you know check in annually or look three years later and see what's happened because we do see it as a huge problem that once a dev
elopment project is in motion people leave right like all the small businesses all the creative uses all the artists are going to start looking for where they can go and then by the time we're in the conversation and it's close to something like a bpda board vote you know maybe most of the people have left the building and suddenly it seems like it's not a concern anymore yeah so there has to be I think both that kind of Baseline expectations at the beginning and that cataloging at the beginning
so that we can do what you're suggesting and keep track of things going forward and and then and possibly mitigate the impact it's this historic you know recent because if you own a large building that's a sort of semi-industrial space that's being used used as a as a recording studio for X number of years and you you want to you want to sell it to a developer you probably get rid of your tenants ahead of time so that you don't have to deal with that and again that's the look back yeah mechanis
m that we might be able to use yeah and I think the tool that we're building with mapc will have that functionality in it to track what has been um the use of buildings over time even after it's changed so marking existing assets like known assets that have even changed use in the past couple of years through our data Gathering and interviews so that should be able to mark some history of buildings and important art sites in the city too and then we can cross check that with development review f
ilings when they come into our office I think the other thing we see in Olson Brighton is like it's it's sort of past history now but on Rock Road like the informal sort of rehearsal spaces that were there that were sort of on recognized and on probably not compliant with code or whatever but um you know just thinking about those informal spaces in other neighborhoods that we could maybe work with the artist Community to formalize the arrangement and make sure they comply with code Etc so that t
hey don't face this they don't get labeled as a blighted property because and they're not that that incentivizes speculative investment and displacement in that situation as well absolutely thank you madam chair [Music] foreign oh there we go thank you Council Braden uh counselor Fernandez Anderson thank you madam chair um Chief and both uh Melissa if you can help me um get to the next steps so we've talked and um I don't know has it been an hour okay we've talked for an hour and um your pro you
r presentation um is very thoughtful and um I think very thorough um to to the limitations within the limitations that you have right um tell me or help me get to surmise this this hour conversation so that we understand next steps because we're having conversations because we are all interested in Solutions and I know that everyone sitting here is interested in the next conversation that leads to Solutions hopefully [Music] um with that being said things like that's come out of this hearing hel
p me out everybody we've talked about housing right industrial buildings so we should buy more industrial buildings we should invest more in capital um what else I think one thing would be to work with the bpda on just outlining how arts and culture considerations are coming to fruition through zoning and article 80 reviews so we know that's that's ongoing but I think there can be clear outcomes from that as next steps um your director of planning tell me what what is the plan so with our additi
onal hires that we've added to create Boston's first cultural planning team one of the key initial steps in having a development review role is to now be in pre-file meetings as well as cooking sessions and what would really enable and Empower that role is to have those clear Community benefit and mitigation expectations set up and we have the goals that we've set out here today but we really need buy-in and collaboration with BPA development review teams as well as how we're communicating that
out to development teams and also owners of important Arts buildings in this city so that they have clear expectations and that aligns with some of the article aad review goals that the Administration has set out to and then in addition to that I think going back to looking at what our office's capital budget looks like and that request for the next fiscal year is that is historically focused on public art projects but we know that capital is needed to stabilize and expand spaces in this city so
moving forward that request I have three things housing invest in housing so purchasing those industrial buildings looking or for artists working space bpda article 80 review so to include in the RV or in the process itself for artist space and housing also Community benefits the city-wide bucket that we mentioned so that we have more autonomy and how we use it um what else I think that's most of it how how are we holding schools accountable are we working with universities are they where where
are there where's their money what are we doing with schools that is a good question um we haven't been working too closely with schools on this issue yet um and I think there's some tension about the spaces that are available through institutions that are used by our local creative community and how um you know it's the educational institutions are always going to serve their students and their customers sure yes and so that makes it more difficult to really understand how to make those spaces
available um you know from a creative business perspective and that's not just about individual artists or really small groups but also we see you know large Grammy a winning winning uh organizations that have a hard time securing those spaces far enough in advance and really being able to rely on them so I think it's a conversation to be had it was a little bit harder to do out of covid as well with schools kind of closing down access to some of their spaces but it should be Revisited what abo
ut hospitals should I have money I would think so okay and then what about this anti-displayment study should we get an updated one yeah I think that's a great conversation for us to have with um housing who I know has been has already some precedence for that and I think the question would be it's probably housing us Economic Opportunity because there's a small business lens there as well to think about what that kind of initial intake anti-displacement intake looks like if you were to think of
your budget last question it's not hypothetical if you were to look at your budget you know right now what you wanted to do because you you I I from from interacting with you I think that you absolutely love what you do and you really care um how much more money would you say the administration have to give you in order to do that job I think that um and if it's not money then what is it I think that the reality of it is that the kinds of things that we're talking about that are the sticking po
ints are more about like process and coordination I mean we're talking about money as well right because money is needed to do things like buy buildings but even if we have that money if we don't really have the process figured out in the priority placed on this area of work then you know we can't move that money either yeah how come it takes so much so long to pay artists I know it's not your department but what happens when does it stop where does a check come from yeah I think um some of the
challenges around paying artists from the city uh stem from the fact that artists are individuals and small businesses and receive grants and receive contracts and navigating City the way that city procures is not intuitive if you're used to working as a sole proprietor essentially so I think that's part of the equation we've been doing a lot of work to try to help people on the front end so that they understand how the city system works and you know as you're filling out a vendor ID profile lik
e what that actually means and where that information is going so we've been trying to provide more of that ahead of time so that people don't get stuck further along and then wind up in problems in the system getting paid thank you thank you counselor Fernandez Anderson I can always depend on you to ensure that we have tangible action moving forward so thank you so much for for highlighting that and I do just want to thank you both uh for being here in your presentation um we do have this list
that we've just gone over and I do want to mention and and not lose sight of this this fund that we need to set up and so if we can be in constant communication about that and how we can be helpful as a council please let us know especially as we move forward in the budget process how much you you need in your capital budget to be successful to to do some of these things is is very important to me and I know to to my colleagues sitting next to me and then also how your conversations are going wi
th the bpda and just to put on record I did a request that the bbda be at this hearing understanding that this conversation was going to be geared towards zoning and planning and so moving forward not only will we have the office of budget management here I would love a representative from the bpda to be here as well to show us what exactly they have done in partnership with your office so do you I don't have an answer for you oh sorry thank you I'm sorry yeah I don't have an answer however the
request was made so is there anything else that you wanted to mention before we move on to the next round um no just want to say thank you again for the opportunity to talk these things through and we you know have enjoyed working with each of you and just really appreciate the advocacy from the council as well on this issue thank you thank you thank you so much okay we're going to move on with our next uh the next segment of this hearing and I would love to have I'm just bringing up the list ri
ght now uh we have Emily ruddock the executive director of mass creative um Annis Whitlow sangupta it's a PhD director of arts and culture at the mapc we also have Christina Tedesco from Art stays here Ethan Dussault volunteer Jesse vengrobe who is from Charlestown rehearsal studios and I also have somebody by the name of of Jim Healy as well [Applause] feel free to spread out thank you all so much for being here we really wanted to um to focus in on folks who were directly impacted uh because o
f the loss of rehearsal space in music space while also getting to some of the solutions that we had had just talked about and I'm very pleased to see or to hear that there is already a partnership with the mapc in terms of technical assistance and I would love to maybe start with the mapc if you have remarks and then go towards the artists who have been directly impacted and some of their their stories and maybe some solutions based on their their experience I was invited to be on this panel an
d then I was taken I'm so sorry are you Catherine Catherine so we had spoken about this earlier you and I had had a conversation that we would discuss uh the sound Museum in particular so we also have public testimony which is where you were going to be prioritized so and I was invited to be on this path you're more than welcome to sit down if you'd like to be on here because your perspective is very very important to us and I don't want to feel like you've been silenced at all so if you would l
ike to come down to the council floor you're more than welcome to provide your perspective thank you so if we want to start with mapc you can talk about your experience with the city of Boston and some of what you're working on and what we can expect within the next year hi thank you chair Coletta for this invitation to testify on the loss of rehearsal spaces for musicians in the city of Boston and thank you to the other members of the committee for listening today my name is Anna sangupta I'm t
he director of arts and culture at the metropolitan area planning Council which is the regional planning agency that serves the people who live and work in the 101 cities and towns of Metro Boston since our Department's founding in 2017 we have worked in partnership with the Boston mayor's office of arts and culture several times to support cultural planning in Boston and we are currently working with them and the cities of Cambridge and Somerville on a project to document cultural spaces and de
velop a policy agenda and digital planning platform that will make it easier to maintain and expand cultural space in all three cities based on our work we have learned that loss of Music rehearsal space is a regional issue and is part of a larger trend of loss of performance space and creative workspace more generally and we're also seeing that creative workspaces are highly vulnerable to development pressure in the Somerville report that you mentioned earlier we saw that artist workspaces were
as likely to be lost from areas that were facing the lowest exposure to development pressure as they were from areas with the highest exposure to those pressures and within the context of the vulnerability musicians are facing additional challenges to securing and maintaining access to rehearsal space because they need soundproofing to accommodate multiple artists or uses within a building they need sufficient space to accommodate multiple artists instruments and Equipment rehearsing together a
nd they risk a butter complaints that are that would trigger the enforcement of noise ordinances particularly in places that include residential uses or where there is an expectation of quiet um we also suspect that the issue of rehearsal space loss is linked to an exacerbated by the loss of industrial space across the region and specifically within the inner core uses that produce noise and music as a noise is then categorized as a nuisance or similar impacts are often restricted to industrial
areas through zoning and based on a research report released by mapc last month the Metro Boston region lost 10.9 million square feet of built industrial space between 2011 and 2021 with nearly 75 percent of the loss occurring in the inner core which are the communities in and around Boston um and you can imagine that with that contraction of space available there's greater competition for industrial space which creates greater pressure on artists workspaces we also have seen that artist ownersh
ip of creative workspaces especially that Cooperative model can help mitigate against development pressures but they are also challenging to achieve and that generally artists and musicians do rely on a mix of informal networks and arrangements and formal agreements to secure space for their work and while that informality can support flexible and creative strategies to preserve affordability and respond to shifting needs it can also amplify inequity of access to Affordable space across the regi
on and within this context municipalities across the region lack both data and policies that allow them to proactively respond to displacement pressure before it results in artist displacement and this is what is the focus of our project with Boston Cambridge and Somerville we see that creative workspace is largely absent from data that's available to municipalities and so a big part of the project is actually creating an inventory of spaces and linking that inventory into a digital planning too
l that all three cities will be able to use to allow their staff to interface with planning departments and development review processes to flag where there may be spaces that would be at risk of displacement because of new development coming in where they can track changes over time and be more proactive in planning to address the the loss or you know track gain if they're if we're able to get to that point um but we also see right now that municipalities have limited tools to mitigate displace
ment of Arts and Cultural uses and many of those tools um have may have limited impact on preventing the displacement of rehearsal space because of the specific issues um that in the regulatory environment that can disadvantage noisy activities we see that Municipal zoning and permitting can create barriers to expanding rehearsal space with a misalignment between the zoning language and the cultural planning goals and priorities this is not only true in Boston but also across the region there ar
e not clear structures or processes where cultural planning staff can flag issues early in planning and development review processes and there's a lack of funding and staff capacity to to do that proactive planning that has been mentioned several times today and I would also link arts and culture planning to policies to promote affordable housing and small business support which are really important issues for the creative community but within this Regional context there is opportunity for local
action even though we were likely to continue to see displacement in the near term Boston can document its existing creative workspaces and establish this inventory that makes it possible to track changes over time and flag risks to spaces from proposed development projects and within the context of this project we'll be doing that but we will really be relying on the creative community in Boston to help us fill out and identify where those spaces are and what the square footage is one of the t
hings we learned in Somerville is just knowing where the buildings are is not sufficient because you need to be able to track the actual square footage that's being lost and tailor your policies to recover that square footage through um through a variety of other mechanisms Boston can also require a role for its cultural planning staff within the development review process to ensure that any potential impacts on cultural space and specifically music rehearsal spaces can be identified and mitigat
ed early in the process a big part of this project will also be looking doing a full policy audit and looking at the zoning and permitting processes in Boston Cambridge and Somerville to identify specific places that may be creating barriers in those cities and Boston can also proactively affirm the importance of creative workspace and amend its zoning and permitting to reduce restrictions on these uses allowing artistic and creative activity across the city and create incentives and standards t
hat ensure that more vulnerable creative uses like music rehearsal space can be served better served by new development we also understand that this issue cannot be solved by Boston alone and that Statewide collaboration and advocacy will be needed Boston can collaborate with its neighbors to reduce barriers to creative activity and expression regionally by establishing consistent definitions of creative workspace that can be used in zoning across municipalities and by working together to suppor
t this capacity building work for individuals who are interested in owning and managing cultural facilities and helping to build Pathways to Capital Boston can also advocate for a broader array of tools that municipalities can use to act in this sphere including the ability to preserve spaces for Creative uses and to increase funding and establish more flexible funds that can then be invested in the development maintenance and affordability of creative workspace um and as Cara and Melissa mentio
ned the project that we're currently working on will be wrapping up uh in December 2023 and it will result in a digital planning platform that those three cities can use and we hope that other cities will be able to opt into it will include a regional policy agenda and it will also have Municipal action plans that take into account the specific context of each municipality and how they can move from where they are now to achieving that larger agenda thank you so much we'll move to mass creative
Emily ruddock if you'd like to present thank you thank you very much thank you chair Coletta on behalf of mass creatives board of directors over 170 Arts and Cultural organizational members and 3 000 individual artists creative workers and advocates in Boston alone I want to thank you for the opportunity to testify today masquerative is a Statewide independent organizing and advocacy organization through activating the advocacy power of artists creatives and cultural leaders advancing Common Sen
se public policy and leading public education campaigns we want to work to realize a more Equitable and inclusive creative sector for all of the Commonwealth and we're eager to share a Statewide perspective today on the loss of rehearsal and creative space for all creative workers so I depending on how you look at this the good news is the loss of creative space is not a boston-specific issue and the the negative way to look at it is and the reality is is that it's a problem across the Commonwea
lth creative space rehearsal space for artists is a larger part of that problem is excuse me as a part of a larger part of that problem commercial space for individual artists across disciplines to create rehearse and develop their work has long been at risk in the Commonwealth however we're sort of seeing the pandemic and the economic impact has exacerbated that crisis um creative communities as I mentioned in Essex County Berkshire County and Cape Cod face similar challenges as private propert
y owners who historically leased space for Creative workers sell or redevelop these properties for other uses so Mass creative and our Advocates we see two main areas of impact if the loss of space for musicians and artists continues unabated the first one is economic vibrancy the creative economy is a reliable economic driver for communities across Massachusetts in Boston specifically an individual spends about 3 30.20 26 Cents at neighboring retail and restaurants when they attend an Arts even
t local creative economies play a significant role in the quality of life for their residents with the rise of hybrid and remote work workers have options of where to live and work and Boston must consider strategies to attract and retain residents however if artists do not have a space to create or present their work they will too leave and the vibrant creative economy Boston relies on for economic development Talent attraction and Resident protection will disappear the second area that I want
to point out today is the the issue of cultural Equity so like economically accessible housing low-cost creative space is directly related to who can afford to make art in the city and without a variety of maker spaces throughout the city only those who can pay or have space near their residences or that are easily accessible will have the ability to be working artists in our city in United States so just to take a little bit of a larger to bring the helicopter up a little bit in the United Stat
es there are models of how cities can address and mitigate creative space loss Seattle created the creative space agency a city charted chartered public development agency whose mission is securing long-term affordable commercial cultural space and in San Francisco and Oakland the public-private community art stabilization trust uses the land trust model to secure and preserve affordable creative space it's important to note that both these that these efforts require both municipal government st
ate government and private philanthropy in order to get off the ground and we urge Boston to consider similar approaches we also want to just note that we were pleased to see the mayor's office of arts and culture launching the Boston cultural space fund the fund will as you know will invest 1.5 million this fiscal year to support individual artists creative businesses and non-profit cultural organizations to acquire new spaces and make existing ones more accessible and as you heard from the chi
ef of arts and culture there it will take more strategies like these in the city to mitigate the loss of space and the subsequent loss of artists on the state level Mass creative is working with Senator Liz Miranda of Boston and representative Dan Cahill of Lynn on an act to preserve space for the creative economy this legislation would create a defined property restriction for Creative maker space and performance or exhibit space it would also allow municipalities to establish trust funds to ho
ld assets and property to create and preserve creative spaces so we believe this bill is an essential first step on the state level to adjust creative space loss and we are eager for more Partners on this legislation um finally as a Statewide creative sector advocacy organization Mass creative stands ready to work with Boston city council and with our Advocates on policy Solutions and government supports thank you so much for your time thank you so much all right we will move to uh I have first
on my list Jesse vengrove who is an artist who was impacted by the Charlestown rehearsal studios thank you my name is Jesse vengrove I'm a tenure Charlestown resident and an audio engineer by trade I'm also here as a musician a six and a half year tenant at the Charlestown rehearsal studios also known as CRS and a member a member of the CRS tenants Association steering committee I'd like to start by expressing my gratitude to the city council for holding this hearing I would like to expand exten
d a special thanks to councilor Coletta my city councilor for sponsoring this hearing and for the honor of allowing me to be a part of this panel I would like to also thank Chief Elliot Ortega for all of her work over the past eight years on behalf of musicians and artists in the city and Amy Bennett and all the Art stays here Coalition volunteers for the countless unpaid hours they put into helping organize all of us over at CRS I grew up in western Mass immersed in music concerts as a toddler
with my parents my first drum lessons as a sixth grader from my dad in our basement and years of band practices in the basements of friends making an unreasonable amount of noise I moved to Boston in 2009 after transferring into Berkeley College of music's audio engineering program and I haven't left since I've spent the last 11 plus years working exclusively in the creative field of audio both in recording studios and at live concert venues in Boston in the surrounding area as well as playing d
rums and bands in the local scene however I can count on one hand the number of my fellow Berkeley classmates that stayed in Boston after graduation largely due to the lack of opportunities and infrastructure to support careers in music here growing up I took for granted the ability to simply walk down into my basement and practice drums for hours on end now it is impossible for me to imagine my life without music as an integral part of who I am and how I navigate the world however if right now
I was that same sixth grader living in Charlestown and my dad took me into our basement to give me my first Drum Lesson we'd have the police at their door with a noise complaint in no time and if we kept it up we'd probably get run out of the neighborhood faster than if I move someone's space saver after a snowstorm um making music with my band mates who I consider family and amplifying the music of others at work is my reason for being music is the thing that I wake up thinking about and it is
also the thing that keeps me up until four o'clock in the morning at work so others can enjoy it however since the rumors broke in early January about the potential closure of CRS which houses uh 95 rooms with 700 plus musicians I now wake uh wake up thinking about the imminent displays from musicians and friends from this city and it anxiously keeps me up at night it's caused me to reschedule band practices neglect practicing my instrument fall behind at work sacrifice time with my wife in orde
r to instead prioritize spending hours on Zoom strategy meetings with the CRS steering committee or repeatedly knocking on all 95 doors at CRS while handing out hundreds of Flyers this is wholly unsustainable I used to practice in the rehearsal Studio complex at the corner of Boylston and Brookline Ave which is now luxury condos before moving to CRS I was at 155 North Beacon which is soon to be bulldozed numerous facilities in South Boston are long gone along with the rug Road building in Austin
and soon to be the Berwick building in Nubian Square when I was a student at Berkeley there were also even some Al practice spaces in the basement on the block of Boylston Street between Hemingway and Mass Ave which today I cannot even fathom as it seems so far-fetched there are two large arguments to be made about the necessity of rehearsal spaces in the city first music is critically important and plays a role in most people's lives even if those people aren't musicians themselves the music s
cene is what makes the city sound alive and have an identity and the musicians that make this possible need spaces in which to create these spaces act as a creative Safe Haven a home away from home these spaces need to be in buildings that are well maintained and cared for by The Operators which I'm happy to say CRS has really been an incredible example of compared to some other facilities in the city and these spaces need to be affordable to ensure access for all who seek them the only barrier
to making art really should be one's own creative limit second there's a huge economic benefit to having a vibrant local music scene based on surveying that we've done at CRS with tenants there a large number of musicians who travel into Charlestown patronize local businesses whether it's a chain like Whole Foods or locally owned businesses like Tavern at the end of the world convenience 365 Charlestown Liquors and many others and this is all just in the tiny one square mile that makes up Charle
stown all of these musicians then play shows at local venues and these shows bring crowds that I'll spend their money not only at the venues but as surrounding businesses as well the economic effect of losing the local music scene here in the city would be felt by a wide range of people and businesses and the ripple effect would be felt throughout New England and believe me this will be lost if there's not a quick and concerted effort to stop musician displacement from Boston the inability to su
stainably support a thriving music community of multiple genres in the city has been an ongoing issue for a long time it is truly heartening to see the city council shine a light on this issue for what I believe is the first time ever acknowledging that this impacts every single neighborhood in the city and is not just an issue for one small arts and culture office to solve on their own going forward I would love to see the following occur the city council engaging with musicians at the time and
place that is accessible not solely during weekday business hours when most folks are working I know a lot of folks express interest in being here but unfortunately could not because it's the middle of the afternoon Citywide policies that incentivize commercial developers of affordable art and music spaces through tax breaks non-profits cannot and should not shoulder this burden alone money for Community benefits from the article 80 process not just contained to the neighborhood of the new deve
lopment but instead pooled in an effort to acknowledge that the arts and culture issues that one neighborhood faces are likely faced by and will certainly affect constituents in others as well concrete policies from the bpda about how it will steer development towards stemming artists and musician displacement and finally on top of the creation of new music and arts workspaces we need to see a commitment to zero net loss of these spaces in the city in general and more specifically with the goal
of keeping artist communities in the same neighborhoods that they have historically thrived in thank you [Applause] mendations as well I appreciate it I have Christina Tedesco up next good afternoon my name is Christina Tedesco I'm a Dorchester resident a professional Scenic designer for theater film and Opera and I'm on the steering committee of Humphrey Street Studios in albums Corner Dorchester and the Art stays here coalition the Art stays here Coalition whose mission is to prevent Arts musi
c and cultural displacement across Greater Boston was born out of the multi-year preservation work we did at my own artist Community Humphreys Street Studios um where I've worked for 19 years through that advocacy we learned about the long time systemic problem of Arts displacement across Greater Boston due to property values Rising development and gentrification there are too many communities long gone but we can name a few here the piano craft Guild in the South End 55 Amory Street in Jamaica
Plain EMF building in Central Square Cambridge 125 Brookside in Jamaica Plain Central studios in Somerville and as we speak the Berwick building in Roxbury and 119 Braintree Street in Austin there have been no protections or policies for these creative communities and artists and musicians have been leaving Boston to more affordable places like Malden Lowell and Waltham we're so grateful for our city councilors for calling this hearing to address the loss of Musical music rehearsal space in Bost
on this topic is not new um there are over two dozen musicians and artists here today most of whom have at some point been displaced once some multiple three to four times just last week we saw the closing of the sound Museum in Brighton having housed hundreds of musicians for decades and recently we've learned about the potential displacement of another 700 plus musicians at Charlestown or rehearsal studios where Jesse is that's nearly 2 000 musicians in Boston Proper within a 12-month period w
ith zero place for even a dozen musicians to relocate to never mind nearly two thousand this upheaval not only affects the musicians themselves but the restaurants convenience and package stores hardware and music instrument and coffee shops gas stations and other economic touch points to and from rehearsing after these nearly 2 000 musicians also frequent area recording studios play Live concerts at area venues and clubs print t-shirts at local screen printers and buy and repair music gear all
within a creative ecosystem our city depends on for both resident and visitor entertainment the Art stays here Coalition although young and entirely volunteer operated has helped these groups to join together in one voice form tenant associations and Advocate against displacement we've worked with elected officials neighborhood association and the mayor's office and are grateful to have stop Gap individual solutions for each but these piecemeal efforts don't address the long time overall issue t
here is not enough Arts music cultural workspaces in Boston and those we do have are all at risk because we do not have protection or policies in place to prevent impending displacement it's not sustainable to save Arts communities piecemeal as we have been and continue to do the Coalition overall must help communities like like Humphrey Street Studios which partnered with vanilla benevolent developer turn the studio community community community into a non-profit organization and purchase the s
tudio property HSS is now majority artists owned and operated as an affordable artist workspace in perpetuity this is but one success story amidst dozens of Arts communities displaced the coalition plans to become a regional agency that can buy hold develop and manage cultural spaces in perpetuity we would have funds to compete with other developers of buyers and would create mechanisms to train artists and Advocates to be Arts administrators and to then manage the communities themselves if they
choose but in addition to our Coalition expanding to meet the needs of all who risk displacement we also call upon the state of Massachusetts and individual municipalities and here today specifically the city of Boston to a be truly aware of this systemic heartbreaking truth and to to take action on two fronts first to more nimbly help prevent those at risk of imminent displacement and also to create a long-term solution that includes protection policy and funding that actively chooses to prior
itize Arts we have seen and are currently experiencing what happens without performance venues close workspaces get redeveloped artists of all disciplines leave our city we ask that the city council provide a dedicated line item of funding towards Arts and Cultural workspaces seed money of 10 million dollars in the fiscal year 24 City budget and funding thereafter we ask for Arts and Cultural representation at every point of City Planning and Development we ask for policy that protects artists a
nd musicians when development occurs funding for relocation if needed and for the council to look at this problem city-wide not just District by District and region-wide sometimes Solutions exist only in other districts than the original displacement on behalf of myself and my my other Arts stays here Coalition volunteer College colleagues I thank you for this opportunity to share testimony here today thank you so much we have Jim Jim Healy that's me if you wouldn't mind just introducing yoursel
f that's something I forgot to ask thanks hi my name is Jim Healy I am a recently displaced uh 155 North Beacon Street former sub denim um good afternoon thank you for having us here today um I've lived most of my life in Dorchester I've been a working musician since the age of 16. I'm now 54 that gives you some perspective writing and playing music has been the center most passion and prior to my life I'm one of hundreds of musicians last week that were displaced from 155 North Beacon Street in
Brighton where I rehearsed for 20 years that was just the most recent displacement I'd experienced over 35 years plus as a Boston musician I've also been displaced from the Allied boat and screw building on Albany Street in the South End 285 Dorchester Ave in South Boston and have experienced other friends displaced from the EMF building in Cambridge New Alliance building in Fenway as well as countless others most musicians and bands can't just rehearse record at home instruments and gear inclu
ding drum kits amps PA systems take up a lot of room most bands have between three and five members and a good portion of them play really loud all of this requires a music rehearsal Studio community be an environment suitable for isolating sounds from Neighbors homes and businesses it requires access at nights and on weekends as most of us also work day jobs to subsidize our music careers it also requires parking as we move our gear in and out after gigs and it requires being close to public tr
ansportation some of us don't have cars um we've mostly been relegated to Industrial and underdeveloped areas but now with the rise of so much development in our city there's hardly a square foot never mind 40 to 100 000 needed to support a creative community luckily through the hard work of many folks including Art stays here Coalition the mayor's office of arts and culture and other Advocates it seems that preventing art music cultural displacement is beginning to get your attention it seems l
ike a right time where artists and musicians of many disciplines are raising our hands Gathering our Collective voices and asking for your help we need your help now more than ever we need you to see us and hear us some of us are Boston residents like myself some of us work in Boston some of us attend Berkeley or other Boston universities some live in surrounding areas and specifically come to Boston to be part of the music community we need to keep the space we have and secure it we also need t
o build more spaces so we have enough we need to fuel the creative economy so we and all artists can continue providing concerts exhibitions and unique cultural experiences for visitors visitors who drive into Boston Park in our garages eat in our restaurants buy tickets to the events we want to continue sharing our gifts and making boss more valuable to all please help us I on behalf of all musicians we're the currently displacer at risk ask you the Boston city council to work with us in the ma
yor's office to provide both protection and policies to Arts music cultural spaces in Boston please consider a budget line for securing uh space in your upcoming 2024 budget please consider offering city-owned properties buildings to developers and operators willing to provide Arts cultural use in perpetuity please provide a mechanism in the development process for arts and culture to be part of all planning please work together as a council and consider Arts displacement as a city-wide issue no
t just District by District please make Bocce Boston a healthy thriving Community for all musicians and artists to live work and share our talents please help us revive and reclaim Boston as the place where Arts can Thrive where people want to live move to visit and invest in thank you [Applause] thank you so much Jim and then Catherine Kathleen can you just introduce yourself and then uh also your role sure and keeping it Solutions oriented thank you my name is Catherine Desmond and I am a musi
cian from Boston I'm also I'm going to open up my phone I'm also the owner of uh the sound Museum which Jim has been a tenant of mine in all of those places that he mentioned that were shut down and displaced I think every single one of them so you know he's seen how rock music is basically the red-headed stepchild of the culture world of how there's so much money and so much support for all kinds of of music and even though the largest venues in our city are popular music or rock and pop and Hi
p-Hop you know for a long time I considered being a non-profit and there's just no money for it there's no endowments there are no funds there are no grants for it so it's really um it's really good to hear that finally City governments and state governments and and State art organizations are starting to pay attention to this community um you know I've devoted my entire life to this community and I've I've taken a good look at what's gone on in the past year and I could sit here and point finge
rs and and say what's wrong but I think what I want to address is the fact that what I heard today was zero loss of cultural space was a priority and what should have been a priority was zero loss of artists having music space when uh when our the building I leased was purchased by a developer there were documents created by the city and by moack and by other city offices that that suggested or mandated that the musicians are cared for and that the business that I've been running was sustained a
nd I think what happened in the end was that the priority for zero loss of cultural space and also Brighton superseded the offer of the developer to rebuild and relocate the entire tenant Community to an affordable space in the city of Boston which was offered you know which ultimately resulted in a lot of disappointment and a lot of fractionalization of this community both within the musicians that were in my building but also in this entire community um and ultimately you know right now I can
tell you there are dozens of musicians that left my building the other day that don't have any place to go and were offered a place to go but again zero loss of cultural space one out over this community and I don't think that was a good choice I understand the city's trying to learn about this and trying to figure it out but if you're going to you know be honest with yourself I think that was a big mistake okay um thank you and I also believe that if we're going to really work with developers a
nd work with uh this whole article 80 process and mitigation that when there are parties mandated to be part of these processes that there are actually enforcements put in place that those parties are actually included instead of excluded because I found myself in a position where I was on documents mandated to be part of mitigation and being part of conversations and part of solution creation and I was completely not and instead city hall employees who I believe posed as musician or Advocates w
ere given the position to negotiate and and so the the musicians that were counting on me to represent them to speak for them to try and find a solution for them we were all silenced and I have to answer to them as to why that happened and I don't have an answer do you understand so that's why I'm here because I'm I'm not I'm not here to again to be confrontational but if you're going to learn and you've got to work with this community if you have I mean I I took the time like this gentleman sai
d he knocked on doors I knocked on doors I asked these people I said what do you want and they said we want South Museum to stay the sound Museum so to to work with this community you have to listen to them you have to listen to them you know they're not happy they're very angry I have dozens and dozens almost hundreds of emails of people from the music community that would have liked to have seen what they wanted respected you know what their wishes were adhered to and you know right now they h
ave formed their own group their own coalition and they're and it's based on on frustration and it's based on feeling unheard um thank you thank you so much thank you for your perspective and I appreciate you being here um and providing uh your your testimony thank you thank you so much I'm just looking at the list of folks that have signed up for public testimony so we are going to move to that but I just want to express my sincerest gratitude and appreciation for all of you being here for your
advocacy thank you for taking time out of your day to be here I heard loud and clear the need to have this outside of nine to five because people are busy and they have families and they work and so heard for For the Working session and just thank you for your um uh your your talents and everything you've done to enhance the the vibrancy and and state of arts and culture in this city and you have our commitment to be your Champion uh in this work to partner with you as we're having conversation
s with moack with the bpda with ISD with everybody and we'll take everything that we learned here um and and Institute that moving forward I want to give the upper opportunity for my Council colleagues to make a comment and then we're going to move to to public testimony yes I want to thank you all for your presentations this afternoon as you said it's it's it's not just a local issue it's an it's a commonwealth wide issue it's a national issue and I think we're really sort of um feeling like th
e horse has left the barn a little and we're trying to catch up but I think if we all work together and take our take it up the line and try to make this a priority to recognize the value of our artistic Community our music community in our neighborhood in our city then I hope that we can stem the tide not losing such an incredible sector and a lot of it is happening in those sort of back streets neighborhoods that were have been rezoned and upsoned and we need we need to really have a much more
intentional approach to strategically plan for spaces for a large community of all elks so thank you so much for your advocacy and let's continue the work thank you so much thank you counselor Braden we have counselor Fernandez Anderson uh thank you madam chair uh thank you to all of you your stories are inspiring your work is amazing um thank you for reaching out and meeting with me um for some of you in the audience as well um we we know that this issue affects the entire like the whole Bosto
n and then when it reaches uh our backyard then it it's harder and we understand profoundly I think that City bureaucracies are just stupid and they need to be fixed um and so these uh systemic oppressive systems that we have to face um really don't offer you know many solutions and these blanket policies that have failed us we continue to come here and cry and beg and plead and then we fail to pay homage to those that have already paved the work so we work in silos we're constantly divided and
it's easy to control so I look forward to the work bpda should be here sometimes you we ask we when we're chairs we ask for people to come on the panel and then the administration says I think maybe they don't need to be here or sometimes they'll say well I'm really busy do I have to be there um and that's really not the way of doing business it's disrespectful I think that we should continue to hold them accountable the chair has subpoena Powers she can actually do another hearing bring them ba
ck and actually talk about are we going to include them in the process of conversation with article 80 where is that exactly that's why I was asking about OBM and bpda because the real conversation needs to happen all the way you know in the administration um and then so I I respectfully am saying this and will respect my the chairs uh discretion as to how she moves forward but I hope that they will show up I'm saying this um hello bpda if you're watching I'm saying this and I'm hoping that they
show up to the working sessions because we have to have a more holistic conversation about how we can proceed and actually find Solutions so please continue to bombard me with your emails I don't mind I read every single one of them um some of them are kind of not cool but I don't I still don't mind um if you email me and you Lobby us every single one of us what you said was super important um create the line item budget is coming up I can't express enough how you should be lobbying um us the c
ounselors to create that line item to do some of the stuff that you want to see thank you thank you all so much we're going to move to public testimony we have a list of about 30 people which is excellent we love having this type of participation on behalf of the community we typically don't see this this chamber filled and so I'm very happy to see all of you here and thank you so much for your patience yep and I have I have a hard stop at five as well so everybody is going to be given two minut
es and I'm gonna have a timer and you will hear the timer all right so we're going to start with um the first person who has signed up Clifton braith white uh and then Tracy Blackmer if you're still here Daniel Sussman and then Max first hello Council hello fellow fellow artists in the game I'll get right to the meat and potato right my name is Clifton Braithwaite I represent umf and C1 entertainment we've been in existence for over 30 40 years so let me get right to it it's great to hear about
Brighton it's great to hear about Austin but it's funny how people want to use my friends names as like a speaking spot like Aerosmith New Edition New Kids on the Block at OG a lot of people are just name-dropping the reason why I can speak professionally and what I've done I taught around the world I worked for record labels and 40 years ago in Brighton in Cambridge in Austin anywhere you can speak about we saw this coming um this is not the first time it has been addressed but I'll say this is
the best time it's been addressed because we knew back then under the different administrations they were old school they didn't want to hear about rock they didn't care about hip-hop they didn't care about dance they just wanted to stay in the old world so I want to compliment you guys you ladies and and the council for bringing this but you got to listen to the people who've been doing it that's why I started off I have a bachelor's degree in audio video engineering I've worked with the top a
rtists in the country and in the world so I'm not just talking from the side of my neck that's why I got involved in becoming an advocate and an activist because at the end of the day all the top groups that you're talking about and mentioning didn't have access in the inner city Aerosmith started the studio and he wanted to work with studios in the city but there was nothing that was adequate for him at the time so when I say that Aerosmith built to sit from his Studio it was in his home I'm no
t talking side talk or b-e-t I'm talking direct the reason why new additions and all the artists from Boston the dancers the twins we didn't have the resources so when a lot of us made it through the cracks is because either our parents had money to invest two minute Mark yep but when it comes to the housing crisis that you're speaking about for artists that's the biggest joke first of all the houses are not adequate to be soundproof then you move in a elderly person beside a drummer we have to
have something a little bit more adequate and within the two minutes so so many else can get in you really have to sit down with the true Veterans of this game and stop alienating my community Roxbury Dorchester Mattapan because we are the Hub of music and you have not not one person in here and I'm not disrespecting anybody but a lot of you really don't know the true history of rock hip-hop and dance if you want to know you have to come and speak to the real heads that understand the game from
top to bottom God bless the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and the Boston residents that make things happen and if you want the true come to us because we know what it is thank you [Applause] and then just as a heads up uh you can use both podiums that are um that are over there thank you and snap not flat thank you everybody go ahead Teresa hi um hello hi does it work is it working yes my name is Tracy Blackmer I'm also known as Tracy Chevrolet I'm a musician artist resident of Charlestown and r
ehearsal Studio 10 and at 50 Terminal Street I've rehearsed there for six years solo and with my band ski bunny with this testimony I hope to convey the positive impact this studio has had on my life I'm rehearsing there enables me to realize my dreams to become a better musician performer artist and person I appreciate every day I spend there and I'll forever consider these years some of the best in my life thanks to my use of this rehearsal Studio I write songs there the Privacy security and q
uality of the space enables me to feel completely free and to follow my creative impulses I rehearse those songs there which supports the quality of my ongoing performances and recordings I rehearse music with others there in this studio I'm able to explore and experience this aspect which brings me unsurpassed joy and creative fulfillment if these Studios go away there's nowhere else for me to go in Boston and this is devastating to me and to my future as a musician here at this moment in time
artists of all kinds throughout Boston are being displaced if you support us you'll be giving artists A Chance in a city that feels like it's pushing us out you can be our hero here please help us find a solution that works for you for us and for arts in Boston thanks for your consideration thank you Tracy next up Daniel Sussman hi my name is Daniel Sussman I live in Cambridge I'm a musician I play guitar in a band called Duncan cover and I'm also a tenant at the 50 Terminal Street practice faci
lity in Charlestown I'd like to take a moment to share the value of that space to me and my bandmates I've been an active part of the of the Boston music scene since the early 90s when I played my first show at the Middle East upstairs in Cambridge my band is a critically important part of my life we are in a big band um you know it was clear to me years ago that we were not destined to be the next Aerosmith or Pixies or lemon heads or whatever however we plug away continuing to write record and
play local venues regularly and you know I'm happy to confidently say that we have some fans some people like us the room we rent at 50 Terminal has been our workspace for over 12 years and born witness to countless hours of dedication to our craft we do most of our writing there all of our Arrangement and all the preparation for the shows that we play it's a critical part of our process and as you've heard from other testimony this Dynamic is not unique to us everybody testifying here today fr
om the CRS Community from Austin Brighton communities feel similarly about their space in fact many people providing testimony to here today have taken the leap committing themselves to the impossible task of forging a career as a musician in a city that has seen rents Skyrocket performing venues clothes and most recently the practice spaces that we need to actually do our work shut down for many of us here today this is not an issue of cosmetic convenience without the building blocks of a music
Community Practice spaces venues and the like there can be no music Community musicians will either move away or quit it seems tragic for a city that has made so many contributions to music culture both on the local and National stage I've learned over the years that making music is hard work I love it but it requires time dedication specialized gear and specialized spaces I urge this committee to consider the value of Art and music to the character and culture of the city of Boston and to work
to protect the systems and spaces that we the Arts and Music Community need to contribute to that character and culture I really appreciate the fact that we're here today and I appreciate that you're all taking this issue seriously thank you for your time thank you Daniel Johnson and then we have somebody on Zoom by the name of Matthew Vicente if he's still on we'll go to him Max the floor Shores good afternoon my name is Max first um I'm an artist and a musician I currently live in Dorchester
I've been a resident of Boston since 2002. when I first moved to Boston of all the prospects that living in the city had to offer the one that excited me most was knowing that by being here I would have access to all the resources I needed in order to create perform live and experience music in all its forms uh the most critical of those resources has always been having access to a dedicated rehearsal space a rehearsal studio is Ground Zero for this creativity is where musicians hone in their sk
ills refine their ideas develop their identity and ultimately establish a richer culture within the city it is the backbone supporting everything that we strive for as musicians and without it we would inevitably collapse I've been attendant at 50 Terminal Street in Charlestown since 2008 I think I Echo Jesse's sentiment it's it's literally been a home way for home for me for 15 years now over that time it has provided me with a reliable safe and secure space for making music ultimately leading
me on multiple tours across the United States Europe countless life-changing experiences that I might otherwise never have had the fortune of knowing sorry well the thought of losing the space affects me personally on an intangible level the greater impact goes far beyond just me and my story I actually consider myself one of the lucky ones perhaps the last age group to benefit from what may be an untenable Pursuit for the future Generations in Boston a once thriving Community is on the brink of
Extinction these opportunities that at one time were so abundant are diminishing each day but is not too late to preserve what remains of our City's creative community it's not too late to put forth a commitment that would ensure these resources are protected and preserved long term for both the current and the future generations of musicians and while we speak of these things uh as as if having them are privileges I firmly believe them to be rights and vital for fostering a diverse City two mi
nute mark thank you thank you so much [Applause] we have rajin bot I apologize I apologize if I said your name wrong Emily Duran Tim Gilman and Jen Harrington if you would like to queue up Duncan the Floor shows good afternoon my name is Duncan Wilder Johnson and I've lived in the Boston area since 1995. I've been asked to speak today on behalf of art artists and art spaces I'm a photographer videographer documentary filmmaker writer performer musician and teacher I generate the bulk of my incom
e from my photography and video business which is called dwj creative my clients include Whole Foods Market the Boston Red Sox Wentworth Institute of Technology and Massachusetts College of Art and Design of which I am an alum I teach art media and music in an after school program in Newton in the 1990s I was part of two alternative art spaces bad girl studios in Jamaica Plain and the Oni Gallery in Chinatown both of which are no longer with us in the past 23 years I have rented space at the sou
nd Museum rehearsal complexes on North Beacon Street hitchbourne Street and Denby Road I've been part of the new alliance community in all three of their spaces the Fenway the EMF building in Central Square and now Union Square in Somerville I'm asking for your help I'm asking the city of Boston to commit to a zero net loss Arts music and cultural space being displaced makes it difficult to make a living it prevents the development of lessons and activities for my students and it gives a bad imp
ression to my clients art is not made in a vacuum therefore being around other creative people Fosters collaboration inspires new ideas generates Commerce and ultimately benefits my bottom line in 2022 over half of my income was generated through the Boston music community art spaces contribute to the local economy by artists using vendors purchasing supplies from local stores and eating in local restaurants I agree that scientific innovation is very important scientific innovation positively im
pacts our humanity and we will not be able to celebrate that Humanity without spaces for art to practice and Thrive I'm asking the city of Boston to make arts and culture part of overall planning thank you for your consideration thank you very much [Applause] it's very important to have accessibility here so I'm excited that we have a virtual component Matthew Vicente if you're still on the floor is yours thank you so much for your time my name is Matthew vincenti I'm a musician with the band Gl
acier I've been a tenant of the Charlestown rehearsal studios for five years and a part of the local Boston music Community for 20. we need your help over the last decade I've had rehearsal studios in Fenway Cambridge and two in Austin they're all now closed when we moved to the Charlestown space a common refrain in my band was God bless this space we had gotten used to spaces with inadequate Heating and Cooling spaces with broken doors a little bit no security or maintenance faces with accessib
ility issues and spaces that were difficult to load equipment in and out of the Charlestown space was a breath of fresh air with us temperature controlled we had key card access freight elevators and an accessible loading dock rehearsal spaces are one of the Unseen Necessities musicians and artists everywhere it's where the songs we listened to were written and sometimes recorded it's where the live performances we all love and enjoy are prepared and perfected having rehearsal spaces in the Bost
on area means we can have music in Boston it's so vital to what a band does we've settled for those aforementioned poor situations I'd like to ask this committee to please show us that Arts music and culture matter to you please commit to zero net lots of these cultural spaces in Boston earmark a line item in the city budget to acquire space for cultural use and perpetuity consider gifting city-owned land or property for cultural use and perpetuity and make arts and culture part of All City Plan
ning processes thank you for your consideration thank you very much Matthew okay we have rajin and then Emily Tim and then Jen hello thank you for hearing our pleas uh my name is Rajan bot I'm nobody I play drums and I need to practice space for that um I'm actually one of you I am a school teacher and as a Boston Public Employee I need a place to play drums because the kids drive me crazy but I love them and I love Boston but I realize that the city has fallen a little bit short of helping to c
ultivate the culture uh that I desperately sought after moving from Reno Nevada I'm from out west this is a world-class City and I really believe you know I'm I'm 42. I don't get my practice spots so what what about the kids that I teach what do they get because you deny me a practice space I guess you could you might do the same for others that's a little bit scary to me but I am happy to hear that there are some initiatives happening so that you can secure a cultural future for them like I sai
d I'm just a dude I don't make money off of music I go to shows I try to keep you know some tabs on what's going on But ultimately I think that when when I think about Boston I don't think about myself I think about the other people who are here so I really am glad that this is getting addressed and it's really glad I'm really glad to hear that other people are pushing initiatives forward uh I was at the Berwick I just moved my bass drum out of there and um it was sad thank you thank you Rajan E
mily Duran hello um my name is Emily um I live in Somerville and I sing in the band hammered Saint and in 2009 I moved to Boston from a small town in Upstate New York to play music and to be a part of this community we need your help in these past 13 years almost every single person I've met and come to know every single person I've fallen in and out of love with I've met through this community of musicians patrons promoters venues photographers luthiers recording studios radio and podcasts hous
e Publications and more I would say that art finds a way but without these spaces to write and rehearse places like the Charlestown rehearsal Studio there surely would be less of it there would be no stepping into the Halls to listen to other bands playing no running into comrades no photo shoots in the bathrooms people would scattered places outside of Boston people with the means will and have left the city altogether we would lose much of the connection with our community when one project end
s and another begins whether we are strangers acquaintances friends of friends or friends it is from within this community it begins in one of these buildings down one of these Halls behind one of these doors with our Rivals and our lovers we all meet together with one common goal to play music for each other with each other please show us the art music and culture matter to you please commit to zero net loss for music space in Boston make art and culture part of All City Planning processes and
thank you for your consideration thank you next up we have Tim Gilman Jen Harrington and then Charlie honig thanks for having me my name is Tim Gilman I live in Somerville I have DJ'd book small concerts and attended in the countless shows in the Boston area for the past 13 years I moved here without having much of a friend at work but seeing live music at smaller venues living to meet people with whom I share to kinship gradually forming a sort of community with those people not only that but t
he musicians playing those shows provided me with the inspiration and confidence to express myself this all led me to believe in the transformative nature of live music a place where both audience and artists feel understood musician rehearsal spaces help make all that possible they are the key place for musicians who experiment with ideas and practice their craft losing them stymies this creative expression leading to underdeveloped ideas and a lack of Performing confidence this means fewer mus
icians playing shows and fewer opportunities to build community among artists and audience these rehearsal spaces are also part of the community themselves places for musicians to run into each other share ideas or advice and sometimes host performances the recent spat of workspace closings not only denies musicians the opportunity to practice without interruption or judgment but it also further reduces the number of spaces in Boston where artists can connect and audiences can be inspired it's n
o wonder so many musicians have vacated the Boston area leaving a cultural void for many for these reasons I asked for your help in changing this Paradigm it will require providing arts and culture representation in City Planning processes year marking funds for Arts and Cultural use and enacting other policy decisions that will help protect musician rehearsal spaces but just as important it requires an understanding of the role of music and self-expression in our lives I appreciate you giving u
p a space to talk about that today thank you thank you so much Jen hi thank you for hosting this hearing my name is Jen Harrington for over 20 years I've supported the Greater Boston art scene including Enthusiast Glee volunteering time to book and promote local shows and maybe most importantly helping people to connect I'm a proud volunteer for Art stays here the Arts Community needs your help sadly it's become frequently repetitive for someone to break the news that they're leaving the area th
ough Devastation Sears my insides each time I look ever at every artist a musician in the eye and say you're doing the right thing I swear I've shared that moment with so many in the past 10 years that they fill up this hearing room and done some a sold out show of truly talented people waving goodbye and unfortunately I believe these words every single artist and musician who's left Massachusetts has made the responsible choice for both their creativity and their Financial Health I'm not a musi
cian or an artist I want to look with adoration at a stage not be on one but as a supporter of the Arts I'm dismayed to live in an area that doesn't support it I'm here for the halls of amazing musicians we have lost I'm here for sweeping promises Katie Von Schleicher Stephen Conrad's creatures helenore Dan blakesley Tommy Allen coyote Kobe Texas Giant Boston cream Tony the bookie squirrel flower forts games Bill quilt I could go on and on I'm also here for Great Scott Atwoods O'Brien's toad onc
e Bola McCabe's TT's radio The Abbey Johnny D's Star Lab the back room of the former Rosebud Diner and all the DIY spaces that have filled the void of never having enough venues while we all the city and our local music scene need to vastly change I'm asking the city of Boston to commit to funding and hence protecting the Arts in a meaningful way let's make this a place where artists and musicians can and want to stay thanks so much for your time thank you John next up we have Charlie and then m
oving on beyond that we have David link Kevin Baldwin thank you then somebody wrote free Sky Fiera but I don't think that that's actually somebody so we'll go to Aaron after that after that thank you God uh hi my name is Charlie honig and I live in the south end I'm a musician and a tenant of CRS in Charlestown security and stability provided by that space has been invaluable to me for the decade plus I've been there um really I'm very similar to many other musicians so I could talk about the sp
ace I live in a small apartment it doesn't have an elevator the space has an elevator I don't want to injure myself with gear noise all of these things um that's been very well covered but something that's come up in this hearing which I really appreciate is mentions of the intersectionality here the intersection between affordable housing and industrial space and low threshold commercial space that can be used for these things I currently practiced at CRS but a couple years ago counselor Braden
actually mentioned the informal artist housing at rug Road in Austin I used to live there it held not just artists live work spaces but also print shops screen printing shops recording studios a library for zines circus performers with the Boston circus Guild used to practice their trapeze act there it's all been replaced by market rate apartment buildings and I'm not here to suggest that the art use was somehow more important than much needed housing housing and arts should not be in competiti
on with each other I was lucky I could find space to do my music elsewhere I moved to CRS for some of the other displaced uses there was nowhere else for them to go there's another place actually that I'll mention in Charlestown near Sullivan Square right now there is light industrial space that is being considered to be turned into it residential yet again residential and conflict with existing Art Space there's a dance studio there it's happening again um as I watch these other spaces disappea
r I always thought that CRS and rug Road Were Somehow immune CRS is in a working Waterfront next to a cement terminal across from a power station rug road is famously contaminated there used to be a carpet Factory there we figured no one could ever possibly develop this and yet here we are rug Road has been developed CRS is facing facing threats I'm not special and my displacement is not more important than anyone else's but Music Arts and creative uses simply can't compete with the big money fl
ooding our city and we can't wait until we address the root causes of skyrocketing land values housing costs and income inequality we need to act now before we lose what we have left and have nothing but biotech Labs with murals painted on them so I greatly appreciate the attention that we're giving to this thank you very much thank you [Applause] next up we have East Boston resident David link sorry thanks for having me um now I also I want to thank everybody here there were some fantastic idea
s that were presented that of course uh my speech kind of went over so I'll try not to be redundant my name is David lanck I currently and I've resided and actually Fenway for the last 10 years moving to East Boston I have offices in East Boston and in Hyde Park I came here to speak from a unique vantage point from the intersection of a local musician and a real estate developer no tomatoes um not only have I spent countless hours over the years rehearsing at CRS as a band leader and a band memb
er Uh current bands called lanky and the fence uh but I live in the world of Boston real estate development each and every day having started sharp Venture group with my brother Evan we own operate and develop real estate and we have done so here for nearly a decade I was fortunate to be able to immediately connect with the fine folks at Art stays here Coalition and counselor Coletta as soon as I caught wind of the situation our musicians including myself need our help in my adult life Boston ha
s always been a leader in aspirational value-oriented public policy from social injustice and inequity to environmentalism to arts and culture Boston acts we cannot allow ourselves to cut ourselves off at the musical knees of Berkeley and the conservatories our city has placed a little bit of more emphasis on the visual arts in the past but now music needs some more attention support and resources while I don't speak government fluently I'm here is a passionate artist in a benevolent small busin
ess owner to volunteer my expertise in real estate site selection feasibility due diligence acquisition and more to my fellow musicians to assist in what will hopefully with the city's cooperation be a public-private partnership in finding beloved musical artist Community the the Beloved musical artist Community a place to be as a real estate professional I do want to urge us to be cognizant of falling into the one-size-fits all trap of just require it from the developers while the community ben
efit should of course be included in our urban planning initiatives leaning too heavily on increasing the logistical burden on an already complex cost burden industry is a tricky economic lever which has some negative externalities and may not ultimately provide the solution that we're actually looking for potential City Hall assisted long-term solution opportunities might be found by earmarking and inventory in which we've already discussed here which is fantastic a city-owned leased or deed re
stricted property for the Performing Arts utilizing strategic zoning and planning and adaptive reuse surgically for underutilized industrial commercial Waterfront areas which we've already talked about some other areas that we could look at are existing Community spaces religious spaces uh and theaters that have underutilized space that might be able to better utilize it for rehearsal spaces in their hours that they're not using it um cities and grant funding sources etc etc I'll end with a lyri
c from Modest Boston band who reached the heights of international Fame from our endangered Boston rehearsal spaces you might have heard of them Lake Street Dive they have a lyric in their song it says in this city all the humans live in layers I got people down the hall and down the stairs we all move in and out and live our lives in stacks and rows and Pairs and try to find a place from where we all can share it thank you thank you David okay we have Kevin and then uh Skye and then Dave and th
en we'll go to Virtual we have Robert Ken and Casey on Deck thank you so much thanks for having us uh thanks for holding this my name is Kevin Baldwin I've been a resident of Boston since 2004 uh like many in the city I came here for college as a kid from Vermont I was amazed by the diversity and access to culture that was available here I fell in love with Boston and I stayed because of the Arts and Music Scene in Boston I continue to stay because of that like many people at this meeting today
I'm a musician I'm also a current resident of the 50 Terminal building right now I really hope it stays where we find a solution for that the Boston music scene has shaped my life and my career musically and professionally I've played over 100 shows and all the clubs and this city I've played the main stage in Copley Square for the first night celebrations we've done shows at the Hat shell and the Pavilion all because we had a rehearsal space here I've been nominated for and won a Boston music a
ward I've toured the country playing dive bars and Road houses and giant Festival stages alike and that's all because we had rehearsal spaces here I was introduced to my current employer of 15 years from a great friend I made at a rehearsal space my wife and I have been together for 14 years and we now have a beautiful one-year-old daughter and I met my wife at a rehearsal space here in Boston so you can see the theme going on here it's very important in my life as it is to everybody else's here
I think it's easy to think about these places as Expendable because you don't always see the product that's coming out of it and I can guarantee you that rehearsal space is no different than a biotech research facility or a university or yoga studio these places are where people come to be to better their craft and put new ideas into the world and I think they're a vital part of a thriving City please consider earmarking items into the city's budget to acquire space for cultural use and perpetu
ity please consider gifting city-owned land and property to developers and operators for cultural use please make arts and culture part of all the city planning processes moving forward and please consider the lives that you impact in a positive way because that's what this is is a positive community that has a lot of love to share with each other um I think that's it so thank you peace thank you Kevin [Applause] okay next up we have uh Skye my name isn't actually free Sky Ferreira she's just in
a terrible contract with Capitol Records um my name is Melissa I'm actually kind of I'm a writer musician interdisciplinary artist which is pretentious way of saying I do mad different forms of art I'm actually uh reflecting I'm here because um my father met my mother when he was spinning records at a party in Eggleston Square he um he was here as a an undocumented immigrant from Trinidad and Tobago and that was how a lot of people who were in sort of economically marginalized and didn't have U
.S work authorization could make their money so I'm here because of Music For Better or Worse you know getting rid of me I know the importance of artist workspaces in Boston because I've lived it a few years ago I was a sub-tenant at the sound Museum in Alston prior to that I also worked out of a shared art space at the Berwick building in Roxbury and I just wanted to um point out really quickly that um apparently there have been 30 years of ISD complaints against the owner of the Berwick buildi
ng nothing was done until a firearm was discharged on Harrison Avenue and Palmer Street and um that's when we actually saw uh something from the city it was a scary time this was uh not long after the Ghost Ship fire where it was like the largest mass casualty and California so I share concerns or frustrations of sound Museum tenants who have lost valuable workspace to create and build community with fellow artists but if we're being real the sheer fact that someone would be able to afford to re
nt an artist space at the sound Museum reveals a socio-economic divide amongst Boston working artists if you know you know as they say helping keep artists workspaces in Boston can actually be a key issue in addressing the truly the lack of truly affordable housing in this country or in the city for low-income households again my sympathies and solidarities with the displaced sound Museum tenants but what about the unacknowledged invisible artists of low-income working-class communities in Bosto
n hardly anyone considers that for example the residents of mass and Cass deserve to have opportunities to create art and access Arts education in Boston the Sarah the city barely even sees those massing cast residents as human beings let alone artists this must change there are endless and countless aspects of policy making and quality of life issues in Boston that leave a lingering feeling of hopelessness art is the anecdote to that feeling and art and artists are everywhere we're not going an
ywhere it kept our kept us company during the pandemic lockdowns and inspired us and occupied us ask Leo Tolstoy real art has an element of emotional infectiousness that Rivals into the spread of any Airborne pathogen my remarks here today are not a pretty pleased with a cherry on top Beggars appeal to this governing body about the plight of poor working-class artists in Boston it's a respectful cautionary warning you will respect artists in Boston you will not starve the artist you won't run us
out of here we'll go on our own you won't take away our sense of purpose and Devotion to our vocation you won't scare us out of underground venues what up Joe Sly you won't get rid of us you may as well work with us um kind of a call back to a previous testimony my really cool friend that lived in the North End um she was the coolest girl I knew at Boston line school she has a thriving uh photography business um and I believe she works out of an artist space in Lowell so I will close with the s
ong lyric from the Boston Indie pop band ponies in the surf it's under their noses it's in the little stars it's in their neighborhoods it's in all the holes and all the walls there we are there we are and the holes in the walls and the holes and the walls and the holes in the walls there we are there we are there we are in the holes in the walls thank you thank you Melissa okay and next up we have Dave and then we'll go online to Robert Maloney uh good uh good evening good afternoon uh my name
is Dave tree I was born in Boston in 1967. I started going to live music shows in the Boston punk rock hardcore scene in like 1980. and um it revolutionized my life it revolutionized this city uh I'm a musician I'm an artist I book shows I promote shows I'm a curator I've brought tons of artists together about tons of musicians together to do wonderful things right none of that happens if we don't have places to make our craft happen you take away our practice based rooms our rooms that we make
art in it's gone gone no culture no art no songs nothing cultural Wasteland it's gone you take away a room so we make our crafts in we have no place to make those songs like you won't hear that Dropkick Murphy song that they wrote over in South Boston at your at the at your local fan Sports at the Red Sox game in Austin in Austin they've built these giant sports stadiums right right next to the highway but they've got no access they didn't build anything for us they'll take our music but we'll b
e ghosts to them by then we're not even allowed like I have some solutions okay uh Mrs Mrs Braden I heard you talk about 32 Everett Street that building's still standing there why does the city just take that and reallocate it to the artists and musicians right now easily done right now I heard um I'm sorry what's your name Mrs Jordan Anderson sorry my eyes are off uh uh in my pocket actually I heard you ask earlier about like what about that giant brick building behind that practice space build
ing in the lip with the woman that was sitting there gave you zero answer no answer to that what is so what what is up with that abandoned building that's just sitting there that could be used I don't know she didn't answer that I was kind of waiting for her to say something back to you Mrs Bearden what about that Scientology building on Everett and Lincoln Street that's been abandoned for 25 years isn't that a slap in the face to Boston itself it's just been abandoned there intimate domain they
did it to the armory in Somerville you can do it right now do it today right now do it how about Harvard land grabbing all of lower Austin how about you're never going to see a tax dollar from them because they took it under they bought it under front companies there's all that live right near the highway you have to worry about sounding musicians put the buildings there get something from them what are the schools giving us nothing the schools are taking from us pu took us destroyed Austin als
o used to be cheap I've been living there since 1990. I've been in all those buildings that just shut closed down I was in the EMF building I was in Harrison Ave I was on North Beacon I was a I was in uh the mall I was in all of them I've seen them all I just emptied that last building out I'm emptying out rooms that are people's universes their Futures their love and the desires like everything they had going for them is just in the garbage now if you take away these rooms basically you take aw
ay the art and music from Boston you do that you have no future of arts and arts and Boston you already talked about how we bring in Revenue you sell this city on its arts and culture the real estate that you make off of that arts and culture we don't get a percentage you can't use it anymore because it's going to be gone uh yeah bio labs are great science is great but like everyone was talking about earlier we all have to work together you want just science and just or just art no we have to ha
ve a community that works together lives together and like believe me everyone here all the musicians here love this city I traveled around the country and around the world promoting Boston because I love this city now I want some City love back we all want some love from our city back we've made you lots of money we've made you famous now we want it back just a little piece a little piece uh I'm Dave tree thank you so much for your time I want to talk to every I'm available if you anyone if any
one wants to talk I got Solutions because I'm a creative person I would love to talk to you I'm a printer I started my own company in this shop go ahead it doesn't matter it doesn't matter I've given you five minutes I know and I'll keep going because I'm not done like to give us all two minutes to give us all two minutes it's not enough time you're not really hearing us okay this is just we should have more hearings this isn't over make a difference we make a difference you can make a differenc
e you need some ideas we got thank you so much this is not the last conversation we encourage everybody to come to the next working session okay we'll go to uh and I lost my Post-It sorry everybody all right Robert Maloney Ken field and Casey on uh virtual and then we have Sam and Cassandra to close us out here in the chamber Robert go right ahead oh can you hear me yes uh Dave tree Round of Applause uh my name is Bob Maloney I've been a Jamaica Plain resident since 1997. I'm a visual artist and
a professor at Massachusetts College of Art and I also play in a band called worshiper in the early 2000s I applied for my artist certificate through the city and in 2005 I learned about a group of artists being displaced from their studios in Jamaica Plain these artists received help from Mayor Menino in New Atlantic development to buy the building and convert it into affordable artist live work units I entered the artist housing lottery for these Studios and was extremely lucky to have my nam
e pulled early in the lottery process have lived and worked in my low-income artist unit for the past 17 years if it weren't for that specific opportunity there's no way I would be able to afford to live and work as an artist in the city of Boston on the other hand my bandmates have not been able to afford to live in Boston for many years and have long moved out of the city my band worshiper had rehearsed at Studio 52 in Austin since 2014 but in 2020 Studio 52 relocated to another space in the a
rea which is when we reassessed our options uh since everyone but myself lives north of the city the band chose to move 15 miles outside outside of Boston to a space in Malden called some studios I consider myself extremely lucky for my uh artist housing in Boston but have unfortunately pulled the shortest straw in regard to our rehearsal speed I appreciate the council holding this hearing on the loss of rehearsal space in Boston in hope that you'll consider wider support for the Arts to provide
more live workspaces for artists but also to protect creative workspaces in the city of Boston thank you thank you so much [Applause] uh hi my name is Ken field I'm the president of jazz Boston a non-profit with a website at jazzboston.org it has been advocating for the Boston area Jazz community of musicians audiences media and venues since 2006. Jazz Boston's membership currently numbers over 4 600. thank you for this opportunity to speak we feel the Jazz as a primarily improvisational musica
l form which was born in the African-American Community is uniquely valuable and valued in Boston in the United States and internationally our mission is to advocate for this music and those who value and love it in and around Boston the Jazz musicians in our community need acoustically isolated safe secure clean accessible spaces rehearse their craft they desire access around the clock to allow for load in and load out before and after gigs they periodically need access to recording facilities
the loss of any existing rehearsal facility is problematic for our community we applaud efforts by governmental non-profit and private Partners to address the future in support of our community of musicians we recognize that such efforts are rarely perfect and that some personal and professional appearance might disagree with the children have forward we encourage all who are part of the Boston area music Community to consider that a divided Community rarely thrives and a governmental non-profit
and private efforts to address its particular issue should be encouraged I sincerely hope that this community can unite around those efforts that's Boston encourages us with us to maintain a consistent source of cultural spaces to include the acquisition cultural space as a budgeted line item to consider allocating city-owned property to cultural use and to include arts and culture in planning processes thank you thank you so much okay in the chamber we have Samuel Cassandra and then anybody el
se that would like to testify this is your last call to sign up thank you so much hello I'm chair Coletta counselors Breeden and Anderson um hello my fellow bostonians in my hands is the Boston Herald March 3rd Edition that talks about how we literally falling over money the payroll has gone up nearly two billion dollars as far as the administrative budget and the school budget is also two billion dollars and when we start to think about just one line item which is overtime pay was 141 million i
n 2022. now when you think about that connected to the public housing that the city gets which is 300 million that's over 400 million right there we're not talking about any particular agency we're just saying if we literally just looked at the housing costs by potentially making um dormitories at some of our community colleges which I've mentioned before but really being creative as far as our artistic spaces that would amount to over 3 000 units if we did 1500 units at Roxbury Community Colleg
e and Bunker Hill Community College we have more than enough money to pay for it and so I would like us to literally put our money where our mouth is we have over four billion dollars in the city as far as our budget for this coming year we have participatory budgeting at the line item level and I'd like us to spend at least 300 million dollars in fixing this problem since we have the money thank you very much thank you okay we have Cassandra thank you good afternoon everyone fellow artist chair
woman and our Representatives my name is Cassandra Charles I'm an interdisciplinary artist from Boston I was born at Boston City Hospital I went to St Patrick's in Roxbury I went to Boston Latin Academy when it was on the Fenway I danced at Miss Beverly Ann's in Dorchester and then went to Elma Lewis where I was told I was good at ballet where I wasn't told at the white school and then I went to Boston Latin Academy graduated and ran from Boston I am why this needs to change for so many reasons
cultural representation opportunities we didn't have a Boston Arts Academy now this school is built where I went to school and they promised us a building for years and now there's this beautiful school there which is awesome and that's it and what's going to happen to all of those students from Dorchester Roxbury and Mattapan where I grew up they're going to get really good at what they do and leave I started an organization called The Black Arts Sanctuary I received a grant from the mass cultu
ral Council to start a pro to do my project which is called ended up in Boston I ended up in Boston I ended up sick and almost dying because I was in the wrong field I worked in marketing and branding for a very long time and I traveled a lot so I wouldn't have to be here lived here traveled a lot ran to Philadelphia ended up working for the person that publishes Boston magazine at Philly magazine where I dealt with such workplace trauma that I almost died at Boston Medical because I left there
and came back here and I looked at a doctor and I said I'm tired of you guys probing me it says after a year of taking 60 milligrams of Prednisone and my life totally changed I lost everything I dealt with disparities in health care during this time with the Boston doctors and all of the things and when I decided and said to this doctor I'm tired of you probing me I should have been a ballerina I'm going to do that fast forward 10 years I've produced my own shows I am getting grants and I have c
reated work at 119 Braintree Street which is a Biz art sound proof State place with Rocco Richie who plays all the best music from all of Boston so I am familiar with all of the bands because of him I grew up in the 80s in Boston Dorchester and ended up living the island there two years ago near Elmer Lewis gone near St Patrick's gone mural of Miss Alma Lewis with uh Malcolm X and all of our heroes dirty our art needs to be re-established remade and taken care of if ended up in Boston is a proje
ct that I have to come to fruition in a year if everybody's gone I have no project and I have no problem leaving Boston again so part of this project is selfishly because I need to know if I can sustain as an artist here thank you thank you very much would anybody else like to testify you want me to hold your camera um please state your name my name is Patty Crooks and I'm incredibly honored to be here because I'm a love of Boston I have a passion for the Arts but I'm going to kind of give it a
little business spin because I think we've kind of neglected that part of it I was brought to the table about a year ago for the desmonds and the sound Museum as a broker I'm a commercial real estate broker with 50 years experience my first project was Faneuil Hall Marketplace and I started the street performers program there were 50 there were 500 entertainers that came and wanted to perform at that Marketplace and that form of art was critical then we brought in the Museum of Fine Arts for the
third floor of the building because they were getting ready to undergo construction and they needed free space to display their art so I'm wondering what happened 40 years ago to where we're at now where there's competition between the private sector and the City of Boston um I think what's kind of scary about this all is I saw a mandate that the city was obligated had committed to to work with the desmonds and the sound Museum to make to move it to make the transition as smooth as possible wha
t happened to that just kind of thinking that one out loud um the the city went in and said hey we we want to work with you in the beginning and there was a lot of dialogue there was great communication but somehow that went the way of the dinosaur also because it was a time that they were completely shut out of negotiations and information but they very gladly gave them access to all their intellectual property in their business that they had spent 32 years acquiring to work to show good faith
with the city to make that happen I think not inviting everybody to the table is an awful boring meal and if you've got art people and you've got creative types and you've got all of that wonderful energy and not listening to them you're missing the boat I love the idea of putting housing as a component of this I kind of question it because I'm old I'm a dinosaur at this stage of the game I've been around Boston almost as much well I think I'm probably one of the oldest ones in this room but I l
ove this city and I love the idea the way you guys problem solve but don't shut down the communication listen to these Artisans listens to these creative peoples because they're Solutions under their breath and they're willing to share they're obviously they're all here this is a wonderful dialogue keep it going keep it focused but also keep keep your word keep your word listen to the people that that got into this and I think there's more to this whole story than is what has been revealed and t
hat bothers me as a business person because first of all I am a business person I am a real estate developer also I kind of like that guy over there I heard you that was wonderful last two minutes but I'm an artist and I'm a creative type and I'm a passionate person thank you for the opportunity keep it going thank you please state your name and affiliation for the record I got a minute yeah I'm good I'm good hey I'm Rod Weber I'm an artist I'm a filmmaker people know me a little bit uh it doesn
't matter if you do if you don't um a lot of folks around here uh know me my wife Lauren from chasing off the Nazis I know uh this guy over here he's got his name what's his name Ed Flynn Ed Flynn I believe it was Ed Flynn was just saying uh how how we gotta get rid of this Nazi problem in Boston and how we're going to switch that around now how does that connect to all of this well I imagine all kinds of money gets allocated this way in that way we don't know where that money is coming from we
don't know where it's going I'm not even sure if I believe in the legitimacy of government but we're not here to give a political philosophy class are we I just know that with a stroke of a pen you could maybe say wait now what's that institution that uh well I have a lawsuit against him I know I remember at that straight Pride Parade Boston police they attacked me for no reason other than holding a film a film camera making a film which by the way is on Apple TV and Amazon now if you'd like to
it's called 2020 the dumpster fire you should check it out Dave treated the soundtrack other people around here you know I'm uh made contributions uh because that's what you do as Community now what I say is you could take that funding take that concept from last year or last election season I guess you would call it what was that called defund who defund the police now we don't you don't have to take all of it away I'm just saying just take a little bit of it here say you can buy this old Scien
tology Museum that's empty am I right fill it with art and music and all kinds of good things keep people here so people don't keep running out that's all I have to say I love you all thank you for giving me my time [Applause] thank you so much uh does anybody else want to provide public testimony this is the last call for in the chamber [Laughter] is there anybody on Zoom that has been inadvertently neglected does anybody on Zoom want to provide testimony okay we have Casey Desmond on on the li
ne Casey you have two minutes hello can you guys hear me yes we can okay great thank you thank you for this opportunity um I'm happy to hear the city would like to be involved in finding solutions for the music spaces uh this is specifically regarding sound museum at 155 Northeast North Beacon Street and the displacement of the artists um my name is Casey Desmond I'm the daughter of William and Catherine Desmond the founders of sound Museum and Boston's oldest and largest provider of Band Rehear
sal spaces sound museum has built a vast cultured creative community in Boston my father does and my family have played a large role in that as did the thousands of people who came into the fold during its nearly 40 years in Boston this collaborative showcases the Arts in all its Endeavors covering music and video Creations fashion crafting painting dancing and print making the collective consists of people from all walks of life and age groups sound museum is a safe place a safe space for creat
ive and the queer community of which I'm a part it's allowed 24-hour access to one's creative tools and production having access like this is extremely hard to come by yet it's imperative to the Natural creative process which is just one of the many reasons why supporting the sound museum is crucial to the community additionally sound Museum rent amounts were reasonable and manageable for artists and this is also become increasingly rare in the city as We Know over the course of the last 15 plus
years I too have been a tenant and have had access to all these important things Not only was that museum the launch pad for my entire creative world but my businesses were built from the bones of my rental space because of this I was able to provide a professional Sound Stage not only to the sound Museum Community but to touring musicians and artists from all over the world moreover I was able to launch an eco-friendly attire company as well as coach produce showcase and manage budding artists
who are looking to start their careers in music and production with the closing of 155 North Beacon Street and the displacement of the sound Museum I have lost all of that and my capabilities to provide for the community that I love so much um this is when I bring up the you know my matter the matter of displacement last year I was at a public hearing regarding sound museum being given a new location to provide the same service to its clients and the community I shared cans with the new owners
City representatives and the architect who designed this future space as well as discussed the future of my studio in the new location I was also present for hundreds of signatures of people who were in Alliance with this process as well as witnessed the support from the community moving forward there were a lot of promises made that at this hearing that have since been broken even though sound museum has been completely accommodating sound Museum was not given this new facility and was purposef
ully left out of the conversations about this new facility instead my father and my family have had their business an entire clientele stolen out from underneath them which equals 40 Years of hard work Community Building supporting musicians across the city this impacts not only the sound Museum but the people who worked and supported the community for all these years it's it's you know I try to keep my emotions out of this but to be honest it's absolutely devastating and it's broken my heart in
to a million pieces so to wrap this up um I passionately insist and firmly believe that the sound Museum should be given the right of first refuel of right of refusal on um running any new rehearsal squeezes created as part of the 155 North Beacon Street project and insists sound Museum be revered as the asset it is for the city and the artists of Boston thank you so much thank you very much okay I think we're good we're going to wrap testimony we're gonna wrap this hearing I just want to thank
you all again for your time for your advocacy it's clearly it's clear that this is a special Community I feel very grateful to even be in this space with you all and Advocate with you all and again you have my commitment to partner with you in this work I heard loud and clear uh the need for a commitment for space not just to live but but to work to integrate your perspective through the planning and development uh process and um and a whole bunch of other things of course I don't have my list i
n front of me but I do just want to say thank you so much pass it to my co-sponsors uh for any closing remarks that they have thank you madam chair and thank you all for being here this afternoon uh this is the beginning this is well this is a process we're going to continue this conversation and work with the administration to come up with more solutions and so that we need to try and use every tool that we have in the Box currently and then probably create new tools to address the slightly imp
ortant issue to stop the displacement of artists in across our city so I look forward to continuing the work thank you thank you Council Burton councilor Fernandez Anderson thank you madam chair um I'd like to thank everyone who came out today to speak those of you uh virtual testimonies as well um uh thank you so much arts and culture Chief and Melissa for coming and hopefully we can encourage the rest of the Departments or the other departments that should be in this conversation so that we ca
n talk about true Solutions um I'm I've definitely heard you today about space overall residential and Commercial and looking at all of the things that we talked about I have that list I will we will populate that list on social media we should organize I'm an artist myself I used to produce um uh theater Productions at the strand made my own costumes and I know how tough it is I worked with disenfranchised youth in Dorchester Roxbury Mattapan um so I understand from an artist's perspective we a
re creative so we're brilliant but we're also always seen as when we're when we're talking when we're expressing um seen as um crazy and if crazy is for thinking if crazy as Progressive as crazy as ahead of our time then so be it power to all the artists I appreciate you and I look forward to doing the work and representing you on the console so that we can get Solutions thank you thank you I'm going to recommend that this docket stay in committee the meeting is now adjourned thank you everybody
[Applause] [Music]
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