What’s Next For the Powder House Community School?

[barry-rafkind.livejournal.com]

 
WHY :       The City is moving ahead with plans to rezone and sell the Powder House School property.

WHAT :    Join your neighbors to learn about the City’s planning process, discuss how redevelopment might impact the neighborhood, and find out how we can ensure that this property between Davis and Teele Squares will be reused to benefit our neighborhood and City.

WHEN :    Wednesday March 31st, 2010,  7:00 – 8:00 PM

WHERE : Tufts Administration Bldg (TAB), 167 Holland Street

Presented By Your Neighbors:

Rachel Heller (Elmwood Street)        Lou Ann David (Clarendon Hill Towers)

Barry Rafkind (Ossipee Road)          Joyce and Richard Shortt (Packard Ave)

Alba and Costa Chitouras (Packard Ave)

RSVP : Rachel Heller (617) 299-1697 or RachelinSomerville@gmail.com

The TAB building is an accessible location.

Click here to get this flyer in PDF format.

For more background, check out my Jan 18th post City Releases Powder House School Real Estate Analysis; Mayor Seeks Property Sale This Year

 

Comments

A little history........

[tt02144.livejournal.com]

When the city was building the West Somerville Neighborhood School, Mayor Curtatone convinced the School Committee to relinquish control of this building to the city. There was a lot of debate, very contentious, and the building was eventually closed as a school and given to the city. This was done only because of the plan the city had for the building. It was to eventually house the School Dept. Administration (currently paying rent in a terrible building), the Recreation Department, and other city offices, some of which are currently paying rent. The Mayor also promised that the gym in that building (a very good gymnasium which at the time was used heavily by youth and high school basketball) would remain usable and open to the public. As you can see, none of this has happened. One of the reasons this gym was so heavily used is because it is in one of the few locations in Somerville which is accessible by all bus lines which cross through the city. The kids from Mystic Ave. could get there just as easily as the kids living near Porter Square. This city desperately needs a community center which could house recreation activities for all ages, community meeting space, performance space, etc. Since these stipulations, I believe, were written into the School Committee order which relinquished the building, the mayor should be made to honor his bargain.