After budget letdown, hundreds rally for new Jackson Mann community center in Allston

Local News

After the mayor’s five-year capital plan included $10 million for study into Jackson Mann’s future, Councilor Liz Breadon is demanding $65 million “indicate that they’re serious about building a community center here.”

More than a hundred people rallied at Jackson Mann to call for the city to fully fund a new community center. Molly Farrar/Boston.com

As advocates say the mayor’s budget proposal undercut Allston-Brighton again this year, hundreds rallied in front of the Jackson Mann Community Center to demand full funding for the neighborhood’s only city-run community center.

Will the city rebuild the Jackson Mann Community Center in Allston-Brighton?

Boston City Council President Liz Breadon, who represents Allston and Brighton, rallied with city leaders and community members to call for a $65 million commitment to revitalizing the Boston Centers for Youth and Families-run center.

Since two Boston schools left the site, residents are not allowed to use the front door of Jackson Mann facing Union Square in Allston, which is recommended for demolition. The new entrance, open between 1 p.m. and 9 p.m. on weekdays only, is behind the old school on Armington Street.

Accompanied by the Jamaica Plain Honk Band, several hundred neighbors, from older adults and young children to the young adult population Allston-Brighton is known for, asked for Boston to “invest in Allston-Brighton,” signs read.

Earlier this month, Boston Mayor Michelle Wu revealed her $4.9 billion budget proposal for the next fiscal year, amid a “difficult” financial moment. The city is facing a nearly $50 million budget deficit this year and as many as 400 Boston Public Schools positions could be cut next year.

Wu’s five-year capital budget plan includes $10 million for Jackson Mann, which is designated as “study underway” in the city’s catalogue of current capital projects. Breadon said the suggested $65 million, spread over five years, would “indicate that they’re serious about building a community center here.”

The city said the $10 million in the five-year capital budget is sufficient to move the study toward the design phase, when the total cost of a new center could be determined.

“Significant resources to advance the Jackson Mann Community Center project are set aside in this year’s capital budget even amid the difficult choices required in this economic environment, and a housing feasibility study evaluating a range of market-rate and affordability options for possible housing at the site will be released later this month,” a city spokesperson told Boston.com.

All four At-Large Boston City Councilors — Ruthzee Louijeune, Julia Mejia, Erin Murphy, and Henry Santana – attended the rally, echoing Breadon’s call for more investment. State Rep. and Majority Leader Michael Moran and state Sen. William Brownsberger also offered their support.

“This has not been a fight that started yesterday. It has been years, years that you have all been demanding this community center,” Louijeune said. “You all deserve one, just like every other neighborhood.”

Breadon’s office pointed to a $110 million BCYF center in the North End and a $65 million one in Dorchester that broke ground last year. District 1, which includes the North End, has eight community centers, including two pools, Breadon said.

“I’ve been advocating for this project since I was elected to city council six years ago. We can’t afford to wait for another six years,” Breadon said. “We need to get going and hopefully be opening a new center in six years.”

Since both Boston schools left the site, Jackson Mann has sat without a new plan for years. Plans to build a new school at the site appear to have stalled, while most of the 1974 building was recommended for demolition, according to a 2019 engineering report by BPS.

The Jackson Mann K-8 school closed in 2022, while the Horace Mann School for the Deaf, connected by a skybridge, was in a much larger building on Armington Street before moving to Charlestown in 2024.

At the rally, Sowmya Kuruganti, who is currently enrolled in a knitting class at Jackson Mann, said she hopes for more “robust programming” at the community center.

“There’s a desire for classes in the community,” she said. “Me and another person in my class have found it to be a really great source of comfort for meeting community members.”

DB Reiff, a Brighton resident since 1996, said she attended a writers’ group at Jackson Mann and was nervous walking in, referring to the state of the dilapidated building.

“Why was the building in such bad shape? Because the city did not invest in maintenance. It’s not that old a building,” Reiff said. “Even though Mayor Wu hasn’t been a mayor for all that time, she’s the mayor now.”

Molly Farrar is a general assignment reporter for Boston.com, focusing on education, politics, crime, and more.

Sign up for the Today newsletter

Get everything you need to know to start your day, delivered right to your inbox every morning.

    !function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s)
    {if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod?
    n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)};
    if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version='2.0';
    n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0;
    t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];
    s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)}(window, document,'script',
    'https://connect.facebook.net/en_US/fbevents.js');
                const onetrustStorageConsent = JSON.parse(localStorage.getItem( 'consent_one_trust_bdc' ) );
        if ( ( onetrustStorageConsent !== null ) ) {
            /* The above code is parsing the JSON data from the local storage and storing it in a variable.
             * Checking if the user has given consent for the cookie C0004.
             * If the user has given consent, the variable consent will be set to 'grant'.
             * If the user has not given consent,the variable consent will be set to 'revoke'.
             * Documentation https://developers.facebook.com/docs/meta-pixel/implementation/gdpr
            */
            if ( onetrustStorageConsent.C0004 !== true ) {
                fbq('consent', 'revoke');
                fbq('dataProcessingOptions', []);
            } else {
                fbq('consent', 'grant');
                fbq('dataProcessingOptions', ['LDU'], 0, 0);
            }
        }
            fbq('init', '989222871864976');
    fbq('track', 'PageView');



    !function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s){if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function()
    {n.callMethod? n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)}
    ;if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;
    n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version='2.0';n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0;
    t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)}(window,
    document,'script','https://connect.facebook.net/en_US/fbevents.js');
                const onetrustStorageConsent = JSON.parse(localStorage.getItem( 'consent_one_trust_bdc' ) );
        /* The above code is parsing the JSON data from the local storage and storing it in a variable.
         * Checking if the user has given consent for the cookie C0004.
         * If the user has given consent, the variable consent will be set to 'grant'.
         * If the user has not given consent,the variable consent will be set to 'revoke'.
         * Documentation https://developers.facebook.com/docs/meta-pixel/implementation/gdpr
        */
        if ( ( onetrustStorageConsent !== null ) &amp;&amp; (onetrustStorageConsent.C0004 !== true ) ) {
            fbq('consent', 'revoke');
            fbq('dataProcessingOptions', []);
        } else {
            fbq('consent', 'grant');
            fbq('dataProcessingOptions', ['LDU'], 0, 0);
        }
            fbq('init', '813236348753005');
    fbq('track', 'PageView');

Source link