Notes for the meeting of the ninth and last meeting of the Mayor's Arts Task Force

Mayor McGovern thanked everyone for their work on the Task Force. This has not been a typical Task Force, because we’ve all been able to see the work as it happens through the Policy Orders that have come through. He thanked Councillor Mallon for her leadership on this Task Force and on the issue of the arts.

Councillor Mallon thanked everyone for coming to the last meeting and outlined the agenda for the evening. She stated that Ben Simon will make a presentation, followed by update from The Foundry team where they also want to solicit our feedback. She stated that her and Ms. Ascolese had gone through the past 8 meetings and teased out themes and recommendations that were discussed throughout the past 9 months. They have been posted in different “buckets” on large sticky notes on the wall. The group will give feedback, contribute their own, and then we will have a Task Force wide discussion to get to a consensus.

Councillor Mallon thanked Dennis Benzan, former Councillor, who is a part-owner of La Fabrica and has generously offered the space, food, and drink tickets for a celebration at the end of the meeting.

Mr. Simon began his presentation. He gave background on his organization’s attempt to fight their displacement from the EMF building that closed last year. He stated that we need to be talking about the role that development plays in erasing artists and arts spaces from the City, and that this is the most important issue we could be talking about. He thanked Councillor Mallon for allowing him to speak on this issue, and he put together some ideas that could be significant for protecting the arts community.

He stated that there is an arts crisis right now including displacement and arts spaces disappearing. This is not a standalone issue and we have to acknowledge the interconnectivity between gentrification and displacement. He stated that developers are de facto city planners and that they are responsible for the disappearance of arts spaces, affordable housing, groceries, retail, and eateries. There has been a lot of development by MIT which has razed entire city blocks for biopharma and whatever the rest of their campuses are. Low income renters don’t think this is for them and they can’t work there.

Mr. Simon shared demographic data which showed that The Port neighborhood has seen its white population go up 10% and black population decrease 10%. He stated that you cannot drop thousands of high paying luxury class jobs in a neighborhood and expect no displacement to happen. He asked why developers should get to do what they want and stated that arts need to be a bigger part of the conversation. He asked where we draw the line when property owners are pursuing their profit dreams.

Mr. Simon stated that there is a straightforward solution, which is democratized development where all voices of a community should be given a say in whether our city should be changing at all. He stated that it’s an obvious fact that developers should be disempowered because the real estate market is out of whack, and we need massive public investment to counteract development. The private sector is unable or unwilling to provide affordability.

Mr. Simon stated that we should not be contracting public land, we should be expanding public land. He asked about making deals with developers and that we cannot assume benevolence or neutrality, and seek redress for negativity. He stated that inclusionary units do not help people. He stated that we need land to build affordable housing and community spaces.

Mr. Simon stated that the attempt to separate arts from the bigger picture won’t get us fundamental change. It is connected to social justice problems. He quoted Bernie Sanders that there is a 1% that has rigged the system to their benefit.

Mr. Simon presented his policy ideas. The first was an EMF 2.0: the loss of the EMF was the loss of the only affordable music rehearsal space, and that a building like EMF is unlikely to be developed again by the private sector. He stated that the idea here is that people like himself - low income artists - need spaces. The most dire consequence of a rigged local economy is the housing crisis. There are people on the street and people being displaced.

It would be right to build a dedicated rehearsal space with City money, but it would be a good idea to build City- owned housing units with community arts spaces. He stated Mike Connolly has been talking about this but that there are definitely legal obstacles. However this is what’s right. He stated that as a low income renter, what we’re calling affordable housing is actually inaccessible, and that Mass and Main is being billed as a great victory for affordable housing but it is not.

The inclusionary unit minimum is 50% of the AMI to get a unit. Mr. Simon stated that he is on the list for a voucher but there’s a 4,000 person waiting list. He stated that buildings are getting snapped up by developers, stripped, and turned into luxury units which causes real life social consequences for low income people. He stated that market housing of any sort is not the solution, but it’s city-owned social housing, whatever it may be.

He stated that markets are not designed to distribute things to everyone, but it gives limited resources to the highest bidder. He

stated that with education we have an idea that everyone deserves an education so everyone gets one. We are coming around to this idea with healthcare as well, but we haven’t done this with housing which is a human right. We need to be talking about social housing, and an EMF space in something like that is a great idea.

Mr. Simon recommended a displacement advisory committee, which would be an ongoing advisory committee and a modest step forward in the inbalance of power. He suggested that the committee would meet monthly and would advise the City on displacement impact for proposed developments and impact on the community. The community should be taking the lead on development and advise the City on what and if developments are needed.

Mr. Simon suggested redirecting the 1% for arts funding to address the arts crisis but stated there would probably be some legislative obstacles. He stated that it’s crazy that we have funding mechanisms going to something like public art when we have a crisis of displacement. We are rapidly losing artists and arts spaces, but if we have arts spaces, it will slow down artist displacement. When spaces disappear, it puts a huge financial burden on artists.

He stated that places in Charlestown and Union Square are about to close, and we need to direct money into funding a City-owned EMF. He stated that the Public Arts Commission benefits one artist but City owned community arts spaces benefit the whole arts community. This is a significant amount of money generated by this funding mechanism, but the City says we can build the artist community an EMF. He stated that this is a reasonable request.