City invitations to Tobin school groundbreaking go to officials, skip neighbors to the construction
A rendering shows the expected appearance at the south entrance of the Tobin School, due to reopen in 2025. (Image: City of Cambridge)
Neighbors of the impending years of construction at the Tobin School and Vassal Lane Upper School campus were upset to learn they hadn’t been invited to a groundbreaking ceremony now set for 2 p.m. Wednesday.
Invitations went out to city and state officials Nov. 30 for a 2 p.m. Tuesday event with a note: “Light refreshments will be served. All are welcome to attend.”
The news never made it to neighbors, including members and leaders at the Fresh Pond Residents Alliance, board member Doug Brown said Tuesday. Despite there being a tent on site that appears to be for the event – for which Wednesday was identified originally as a rain date – the groundbreaking came to neighbors’ attention only because state Rep. Steve Owens asked someone in passing if he would see them there Tuesday.
“Of course, no one thought to notify the neighbors and abutters, and nothing is posted on the project website,” Brown said in a Monday email to city councillors.
Notice to neighbors
At 8:45 p.m. Monday, the Department of Public Works finally sent a notice to subscribers to an email list for updates on the project. The subject line said simply, “Tobin and Vassal Lane Schools,” according to a school neighbor on the list.
An original emailed invitation provided to Cambridge Day showed a stamp of 5:01 p.m. Nov. 30 with the subject line, “Tobin Montessori & Vassal Lane Upper Schools Groundbreaking Ceremony Invitation.” This email came from the City Manager’s Office.
After being contacted Tuesday with questions, Kate Riley, community relations manager for the Department of Public Works, explained that “We had a miscommunication between staff about who was notifying the neighborhood, so we postponed the event from today to tomorrow.”
Further questions went unanswered.
Ground broken
The Tobin School and Vassal Lane Upper School complex at 197 Vassal Lane, West Cambridge, built in 1971, is being prepared for a $250 million reconstruction that will finish in time to open to students in the fall of 2025. While the project has grown significantly in expense over years of planning, the city has already been stung by a couple of issues around timing there: Being slow to respond to calls around buying state armory land next door to the schools, an effort that needed a nudge from state legislators who were contacted by city councillors Patty Nolan and Alanna Mallon; and the removal of mature oak trees that might have been saved if armory land was part of the design process.
By now there have been months of digging on site, with city construction updates showing Aug. 3 as its start. That makes the groundbreaking even more ceremonial than some such events, but neighbors still say they are insulted by the city’s dereliction over the invitation.
“The city has apparently known about this event for at least two weeks [and] notified state reps 15 days ago, but never sent an email to the project email list or notified the neighborhood association,” Brown said.
An Inman invitation?
The Tobin and Vassal Lane project is hardly the first city project to antagonize neighbors. Over 2018, plans to reconfigure Inman Square and its chaotic traffic patterns – given energy after years of discussionby the death of a bicyclist – caused controversy when it was learned that some of Vellucci Plaza’s 50-year-old honey locust trees would be removed in the process. Neighbors organized, proposed alternatives and ultimately sued over the changes.
A neighborhood group leader, John Pitkin, said Tuesday that he didn’t recall seeing an invitation to a project groundbreaking either – but wasn’t sure one ever got held.
“It was quite unceremonious. I think they were leery of protesters,” Pitkin said. “If I saw an invitation, I would have deleted it, probably.”
This is not at all the type of story that I enjoy being quoted in. The City needs to do a much better job of engaging with neighborhoods. Despite beliefs to the contrary, it’s well demonstrated that community involvement makes for better project outcomes, while actively ignoring neighbors creates nothing but contempt and conspiracy theories. Whether a “miscommunication” or something more intentional, this is clearly unacceptable for a City that is of late attempting to re-engage with neighborhoods.
Someone spends their time saying how much they hate the project and then we are surprised when they are not invited to the grand opening?
Guess Cambridge Day needs to fill blog space.
Bono wonders: Since when does a supposedly “legitimate” government – paid very handsomely by all of us – have the nerve to exclude an entire class of interested neighbors and school parents from this sort of an event? (This should be shocking, but in Cambridge, apparently it’s not.) It’s pretty clear to Bono, at least, that we have a completely rogue “government” in Cambridge – unelected and unaccountable – that do whatever they please, with zero interest whatsoever in what people who actually live here might want or prefer. It’s “government OF the government, BY the government, and FOR the government.” And they’re really quite proud of it! When the privileged homeowner class of Cambridge stop loving the benefits they get from this arrangement, and get organized, we might see some change. Don’t count on it. They look at their tax bills and keep their privileged and contented mouths shut. We ought to commend those brave souls who speak up – and Bono finds Mr. Brown to be one of the very few. We should exclude from these “events” anyone who doesn’t actually live in Cambridge. How about that?? That might be half of the staff who secretly plan our city and our lives from their suburban lairs without the slightest interest in what those of us who actually live here think! “Welcome to Cambridge.”
Mr Noubert doesn’t understand that trying to have an orderly and fair process for city projects isn’t about “not liking” the project. It is about the complete disregard city officials have for neighbors, parents, and people with a stake in these projects. Tree removal, lack of communications with those stakeholders, and just general disregard for anyone outside their circle of influence shows that the only people with any influence in our government are the developers and city officials they control.
At $125 each, perhaps there was some concern that the public might object to the 30 custom-engraved, commemorative silver shovels ordered for the event? (I guess it could have been worse: the City might have selected the $225 gold-plated model instead). Sour grapes or not, it was pretty clear to me from the moment I arrived and saw the shovel display that this event had been many months in the planning, though not publicly announced until the night before it was to happen, and only then when word of it leaked to the public. Thankfully, very few neighbors attended, as they were unlikely to feel welcome at what was clearly planned as a private affair.