^^ homes in Eagle Hill, a neighborhood with a character all its own and beloved by those who live in it

It’s not enough just to oppose the plan presented by the Boston Planning and Development Agency (BPDA). We in East Boston all oppose it, vigorously, even angrily. But anger and vigor are not enough. Those of us in opposition must propose a plan of our own.

This is mine.

My comprehensive plan would do the following :

1. Apply Historic District designation (which we are readily entitled to) to almost all residential areas of East Boston. This would make it impossible to violate our character without a long and difficult process that puts the burden of alteration on the proponent (It works for Beacon Hill and Back Bay. Just try to make an alteration — much less a demolition etc — in a building there. No way !)

2. No “corridors.” Localize the various segments of Bennington, Saratoga, Meridian, Condor and Chelsea Streets to favor the residences and small businesses there, not the through traffic Enhance opportunity for small groceries, etc. generally, throughout our big streets.

3. Build the Haul Road to get major through traffic off our streets and to encourage commercial and industrial use of the Chelsea Creek shore, which is, where built upon, already commercial and industrial.

4. Demolish or sunset the huge, cheaply made, overpriced tenement blocks (such as on Marginal, Bremen, Maverick, Border, Murray Court at Orleans, and 917 Bennington) that have disfigured our neighborhood with stuff that people either cannot use or can’t afford. Replace them with height-restricted single family homes, twos and three’s.

Four and five story dwellings must never be allowed, except on parts of Meridian and Border Streets, unless approved by a two-thirds or greater vote of abutters.

5. Favor three and four bedroom apartments so that actual families can find housing here. Also favor single-family row houses such as on lower Bennington Street and the beginning of Everett Street, for ownership if feasible.

Protect and expand the single-family character of upper Orient Heights.

Discourage and disfavor the creation of so-called “ADU’s”

6. Support families staying here by giving us local control of the schools in East Boston via an East Boston PTA — elected by us, by school district within East Boston — with staffing and budget powers.

7. Plant trees along every street that can take them.

8. Create more green space — especially pocket parks — within residential areas.

9. Enable more parking, not less. Examples : the lot on London St at Porter St and the lot on lower Bennington near El Penol. Require every development that we do accept to have parking on site within the building. Example : the Rinaldi family’s two-family with garage, on upper Trenton Street. In short, enable and accommodate personal cars, not public transit, which can never be anything other than a default system for those who cannot drive or cannot afford to put a car on the road.

10. Do not publish a map — as the City plan does — of East Boston that pretends we are just adjuncts of the T. McClellan Highway and its tributaries are a much, much more important transportation mechanism for us than the Blue Line. Same for its access roads. And the tunnels, as we have learned. Buiid our neighborhood around our roads, not the

11. Leave climate matters to citizen organizations like Harborkeepers and Boston Harbor Now, who take a humble and shrewd approach and are more flexible, and less dogmatic about climate challenges than city planners.

12. Leave our large streets as is. Never narrow the road traffic lanes to favor bicycles. If a bicycle path is to be created, keep it narrow so that it does not encroach upon traffic lanes.

———— These are a start. I am sure the rest if you can add to it ! The basic principle here is that a neighborhood should be empowered to create its own zoning and land use plan, and the City’s role must be to help the neighborhood’s own plan succeed.

>> I know some who would require a more radical provision : a full moratorium on all development in East Boston until already approved units get rented or sold. These folks assert that there are still hundreds of units presently vacant.

Our plan might not have to take such a drastic step, but it’s interesting to know that moratorium is being talked about.

In any case, in the full spirit of local self-governance, let us here in East Boston create a plan that actually supports the neighborhood and helps it to be its best self.

—- Mike Freedberg / Here and Sphere