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Boston Globe
20-03-2025
- Sport
- Boston Globe
White Stadium trial, Day 3: Closing arguments as judge weighs plaintiffs' demands to end NWSL renovation project
A verdict hinges on the ability of the plaintiffs, led by the Emerald Necklace Conservancy, to convince Nestor that the project violates a state park land protection law, Article 97, and should require legislative approval in order to proceed. Related : Advertisement Before defense attorney Gary Ronan, representing the city, rebutted each of the eight counts brought by the plaintiffs, he argued that Article 97 is concerned with the public's right to enjoy natural resources. 'It is not about protecting buildings, it is not about protecting man-made structures, it is not about protecting large concrete sports stadiums where 10,000 people can sit on man-made construction,' said Ronan. Ronan also argued that Article 97 does not apply to any impacts made by the existence of a man-made structure such as White Stadium on a park such as Franklin Park. Lead plaintiff attorney Alan Lipkind challenged the meaning of impact from a different perspective. Lipkind argued that even if the judge rules that the stadium parcel lies outside of Article 97's purview, he must consider that travel to and from the stadium requires using Franklin Park's Article 97-protected roads to get to the property. By issuing a license instead of an easement in the stadium-usage agreement with the team, Lipkind maintained, the city and team dodged an issue that would have prompted legislative approval. 'No one is going to put $200 million on an island for a project like this unless they have a right to get to that parcel. It would be insane to do that,' he said. Advertisement Linda Henry, CEO of Boston Globe Media Partners, Related : Before the attorneys spoke, Nestor also gave 'a 21st century shoutout to a 20th century man,' George Robert White, the person ultimately responsible for everyone's attendance in the Superior Court Room 304, given that White Stadium was built in 1947 with funds from White's 1919 trust. Nestor noted that since White's death in 1922, funds from his trust have also supported a number of Boston neighborhood health centers, as well as the Franklin Park Zoo and Massachusetts Audubon Society. 'Those are all things that impact people directly in the city of Boston today, so kudos to Mr. White,' said Nestor. 'One other thing he did, in the town of Acton, he set up a trust to help the poor and unfortunate — irrespective of citizenship. I'll just leave that there.' Nestor also acknowledged the well-attended courtroom gallery, where supporters of the plaintiffs, as well as some for the defendants, sat for all three days of the trial. 'I've seen you in the back and — it's not the usual, I don't know how to describe it — you don't hate each other, which is great because no matter what happens in this case, the neighborhood's going to go forward in one fashion or another and you're all going to still be neighbors and still be friends,' said Nestor. Michael Silverman can be reached at
Boston Globe
19-02-2025
- Politics
- Boston Globe
Demolition underway at White Stadium, as residents remain split over renovation plans
Related : Advertisement Against a backdrop of construction crews at work, more than 40 residents, including members of grassroots advocacy group cold to protest the project on site. They called for the mayor to pause demolition and pull out of the deal with Boston Unity Soccer Partners, the group behind the (Linda Henry, CEO of Boston Globe Media Partners, is a minority, non-controlling investor of Boston Unity Soccer Partners). The Emerald Necklace Conservancy and several residents Related : Renee Stacey Welch, Advertisement 'This is wrong, my neighbors and I are fighting, my community is divided, and we have people who can stop this, but they won't listen to us,' Welch said. Opponents say the project essentially amounts to an unconstitutional privatization of public land, arguing that the stadium's use by a professional sports team would limit the public's access to the site. According to the lease agreement, Boston Public Schools would retain ownership of the stadium, but it will host 20 NWSL games and up to 20 practices a year. But critics also accuse the city of not considering lower-cost alternatives to the project that would not require private investment, and would allow the stadium to remain solely for the use of BPS students and surrounding neighborhoods, as it has been for decades. They also reiterated concern over the city's share of the cost, which has 'The preservation of this park has primarily been led by Black residents, and now those residents are being told to step aside and listen to what's best for us; that is paternalistic and not true community process,' said resident Priscilla Andrade. 'We all know and agree that White Stadium needs a renovation. Our concern is about how, for whom and by whom, how does that work? And if our public dollars are being used, then we should have a right to discern how that's being done.' Josh Kraft, who attended a community meeting on the project hosted by the advocacy groups last week, attended Wednesday's protest at the invitation of the neighborhood residents. Advertisement 'It's great to be here, I just want to stand in solidarity,' Kraft said Wednesday. 'This is a historic park, part of this community for generations. ... You can feel people's frustration at not being heard.' Kraft's campaign on Tuesday released a statement calling for Wu to pause all work on the project until after the March 18 trial. When asked how he would approach the issue should he win in November, Kraft on Wednesday said he would likely take part of the roughly $100 million the city has already allocated for the project, and potentially seek private investment to match that amount, to renovate the stadium. Related : But several residents and local officials, as well as some BPS students, countered critics' arguments in their own press conference Wednesday afternoon. They emphasized that the city's leadership has neglected White Stadium for decades, causing it to fall into disrepair, and said the mayor's deal with the professional women's soccer team would provide an enormous benefit to both the district's students and the neighboring communities. 'Politics gets in the way, and then progress never happens,' said Jeri Robinson, chair of the Boston School Committee. 'We can't afford to continue to do this. It is not fair to our kids, I don't want to see another 50 years of kids walking past the dilapidated stadium that they don't have access to.' Samir McDaniels, a former BPS student athlete, said the district's students deserve to benefit from a facility of this caliber. 'The project will give BPS students a home that they can be proud of, a place to train and compete and grow, where they have opportunity to further their education if they wanted to play sports in college,' he said. 'I know what it's like to have to push yourself every day only to face barriers that you know shouldn't exist. So, you know, on behalf of myself and BPS athletics, I think that this renovation is breaking down those barriers.' Advertisement In defense of the project's rising cost to the city, several residents who live near the stadium pointed to the recently completed renovation of a public pool in Charlestown, which had a price tag of nearly $40 million. At an unrelated event Wednesday, Wu defended the lease agreement her administration reached with the professional sports team. 'This is the best possible deal that could have been imagined,' Wu said. 'There is nowhere else in the country where a professional sports team is renting space in a facility that is going to be world class, and up to all of those competition standards, that is still owned by the public school district and dedicated primarily for the use of student athletes in the community.' Niki Griswold can be reached at
Boston Globe
31-01-2025
- Politics
- Boston Globe
Karen Read defense team says it will file motion to dismiss murder indictment
Advertisement 'Among them is the opportunity to reliably assure her sources that certain information ... will be off-the-record,' Bertsche said. He said Voss risks being subjected to continued 'vitriol' should her off-the-record notes enter the public record. Recently, Bertsche said, a Facebook commenter 'who I won't name' posted Voss's personal phone number, and she has 'received several strange phone calls' since. Cannone, who previously ordered Voss to turn over unredacted recordings of her on-the-record interviews as well as the off-the-record material, noted Friday from the bench that she's Cannone said she'll give Bertsche the chance to suggest redactions to the off-the-record notes, so that only Read's statements are provided to prosecutors, rather than any notes Voss may have taken regarding her own personal impressions. Boston Magazine is owned by Boston Globe Media Partners, which also owns the Boston Globe. Prosecutors allege that she backed her SUV in a drunken rage into her boyfriend, Advertisement Regarding the defense's impending bid to dismiss the case, Read attorney Alan Jackson said during Friday's hearing that 'we think that we have grounds' to file the motion, though he didn't elaborate. Cannone ordered the defense to file their dismissal motion by Feb. 11, with a hearing on the matter scheduled for the following week. That motion is separate from It's not clear when the SJC will rule. Meanwhile, much of Friday's hearing also dealt with Prosecutors contend the timestamp on the Google search was inaccurate and that government experts are prepared to testify as to why, as they did in the first trial. Advertisement The government wants a hearing so prosecutors can question McCabe 'When a [phone] tab is open ... it is opened at a particular time, and [if] that tab is reused, the original time will imprint' as the timing on the later search, said special prosecutor Hank Brennan, nodding to McCabe's testimony that she'd looked up a youth sports program on her phone shortly before 2:30 a.m. Read attorney Robert Alessi countered Friday that the government's experts at the first trial confirmed a dying in the cold search at 2:27 a.m. had been deleted. 'There were 4,056 searches on the phone of Ms. McCabe' when investigators examined it, Alessi said. 'Four-thousand fifty-six. There was one deletion out of 4,056, and guess which one it was. 'Hos [sic] long to die in the cold.'' Cannone took the matter under advisement. Material from prior Globe stories was us in this report. Travis Andersen can be reached at
