Got the Message.
By Jim Conley • Aug 21st, 2007 • Email This Post to a Friend •
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In reporting the circumstances that led to the demotion of Brookline Preservation Commission Vice-chair Dennis Dewitt to alternate member [see articles], I noted that the casus belli for such were alleged difficulties with the public. It was then that Selectman’s Chair Robert “The Mensch” Allen stepped in.
Allen, of course, was highly compromised in his role as corporate lawyer for a pair of developers whose project is well within the sights of the Preservation Commission. But hey, this is banana republicanism writ small and these things happen.
In any event, it was clear that the DeWitt demotion was a message to other Committee members that their resume pad of preservation may be in jeopardy.
It seems they got the message. We’ve now gone from a series of hearings on garage door replacements in the Pill Hill Historic District to absolutely no discussion on the demolition of a church rectory listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and where the first Roman Catholic US President was baptized.
In fact, the rectory will be destroyed without a permit to do so. So much for equal application of local laws.
Update: Here’s the National Park Service’s fact sheet on the St. Aidan’s property [click here to view]. “Tear down the rectory,” says your Preservation Commission. Otherwise, we may end up with affordable housing in some other part of town. Oh, the horror.
Jim Conley is publisher of On Brookline.
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Are Preservation Commission members more concerned with preserving their unpaid positions than considering what structures should be preserved? Perhaps they feel so strongly about their constant battles to have no aluminum gutters and downspouts in the Town’s beloved historic districts (five, and counting?) that they can justify (silently) the sacrifice of this rectory with its significant history. I wonder if the Preservation Commission has a hot line for reporting aluminum violations.
So can we now order from the Preservation Commission its
“WRECK ST. AIDAN’S RECTORY!”
bumpersticker?
is it possible that certain selectmen told members of the Presrvation commission to be quiet ? how can we find out and if so is such discussion legal ? isnt dennis dewitt still on the PC _ has anyone asked him about St Aidens ?