Big City, Big Plans, Angry Mayor - Boston & Boston College

Mayor Menino is an accomplished speaker, we heard him at the Campus Heritage Preservation conference in Boston last fall. It's got to be tough having him in opposition to campus expansion planning:

Escalating a simmering town-gown feud, Mayor Thomas M. Menino today denounced Boston College's expansion plan as an intrusion into the Brighton neighborhood, and accused university leaders of "arrogance" in pursuing development goals with little regard to residents' concerns.

In a wide-ranging and sharply worded criticism of the plan, Menino said that he squarely opposes the college's recent proposal to convert a high-rise apartment building about one-third of a mile from the Jesuit university's main Chestnut Hill campus into a dormitory.

Menino also faulted BC's plans to build new dorms on property it purchased from the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston, and disputed the college's contention that it cannot fit more students on its traditional campus.

"I want them to build on the campus they have right now, not buy up property and turn it into a dormitory," he said in an interview. "I think they can find the room and come up with a plan that will have the least impact on the neighborhood."