|
The West Cambridge Youth/Community Center Needs a Social Hall!City of Cambridge, which intends to use the space to create the West Cambridge Youth/Community Center. This will provide a long-overdue, permanent home for the West Cambridge Youth Center; my hope is that the City will also preserve the social hall to allow the Center to continue meeting the needs of other community groups as well. |
| Latest news |
|---|
| January 9th, 2006 City Council meeting |
| December 19th City Council meeting |
| October 18th City Council meeting |
As I write this, in October 2005, the City's plans for the center do not preserve the social hall, forcing these three groups to look for new homes. It turns out that the Huron Avenue VFW hall is, as far as I know, unique in the Boston area in possessing all these qualities:
My own involvement is with the Thursday night contra dances. My wife and I did some of our early courting in this hall; now our children (aged 16 and 18) have become avid dancers in the same hall.
The City intends to renovate the site to produce two entirely separate spaces:
The City hired Cambridge Seven Associates to do a site assessment survey; this describes the existing buildings and proposes several possible designs. The preferred design adds a new building to the site, behind the existing buildings and over the parking area. This new building would house the basketball court/gym. The current lobby and social hall would be replaced by the remaining spaces of the youth center. The current basement would continue to house the VFW Post's meeting space and lounge.
There is a small collection of drawings and photos available at www.narsil.org/vfw/vfw_drawings.html.
While nothing is (yet) carved in stone, the intent is for the City to purchase the site from the VFW Post for between 2 and $3 million. The City will spend about $4.6 million on construction and renovation for the youth/community center (according to the site assessment), and between 3/4 and $1 million on renovations for the VFW Post (also from the site assessment). The VFW Post will lease its portion of the building back from the City. The fair market value of the site is probably somewhat higher than the amount the City will pay; in return, the VFW Post gets the use of the newly renovated space on favorable terms.
[The reason for the vagueness about the purchase price and lease-back arrangement is that the VFW Post and City are still working this out. However, the City is clearly confident that a suitable agreement will be reached.]
The three dance groups currently pay about $75,000 per year in rent for the use of the social hall. There are many other groups that also use the hall; the total revenue is between $75,000 and $100,000 each year. This revenue will support between $600,000 and $1 million in additional construction costs. This could be used to build an additional floor beneath the gym that would house the remainder of the youth center spaces, and enable the site to live up to it's billing as a "youth/community center."
In addition to the other already-planned facilities, the youth center will have a large, comfortable social hall in which to host dances, celebrations and other activities. Since the design work is only just beginning, there's no reason to believe that preserving the hall will delay the center's opening.
The City's June 28, 2005 "Request for Proposals" solicits design bids for the "West Cambridge Youth/Community Center and VFW." The current facility is already an effective community center and VFW Post. The social hall has hosted Little League banquets, Passover Seders, political campaign events, wedding receptions and many other activities that help define us as a community.
And then there are the dances.
Contra dancing seems to me to be exactly the sort of activity the City should be encouraging. It's very inclusive; contra dancing is easy to learn, and newcomers are always welcome.The dancers range in age from early teens to well over 70. Contra dancing is very vigorous, making it a very healthy activity. It's a great way to meet lots of people in a non-threatening, non-alcoholic environment; it's the polar opposite of the bar scene. You don't need a partner or special clothes (though good shoes help a lot...), and it's less expensive than a movie. There is always live music.
The Thursday night VFW dance is very well known throughout the folk dance world. If you're a contra dancer and you're visiting Boston, you'll probably try to arrange your travel so that you can hit the Thursday dance. The dance is a cultural resource whose value extends well beyond Cambridge.
That said, many of the dancers live in Cambridge. The dance organizers have been keeping a list, and the count is just under 100. Of those, about 65% are registered voters; 40% are Cambridge homeowners. And this is just the contra dancers!
The City has an opportunity to improve this existing de facto community center by adding services vital to the youth of West Cambridge. Preserving the social hall will cost the City little or nothing in the long run, but its loss would be felt immediately, and cannot easily be undone.
Let's show the young people of Cambridge that community truly matters.
Note: as of December 19th, 2005, it appears that most of the City Councilors (with the exception of Councilors Galluccio and Toomey) are convinced that the hall - and dances! - are a resource worth saving. At the moment, I suspect that the councilors would appreciate a brief note thanking them for their support, and urging them to stick with the issue until the hall's future is assured. So if you've already contacted the Councilors, this is great time to contact them again.
If you haven't already contacted the City Council, please do so immediately and let them know:
Cambridge City Council
City Hall, 2nd Floor
795 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02139
Other means of contact:
Phone: (617) 349-4280 TTY/TDD: (617) 349-4242 FAX: (617) 349-4287 eMail: Council@cambridgema.gov
(An message to this address will be received by all nine councillors)
If you know any of the councilors personally, please talk to them about this issue.
At this time (early 2006), it would be best if people who are not Cambridge residents would refrain from contacting City officials about this issue. The City Manager and Councilors have made it clear that they consider this "outside interference".
|
Who am I?I'm Jerry Callen, a Cambridge resident and homeowner (Orchard Street). Our family has lived in Cambridge for the past 19 years. I moved from Chicago to Cambridge because of its legendary reputation as a folk dance hub. I first danced in the VFW hall in 1983 while visiting on business.
To contact me regarding the content of this page, send email to:  |
Last modified: Tue Dec 20 02:15:06 EST 2005