Last modified: Thu Oct 20 08:23:14 EDT 2005

City Council Committee meeting, October 18th, 2005

The Public Facilities, Arts and Celebrations committee met on Tuesday, October 18th specifically to discuss the VFW. There was a terrific turnout, especially of swing and contra dancers, and this clearly affected the outcome of the meeting. Bravo!

The meeting opened with presentations from dancers Andrea Helton and Kathy London. Andrea focused why the City should want to maintain the dances at the VFW, and Kathy followed up with how this is possible. This was followed by a presentation from City Manager Robert Healy and Deputy City Manager Richard Rossi, with occasional technical assitance from Gary Johnson (I think?) of Cambridge Seven Associates, the architectural firm that did the Site Assessment Study and has been awarded the design of the new center. After the City Manager's presentation the City Councilors spoke; this was followed by a public comment period, and finally a closing statement by committee chair Brian Murphy (the sole remaining councilor at that point).

Councilor and Vice Mayor Marjorie Decker expressed considerable dismay with the City's process; she was unhappy that the concerns of the dancers had not been considered before this. I got the impression that she really has come to understand that the dances are very important to a lot of Cambridge residents, and that we really do constitute a community. That said, I think she's less convinced about the importance of saving the hall for dances.

Councilor Henrietta Davis expressed support for dancing, but has four issues she's particularly concerned about:

• Cost - no one really knows at this point what it would actually cost to save the hall and still provide the youth center with the space it needs.
• The liquor license - this is a non-issue, since only one dance group currently has liquor at their dances, and they are willing to drop this.
• Rent - it's possible that the rent may increase, and certainly will over time. Will this be a discouragement to the dance groups?
• Zoning - will preserving the hall trigger zoning issues that could potentially jeapordize the Youth Center?

Councilor Ken Reeves spoke at length about how the city supports arts, and how this dance community is wonderful - and that he's sure that a place can be found somewhere in the city for these groups. I don't think he's convinced that the hall should be saved.

Councilor Anthony Galluccio related his own warm memories of this hall; he launched his political career in the hall, and he's been to many events there over the years. He seems to like the idea of preserving the hall. That said, he also feels that to some extent the hall has become "disconnected" from the surrounding community over the years because the dances have "displaced" other activities. He thinks that it would unfair for the City to preserve the space and then turn it over to a select group of users in perpetuity.

The public comment period of the meeting then began. One thing I noticed - and that bothers me - is that there is a built-in inequity in this sort of meeting. The City Manager is able to respond as needed to each speaker's comments; the speaker, on the other hand, has no opportunity to rebut what the City manager says. This inhibits the sort of free-flowing discussion I think is neccesary to come to any sort of concensus.

Anyway - the public comment period was, for the most part, great. Some of the highlights, at least for me:

• A VFW neighbor, and non-dancer, commented on her experience of walking by the dances at night and seeing a place of friendship, happiness and music. She went on to say that her former home town had nothing like this, and this made for the sort neighborhood that she really enjoys living in. My eyes teared up at this.
• It was pointed out that, as far as cost to the City is concerned, the dances bring in substantial income from non-residents and this can be seen as offsetting tax dollars.
• At the end of Kathy's presentation she unveiled a map of the City, with a little tag attached at the location of each known dancer, listing dancers' names and addresses. As one person described it, the map was "blanketed" with dancers! This was a big hit.
• Ron Mutti, the senior vice commander of the VFW Post, spoke of the VFW's desire to get out of the business of running a function hall, and said that this could be a "deal-breaker." In the ensuing quiet, Councilor Murphy asked Mr. Mutti how the VFW would feel about the preserving the hall if the City took over management of the hall's users. His response was, "We'd love it."
• more to come...

What now?

Good question. We definitely have the Council's attention! The question now is what they will do about it. At the end of the meeting committee chair and councilor Brian Murphy proposed a resolution that, as I recall, directed the City Manager to report to the Council on the impact of preserving the hall: costs, policy issues, zoning, etc. [I'll get the exact text once it's published on the City's web site.] As I understand the process, the resolution has to be sent to the Council one week and then voted on the next; again, I'll check this out and make sure I have this correct.

The upshot is that I'm guardedly optimistic that we will get some form of assistance from the City. This doesn't necessarily mean that the hall will be saved, or that we'll have the same access to it that we have enjoyed historically.

The City Manager's office is in a difficult position. It seems clear that both Mr. Healy and Mr. Rossi believe that:

• the cost of saving the hall is too high, and
• it's inappropriate for the City to provide space to non-City groups.

Many people worked very hard to get us this far (they know who they are...), but this was truly a product of the dance community as a whole. In particular, the meeting would not have been anywhere nearly as successful had dancers not turned out in large numbers. This made the difference.

Keep dancing!

Narsil-->Cambridge VFW