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Jim Bossi submitting comments re: Tufts student housing.
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Official Text
To the Honorable City Council:
This issue of 97 Curtis St came up a couple of years ago at a meeting I attended. Tufts was looking to convert the structure to a lodging house and finally withdrew the request, mostly due to Councillor Ballantyne’s insistence. About the same time there was a fire on Teele Ave that gutted a house. Close by on Connell Ave another house was gutted by fire. If my memory serves me correctly, both had college students living in them. One was deemed careless smoking and the other was from a grille on the porch.
Owner occupied houses are disappearing around the university perimeter. Landlords are cashing out, some have passed away, others have left to get away from the malaise, noise, and lack of caring by students and absentee landlords. Tufts seems to enjoy this predicament as it allows their increasing enrollment to live off campus. Off campus where their costs and liability are less. Liability being the bigger issue. If a student gets injured, or worse dies, living off campus deflects the guilt of a lawsuit.
The City Council and Administration needs to “ man up “ and act. There’s been too many meetings asking for a Institutional Master Plan, bargaining for reasonable PILOT payments, discussing students housing and covid protocols. If City Councillors aren’t up to the task of advocating for their constituents more strongly they should move aside and let others do it. Tufts needs to build dorms or shrink enrollment.
Regards,
Jim Bossi