By Cary Shuman
When Mayor Carlo DeMaria viewed the TV broadcast and learned that some “misinformation” was being aired about the City of Everett at a press conference Monday morning in Charlestown, he reacted quickly and decisively.
DeMaria scheduled a press conference Monday afternoon, appearing alongside New England Revolution President Brian Bilello to discuss the proposed soccer stadium in Everett on the dilapidated site that would be transformed by the Kraft Group into a world-class venue.
DeMaria was responding to Mayor Wu’s earlier press conference that focused primarily on the community benefits agreement between the City of Boston and the Kraft Group. That well-covered media event was held at the Ryan Playground in Charlestown just across the Mystic River from the soccer stadium site. Wu told the media that the Kraft Group has provided “limited to no answers and no meaningful technical information” about the soccer project and the Kraft Group’s $750,000 offer in mitigation funds to the City of Boston “is a non-starter and an unserious proposal.”
Sen. Sal DiDomenico, the lead advocate and champion of the new soccer stadium proposal for Everett, spoke at Mayor Wu’s press conference.
“A new day has come for Charlestown and for Everett, that we are no longer going to have on both gateways into our communities with smokestacks that have done so much damage to our communities,” said DiDomenico. “And it’s a new day because we have an opportunity with the Revolution to now right a lot of the wrongs that have happened for so long and create opportunities for economic development and transit options that we have never even dreamed about in the past.”
The soccer stadium issue is clearly major for both Everett and Charlestown, but also regionally for the Revolution’s growing fan base. DeMaria’s press conference drew a turnout of media similar in size to the Wu event.
DeMaria seemed to take exception that Wu inferred that there were very few Everett residents living near the proposed stadium site as compared to Charlestown.
“There are people who live the proximity of this stadium, not just residents of Charlestown,” said DeMaria. “There are lots of residents who live right here in the Village and the Line area. It’s not a separate section of the city. We’re going to leverage this development to build out our public transit investment.”
DeMaria said he has been working hard “get that community railstop and the pedestrian bridge connected to the Northern Strand Bike Trail to Assembly Row (Somerville).”
The mayor believes that traffic congestion will be alleviated by the fact that there will only be approximately 100 parking spaces on the stadium property and the great majority of fans will arrive for games by public transportation.
“I’m fighting for the best interests of my city,” said DeMaria, adding that he is negotiating with the Kraft Group about such matters as a portion of each game ticket going toward Everett. “The whole team is working hard. I’m a mayor fighting for my community and I’m going to continue the fight. I feel this stadium is going to happen.”
Belillo also spoke about the earlier press conference and the negativity in some of the statements made in Charlestown.
“I think it’s important to be clear from the very beginning of the process that the Revolution have been pushing expeditiously to develop a fair and community impact agreement from the very start of this process,” said Belillo. “Since that first meeting in February, our team has met with the city [Boston] over a half dozen times, and throughout the entire process, I can only describe the tenor and tone of those meetings as cooperative and cordial. So, I can understand why it’s upsetting and frustrating to us that the only thing being said publicly about these meetings is negative.”