The following article is a Letter to the Editor of Tufts Daily regarding a statement from Tufts University President Bacow where he states that the university is not planning to expand. My response is a reply to the three Tufts students who responded to President Bacow's announcement. The following letter is unedited and is the original document emailed to the Editor of Tufts Daily.
There are several things I thought about when reading the students' letter which was a response to President Bacow's commitment not to expand. First, the question of what does Medford give back to Tufts? How about our police and fire department and our DPW services to a University that pays very little in taxes to the city.
Second, the students did not answer really what Tufts gives to us. They arrogantly believe because Tufts exists in Medford we should bow down to university expansionism. How many working class and middle class communities have been knocked out because of university expansionism and for what purpose other than imperialism by the universities?
Third, they push for science and research - Bio science that provides specific jobs for academics. According to a Globe article a couple of weeks ago, Bio science is a niche market that does not provide a diversity of jobs for the broader community thus putting us at the bottom of the list in job creation. Where are these students/economists social responsibility? As economists, they provide a very narrow and less socially responsible view of the broader community.
As a lifelong Medford resident, I am pleased that University President Larry Bacow has "made a commitment [that Tufts will not expand] to our our host communities."
As a young boy growing up in South Medford I enjoyed playing in Spicer Field. Today it's a remote part of Alumni Field and the parking lot is private property reserved only for Tufts students and faculty.
My first school was the Dame School on George Street and the Dame is now Tufts property. At Mayor McGlynn's (D-Medford) inaugural celebration in 2006 when he announced that Tufts was paying property taxes on this building, I could not have clapped any harder!
As a young man, I learned my first trade at Acme Printing, 4 Colby Street. That too is now Tufts - the Science and Technology Center. Acme had a state-sponsored apprenticeship program and hundreds of local residents were trained in graphic arts, printing, bindery and all the other related fields in this company which employed over 200 residents. Granted that the 18-wheelers going up Princeton St. were a nuisance to the residents, but a condo or apartment complex would bring in tens of thousands of dollars in taxes to the city.
Some of us who have lived in Medford for over 50 years have watched helplessly as Tufts expansion has continued to take prime property off the tax base.
It is like a form of Eminent Domain and it affects all Medford citizens, landlords and tenants alike.
Over the years, Tufts has purchased every building on Boston Ave. from the Post Office down to Harvard St. and beyond. They have bought property all along Boston Ave. in the Winthrop Street area with the exception of the Dry Cleaners and Joe Sarno who refuse to sell to them.
Unfortunately, the students do not seem to know the Medford and Somerville community at all especially all the developments that are ongoing and planned such as the Assembly Mall complex, all the potential Smart Growth developments at the Somerville Green Line stops, Station Landing, Rivers Edge and the Medford Square Revitalization.
I think that living on a Hill does not provide them a broader vision of our community, and I would recommend that they get out more. A good place to start is
Jim's Market at the top of Fulton Street in Medford. I was there the other day buying one of their new sausage Breakfast Boys. At $3 it's a real good Cheap Eat.
While I was there, I saw something I've never seen in Medford...a house with a foreclosure sign on it. The sign reads, "Lending Foreclosure. Home Auction."
A friend of a friend is also in the process of losing her home in the Hillside area. On Wednesday January 8, 2007, Countrywide Financial Corp, the largest U.S. mortgage lender, said that "foreclosures and late payments rose in December to the highest on record..."
Times are not so good for some of us but Tufts has more money than it can spend. They get millions in Federal and State money too, OUR money. They receive endowments from alumni in the amounts of tens of millions of dollars. We subsidize them and they reward us by increasing our taxes.
When the St. James Church and complex on the Fellsway shut down private developers built and are selling 20 townhouse condos which will bring in over a $50,000 in property taxes every year not to mention all the money that the residents will spend in Medford on cars, shopping, clothing, etc. When the Sacred Heart complex on Winthrop St. closed Tufts bought it and again Medford receives nothing.
Any T stop along Boston Ave. will be a great boon to Tufts, will be paid for by the taxpayers and will increase the noise and vibrations even greater than what exists now! Personally, I would like the last stop to be in Ball Square.
It's not Tufts "expansion" that many of us oppose, it's the taking of property off the tax rolls. All Tufts has to do is to pay taxes on the property it purchases as in the Dame School and then we would think of them as a "good neighbor." Until that day comes, we will continue to organize, post flyers, write letters, talk to elected officials, run for office and support elected officials who really care about our neighborhood and preserving our way of life.
