Two wonderful letters to the Globe from Brighton residents

Brighton fears thud of BC expansion - The Boston Globe

Thank you to Glory Dalton and Maria Guadalupe Rodrigues for speaking up on behalf of our neighborhood!

"Urban neighborhoods have long been threatened by institutional expansion, and the negative consequences are plain to see: increasing violence, diminishing green spaces, deterioration of the urban school system, increasing traffic problems. Allston-Brighton is deeply affected by such problems and is under siege by both Harvard University and BC.

The level of arrogance of these institutions is best illustrated by the BC student's statement to your reporter: "If you choose to live there, you have to expect it's not a perfectly quiet area. You knew that coming in." Many residents of the neighborhood have links to the area that go back more then three generations. It was really quiet back then.

Allston-Brighton is an urban neighborhood: diverse, vibrant, and full of residents who care about their community. It will not become an urban campus."


"MY FAMILY has lived in the same house near St. John's Seminary for four generations. This has always been a quiet neighborhood with young families and senior citizens until recently, when we suffered the invasion of so-called well-behaved BC students.

Their revelry is not "harmless" when they wake up and frighten young children with their singing "Sweet Caroline." It is not "harmless" when they urinate on your front lawn or try to pry open your front window calling out some unrecognizable girl's name.

Now BC wants to build a stadium on these grounds with lights, noisy roaming fans, traffic, and parking issues that will accompany it . The school wants to build dorms to house 600 undergraduates , all in the heart of a residential neighborhood.

It will be a sad day to have to leave our family home, but the simple fact is Brighton is being squeezed by the large universities and is losing its identity."