Franklin Park Belongs to the People
ACE strongly opposes the City of Boston’s plan to develop a private soccer stadium in Franklin Park, on the site of Boston Public Schools’ White Stadium. We filed an amicus brief in the ongoing Massachusetts Supreme Court case in March, which you can see here.
Here’s why we oppose a professional soccer stadium in Franklin Park:
Our neighborhoods and our people already face a heavy environmental burden. Life expectancy in Roxbury is 23 years shorter than for Back Bay residents. We breathe dirtier air, enjoy less green space, and suffer from more extreme heat events. These aren’t abstract ideas — they have measurable impacts in asthma attacks, heart and lung disease, and in much shorter lives.
Our voices have been excluded. This project deliberately bypassed legally-required reviews from the Massachusetts Environmental Policy Act (MEPA) and the Public Land Preservation Act (PLPA). Franklin Park is in a legally-defined Environmental Justice community, a place where the state recognizes a legacy of racism and discrimination have led to much worse environmental and health outcomes. But the legally-required public participation has been ignored.
This is an illegal loss of public land. Under the PLPA, a two-thirds legislative vote is required to privatize land controlled by a public entity. That vote never happened. A 30-year lease for private suites, a restaurant, and restricting public access is a takeover, not a partnership.
This will accelerate the displacement that’s already fragmenting our community. In 1970, Roxbury was 75% Black. Today, Black residents are just 50%, and falling. 80% of Roxbury residents rent, and the housing crisis is spiking gentrification and eviction rates. A professional stadium will doubtlessly increase gentrification, but no attempt has been made to study or account for this.
$135 million could be transformative if NOT spent on this stadium. Imagine $135 million invested in schools, parks, community resilience, public spaces, transit, and economic development — with real community involvement. That’s a far cry from what we’re seeing here.
We demand an immediate halt to this project. We demand a full environmental justice review, with robust community input, done at accessible languages, venues, and times. We demand an honest account of displacement impacts and a way to remedy them.
Franklin Park belongs to the people. Let’s keep it that way.
