Mayor Marty Walsh is trying to turn over a new leaf at the BRA, the city's development authority, so he's given a new name to the old agency. The city's planning arm will now be know as the Boston Planning and Development Agency.
The new name, logo and posture came after Walsh's administration sought out ways to modernize how Bostonians saw the old Boston Redevelopment Authority.
The BRA was the subject of a harsh audit in 2014 that showed failures to properly manage contracts as well as millions in fees and lease payments.
There won't be many changes to the agency's structure, leadership or jurisdiction, but the new marketing material emphasizes a long-term view of inclusive planning for Boston's future.
"It's not necessarily structural changes that are needed, it's internal changes, making sure that people's voices are heard internally and making sure that as we talk about planners, it's not a top-down approach, it's a bottom-up approach. And I think you have to make sure we get all people included in the process," Walsh told WGBH News after a City Hall Plaza event introducing the newly rechristened agency.
Created in the 1950s, the BRA was best known in its first few decades as the branch of city government that brought mid-century urban renewal to the West End and downtown, often via the business end of a fleet of bulldozers.
"I think one of the biggest things, in certain communities in Boston, not all, but in certain, there was a mistrust of the BRA. Some of it goes back to the West End. Some of it goes back to some of the ways things have been worked here in the city. There's also been some great things with the BRA. Obviously we're one of the best built-out cities in the country," Walsh said.
A coalition of housing advocates weren't buying City Hall's fresh coat of paint over the old BRA system.
"The BRA process as a whole is inconsistent with the interests of the people," longtime community activist and 1983 mayoral hopeful Mel King wrote in a letter on behalf of the People's Housing Board Coalition. The group wants elected boards made up of residents to have final approval of projects in their neighborhoods.
"We believe that, the continued existence of the BRA - under any name, or mission statement - is an imminent threat to the financial and social well being for over 400,000 people of all ages and ethnic backgrounds in the City of Boston," the group's statement read.
Walsh's public schedule for the day said the mayor would offer remarks at the City Hall plaza event. After BPDA director Brian Golden spoke, protesters staged a disruption and called on Walsh to increase the number of affordable housing constructed in Jamaica Plain and Roxbury. Walsh left the event without being introduced or taking the stage.
Serah Holley, a youth organizing with Bicyclists Organizing for Community Action, who goes by the name Sisi, said Walsh's plan for more affordable housing is not enough because the threshold for affordability to too much for the city's poorer neighborhoods.
"The 30 percent affordable though is affordable statistically, not to our community. And so we're asking that 70 percent of those houses be made affordable and not only affordable statistically but affordable to what the community actually makes," Holley said.
"They're protesting a plan, of planning," Walsh said of the protesters' interruption. "Instead of protesting that, you should be talking about the planning. And I don't quite understand people's feeling on this. They're not advocating against a project," Walsh said.
Wendy Goldstein Pierce, senior vice president at marketing and public relations firm Solomon McCown and Company, who has done work for BRA clients, sees the name change as reflective of changes Walsh's administration have already started to put in place.
"It always has to be backed up with the action beside thinking about the name and the external and the visual. But if they're as committed to this program as they are in unveiling this it appears that they'll be just as committed to the less surface stuff," Pierce told WGBH News.
Pierce has confidence that City Hall will continue to backup it's marketing rollout with process improvements and changes in focus.
"I think they really are telling a story about what has already changed," Pierce said.
Walsh's office says the new vision and new name better reflect the city's on-going mission for development and business opportunities for all of Bostonians, as well as commitment to transparency and efficiency.
Walsh said the new change comes after other reforms were put in place after he assumed office in 2014. City Hall is working to change how community meetings are held, and in the fall teams from the BPDA will visit neighborhoods to help shape the new meeting process.
