Community Rallies for Millennium Partners to Provide Affordable Housing and Good Jobs for All
April 8, 2014
On Monday March 31st, over 250 people gathered in Downtown Boston to protest Millennium Partners. As the developer of the $500 million luxury housing tower at Filene’s Basement downtown, members and allies of the Boston Jobs Coalition called on Millennium to ensure community access to good construction and permanent jobs, and to pay $5.9 million in unpaid affordable housing funds for their previous luxury tower in Chinatown.
Rally co-emcee, Gloribell Mota from Neighbors United for East Boston (NUBE) described the protest as the “first major step in a public campaign to hold Millennium and all big developers across Boston accountable to our communities.”
Co-emcee, Mark Liu of the Chinese Progressive Association explained that Millennium received millions in City tax breaks, “so this is our development and our jobs. And we’re not waiting a millennium to get them.” He further explained, “this is not against the unions or workers on this site. We are protesting a multi-billion dollar national developer who is making profit in Boston at the expense of our most vulnerable communities.”
The lively crowd including youth and senior citizens met in Downtown Crossing near the Filene’s site and marched through rain and hail to Millennium Place where $5.9 million is left unpaid for affordable housing. Hundreds then marched to Millennium Partners’ corporate office next to the Loews Theater on Tremont Street.
Priscilla Flint of the Black Economic Justice Institute rallied the crowed, “this is a historic moment in Boston: we have the Asian community, the Latino community, the Black community, and the white community standing up for our rights as citizens of Boston…This is ‘Boston Strong.’”
Jobless construction workers and retail and service employees from Action for Regional Equity, Boston Workers Alliance, CPA, Dorchester Roxbury Labor Committee and SEIU 32-BJ all spoke about their need for access to good quality jobs and the pain caused by unemployment and low wages that plague our communities.
Protestors chanted “51-51-15,” referring to best the best practice hiring goals for Boston residents, people of color and women on major construction jobs. And rallied to “Remain, Reclaim and Rebuild Our Boston” by ensuring that all developers require good, accessible construction and permanent jobs, and invest in affordable housing to offset the rapid gentrification of Boston’s low income neighborhoods.
Boston Jobs Coalition Campaign Endorsers
Action for Regional Equity, Alternatives for Community and Environment, Asian American Resource Workshop / DOT-I, Black Economic Justice Institute, Boston Tenants Coalition, Boston Workers Alliance, Center for Economic Democracy, Chinese Progressive Association, City Life / Vida Urbana, Community Change, Community Church of Boston, Dominican Development Center, Dorchester People for Peace, Dorchester Roxbury Labor Committee, Future Boston Alliance, Greater Four Corners Action Coalition, Grove Hall NDC, Jobs With Justice, Mass Alliance of HUD Tenants, Massachusetts Community Action Network, Neighbors United for a Better East Boston, New England United for Justice, Press Pass TV, Project HIP HOP, Restaurant Opportunity Center, Right to the City Boston, SEIU 32BJ, SPAN, TOUCH 106.1 FM, Union of Minority Neighborhoods