Photo: Madison Rogers/WBZ NewsRadio
ALLSTON, Mass. (WBZ NewsRadio) — The BCYF Jackson Mann Community Center in Allston has seen better days.
"There’s crumbling infrastructure going back to about 2004," Boston City Councilor Liz Breadon told WBZ NewsRadio Friday. "There's a long list of maintenance issues that were never attended to."
Jackson Mann is the only city-run community center in the Allston-Brighton neighborhood. The facility has been slated for demolition since 2019 with hopes to build a new one on the property, but five years later, those plans have yet to come to fruition.
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Breadon, who serves Allston-Brighton, organized a hearing at the center on Tuesday. Dozens of residents attended the hearing and expressed their frustrations directly at Boston Centers for Youth and Families officials.
"When we pushed [BCYF] to say, well, what’s the timeline for rebuilding, they weren’t able to give us any definite answers to that question," Breadon said.
Councilor Liz Breadon stands in front of the Jackson Mann Community Center in Allston.Photo: Madison Rogers/WBZ NewsRadio
BCYF partners with organizations to offer youth and adult programs, childcare, gym and fitness facilities, arts, sports, and other programming at its community centers. According to an online petition, the Jackson Mann Community Center's poor condition "offers limited programming focused solely on adult education" because of "lack of access to adequate facilities."
The petition, which has received more than 300 signatures, is calling on the City of Boston to commit to building a new Jackson Mann Community Center and ensure it has "capacity and appropriate facilities to provide Allston Brighton community members adequate access to BCYF programming and services."
"This is an equity issue for our neighborhood and we really want it addressed," Breadon told WBZ NewsRadio. "Really, I’d just like to see a commitment, like, a solid commitment, to move this forward expeditiously."
In a statement to WBZ NewsRadio from BCYF, a City spokesperson said, "The City is committed to finding a new home for the community center in a facility and location that is informed by community input. In the meantime, the center is continuing operations in their new space at the Jackson/Horace Mann School complex to ensure there is programming and resources for Allston-Brighton families."
WBZ's Madison Rogers (@MadisonWBZ) reports.
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