Talk:Fort Point, Boston

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Boston's Fort Point District is undergoing dramatic physical and social change. The former mercantile district along the Fort Point Channel, with its stout, yet gracious brick warehouses and lively artist community, is rapidly transforming through an influx of office, hotel, restaurant, and high-end residential construction. Although technically part of South Boston, the district is very much a separate "village" of that neighborhood, with its own "Downtown" (Congress Street) and its own set of urban planning challenges. Over the next decade, an influx of new residents will make Fort Point a diverse blend of artist- entrepreneurs, business professionals, and local families. Such growth provides Fort Point the unique opportunity to enhance its social resources by broadening representation of its constituent base to further its political esteem.

Four local advocacy groups engaged in these processes are: The Fort Point Artist Community (FPAC, non-profit, Inc.), The Seaport Alliance for a Neighborhood Design (SAND), The Fort Point Cultural Coalition (FPCC, non-profit, Inc.), and the newly formed Fort Point Neighborhood Alliance (FPNA). Each group is set up well to address the concerns of its members, or those of the community. A rough description of each follows:

FPAC is the nerve center for the artist's community established in Fort Point since the late 1970's. FPAC is a membership organization that operates Fort Point Open Studios annually, and maintains an information network for working artists living in the district. FPAC also enjoys a history building artist housing, and of securing artist leases in the district.

SAND is a task force of volunteer residents with training in urban planning and zoning issues. SAND's mission, broadly stated, is to monitor planning and zoning activity in Fort Point, and to ensure development compatibility with its goal to create a true neighborhood of ample housing, transportation access, recreational open space, and preservation awareness.

The FPCC is a development entity responsible for creating Midway Studios. A component of the Channel Center complex along A Street, This 89-unit affordable live-work development opened in May 2005 and is completely leased. The FPCC has a long-term goal of creating 300 new units of artist-affordable live work space, including facilities for working artists and arts-related businesses and programming.

FPNA was formed in 2006 to form common ground for Fort Point's new residents and existing population. FPNA strongly supports the goals of the above groups as it addresses the numerous quality of life challenges a formal neighborhood association typically takes on -such as noise, public safety, and public accountability. FPNA's goal is to develop pluraity of consensus in the community and muster political leverage on a host of matters affecting Fort Point.

(MTyrrell 18:06, 24 February 2007 (UTC))