Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Wednesday, Mayor Thomas Koch joining us every Tuesday for a City hall update, and this morning is no exception. Good morning, Mayor.
[00:00:06] Speaker B: Good morning, Joe.
[00:00:07] Speaker A: How are you today?
[00:00:09] Speaker B: Glorious morning. I'm doing well, thanks.
[00:00:10] Speaker A: It's gorgeous. And it's June, it's Flag Day month. Mayor.
[00:00:16] Speaker B: It's graduations, it's flag days, it's anniversaries and birthdays and you name it, weddings. Schedule is pretty tractable.
[00:00:24] Speaker A: Yeah, it really is.
All of a sudden we've gone from 0 to 100 here.
[00:00:30] Speaker B: Absolutely. All good, all positive.
[00:00:33] Speaker A: I know that you mentioned that you just had a Flag Day meeting, so you can give us the very latest, if that's okay, about the parade coming up on Flag Day this year.
[00:00:42] Speaker B: Yeah, sure. We got a couple more meetings left, but we got, I think it's 15 or 16 floats that are going to be in the parade. And as we've talked about before, the ones that the city is building, we've dedicated some time to with our carpenters and folks that work in public buildings and DPW and parks, do a number of Quincy themes.
Quincy, Santa, Child World, Howard Johnson's, the shipbuilding industry, the granite industry, on and on. The Grossman's Wagon. I mean, it's really, really cool.
The floats we got. I mean, these are really top shelf, top quality.
And of course, you know, the bands are a pretty big deal. We got four drum and bugle Corps, the Marine Band out of Quantico, and my favorite is the Quincy North Quincy High Marching Band. They're terrific.
You'll get six historic flags that are 15 by 25 that will be carried by community groups. And so, I mean, it's going to be one hell of a parade, really is for celebrating our 400th Joe.
[00:01:44] Speaker A: And just curious, these floats, will these be in future Flag Day parades as well? Is this something the city will keep and continue?
[00:01:52] Speaker B: Well, we're talking about that now.
Hopefully we'll get a couple, two or three of them in the Squantum and Marymount July 4th parade. And then, of course, a couple of them we could save and reuse for the Christmas parade, which we'll finish out our 400th year. So we'll play with that. Now, you can't tie up too many trailers and trucks when you need them for regular work, you know.
[00:02:15] Speaker A: I see.
[00:02:15] Speaker B: We'll figure it out.
[00:02:16] Speaker A: Sure. And how many past grand marshals have you heard from now?
[00:02:21] Speaker B: I think about 15 that will be with us. Of course, there are a number that are deceased.
You know, when you go back and look at some of the old names like Governor Peabody back in the 60s, Dick Stratton, general Patton, the son of the famous general who was from Hamilton, Mass. I mean, there's a great list of some amazing people, but yeah, we'll have actually four generals with us. Dunford, McConville, McGinnis ran, you know, former city clerk Joe Shea and Rich Kennedy from, you know, he's run the Squirrel run for years.
Former chief Paul Keenan a bunch. It's gonna be. It's really a fun day, really. Well, Ducky Cubian, of course, the Yaku.
So there'll be a float that will allow for some of the fast grand marshals to ride. And then those that are able to walk will walk along with the float.
[00:03:13] Speaker A: And the ceremony after the parade up at pageant. What's that looking like?
[00:03:17] Speaker B: Yeah. So it's gonna be a beautiful evening. God willing, it's a beautiful evening weatherwise.
But we'll have.
We're gonna have hot dogs for the kids, ice creams, waters. Ronan Tynan is gonna sing a few patriotic songs, including the national anthem. We'll have the giant flag, Hancock Adams flag, 50 by 80 raised by ally Shaughnessy and Alley Cat Crane and Hollimore, the two big cranes up there. And we'll have the Howitzers.
So it's going to be one heck of a night. And of course, that fireworks display by Atlas Pyrotech. They're. They're tremendous. And Dancourt covers that for us, so we're grateful for that. So it should be a phenomenal evening as long as the weather's with us. Anyone out there that likes to pray, pray for Good weather on June 14, please.
[00:04:04] Speaker A: Yes. 6:00pm kickoff this year, right. An hour earlier.
[00:04:09] Speaker B: That's correct because of the length of the parade, the size of it. Yeah. So starting at Hancock and Hancock and Hannon, the two H's heading north Fairmount Parkway and then up to Patchen Field.
[00:04:20] Speaker A: Very good. And.
And then more festivities after that this year, Right? That doesn't. Doesn't end it.
[00:04:29] Speaker B: Oh, we got quite a year planned. Sure. With a number of activities. The big contest at the stadium, of course, in August, the Hot Air Balloon Festival. In September, the Truck Music Festival. Food Truck Festival will be held in October. Everything has been kind of supercharged this year. You know, the Hancock Adams Common, you know, John McDonald shows and bands and all the different acts he puts together there.
We get the symposiums lined up in the fall.
Charlie Baker's running one, includes sports. Former Governor General Dunford's doing one on foreign policy. I mean, on and on. It goes.
[00:05:04] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:05:04] Speaker B: It's really. The calendar is pretty full. And as I said earlier on, Joe, that, you know, we've had lecture series, we've had a number of, you know, the symphony beautiful concert a few weeks back.
Hopefully there's something in there for everybody to plug into and to enjoy. You know, that was kind of the idea.
[00:05:21] Speaker A: Yeah. Quincy400.com is your. Your place to go to find out all about it? For sure.
[00:05:28] Speaker B: I wouldn't know how to get there, but that sounds good.
[00:05:32] Speaker A: I was hoping we could talk a little bit about some of the orders before the city council at this, this time, Mayor, if that's all right.
[00:05:38] Speaker B: Do we have to?
[00:05:39] Speaker A: I mean, we really do. Yeah.
You know, when I have the chief executive on the line, I can't help myself.
[00:05:47] Speaker B: No problem.
[00:05:49] Speaker A: First one public hearing actually held last night at the council regarding amending the housing development zone, the incentive program to include two parcels on Granite Streets. The Gross, I guess they call it the Grossman Properties, where Grossman's is planning new developments. I wonder if you could explain a little bit about that.
[00:06:08] Speaker B: Yeah.
These are additional tools that we can throw in the tool chest, Joe, to help us provide the best opportunity for investment.
The Grossman site, it is still owned by the Grossman family, even though the Grossman's Lumbiad went away years ago. The family held onto the real estate, as you may know. They bought the stock market site as well for future development. So they've been landowners there for probably close to 100 years in that location. So they are looking at redevelopment. I know that speaks before the planning board. They're going to include some housing, which also includes some serious retail, which I can't really get into the names of, much like the D.J. mcKinnon project. We can't name the specialty grocer there.
But it's exciting stuff I think the people of the city are going to be very happy with. We try to make sure we provide the best development. In the end, once you develop your buildings are in place, they're there for a long time. So trying to get the parking right, trying to get the, you know, the ratios right on the project itself, trying to get the egresses right.
So this is another tool in the tool chest that allow us to, you know, get this thing out of the ground.
[00:07:24] Speaker A: Why do you think these parcels qualify for this program? I understand that it allows for a negotiated tax exemption for 20 years.
[00:07:34] Speaker B: Well, it depends how it's written. It's not an exemption, it's partial exemption. So much like Peter O' Connell built a 15 story building and he got a tax deal which he pays every year a certain amount, but it's less than what would normally be. But. And then it hits.
I forget what year it is and then it goes to the full. Otherwise we wouldn't get some of these things out of the ground. We wouldn't get them built. The cost of construction today is really, really crazy, particularly in the Northeast.
So we're trying to provide some incentives so the property will still be getting more taxes than we would have otherwise and that. So that's positive. It's a good thing in the end. So I know that's a negotiated thing and I don't know that we have finalized the negotiation on it with what it will be per year and how many years it will go.
[00:08:28] Speaker A: Okay. Is part of the proposal to create some affordable housing there or.
[00:08:33] Speaker B: No, that would be. That's part of the mix of the, of the discussion as well. That's separate from what we're talking about. But yes, it would be with the inclusionary zoning we call it in Quincy, which provides for either units or in lieu of cash payments to the Affordable Housing Trust.
[00:08:51] Speaker A: Yes, so, and also another order regarding transit oriented districts, amending the zones around the Crown Colony Office park and the North Quincy T station. What does that mean?
[00:09:05] Speaker B: Yes, so essentially Crown Colony, when it was built, started back in the, gosh, I think the late 70s, early 80s, and it was, you know, built out and planned for an office park. And office parks are dying, Joe. So, you know, we got a lot of empty buildings in Boston. We got some empty buildings at Crown Colony. So we're changing up the zoning that would allow other uses in the park.
There's no point in having buildings empty. They don't pay any taxes, they don't provide any jobs.
So this overlay district would allow us again some additional tools in the tool chest to develop potentially other uses rather than just straight office use up there.
[00:09:50] Speaker A: There's public hearing coming up again on that on June 16th to speak more about that.
And finally, Mayor, another order, land disposition agreement for 1620 Hancock Street. The burned out building that was torn down recently.
[00:10:09] Speaker B: Yes, in fact, it was a report, I guess we purchased that site, I want to say, for 2.7 million and the landowner's coming back saying it's valued for more than that.
What cracks me up is they sat on a burnt out building for 20 years, did nothing with it.
And under the blight ordinance and under the understanding of doing some development, we took it as, you know, and it's a piece there that was unsightly. It was a major blight as I remember. It was a combination Tasso's Pizza. I forget what the other use was in there, but at any rate, it was sitting there a long time. Burnt out, roof caved in. It was an embarrassment to the district. So that will be a positive thing. And of course, the developer we're working with had bought the old Coleman Sporting Goods site, later known as the health store for many years. He'll combine with the site that they purchase in addition to the site through the land disposition agreement and develop a new development there which would include housing and retail on the first floor. The beauty of that location is you get some fracking under off the backside Mechanic street because the elevation drops dramatically back there. So it works well. And again, this is development along the spine that I've talked about near the T stations, particularly Coonsey center, but along the T stations where we've got public transportation. So it's good stuff. We need housing. I keep talking about that. There's a great shortage of housing in our area.
The last number I saw the state put out shortage of 225,000 housing units for Massachusetts. So in Quincy we can't solve it all, but we're doing our part with the transportation oriented Development. I continue to protect the single family neighborhoods. We don't want to change that zoning. Cambridge recently changed theirs which would allow for up to four families changing single family homes into four families in residential A. Some people have asked me about that. I said we're not Cambridge, we're not going down that road. Got some great neighborhoods and I don't want to affect in a negative way the character of those neighborhoods. So this is along the lines of what I've been preaching from day one and that is development along the. Particularly along the public transportation outlets such as Quincy centers and Wallacen stations.
[00:12:33] Speaker A: Do you know who's the developer on that? 1620 Hancock Street Heinz Jack.
[00:12:39] Speaker B: John Heinz.
They've done another project, a number of projects in Boston.
[00:12:44] Speaker A: And are you confident the city will prevail in that. That lawsuit?
[00:12:49] Speaker B: I'm confident at the end of the day they're not going to get the land back. Whether a jury decides to award them a little bit more money, which if you look historically, Joe, I don't care if it's a state dcr, cities or towns, whatever reason, everyone thinks cities and towns have a lot of money and judges and jurors usually go the other way. But I don't know. We took this in earnest. The value we got through appraisals, through special, you know, commercial appraisals. That's what they do for a living. That's what we got, the numbers. So we stand by the number. But I can't tell you what will happen in the court.
[00:13:24] Speaker A: Sure.
Finally, Mayor, we should remind folks about the upcoming firefighter memorial Sunday service. This Sunday up at Mount Wollaston Cemetery at 9am yes.
[00:13:36] Speaker B: Each year Memorial Day. And then the following Sunday is the police memorial. And then the following Sunday, which is this coming Sunday is the fire memorial. And the firemen gather, they stay in the cemetery, march to the site where the statue of the fireman is and the number of firemen are buried in that location. So that it's to remember those that have gone before us, much like Memorial Day for our families. This is the firefighter family getting together to remember their brother firefighters who had gone before them and paved the way.
It's a reminder, too, of the young guys that today the contract's pretty good. Back then they worked 80 hour weeks and benefits weren't as good. A lot of them died of cancer because they didn't have the equipment and clothing.
So it's good to remember these, these public servants who gave it all.
[00:14:30] Speaker A: Absolutely. Always appreciate your time. Mayor, good to talk to you.
[00:14:33] Speaker B: Thank you. Enjoy the day.
[00:14:34] Speaker A: Thank you. You too.
