Stop Luxury Construction!
Bob A. Feldman
A folk song from 2022 that protests against Kimco real estate deal-making firm and City of Boston's BPDA proposal plan to construct a high-rise luxury apartment building, atop a reconstructed Whole Foods Market store, in Brighton neighborhood designated to house low-income elderly tenants by City of Boston's 1970s urban renewal plan.
(chorus)
To profit Whole Foods Market,
But not the elderly
Is not sufficient reason
For approval by the City.
(verses)
To house low-income seniors
The City looked around
And from Corey Road to Allston Street
Was the neighborhood it found
So "Patricia White" and "Covenant House"
Were built on Washington Street
Yet market-rate apartments, Kimco
Claims our neighborhood needs. (chorus)
They want to reconstruct Whole Foods
Where Citizens Bank once stood
And build on top a high-rise
Where rich yuppies can live
For two long years their cranes
Will endanger pedestrians
And big trucks will clog the streets
And construct more traffic jams. (chorus)
They promise many jobs
When they build across the street
And construct a big, deep hole
For underground parking
Yet few of the apartments
Will be affordable to the poor
Or even to the workers
Who build them with their labor. (chorus)
180 units
Unaffordable to senior poor
And 290 parking spaces
Under or above the store
And no real community benefit
As required by zoning laws
So Kimco's proposed Whole Foods project
By Boston should be outlawed! (chorus)