To the Editor:
In response to your recent article “Foes of Hyde Park ‘apartment community’ put their focus on the environment,” I posit the following as points of reference to the reporter’s perspective of the recent virtual public meeting hosted by the Boston Planning and Development Agency:

• Describing “990 American Legion Highway in Hyde Park as currently a vacant site” is somewhat misleading, especially when the City of Boston stated the following in their Neighborhood Strategic Plan for Hyde Park 2015 - 2021:

“The third general set of recommendations in the BRA Neighborhood Strategic Plan calls for acquisition of city and privately owned parcels to expand open space in this community… One set of parcels, known as the Oak Lawn Driving Range and Crane Ledge, offers a significant opportunity of open space expansion on the northeastern edge of Hyde Park. These private parcels are presently zoned for Neighborhood Shopping and single-family residential. They are of a size, when taken together, which could help address the park equity deficit in this area of Hyde Park, enabling active recreation features to be developed in selected sections. This same site could also help with the development of a natural area reserve/forest for the maintenance and growth of the existing tree canopy to sequester carbon and provide other benefits of urban forests”.

• This unique circumstance and opportunity are not things that should be dismissed as business as usual by the Dorchester Reporter. On the contrary, they offer a unique opportunity for you to educate your readers and advocate for the future and sustainability of our children’s children by being on the right side of history when it comes to the environment, climate change, climate equity, and environmental justice.

Most people think of sustainability exclusively as an environmental issue. It is part of a macro-complex system made up of three important sub-systems: Environmental Sustainability, Human Sustainability, and Institutional Sustainability. Each one of these sub-systems supports the existence of the other two, which makes all three sub-systems mutually interdependent.

We human beings are now the stewards and caretakers of our systems. This is a big responsibility and the sooner we understand it and confront this challenge, the better our chances are as a species not only to survive, but also to build a just, sustainable, and flourishing city.

The overwhelming majority of the 170 plus diverse members of our communities who participated in the aforementioned virtual public meeting support the City’s stated strategy of acquiring the 24 acres of this urban forest and wildlife and are against the development proposed by Lincoln Property. The 170 in opposition include my wife and me, immediate abutters, owning our home of 43 years on the base of the Crane Ledge Woods cliff on the westside. We would suffer heavy flooding and possible collapse of the rocks in our backyard due to blasting and disruption of the current natural state of the woods and cliff if development were to occur.

We ask and expect from our elected officials and policy makers bold leadership that provides a creative 21st century solution that is respectful, inclusive, and solves a present-day challenge that saves the environment, mitigates climate change, and provides climate equity and environmental justice to the residents of Hyde Park, Mattapan and Roslindale that surround Crane Ledge Woods with health and sustainable benefits for all of us, including our fellow citizens throughout the neighborhoods of Boston.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

José C. Massó III is a Hyde Park homeowner and abutter at the base of Crane Ledge Woods rock cliff.