Tom O’Brien, the man whose firm has been hired to devise a “what’s next” plan for the 12-acre Carney Hospital site on Dorchester Avenue, is clearly in listening mode.
And that’s a good thing, because Dorchester and Mattapan people have plenty of strong feelings they want to share.
Since The Reporter broke the news on Monday that O’Brien’s firm, HYM, has been hired to redevelop the site, there have been plenty of comments on social media. Many of them echo some of the comments that O’Brien and his team no doubt have already heard in initial huddles with civic association executive boards and elected officials who represent this area.
There remains universal outrage over the Carney’s closure. The most-venomous anger is reserved for the corporate raiders at Steward, who treated Dorchester and other communities like their personal piggy banks, selling the land outright from under one of our most important institutions to buy yachts, and private planes without any real consequences – yet.
And there’s real bitterness that Dorchester and Mattapan— two of the Commonwealth’s most imperiled communities when it comes to health and incomes disparities— was one of the two communities made to shoulder the heaviest burden of the Steward debacle while other cities and towns saw state-led salvage efforts prop up their community hospitals.
Everyone who had a card to play – Gov. Healey, state health regulators, hospital chieftains, even some union leaders –chose to fold them when it came to Carney.
The consolation prize was the Dorchester Working Group, a task force of elected officials and policy-experts appointed by Healey and Mayor Wu who were asked to produce a report that summarized the impacts of Carney’s closure and offered some broad-stroke recommendations about what could come next.
That 61-page report – delivered last April – was billed as a “framework,” not a blueprint. Its scope was limited by a stubborn fact: No one on the panel controlled the property itself.
Unlike St. Elizabeth’s, which Healey seized through eminent domain to prevent an outright closure, Carney is owned by the mammoth holding company that bought it from Steward years ago: Appollo Global Management.
The NY-based company – as its name suggests – has a worldwide portfolio and Carney is a mere thumbtack on a wall-sized atlas.
The neighborhood and its leaders have been crystal clear: We need and demand restoration of health services on the site that can serve urgent needs and allow our seniors and children a reliable, accessible outpost for our emergency and routine health care needs.
So that’s where we’re at: Carney and the adjacent Seton medical office building are empty and decaying. They’ll likely be boarded up soon to prevent trespassers and other dangers. The Dorchester Avenue space is quickly becoming an eyesore and it’s already a massive hole in our neighborhood’s streetscape and economy.
Tom O’Brien’s task is to thread that needle delicately between the wants and needs of a still-raw, wounded community and a corporate owner that has already been put on notice from this city’s leader – Michelle Wu – that they’ll get an ice-cold reception to any plan that doesn’t include health care delivery on site.
Neighbors, now is your chance to weigh-in. Tom O’Brien and other members of his HYM-led team will no doubt be coming to a civic forum near you over the coming weeks.
One that’s definitely on the books already is the next meeting of Lower Mills Civic, St. Gregory’s gym, 7 p.m. on Tues., Oct. 21. Watch these pages for specifics, speak up, and listen to one another, too.
Bill Forry is the executive editor and co-publisher of The Reporter.
