A group of Boston teenagers trying to find funding for a new community hockey rink and stumbling upon a 24-year-old plot by the owners of the local sports arena to scam city recreational facilities out of money sounds like the best YA novel ever — and it is. Or would be, if not for the fact that it all totally happened:
The discovery was the result of a painstaking search that involved a civics lesson in legislative sausage-making, the close eye of a neighborhood activist, and a bit of detective work by several determined teenagers…
[In 1993,] Jeremy M. Jacobs, the developer of the new Boston Garden, ultimately agreed to hold three charity events a year, with net proceeds going to the Metropolitan District Commission, which maintained the city’s recreational facilities, such as pools and skating rinks…
[Michael Reiskind, a longtime member of the Jamaica Plain Neighborhood Council,] shared his recollections with Ken Tangvik, director of organizing and engagement for the Hyde Square Task Force, during an April meeting on the development site…
Tangvik, who said the tip “was a gift,” then deployed his youth organizers to look up the Massachusetts laws enacted in 1993, and they found, “An act furthering the establishment of a multi-purpose arena and transportation center.” One section of the law stated, “The new Boston Garden Corporation . . . shall administer . . . no less than three charitable events per year . . . and shall pay the net proceeds . . . to said Metropolitan District Commission.”
The students were astounded.
“Let’s just read this one more time,” [Lorrie] Pearson recalled thinking.
In short: For the last 24 years, Boston Garden (now named after some bank or something) has been supposed to be holding three charitable events a year, and giving the proceeds to city recreational facilities. Instead, it’s been holding, um, none. So that’d be a 72-charitable-event backlog, which the youth organizers are hoping they can use to convince the arena’s owners Delaware North (run by Jeremy Jacobs, owner of the Bruins) to kick in some money toward a new community hockey rink in Hyde Square, something the neighborhood and surrounding poor communities have been without since two local ice rinks were closed because of disrepair in the ’90s.
Hopefully that will happen, but in the meantime: How the hell did a multi-million-dollar contractual obligation of the Bruins’ owner go unnoticed by everyone in city government for 24 years? If 17-year-old kids can read the legal language and figure it out, you’d think so could anyone at City Hall, no? If I’m at the Boston Globe, at least, I’d be calling every budget director for the last two decades and pointing out that they just got shown up by a bunch of meddling kids.
Shouldn’t be to hard to get a NHL team to build a hockey rink for kids.. Thats barely a slap on the wrist and they get to skew participation numbers with golf and MLB.
… and then host some future charity games to get funds to maintain the hockey rink going forward ?
I hope those kids are further recognized for their efforts and that someone holds the Delaware North corporation responsible for their contractual obligations, as it is only “right”