Not surprisingly, this belief is a source of profound frustration for biolab supporters. When I recently met with Steve Burgay, BU’s vice-president for marketing and communications, and Berlin, BUMC’s director of corporate communications, in Berlin’s office — which is located a stone’s throw from the biolab site — they brought a list of almost 200 public meetings that BU has attended to discuss the project. That number isn’t quite as impressive as it seems — it includes regulatory hearings, for example — but the fact remains that BU has, in fact, tried to build support for the biolab in the surrounding community. “In the beginning,” Berlin allowed, “things didn’t go the way we had hoped. But as time went on, we formed a citizens’ group; we met with anyone who asked, essentially. If you, Joe Citizen, asked, we met with you. We held office hours in the community; we went to Keith’s Place in Roxbury; we sat at Rebecca’s Café [on Harrison Avenue] and said, ‘Come talk to us.’ We invited neighbors to breakfast meetings over a six-month period.”
Some of the biolab’s detractors, Burgay argued, “oppose the project under any circumstances. And in that context, it’s not surprising that they’re going to be less than happy with any outcome other than the project not moving forward. No matter how many times we talk, no matter how constructive or cordial the conversations are, if they don’t end with the [defeat] of the lab, they’re not going to be satisfied.”
He’s probably right. Of course, if Allen and her compatriots are utterly convinced that the biolab, as originally envisioned, doesn’t belong on Albany Street, Burgay and others are just as certain that it does. The difference, right now, is that the former group has the momentum on its side. And if that continues, what once looked like a can’t-miss project could meet a very ignominious end.
