Can Magoun Square afford Assembly Square lawsuits?
By George P. Hassett

Funding for neighborhood improvement projects is going to high-priced lawyers defending the city in litigation over Assembly Square development, said one community activist this week.
  ‚ÄúThe money has to come from somewhere, and now all the small commercial business districts are suffering,‚Äù said Joseph Lynch, the president of the Magoun Square Neighborhood Association.

   Thomas P. Champion, spokesperson for Mayor Joseph A. Curtatone, said the city has paid the Boston law firm of Palmer and Dodge $696,769.39 to create and defend zoning amendments for Assembly Square between Jan. 2004 and Nov. 2005 that were eventually ruled "invalid" by a land court judge. The money has come from private donations and Community Development Block Grants (CDBG) from the federal government, Champion said.
   In Oct. 2005 a project to revitalize Magoun Square funded mainly with a CDBG was cancelled. The project, at a cost of $540,000, would have improved motor vehicle access and traffic patterns while also beautifying the area by adding brick sidewalks and new streetlights. The project was cancelled, but not the money, said Lynch.
  That money, he said, is going to Palmer and Dodge for their litigation in several Assembly Square lawsuits brought forth by the Mystic View Task Force, a grassroots organization concerned with development of the long-underutilized business district.
  ‚ÄúThe pool of money isn‚Äôt big enough for revitalization projects to be completed and for litigation costs like these to be paid,‚Äù Lynch said. ‚ÄúA decision was made to litigate at the expense of projects in small business districts.‚Äù
  When the Magoun Square revitalization project was cancelled, Curtatone said he deemed the improvements insufficient and nixed the plan for what he said would be a more ambitious one featuring road re-engineering, new crosswalks and revised traffic patterns.
Champion said connections between Assembly Square legal costs and other projects in the city are inaccurate.
  ‚ÄúThe status of the Magoun Square project has not been at all affected by anything concerning Assembly Square,‚Äù he said.