Union Square revival could force out families
By George P. Hassett

Donna Quinn moved to Union Square with her two children in 1983. 23 years later, with city leaders proposing new zoning to attract developers to the Square and facing eviction from her home due to increasing rents, Quinn believes she should not be left out of the neighborhoods bright future.
   ‚ÄúWe don‚Äôt need to see more condos around every corner. The city‚Äôs trying to uplift Union Square, but we don‚Äôt need that. We need a place to live,‚Äù she said.

   Quinn appeared at a press conference Tuesday with neighborhood organizers from the Somerville Community Corporation (SCC) to call on the city to increase the amount of affordable housing units it demands of developers in the new zoning for Union Square. Currently, zoning demands that 12.5 percent of new residential units be available to low and moderate-income tenants. SCC asked the city to consider increasing that level to 15 percent to prevent massive displacement of the people who currently live in Union Square.
  ‚ÄúSome value has to go back into protecting the people of the city,‚Äù said Ellen Shachter, an attorney with Cambridge and Somerville Legal Services.
  SCC organizers said increasing affordable housing units to 15 percent would offset developers‚Äô profits by only 1 percent while ensuring that current Union Square residents benefit from neighborhood improvements such as the expected Green Line extension to the Square in 2014.
  Quinn said increased affordable housing is the easiest solution for the crisis she, along with many others in the city, face each day.
  ‚ÄúIf we had more affordable housing in this city, I could look forward to going to a warm home each night,‚Äù she said.
   Quinn will be evicted from her apartment Jan. 1 and said she wants to stay in the city because of her need for public transit. She is widowed and disabled.
   The city‚Äôs new, proposed zoning for Union Square is designed to attract large-scale, dense developments to the area in anticipation of a Green Line MBTA station. James G. Kostaras, Director of Strategic Planning and Community Development for the city, said the zoning would clear the way for approximately 800 to 900 new residential units in the eastern and southern sides of the Square in buildings as high as 12 stories. The plans raised traffic concerns for some local residents.
   ‚ÄúWhere are these cars going to go? Getting in and out of Union Square can be a nightmare now, what‚Äôs going to happen when there are 2,000 more people there?‚Äù said Barbara Steiner at a Nov. 20 community meeting.
   Kostaras said traffic lanes would be designed to circulate motor vehicles out of the square and that density is the key to the development.
   ‚ÄúAn area where a lot of people are living and working and shopping is what makes a vibrant neighborhood and a vibrant business district,‚Äù he said.
   The new zoning also emphasizes the role of the arts in generating economic activity in Union Square. It would strongly support the creation of artist studios and housing to be built throughout the Square, Kostaras said.
  ‚ÄúOne of the main visions of the zoning is to make Union Square a real center for the arts,‚Äù he said.
   But as Somerville leaders prepare for a city of artists, improved public transit and dense development, Quinn said they are forgetting its most important element.
  ‚ÄúThey‚Äôre forgetting about the people,‚Äù she said. ‚ÄúJan. 1 the constable comes and throws my stuff out and I‚Äôm not just speaking for myself. I‚Äôm speaking for people all over Somerville who are like me and are being forced out of their homes. Where will we go? We needed help yesterday.‚Äù