Getting your Trinity Audio player ready…

Tim McHale, a 71-one-year-old Allstonian and longtime housing activist, has proposed building an arts corridor in North Allston-Brighton to create a vibrant arts ecosystem while bringing economic opportunity and equitable development to Allston-Brighton. 

“It’s a public realm that’ll kick butt,” he said. 

Over the years, McHale said, he has watched North Allston-Brighton change as the artist community broadened geographically, moving away from Harvard Avenue. Three years ago, he arrived at the idea of an artist corridor spanning from Allston Yards to Harvard Avenue.

“I believe a tsunami of arts and culture is going to land here. Public realm and arts and culture have to expand to balance this mega development,” he said. 

The proposed corridor’s aim is to “position Allston-Brighton as a leading arts and culture hub in Boston,” according to a document and map submitted to the Boston Planning Department. McHale said the corridor is meant to serve two purposes as a public realm and an arts space where people can browse local art and patronize local businesses. 

“That’s a healthy thing for a community to have a place to do that,” he said. 

While planning to collaborate with city officials and artists in the area, McHale said one of the biggest hurdles he has experienced is getting financial support from developers that own the majority of the property in Allston-Brighton.

“The big developer in our neighborhood is Harvard, and Harvard is a landowner of these sites that we’ve cobbled together. So it remains to be seen how open they will be to transfer these properties to us,” he said. 

McHale said the biggest challenge is securing developer’s support because the arts corridor is not built yet, making it too early to request funding. He remains hopeful that developers will get on board once buildings and their uses are established. 

McHale said he has also received positive support and feedback from Allston-Brighton residents and members of the Boston Planning Department. “My advocacy has moved the dial,” he said.

“The planners at the BPDA and some of the folks at the Mayor’s Office of Arts and Culture are very interested in expanding the arts and culture in neighborhoods, and so this concept has resonated with them, and we’re talking about it, and they’re talking together about it.”

Allston-based artists who can’t find affordable housing or locations in the neighborhood to showcase their work also are talking about the proposed corridor. 

Nick Grieco, 37, a local musician and bartender, said he has seen Allston-based artists leave the neighborhood because they can’t afford the rent or find a local space to showcase their work. 

 “I have watched entire circles of friends hightail it to L.A, New York, Nashville, even Austin and Portland, when they were up and coming creative scenes,” he said. “When it comes to creating a neighborhood that is art focused, there’s so many stopping points that our elected officials haven’t taken to lay that groundwork.” 

Grieco has noticed the overhead costs of being a musician skyrocket over the last decade, making it harder for artists in the area to develop their careers. “It basically means that anybody looking to grow as a musician in this city pretty much has to give up, unless you have a bunch of wealth.”

Ricky Meinke, director of the Rat City Arts Festival, also has seen artists leave the neighborhood as the landscape for renting drastically changed. 

“The structural landscape of the neighborhood is extremely challenging to artists,” he said. “Some of our gentrifying apartments will pretend that they have an artist space or a connection to artists, but it’s really piecemeal, and it’s not something to depend on and count on.” 

While the Rat City Arts Festival is a grassroots operation, Meinke is concerned about potential cuts to city arts funding, in the wake of federal cuts to arts funding programs like the National Endowment for the Arts, hoping the proposed corridor will allow for more paid opportunities for artists in the future.

“I think at the end of the day, artists want their art displayed, they want to perform, they also need to be paid, and they need to be valued financially. So, I just hope with any of our efforts, we’re thinking in that way,” he said.

Grieco hopes that soon, the neighborhood will be more supportive and understanding of the corridor. He also hopes for more help from the city to make the proposed arts corridor a reality. 

“In terms of affordability and density, anything that’s good for working artists is also good for families,” he said.  “I really hope that the city of Boston puts more of an effort into consciously supporting things like this, because Tim’s not going to get the support from developers.”

McHale compared the prospect of an arts corridor in Allston to more popular mixed-use areas like Broadway in New York City or Burlington, Vermont. He said these spaces are important because they weave together “mega developments with mixed-use public realms.” 

“It’s important that we balance it with a good public realm, a cohesive one, not a little spot here and a spot here. It’s up to us to make sure that we equalize that pressure on the quality of life, and so that’s what arts, culture, and a good public realm will do.” ■