Boston City Council Hearing on Dedicating Phillips Square Open Space to Tunney Lee Plaza – April 6, 2026
Boston City Council Hearing on Dedicating Phillips Square Open Space to Tunney Lee Plaza – April 6, 2026
On April 6, 2026, at 10:02 AM, the Boston City Council Committee on Planning, Development and Transportation, chaired by Councillor Sharon Durkin (District 8), held a hearing on Docket #0178, a proposal to dedicate the new open space at Phillips Square (Harrison Avenue and Oxford Place) to Tunney Lee Plaza. The hearing included testimony from city officials, community leaders, and residents, highlighting Tunney Lee’s lifelong contributions to urban planning, environmental justice, and Chinatown’s history.
Public Comments & Testimony
- Chenny Huang (Chinese Progressive Association) expressed full support for naming the project Tunney Lee Plaza, emphasizing that the space at Harrison Avenue and Oxford Place is where Chinatown’s history began and that marking it in Lee’s honor will preserve and celebrate the community’s culture for immigrant and working-class families.
- Xumei Chen (resident of 115 Chan Street) described daily use of the plaza by elderly residents and students, noting that even in winter people sit there, and in summer they stay until midnight to cool off. She urged the city to fund and build the plaza to provide shade and cooling features.
- Yolanda Yang (BCNC/Power Center Arts Engagement Manager) spoke about leading student tours that stop at Phillips Square; she said renaming it Tunney Lee Plaza would reinforce a sense of belonging and help answer the frequent question “Who is Phillips?” She urged full city support.
- An unscheduled speaker echoed support, requesting a permanent statue or fixture to make the dedication a visible landmark.
Discussion Items
- Lead Sponsor Councillor Edward Flynn opened by emphasizing language access (Mandarin/Cantonese interpreters were present) and framed the hearing as an opportunity to listen to the community. He described Tunney Lee’s legacy: a city planner who worked to save working-class neighborhoods from demolition, mentored generations, and chronicled Chinatown history. Flynn noted that Phillips Square is a former parking lot being transformed into a pedestrian plaza.
- Councillor Murphy expressed support, citing Chinatown’s high asthma rates and heat island effect, and noted the quarter-acre plaza is already used for festivals.
- Councillor Culpepper linked the proposal to similar efforts in Roxbury to preserve history and open space, praising Lee’s role in community-based planning.
- Amy Courting (Director of Engineering, Boston Transportation Department) explained the plaza design: a formal reconstruction of the tactical plaza with plantings, benches, gathering spaces, and trees (where subsurface utilities allow). She clarified that the dedication of a plaza within a named square (Phillips Square) is a simpler process than renaming a square, requiring coordination with the Streets Cabinet. She committed to providing the full design and construction budget and timeline.
- Community Panel (Alice Kane, Chinese Historical Society; Kayla Lee, Tunney Lee’s daughter; Dr. Carolyn Crockett, MIT; Angie Lu, Asian CDC; Baolin Kwan, Chinese Progressive Association; Lydia Lowe, Chinatown Community Land Trust): Panelists provided testimony on Lee’s childhood at 5 Oxford Place, his career at the BRA and MIT, his founding of the Chinatown Atlas, and his role in defeating I-95 and designing Tent City. They emphasized that the naming originated from a community design charrette in spring 2025, where five breakout groups independently proposed highlighting Chinatown’s history, leading to the idea of naming the plaza after Lee. The petition to support “Tunney Lee Plaza at Phillips Square” was drafted and gathered broad community backing.
- Key statistics cited: Chinatown has only 7% tree canopy coverage and the least open space per capita of any Boston neighborhood. The plaza design includes shade elements, potential water misting, and planters (though large trees are limited by underground utilities).
Key Outcomes
- All three councillors present (Flynn, Murphy, Culpepper) expressed strong support for the proposal. Chair Durkin and the lead sponsor committed to pushing the agenda forward and coordinating with the administration to formalize the dedication.
- The administration (Transportation Department) will provide the project budget and timeline to the committee. The dedication process will be managed by the Streets Cabinet and will likely occur in conjunction with the plaza’s formal ribbon-cutting.
- No formal vote was taken; the hearing served to gather public testimony and build the record. Written testimony will continue to be accepted and sent to the Public Improvement Commission.
- The hearing was adjourned at approximately 11:30 AM.
Meeting Transcript
For the record, my name is Sharon Durkin, District Eight City Councillor, and I'm the chair of the Boston City Council Committee on Planning Development and Transportation. Today is April 6th. The exact time is ten oh two AM. This hearing is being recorded. It is also being live streamed at Boston.gov backslash city dash council dash TV and broadcast on Exfinity Channel 8, RCN Channel 82, BIOS Channel 964. Written comments may be sent to the committee, email at ccc.plan d E V at Boston.gov and will be made part of the record and available to all counselors. Public testimony will be taken at the end of this hearing. The individuals will be called on in the order in which they signed up, and we'll have two minutes to testify. If you are interested in testifying in person, please add your name to the sign-up sheet near the entrance of the chamber. If you are looking to testify virtually, please see our central staff liaison, Shane Pack at Shane dot PAC at Boston.gov for the link, and your name will be added to the list. Today's hearing is on Docket O one seven eight. Order for a hearing to discuss dedicating the new open space at Phillips Square to Tooney Lee Plaza. This matter was sponsored by Counselor Edward M. Flynn and was referred to the committee on January twenty-eighth, twenty twenty-six. Today I'm joined by my colleagues in order of arrival, lead sponsor, Counselor Flynn, and Councillor Murphy. Okay, perfect. Okay, for Mandarin or Cantonese. I'd like to start with an opening statement from the lead sponsor, Councillor Flynn, you have the floor. Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, before I begin, could I just take one moment just to make sure everybody is settled with interpretation and everyone has the right technology, the right headphones. I just want to make sure everyone is included as part of this hearing. Let me just ask the interpretation team. The language and communication access. Okay, you just gave me the thumbs up. Thank you, Madam Chair, for holding this important hearing for our neighbors in Chinatown and the South End. Over the last eight years, I have made language and communication access a critical part of any discussion in the neighborhood, and it's important that we have any meeting, any public meeting in either or Cantonese and Mandarin. And that's that's important. I want to say thank you to the interpreters and the language access team that is here. A project has been initiated by the Boston Transportation Department to redesign the area of Harrison Avenue known as Phillips Square, into a more welcoming in cooling open space in a neighborhood impacted by the heat island effect. The project will include a plaza that intersects with Oxford Place, the childhood home of Toonie Lee. We're also honored to have Tooney's daughter with us here this morning. And I know she'll be on a panel and will offer testimony. We also know that Chinatown's urban tree canopy, only seven percent the least open space per capita among neighborhoods in the city. Both as the chief of planning and design for the Boston Redevelopment Authority, and at MIT Massachusetts Institute of Technology, their Department of Urban Studies. Tuny Lee worked tirelessly to save working class neighborhoods and communities of color from destruction and demolition as memorialized in the book People Before Highways. Toonie Lee mentored multiple generations of urban planners and community activists, not just here in Boston, but across the world, really. Tooney Lee was an avid historian of Boston Chinatown, who led projects to explore the community history and historic streetscapes. And more importantly, or as importantly, it's an opportunity to listen, listen carefully to the residents of Chinatown and the South End about what's important to them. Honored to represent the residents of Chinatown, the South End. I represent the largest Asian community in the city of Boston in language and communication access is a critical part of that representation. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you, Councillor Flynn. Counselor Murphy. Thank you. Thank you to the residents who showed up. We're happy to be have you here with us and hear directly from you. But I want to thank Councillor Flynn for bringing this forward and always being such a strong advocate for the Chinatown community. And I know I've been with you many times, Councilor Flynn, at events throughout Chinatown, where we're advocating for more open space, the health concerns, the heat island that we know Chinatown deals with all the time, the high rates of asthma, all of the concerns that we have to continue to advocate for in this area. And happy to support this proposal. I know this is a quarter-acre place that used to be a parking lot, which now is a public pedestrian area with artwork and a space for the neighbors to go and just looking forward to finding ways that we can make this possibility.
openpublica.com