WEEKENDER
Tufts students reflect on impact of EEE outbreak see FEATURES / PAGE 4
‘Downton Abbey’ cast, crew bring storylines to big screen
Jumbos rout Lyons in 6-goal barrage, improve to 5–0 see SPORTS / BACK PAGE
SEE ARTS&LIVING / PAGE 6
THE
INDEPENDENT
STUDENT
N E W S PA P E R
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TUFTS
UNIVERSITY
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T HE T UFTS DAILY
VOLUME LXXVIII, ISSUE 10
Thursday, September 19, 2019
MEDFORD/SOMERVILLE, MASS.
tuftsdaily.com
As private dorm developer moves in, Davis Square businesses pushed out, Burren safe by Alexander Thompson News Editor
Scape, a British company that builds private, for-profit dorms, acquired half a block of Davis Square real estate running along Elm Street and Grove Street over the summer. The company has told many business owners they will need to relocate in a year and a half, though the owner of the Burren says the popular pub will be unaffected. Documents from the Middlesex South Registry of Deeds show that the landlords of 231–249 Elm St., 6–8 Grove St. and 12 Grove St. leased the properties to Scape Davis Square LLC, a subsidiary of Scape North America, on June 19. In a statement, Andrew Flynn, the CEO of Scape North America, hinted that a dorm project could be in the works for Davis Square. “We remain excited to bring an innovative approach to urban living in Boston and beyond,” Flynn said. “As we look to potential projects in Somerville, we are fully committed to a transparent process that engages all stakeholders as we move forward on specific plans over the next few years.” However, the CEO said that the company was primarily focused on its project
to build a dorm in the Fenway, but added that Scape was eager to work with residents, community leaders and the City of Somerville on the Davis Square project. Any potential project is still in its earliest stages, but will include “exclusively student housing” in line with Scape’s previous developments, according to George Proakis, the executive director of Somerville’s office of strategic planning and development. Scape has not yet filed a development application with the city, Proakis wrote in an email to the Daily. He did confirm that many businesses would have to relocate for construction but that Scape was working with the affected owners to assure they could return after the project’s completion. Proakis continued that the project would be subject to the entire community process before it would even be eligible to apply for zoning permits. Several business owners on the affected storefronts expressed various degrees of confusion about their fate, saying that they had little information and were still figuring out what they were going to do. Todd Xiao, a manager at Kung Fu Tea, was still unsure about what would happen with the Scape development, but he said he was not surprised there was demand for development in Davis Square.
ALEXANDER THOMPSON / THE TUFTS DAILY
Scape, a British private land developer, purchased the block of buildings that includes the Burren. The building is pictured on Sept. 13. However, Antonio Reyes, working the register at Dragon Pizza Tuesday afternoon, was up to speed. He said the landlord told the team that the pizzeria would have to move out in a year and a half, a timeline echoed at other businesses.
“It’s gonna be kind of a struggle, we only opened a year ago,” Reyes said. “We were growing and then we’ve got to shut it down.” The Burren, the Irish pub on the far north side of the purchase and a favorite
see SCAPE, page 2
Students gather to share, process swastika incident by Austin Clementi
Executive News Editor
The Dean of Student Affairs office, in conjunction with Hillel, held a community gathering yesterday in response to Sunday’s incident where a student found a swastika on their door. In addition to students and religious leaders on campus, University President Anthony Monaco and Provost and Senior Vice President Nadine Aubry were in attendance. The event began with comments from Monaco and Aubry. Monaco in particular mentioned the event featuring Deborah Lipstadt, which occurred the day before, as hopeful. “I want to reiterate how much we deplore such cowardly actions and how we want to support our students and our community,” Monaco said. “I think events like last night and coming together today
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are a good sign about how much we care about our community and how much we are not going to stand for this type of behavior.” In her introduction, Aubry mentioned her disappointment with the events on Sunday and the importance of coming together. Closing her statement, Aubry said she and Monaco needed to leave the gathering early in order to attend another meeting. Both stayed for around the first half of the Hillel meeting. Danny Fier, the vice president of community programming at Tufts Hillel, took the floor next, stressing the importance of institutions such as Hillel in times when such events occur. Rabbi Naftali Brawer, the Neubauer executive director of Tufts Hillel and Jewish chaplain, followed and shared a story of antisemitism passed down from his grandfather, who at the time lived in Worcester, Massachusetts.
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“They were the only Jewish family on the block, and possibly beyond that block as well,” he said. Brawer recounted that his grandfather had found antisemitic messages painted on his driveway, which he left for two days before neighbors began to clean it for him. Brawer said he took three messages from the story: that the vandalism was not Brawer’s grandfather’s problem, that it wasn’t the problem of Jewish people more broadly and that it was not the victim’s job to change. “[These messages] can equally be applied to any form of bigotry or racism,” Brawer said. University Chaplain ad interim Jennifer Howe Peace came after Brawer, and led three minutes of silence, wherein participants could speak one word describing a feeling or a thought. Only one person broke the silence the whole time: Rabbi Jordan Braunig,
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Hillel’s director of initiative for innovative community building, said the word “sorrow.” In an interview with the Daily after the event, Braunig explained his reasoning behind speaking up. “Each experience of antisemitism brings back like, sadness and grief from past experiences of it, whether those are from my own past or from histories that I know,” he said. Closing her time to speak, Peace commented on the value of silence. “Just a reminder, there’s power in our silent presence with one another,” she said. Students then broke into small groups and shared their thoughts with each other; afterward, students were invited to speak publicly.
see COMMUNITY GATHERING, page 2
NEWS............................................1 FEATURES.................................4 ARTS & LIVING.......................5
FUN & GAMES.........................8 OPINION.....................................9 SPORTS............................ BACK