The meeting on May 6 was billed as a chance for Dorchester residents to hear about Mayor Wu’s ad- ministration’s “vision for historic preservation” from the key person charged with executing the mayor’s agenda. Murray Miller, the Wu-hired director of the Boston Office for Historic Preservation, was on hand at the Codman Square branch of the Boston Public Library to brief a group of about 30 people in person. Several more people joined the meeting online.

As it went on, the session seemed to engender far more questions than answers, and in the days that followed, a flurry of emails – most of them authored by veteran members of the neighborhood’s preser- vation community –buzzed with anxious take-aways’ from Murray’s presentation, much of them centered on Wu’s attempts to reform or replace rules around demolition permits, known collectively as the Article 85 process.

Earl Taylor, president of the Dorchester Historical Society, which boasts a large and engaged membership, is raising alarms about the back and forth.

“The vision could be a tool for getting away from designating properties as historic,” Taylor said. “That could mean open season to demolish buildings to build more housing. Building more housing is a laudable goal, but they will be destroy- ing the soul of the city in the process.”

Vicki Rugo, a board member of DHS and a resident of Ashmont Hill, shared Taylor’s concerns. “The vision seems sort of unfocused and it was hard to figure out the next step,” said Rugo after the meeting. “It was particu- larly discouraging to hear more than one time that there was no additional funding to support pro- grams, Landmarks, or Historic Preservation staff even as they try to clear the backlog of pending [demolition] petitions. That was a real downer. I was also disappointed there were no answers or acknowl- edgment of resources that already exist in the city for finding the history of these neighborhoods.”

Miller, who has a back- ground in architecture, according to limited bi- ographical information available online that shows he previously worked in Dallas and New Zealand, was hired almost a year ago. His position under Wu is a relatively new one and includes oversight over the Archeology Depart- ment, the Landmarks Commission, and the Commemorations Com- mission.

The May 6 meeting allocated 20 minutes for laying out the city’s over- all vision for the Office of Historic Preservation and another hour for questions.

“The Vision would have us start by rethinking how we practice historic preservation in Boston and by 2030, Boston’s Office of Historic Preservation will be nationally known for its transformative efforts to uncover, share, and preserve local stories of the city’s rich history, advancing environmental stewardship and uplifting under- served communities for the benefit of present and future generations,” Miller said at the meeting and in a written state- ment to the Reporter.

“The vision identifies Dorchester, Roxbury, Mattapan, and Hyde Park as the priorities for investing in historic resource surveys,” Miller said at the meeting. “If we don’t invest in surveys, you can’t protect. You have to know what you have and the relative significance of it before you can talk about pro- tection tools.

“We have stressed, encouraged, highlighted every opportunity we have whether that be to our colleagues doing comprehensive planning, zoning re-writes, and any aspect of planning.”

But then Miller told the audience he had no funding as of now to do any such surveys and that he has been instructed by supervisors to submit a “level budget” that wouldn’t allow for that kind of expansion.

“If we have all the money we need and could get consultants or volunteers, it would be a multi-year project be- cause there is so much of Boston that hasn’t been surveyed,” he said. “The reality is we were asked to submit level budgets and that we did for the operational side.”

Part of Miller’s presen- tation focused on more equitable historic preser- vation, where the stories of “Haitians restoring Codman Square” and the “Vietnamese saving Fields Corner” would be elevated along with stories of the departed Jewish community on Blue Hill Avenue. He also stressed more diverse participation in the Land- marks Commission and in historic preservation, which his stats indicated was dominated by white people.

Miller first agreed to an interview with the Reporter for this story, but then withdrew from the appointment. A spokesperson sent in a statement from Chris Osgood, who serves on
the mayor’s cabinet as interim chief of the En- vironment, Energy and Open Space, that read: “Murray Miller brings decades of experience developing a thoughtful, responsive, and for- ward-looking vision for historic preservation. Miller’s vision aligns with the City’s efforts to strengthen our under- standing of our history, to share a more holistic story, and to protect some of Boston’s most import- ant places.”

Miller stressed that under Wu’s leadership historic preservation has taken on great importance with the designation of 21 critical resources and districts as landmarks, including the most historic designations in a single year since 1983. But, during the May 6 meeting, her faced tough questions from some who are al- ready worried that the city is not listening to their concerns on development issues.

One critic, Andrew Saxe, is a plaintiff in a lawsuit targeting the city and a developer about 150 Centre St., a controversial building approved next to Shawmut T sta- tion that he opposes.

“The mayor is having meetings with developers and the neighbors don’t have a voice in that and so, ergo, rip down whatev- er you need to,” said Saxe of Melville Park. “So now, let’s also get rid of Article 85...and don’t follow the law...I don’t see anything in this presentation that really speaks to trying to preserve the history of Boston.”

Miller, who paused the meeting briefly to read a text message, agreed that the issues being brought up were critical. After reading the text message, he encouraged residents to bring their concerns directly to the mayor at her upcoming coffee hours in May and June – which apparently was what had been expressed in the text message.

“On May 23 and in June you will have an opportunity to speak directly to the mayor,” he said. “The feedback you’re giving to- night will be important... Some of these comments would be helpful at the Coffee Hour.”

Marti Glynn, a Jones Hill resident and a DHS board member, pushed back. “I’m willing to say what a lot of people in this room are thinking, but are too polite to say,” she said. “Talking to this mayor doesn’t work. She doesn’t listen and she doesn’t learn, because she thinks she already has all of the answers.”

Days later, Taylor, the DHS president, said he and others worry that the vision outlined by Miller “decouples” saving historical stories from saving historic sites.

“Celebrating stories of Boston history is great and that’s what I love. It just depends on if that’s at the price of saving some of our historical artifacts... I don’t think the mayor is interested in historic preservation,” he said.