Joe,

Five and one-half years ago, the individuals who formed the Mystic View Task
Force anticipated the current fiscal crisis and looked for a solution. We
found that the only possible revenue source that was of sufficient magnitude
to make a difference was the full development of Assembly Square. It could
double the city's tax base and employment, while adding 30 acres of open
space.

There have been more twists and turns to the issue and its history than
space permits me to describe here. Joe has relationships with several of the
key players in Assembly Square Limited Partners, who attempted to illegally
convert the mall building to a giant Home Depot. When the court required
them to reveal its environmental impacts if they wished to move forward,
they abandoned the plan.

For four years, Joe, the Mayor, and Assembly Square Limited Partners (ASLP)
waged a campaign to demonize the Mystic View Task Force and harass the woman
who filed the lawsuit. ASLP invested over $1 million in legal and public
relations expenses. In the last six months, the Mayor realized that ASLP
had conned her along a number of dimensions, and she became estranged from
them.

Now ASLP wants to convert the mall to a big-box strip mall. This would kill
Assembly Square's potential to create jobs and tax revenues. The Mayor's
staff prepared and submitted legislation to Joe's Legislative Matters
committee that would rezone Assembly Square. Both the current and the
zoning would prevent ASLP from building the big-box strip mall.

Before he announced his candidacy, Joe submitted alternative legislation
that would permit ASLP to do this "as of right," i.e. without having to
undergo any planning review.

The attached Excel file contains the data demonstrating that Joe Curtatone's
claim of $5 million from Assembly Square is a lie. City Assessor Dick
Brescia, who is supporting Joe, hedged against an outright lie by saying
that Assembly Square would generate $5 million if all projects were fully
built. Joe has used this statement to create the illusion that the Mystic
View Task Force has prevented this outcome.

Assuming that the developers had gotten everything that they wanted, the
only development that could possibly be generating revenue as of this point
is the conversion of the Mall to a Home Depot. The most valuable projects
were never real. They were part of the developers' bait and switch tactics.
The following summarizes the projects and their current status.

Home Depot

This illegal project received a permit as the result of undue influence that
can be proven. It would have produced only $251,000 in taxes, but created
many times that amount in new municipal costs. It was overturned by the
court.

ASLP's "Waterfront Development"

This was the bait that Joe and Assembly Square Limited Partners used to
induce Dot Gay into giving ASLP a Memorandum of Agreement. ASLP has since
reneged on this commitment. It was phony all along anyway. The
administration did not realize that one can't build residences on
Commonwealth Tidelands.

Ikea Store

This project is on hold because Mystic View members have brought a legal
action challenging the fraudulent traffic and air pollution data submitted
by the company. The Mayor tried to broker a mediation. As reported in the
Somerville News, both Ikea and ASLP refused to mediate. Without this legal
challenge, the store would still not be producing tax revenue as of this
point. If it were fully developed, it would produce only $1,201,270, while
increasing traffic along McGrath Highway by 20%.

Ikea Office Buildings

Ikea Office & other retail This is the bait that Ikea used to get an MOA
from the mayor. The MOA itself makes clear that this is just a promise that
Ikea never has to fulfill if it doesn't want to. There are real questions
whether anyone would build office buildings next to an Ikea anyway.

Yard 21

The promise of a large, truly mixed-use development involving Yard 21,
ASLP's Sturtevant properties, and others that they would acquire through
eminent domain was what convinced the city to give the site control of Yard
21. ASLP officers privately acknowledge that they they don't have the
capacity to do this development. Their plan was to get the state and feds
to pay for an Orange Line stop and then flip the property for a profit. Dot
Gay unwittingly went along with this plan by signing a land disposition
agreement that gives ASLP until 2009 to even buy, much less develop the
property. Nor does the MOA prevent ASLP from flipping it to someone else
for a profit at the last minute. This mirage represents 77.3% of the value
of all Assembly Square projects in Dick Brescia's projections.

In summary, the only possible development that could be producing taxes
right now is the new Home Depot, and the developers refuse to move forward
with it because they would have to reveal its impacts. Even if built, it
would generate more costs than revenues. Meanwhile the kind of land
transformation that could, in turn, transform the city's fiscal condition
has been delayed for five years and counting.

Bill [Shelton, in mailing list correspondence on 10/23/2003]