In 2003, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band played Fenway Park. The crowd, as they say, went wild for a mind-boggling meeting of artist and venue, and two dates sold out in a flash. Fenway Sports Group (FSG, owners of the Red Sox) framed the concert as a once-in-a-lifetime event. But when they saw the gold mine they had (37,000 tickets @ an average $100 x 2 concerts = $7,400,000), they dropped the once-in-a-lifetime part. Fast-forward 15 years, and FSG has a goal of hosting 12 concerts (plus sound check afternoons/nights) every year, taking over 12+ otherwise peaceful nights when the team doesn’t have a home game.

THE PROBLEM

Twelve (12) more nights means all the things that make home games a royal pain for people who live in the Fenway:  

• Traffic jams mean ambulances and fire trucks can’t get through. For that matter, your Uber/Lyft can’t either (and switches to surge pricing). The 55 and 65 buses, which many older adults and residents with accessibility challenges rely on, slows to a crawl or skips stops entirely.
• Other traffic and public safety problems—concertgoers use resident parking, and even your own friends won’t come anywhere near the neighborhood when it’s gridlocked. Did you also know that there aren't enough Boston Police to cover Fenway Park concerts and many baseball games? That's a real problem.
• Drunkenness and bad behavior, trash dumped on the sidewalks; the Fens and Victory Gardens vandalized; yards and alleys used as urinals—or worse.
• Noise (decibel and frequency levels) —FSG can’t control the sound from the ballpark. Have to get up early for work or school? Want to open your window when the weather is nice? You’re out of luck.
• Peace and quiet: The Fenway is a peaceful, beautiful neighborhood on a summer night with no crowds. We have few enough of those nights as it is, and FSG wants to take 20% of the ones we have away from us.

THE SOLUTION

We can’t stop all the concerts—that genie is out of the bottle. But these three steps could go a long way toward a solution:

1. The Boston Licensing Board cuts the number of concerts approved to a maximum of two per month, or 6 total. 
2. The Board places conditions on the licenses it grants and updates the permit application and process.
3. The Red Sox work with neighborhood residents over the next year to create an enforceable “Good Neighbor Agreement” like ones in San Diego and Chicago. The Good Neighbor Agreement will provide for residents of the Fenway community oversight of operations related to concerts and events located at Fenway Park to ensure protection of the area’s quality of life. This agreement will: 

• Establish clear, enforceable, and effective public safety, transportation, and environmental quality standards;
• It will raise the bar for environmental excellence, community health, and public relations by setting goals, objectives, and good practices, which are beneficial for all parties involved.

These are simple requests that could make a world of difference for Fenway residents. Even if you like the concerts, please help us strike a better balance between the interests of FSG and  residents by signing this petition.