The City of Boston announced last week it released the results of the second survey on the Jackson Mann Community Center in Allston.

The city is hosting a meeting to go over the data on Oct. 27, the details of which can be found on the city’s website for the community center at https://gvimes.link/jackmannproj

The data from the release shows much the same main question as the first survey results, discussed in August – https://gvimes.link/jcksnmnncvrgaug

The biggest question is whether or not to leave space for a school. The Jackson Mann Community Center is falling apart right now as you read, but the Jackson Mann K-8 and Horace Mann School for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing were so bad that they closed down several years ago.

Since the closure of the schools and several announcements of closure for the community center – which faced severe community pushback, being the only community center in District 9, which houses almost 80,000 people, the Jackson Mann has been limping along. But the city has so far kept its promise to rebuild the site.

The two surveys are looking to hone in on what to actually build there. Back in the spring, the city held meetings and showed several configurations with four main components and differing levels of each, with the community center being the only component in each configuration. The other three, housing/affordable housing, a school, and commercial/retail were switched around.

The second survey, with 473 respondents, tries to narrow it down between housing and the school, by asking residents to rate two proposals – each proposal with three items in it – on a scale of 1-5, with 5 being most favorable and 1 being least.

The first proposal included a new community center with a pool, maximum affordable housing, and no school. Retail and childcare facilities were included as a priority as well.

That option, basically the no-school option, had 217 responses marked 5, 100 marked 4, 59 responses marked 3, 27 marked 2, and 70 marked 1.

So that means 317, a clear majority, marked 4 and 5 and strongly did not want a plan with a school. By contrast, the other proposal, which included the option “Hold a part of the site vacant for a future school (timeline to be determined)” had 65 responses marked 5, 53 marked 4, 107 marked 3,102 marked 2, and 145 marked 1.

That means 118 respondents strongly wanted a school (total marked 4 and 5).

This somewhat lines up with what the city had appeared to be leaning towards. Back at the June meeting, which had more than 300 people in the room, Boston Public Schools (BPS) staff were reluctant to give any clear answer, and merely stated they would be analyzing enrollment data and make a decision based on that – https://gvimes.link/jcksonjnmting

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The survey also asked about additional site uses, each of which had “interested,” “very interested” or “not interested” as answers. It should be noted many appear not to have filled one or more sections of this out, so the total of each category will not be 473.

The first listed was a community garden, which had 86 very interested, 153 interested, and 58 not interested.

The next was a redesigned Union Square Plaza. A total of 140 respondents were very interested, 207 interested, and 106 not interested.

The next was a performance/ rehearsal space, with 122 very interested, 216 interested, and 108 not interested. After that was a maker space, which had 110 very interested, 190 interested, and 139 not interested.

Next was an artist studio space. That had 107 very interested, 208 interested, and 130 not interested. The next additional community space pitched was a community fridge – which is like a little free library where people drop off and pick up food instead of books. In the survey, 137 respondents were very interested, 198 interested, and 107 not interested.

The skatepark community space had the least interest, with 51 respondents very interested, 170 interested, and 227 not interested.

Next was for small retail spaces for local businesses. That garnered 85 very interested, 213 interested, and 147 not interested responses.

The last category was an early childhood education center, which had 130 very interested, 240 interested, and 82 not interested responses.

For the full .xls document and all the data (not to mention the results from the first survey), go to city’s page on the Jackson Mann project at https://gvimes.link/jackmannproj