The firehouse on the flats of Beacon Hill is now to become a film stage for the MTV-produced show, The Real World. The Wednesday night show, for those of you who may have had the good fortune to miss it, is a kind of unscripted soap opera where a group of dissimilar kids are plunked together and encouraged to be sufficiently angry, hostile and bizarre towards each other so that it draws viewers away from Fox TV’s Cops. Amazing. If living in a firehouse with a real fire pole in the priciest area of Beacon Hill is The Real World, than so is Disneyland.

But enough. The virtue of television shows is that they are eventually canceled. MTV will soon tire of the Hill and move on to other locations. Beacon Hill will soon have an empty firehouse again and will have to figure out what it should become.

At one point in its past, the firehouse was genuinely operated as a fire station. In recent years, it has seen little activity, serving as little more than a pit stop for the assistant fire commissioner. Noting the underutilization of the property, a number of residents had raised the possibility of the city surplusing the building.

Shortly after being inaugurated in January of 1994, Mayor Tom Menino announced that the city would engage in a full-scale review of fire department operations. As part of that review, all fire-related buildings in the city were to be examined. The conclusion of the study, which took almost two years to prepare, was that the Mount Vernon building should be retained by the fire department and used as a mobile command center. Indeed, personnel from the department even met with representatives from the Beacon Hill Civic Association to explore parking options around the building.

Then in October, in an abrupt turnaround, the city announced that the property was being surplused. Advertisements ran in local papers, seeking minimum bids of $500,000 for a November 14th auction. Developers walked the site, dreams of condos in their heads.

After a chorus of complaints, the city abruptly called off the auction. Many residents had argued that, before being sold to a private developer, the city should at least explore the possibility of another public use of the property, such as a community center. That argument carried a lot of weight. Most neighborhoods in the city have a wide array of community services, including community centers with pools and skating rinks. Beacon Hill has none. Indeed, the only site for community activities is Hill House, which is funded privately by residents and users (Hill House, by the way, was also once city property that was surplused). The Hill House model, which imposes minimal ongoing financial obligations on the city, seems to be a good model for the firehouse as well.

The filming of The Real World in fact gives Beacon Hill residents some breathing space, some time to consider how best to use the space, how to finance its construction, and how to keep it self supporting.

Many people have a stake in the creation of a community center. Residents near the firehouse have justifiable concerns about possible noise and crowds from a community center. A variety of people of different ages, incomes and needs inhabit the Hill, all of whom can be served by a community center. The Beacon Hill Civic Association, Hill House and some active Hill residents have taken the lead in thinking through plans for the building. But it appears that their plan is to solicit suggestions and thoughts from a wide variety of sources and to make the planning process as inclusive as possible. This is as it should be.