From the Charlestown Patriot-Bridge:
Boston Housing Authority (BHA) Administrator Bill McGonagle announced this week he will retire – or in his terms, ‘transition’ – from his longtime post at the BHA, and he will do so with absolute confidence that the massive Bunker Hill redevelopment will move forward without him at the helm.
“I’m not using the word retirement,” he joked on Tuesday, after announcing on Monday his departure from the agency after 40 years.
He noted he still has a ceramic lamp in his living room given to him years ago by the Senior Citizens ceramics class at the Golden Age Center on Main Street. That was something that symbolized his time at the BHA more than anything, as a man who grew up in South Boston public housing developments and shared a unique bond – rather than the animosity some directors have – with residents in Charlestown and all over Boston.
“That’s one thing I am particularly proud of in my career,” he said. “Having grown up in public housing, I think that has given me a unique perspective and allowed me to develop personal relationships with our residents. I have the capacity to empathize, not sympathize, with the…challenges they’re going through…I’m on a first-name basis with our resident leadership and residents all over the city.”
Read the Charlestown Patriot-Bridge's article "Bill McGonagle to Retire This Month: Absolutely Certain Bunker Hill Housing Project Redevelopment Will Happen Without Him," featuring the Boston Housing Authority.