Esplanade VIP seats face court challenge
A half-million people thronged the Esplanade on July 4, many elbowing for room to get a view of the Boston Pops on the Hatch Memorial Shell.
A few yards from the stage, metal gates separated the hoi polloi from scores of VIPs, each of whom had a special pass and sat comfortably on white lawn chairs with unobstructed views.
To hear the register of Suffolk Probate and Family Court tell it, those prime-viewing areas violate the 80-year-old trust established to build the Hatch Shell.
And if the practice persists, he threatened in a letter yesterday, he will take the state to court.
``I ask that you take whatever steps are necessary to adhere to the terms of the trust . . . by keeping all areas free and open to the public -- both now and in the future," the register, Richard Iannella , wrote to the state Department of Conservation and Recreation about the prime real estate apparently occupied by the favored elite at Hatch Shell concerts.
``Should the administration's practice of VIP seating, access for the privileged only, and other willful barricading of this public treasure continue, I will protect the public's interest and file an equity complaint seeking declaratory relief from the court," Iannella wrote.
Joe O'Keefe , a Department of Conservation and Recreation spokesman, said Iannella is misreading the will.
When Back Bay heiress Maria E. Hatch set aside $300,000 to create a concert area, she prohibited only those events that would be ``sectarian, political, or controversial," O'Keefe said.
``The way we look at it is, in order to attract major events such as the Boston Pops, and to make them available to the general public, having a small number of seats available for the sponsors is not unreasonable," O'Keefe said. ``His reading of the will is inaccurate. The bottom line is the general public has access. It's clearly not in violation of the will."
Iannella did not return calls last night.
In his letter, he wrote that he began receiving complaints in 2001 about the general public being ``relegated to squeezing into limited space at the back of the Esplanade."
Three years later, the issue resurfaced when Senator John Kerry proposed a free concert at the Hatch Shell during the Democratic National Convention. (State officials rejected the plan, citing security and traffic issues .)
He said he wrote the commissioner yesterday after noticing more exclusive seating during televised coverage of this week's festivities at the Hatch Shell.
He wrote that he was surprised to learn the Boston Symphony Association of Volunteers encourages members to avoid ``a half-million people competing with you for prime blanket space" and WODS-FM radio and Jordan's Furniture promoting ``front row" seats on ``comfy, stylish couches."
Globe correspondent Emma G. Fitzsimmons contributed to this report. 
