Roxbury/South End must reach common ground
My husband, former city councilor Bruce Bolling, used to say that Roxbury’s District 7 could use two city councilors all by itself. One to unravel the results of years of inattention and occasional downright abandonment. The other just to work on initiatives to gain equal footing, curtail injustices and break the cycle of poverty for future generations.
A major reason he chose to run from the district seat in the mid-’80s when he had a chance to be re-elected from the citywide seat he came to the council on — as only the second person of color elected citywide — was because he didn’t want to risk losing his linkage legislation and Boston Jobs for Boston People and minority business enterprise ordinance if he were not reelected citywide.
I think many would agree that Councilor Kim Janey is doing the work of two city councilors — I’d like to believe that is a major reason she garnered an amazing 70% of the vote in a lethargic 11% turnout in the Septem ber primary. Conventional wisdom is that she will garner more in the final on Nov. 5, also expected to be anemic.
One of the most important tasks for this fourth generation Roxbury and South End resident is making sure that the two very different neighborhoods never feel slighted, overlooked or diminished. The South End is seen as fairly middle to high income, mostly white. Roxbury is mostly African American and people of color, seen as still struggling against gentrification and a lack of resources and opportunity on any number of fronts. The two communities also have a somewhat tortured history because of an ill-conceived urban renewal plan that displaced mostly African Americans in the South End and Roxbury.
Today, many in Roxbury, including yours truly, are concerned about the “unbranding” or “camouflaging” of Roxbury — especially during a time when we need to attract more businesses to the struggling neighborhood.
For example, the new Marriott Residence Inn that sits squarely in Roxbury at 2001 Washington St. avoids using Roxbury on its signage, instead opting to bill itself as “Boston Downtown/South End.”
The soon-to-be-developed Alexandra Hotel, at the corner of Washington Street and Massachusetts Avenue, billed itself as located in the South End until residents in Lower Roxbury, in some cases living on the same street as the building, complained they were not privvy to community meetings about the project or its impact. Once the official city maps were consulted — lo and behold, the Alexandra really is in Lower Roxbury.
Some South End residents seem to be in a “lather” around potential changes to parking and property values as a result of the correction in the Alexandra’s location. Councilor Janey has been accused of changing the location and street signs to reflect accuracy, but South Enders say she needed to have a community meeting before making those changes. I’ve never heard of that requirement, but I agree that a meeting may have helped diffuse the situation — but not changed the results.
Instead, South Enders have taken their fight online — where grievances get aired, but nothing gets settled. Indignant posts are flying, some showing complete disrespect to Councilor Janey. Other comments I’ve seen seem racially charged with insensitive stereotyping — unseemly and unhelpful to any resolution.
There are too many concerns that both the Roxbury and South End neighborhoods share that, frankly, could use more coalescence to get to common ground. Of course, this is one of them.
Another is the Methadone Mile crisis that both neighborhoods share and had separate community meetings about. The South End has rehab sites but the jail and Methadone Mile Central is in Roxbury’s Newmarket Square. Imagine if there were a joint SE-Roxbury meeting. I’m hoping that happens as a follow-up to the mayor’s recent plan. There is always strength in numbers.
But absolutely nothing can be accomplished without constructive dialogue taking the place of name-calling, finger-pointing and racially charged innuendo.