‘New narrative’ at Clifford Park
Needles gone, kids take back space
Standing on a snowand-ice covered field in the freezing cold, Steph Lewis envisioned the future of Clifford Playground: a recreational space, free of needles, that all residents in Roxbury and surrounding neighborhoods will take pride in.
Lewis is the president and CEO of The Base, an urban sports academy that engages with roughly 1,500 youth per year, a majority from Roxbury, the South End and Dorchester.
Close proximity to the intersection of Massachusetts Avenue and Melnea Cass Boulevard, a longtime homeless encampment that the city had struggled to control, often resulted in activity spilling over into Clifford Park, with needles, trash and human feces littering the park.
But the narrative is changing, Lewis said, with the city Parks and Recreation Department overseeing a multi-million dollar renovation of the park that his academy uses for a wide range of sports and other activities.
Encampments have also cleared out of Mass and Cass after city officials ordered all tents to be taken down in November. No signs of activity that riddled the area in the past were seen yesterday.
“What I really love is that this new field really exemplifies the new narrative,” Lewis told the Herald. “We won’t be talking about needles on the field at Clifford.”
“We’re talking about brand new tennis and basketball courts and play pads … we’re talking about a brand new field that we’d like to uplift the sports and space. That’s very exciting.”
About $7.2 million in the city’s $4.2 billion capital plan is being allocated towards the redesign.
The project received an additional $1 million via a federal grant in November to support the effort that also looks to introduce “cooling elements” such as shade and access to water and increase stormwater capacity through green infrastructure strategies, according to officials.
After getting feedback from residents on various park concepts in December, officials decided to add another meeting later this winter in order to finetune the community’s desires, city project manager Lauren Bryant said during a Wednesday meeting.
Officials will be meeting with residents again this morning to further discuss the project.
“We realized there are just so many specific details that we haven’t been able to talk through with everybody yet,” Bryant said. “We want to make sure that the community is part of what’s helping us work out those details, too.”
Construction is slated to begin either this summer or fall, with the renovation anticipated to be done sometime next year.
Designers leading the Clifford project have said a major goal is to improve the park’s “openness and visibility.” Security cameras and improved lighting would be among the measures taken to achieve that priority, they’ve said.
Ricardo Austrich, lead project manager for consultant BSC Group, presented various options for fencing that could be incorporated in the new design including refurbishing existing gates which would keep the park as open as possible or adding more fencing around the perimeter to limit access.
Resident Joanne Gomes suggested blocking off access to the sides of the park that are more industrial while keeping things as is for neighbors.
“One of the things that I like about this park is how it is open and accessible,” she said. “It feels inviting for the community.”
Outreach teams from the city Public Health Commission are continuing to work alongside Boston Police Department in connecting the homeless in the area to shelters and other necessary resources, said Brian Foran, a community liaison on the Coordinated Response Team.
“Our current priority first and foremost is maintaining the safety commitment here in the Mass and Cass area, monitoring and addressing any new encampments that form across the city,” he said. “When we think about unsheltered homelessness we have to think about the barriers individuals face and trying to find ways to remove those barriers to transform our shelters.”