ARCHIVES OF LEAD STORIES
December 30, 2004
Blue Hill Ave. Task Force
grapples with new development issues
Jeremy Schwab
On December 16, the Boston Public Facilities Commission
voted to strip City Shapers of its right to develop condominiums
and commercial space at the intersection of Quincy Street and
Blue Hill Avenue near the border between Roxbury and Dorchester.
According to the city, the company’s designation was revoked
because financing fell through. The city’s decision re-invigorated
a debate among community members over the wisdom of allowing companies
with few ties to the neighborhood to develop city-owned land along
Blue Hill Ave.
“The company in whose offices [City Shapers] was located
was a speculative developer, specializing in undervalued land
in urban communities,” said Blue Hill Avenue Task Force
Chairwoman Sister Eva Mitchell during a task force meeting at
the Roxbury Multiservice Center last week. “That is exactly
the kind of company we don’t want. They didn’t have
a track record of development, or hiring contractors of color
or local contractors.”
Mitchell was vice-chairwoman of the task force when the group,
which is charged with guiding development along the Blue Hill
Avenue corridor, initially decided to recommend City Shapers’
proposal to the city. The task force supported City Shapers’
plan over a proposal for affordable housing by two local community-based
groups, the Veterans Benefits Clearinghouse and the Roxbury Multiservice
Center.
“I thought [City Shapers’] proposal was inferior to
the VBC’s,” said Mitchell. “I personally opposed
it with vehemence.”
City Shapers won support from the task force, however, after it
offered to invest $100,000 in a park on an adjacent corner of
Blue Hill Ave. and Quincy St. The promise was the main reason
cited by task force members for supporting the proposal, according
to Mitchell.
Representatives of City Shapers could not be reached for comment.
Formed by Mayor Thomas Menino in 1993 to steer the revitalization
of the corridor, the task force’s first job was to formulate
a vision for Blue Hill Ave. focussing on economic empowerment.
When a parcel of city-owned land along the avenue is going to
go up for bid, the task force designs a request for proposals
from developers based on that overall vision. Then, the Department
of Neighborhood Development and the task force form a selection
committee to review and recommend proposals from developers for
the site.
This process has resulted in a mix of affordable and market-rate
housing and commercial development.
Now, with most city-owned parcels along the avenue already developed
or under development, the main focus of the task force is to monitor
developments, making sure developers are delivering the community
benefits they promised.
But there are still parcels of city land yet to be developed,
including the site until recently designated for City Shapers
at the corner of Quincy St. When task force members on selection
committees for those sites make their decisions, they may once
again face a choice between a developer from outside the community
and developers from within.
Nation of Islam Minister Don Muhammad urged the packed crowd of
developers, task force members and community activists at last
week’s meeting to support proposals by local developers
of color so that the community reaps the financial rewards of
the revitalization of Blue Hill Avenue.
“You all are trying to make some money, but with the community,”
he told the developers.
Muhammad then addressed the members of the task force.
“If you don’t support your developers making money
— and they provide jobs to support people so they can live
in the development — people can’t live there,”
he said.
The members of the task force face a dilemma — the group
has so successfully guided development along Blue Hill Avenue
that some community members worry that rising rents could force
them to move. Discussion at last week’s meeting focussed
in part on how to ensure that community members and people of
color enjoy the rewards of the corridor’s ongoing revitalization.
“We whisper to each other — white people will come
into our community and try to do something,” said task force
member and former WBZ television reporter Sarah-Ann Shaw. “We
whisper to each other but we don’t do anything. If we don’t
work together, we will not be here.”
While the task force cannot control market forces, by monitoring
the development of city land along the corridor task force members
aim to help ensure that long-time residents are not displaced
and the avenue’s character is maintained.
“We want to develop without displacement of existing residents
and businesses,” Mitchell told the Banner during a phone
interview last week. “Our main goal is to revitalize the
Blue Hill Avenue corridor. Blue Hill Avenue, particularly between
Dudley [Street] and Grove Hall, represents an international avenue
of color.”
The avenue became blighted over 30 years ago following riots over
racial injustice.
Over the past 11 years, the task force, composed of community
residents and representatives of local nonprofits and other organizations
along the avenue, has worked with the city to shepherd many commercial
and residential projects through to the development phase.
The city completed construction of an early learning center in
2000 at the corner of Blue Hill Ave. and Quincy Street, a project
which the task force not only approved but helped design and monitor.
More recently, the task forced approved the renovation of the
Silva Building on the corner of Warren Street and the construction
of the Film Shack at 324-326 Blue Hill Ave. and 22 affordable
homes at the corner of Intervale Street and Blue Hill Avenue,
all ongoing projects.
Throughout this process, the city has worked with the task force
to re-develop the avenue.
“We brought restaurants, a new early education center, a
flag company, a film shack, loads of housing,” said Department
of Neighborhood Development Director Charlotte Golar Richie. “We
got the Mecca Mall built. We had enormous success in getting all
of the parties with interest in Blue Hill Ave. in one room to
plot a course for the boulevard. The area is really coming back
and the city played a major role in it.”
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