State of the City Recap: #ActivateBOS
On Wednesday, January 20th 2016, the Future Boston → Epicenter Community Family came together to discuss the current state of Boston - the city we all call home.
The night before Mayor Walsh gave his 2016 state of the city address. Some of the hot topics of the evening were Boston’s Public Schools, Access to Affordable Housing, and General Development. WBUR put out a nice recap that you all can read here.
As a group we sat down with our residential and community experts to address: The State of Art & Culture, Transportation, Local Entrepreneurs, & Our Main Streets.
Our Panelist for the evening included:
Hakim Cunningham, Social Justice and Policy Coordinator at Transportation for Massachusetts
Barbara Lewis, Director of the William Monroe Trotter Institute at UMass
Greg Valentino Ball, CEO of Killer Boombox
Luis Cotto, Executive Director of Egleston Square Main Streets
The foundation of the conversation was based on what our panelists agreed to be points of access for local Boston residents. Greg Ball kicked off the discussion talking about pressing housing and work space needs for artists and entrepreneurs. “If we can concentrate on the quality of life stuff, the other stuff - space to work will work itself out.”
Luis echoed Greg on the housing conversation stating that merchants and business owners who live and work within the Egleston area are not only struggling in terms of foot traffic and sales, but seeing they live in the community there is also the concern of needing to move away from the ideal situation of life and work being within a manageable distance from each other.
Hakim joined the discussion to talk about how our mobility within communities and to jobs outside of immediate communities citing that many ‘working poor’ are spending a good majority of their incomes on transportation to and from work, being left with just enough to keep the lights on and put some food on the table.
Professor Lewis talked about the cyclical history of displacement within the United States. “Boston has been - remains a segregated city. And according to some of the recent reports is one of the most segregated cities in the country, and is also something in terms of the speech given last night, is something not recognized or acknowledged and that is very disturbing to me.”
In reference to the Mayor’s announcement of $1million allocation to the arts, Barbara spoke about the disconnect - both emotional and fiscal in the Boston arts world. Saying that we continue to operate in a hierarchical structure of who hold ‘the money’ and how is that money distributed.
Overall, the conversation about preventative action to avoid displacement of individuals and communities was one that we continued to revisit as a group.
The overall sentiment of the event was said best by Greg Ball, when he stated, “I want those of Roxbury who lived through the bad times to have the opportunity to stay to live through the good.”
Please do not hesitate to reach out to our panelists to find out ways to be involved in local movements around transportation, art, and housing. Express your concerns about these topics to the city. It is our right to question and create action around these concerns.
