Members of a neighbor-led planning initiative focused on Codman Square have hired nine “ambassadors” and plan to launch their effort in earnest in January. Organizers say they intend to build off of city-led planning endeavor that began under a Squares + Streets re-zoning process last year.
The group – called Codman Square United (CSU) – say they will work with city officials, but they are arranging their own funding and goals for community engagement. Last June, the city presented an anti-displacement strategy and tool kit to a packed house of CSU members and allies.
Rachele Gardner, a Dorchester resident who has been hired as a consultant for the CSU effort, said the ambassadors will start Action Groups in January – each with about six neighbors who will receive a stipend to take comprehensive looks at why people are displaced in the community. Meetings will be conducted in English, Spanish, Cape Verdean Kriolu, and Haitian Kreyol.
“The end goal is not to present a plan for re-zoning,” Gardner told The Reporter. “In that regard, we aren’t taking over the city’s role. The city started with community engagement, and Squares + Streets came to us for input, and we want to do right by the community in that effort. We want to go beyond checking a box in community engagement and make sure the community understands what is at stake here. We felt there was more work to do than the city was doing and we’re hopeful we can be aligned here with the city.”
Mike Prokosch, who briefed members of the Codman Square Neighborhood Council on the CSU’s plans at a December meeting, said the idea is to have neighbors ready and engaged when city officials resume their re-zoning efforts for Codman Square and Four Corners, which were put on pause last February.
“Next month, we will start a series of action groups to tell stories of how housing is too expensive for displaced families in the community and for businesses too,” said Prokosch. “We’ll work out solutions and talk about what the city is doing, and we’ll have a series of ideas that come out of that to solidify our community.
“When Squares + Streets starts up again next year, we’ll have a solid set of community opinions about how the city can approach re-zoning for us,” he said.
Prokosch and Gardner said that after a series of meetings in January and February, the action groups will report back to a larger steering committee about what they learn from speaking with a variety of neighbors struggling to remain in the neighborhood. That input will lead to larger meetings – dubbed “Community Assemblies” – envisioned for March.
“Often displacement is talked about related to affordability and that will be discussed, but people are displaced for many different reasons like safety, losing cultural connections in the community, or being connected to the business district,” Gardner said.
“We don’t think Squares + Streets is ill-intended but we know there are unintended consequences often with these efforts and we want to get ahead of them now,” she added.
Squares + Streets is a citywide planning effort by the Planning Department in several neighborhood corridors, including in Hyde Park, Roslindale Square, Mattapan, Fields Corner, and Codman Square/Four Corners. The idea is to modernize zoning in some ways that are not controversial – such as allowing daycares in business districts – but in other ways controversial, such as allowing more projects without community process along key corridors.
In Codman Square and Four Corners, many are worried the plan would end up displacing long-term residents and businesses if it isn’t led by the community so that the new zoning parameters would gel with community goals and community institutional memory.
CODMAN SQ. NOTEBOOK
• The Codman Square Winter Farmer’s Market will debut on Jan. 24 under the direction of Market Manager Richard Scott once again. It will be held every Saturday through March 14.from 11 to 2 p.m. in the Great Hall.
•The Codman Square Friends of the Library will host their annual book sale this Saturday (Dec. 13). There will also be a Gingerbread House challenge associated with the sale.
•The Codman Square Library will host a New Year’s Eve party during the day for children and families – where they’ll have a very accessible “Countdown to Noon” for those who can’t make the typical midnight countdown. There will also be stories and crafts and tons of fun from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.
•State Rep. Russell Holmes discussed the move by Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley to stay in Congress and not run for US Senate as she had contemplated. When she announced this week she would not run for Senate, he said, “the temperature went down for all of us. It had been a bit of a madhouse with the speculation about what might happen. I’m happy with my current congresswoman. I told her I’m 110 percent behind her whether it’s for Senate or Congress.”
