WBCA Podcasts

On Another Level

On this episode, host Sharon Hinton talks with Antonia Edwards about reparations for the American Freedmen. She then talks with Mimi Turchinetz, president of the Hyde Park Neighborhood Association, and Laurie Radwin, coordinator of the Roslindale coalition, about Streets and Squares, a new policy intended to increase access to housing. They discuss some of the drawbacks of this plan, especially for people of color and those with disabilities.

Duration:: 55m
Broadcast on:: 07 Aug 2024
Audio Format:: mp3

The following commentary does not necessarily reflect the views of the staff and management of WBCA or the Boston Neighborhood Network. If you would like to express another opinion, you can address your comments to Boston Neighborhood Network, 302-5 Washington Street, Boston, Massachusetts, 0-2119. To arrange a time for your own commentary, you can call WBCA at 617-708-3215 or email radio at bnnmedia.org. I have a problem every year, around in the payday, because the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. for some reason has been treated as America's civil rights mascot. On this day, you'll have folks who would have never in their life marked with a grieve with, voted with anything he believed in, one of the biggest biggest in the United States Congress. Here, if you want to actually send out a Dr. King vote, the march has begun every day. We rise like the sun and flight 'til the battle is won. Can you hear the footsteps, listen, 'cause we're coming like a game on the street, so you're back. Hi, good evening. My name is Sharon Eaton Hinton. I am the producer and host of On Another Level, and we are on another episode, and this one is jam-packed. You know what I tell you to do, is to get a pen and a paper or whatever you take notes on, because this program, you're gonna need to get information because we need you to do something. So some of the guests that I have here are in the community, boots on the ground or stilettos and boots on the ground, and they need you to know about certain things that are happening. My next guest, Antonia Edwards, is involved with solidarity with the D and reparations. Take a look at this. Miss Antonia? Yes, thank you. I'm gonna do my best to speed it up. I just wanna say thank you for allowing me to speak. I really thought that all the city council people will be here, 'cause I wanted to give reference to the fact that I became accustomed to the city council people two years ago when Saskia and Azizia and I came and met with each one of you to introduce you to the verbiage of American Freedmen, and I thought that everybody was really receptive of that. I thought everybody was really receptive of that at the time, and I could tell that because of our petition, the verbiage was put into the ordinance, and I wanna thank everybody for that. That's what I really wanted to do first. I just wanna say thank you for allowing me to be here, and I wanna also give a lot of kudos to task force and task force members. It has been a very hectic and tumultuous time, and I think that there's a lot of high expectations for people in the community, with regards to what their directors for them, however Rome was then built overnight, and there is no blueprint for reparations in the country of the United States, so I wanna say thank you. I represent American Freedmen, they're my ancestors, and there are a community of people who are American Freedmen Coalition that represent the 4 million emancipated slaves. I am a descendant of them. I wanna make it clear there's no reparations or negotiations with direct involvement, without the direct involvement of the descendants, and those who are originally harmed. Furthermore, I just wanna say the ones who determine the harm and how to be compensated are the American Freedmen. To date, since I've been involved two years ago, there has been no communication collaboration from city council or relevant community organizations that are considered themselves leaders in the community what American Freedmen, or anybody who references being the son of the slave. And I find it very discouraging, disrespectful, and disheartening that when we reference our historical legacy and lineage, we're often shut out, ignored, and avoided. And I'm just telling you from my own personal experience, from emails, from being, I go to every meeting, and as soon as I mention American Freedmen, it's like I have the plague. So if the ordinance is truly about the descendants of US slavery, why are we being avoided? Why on city council people shouting about American Freedmen so that we can get the community involved? The community doesn't even know who they are, because we're not advocating for that. We're not speaking that language in the community. And it shouldn't be the city council only gears towards one organization. And so I have invited city council to every event that we've had and have been ignored. And that's for the American Freedmen. So I'm just going to summarize real quick. We, as a sentence of Freedmen, have never demanded $15 billion from the mayor. It's not representative of anything that we ask for, and that's a misconception in our community. Because we have a lot of people running around asking us, what's the $15 billion for? And we've never asked for that. And so we are the original harm party, and so we need to have that conversation at the table. So we can tell you how we want to be prepared, and what compensation that may be. Also, we're not in a money grab. We're not looking at this as being a financial reward or repair. There's tangibles that we're looking for. Nobody has ever came up with a detailed report on line items. That's not what we're going to do in the community, whether it be a park or a playground, a monument or a memorial. So it's kind of disingenuous and very egregious to ask for cash only. There's been two sets of cash values that have been asked for in the community that represents reparations. And to us, it's totally disrespectful because it's our lineage, our ancestral. And if you're going to talk about the reparations and the traumas and the badges and incidents of slavery that our ancestors have endured, you can't sit at the table and not spend without us being there. And without us telling you what we want to be repaired. So I'm just skipping over this really quick. Instead of asking for funds, because we're saying no funds for reparations and to the research team continues to complete their report. At which time, we want to be able to sit at the table and tell you how we want to be repaired and what's a fair compensation. Instead of putting money out there to the community or for people who are demanding cash reparations. We're proposing, and we have asked, and people have ignored us, to open up or create the Office of Freedmen Affairs. We are freedmen in order for you to understand our legacy and our lineage. And who in Boston is American Freedmen. You would have to put this together anyway so that we can start registering people and getting genealogy. And finding out who actually is American Freedmen. So we're asking to that be done immediately so that people can understand who they are. And as a part of reparations repair, the genealogy would be that. That's what we're asking for. If you look at the package that I gave everybody, the QR code is on the fly. >> Is that one minute enough, Ms. Edward? >> Yeah. >> Thank you. >> If you look at the package I gave you the QR codes on them. So I just want to say, let us adhere to the language of the ordinance that clearly states that is for the citizens of slaves in the US. American Freedmen, Freedmen, Freedwomen, Descendants, and Free People. And so to not do so would be unconstitutional and not have us at the table would be unconstitutional. I want to thank everybody again for this opportunity to speak on behalf of my ancestors, Laneage Heritage. I look forward to collaborating with any of you, as I've always asked and have been shut down, turned away, or ignored to make sure that we have an education in the community. So I just want to say this from the bottom of my heart, there is no education in our community on our heritage. And nobody's interested in being educated, whether it be counseled, people, politicians, people who are making decisions on behalf of us. And my team has always made themselves available to educate. And until we get that education and the community as to what American Freedmen stands for, what the badges and incidents of slavery are, they created this thing in slavery. We're not going to be able to come together, everybody's miles apart, everybody's working on silos. So you have some of your major organizations in the community who consider themselves leaders, who don't even reference descendants of slaves, who don't reference American Freedmen. And so I don't want to be spoken for, I know not that there's a lot of people who have this lineage. And so I just think that we all have to be educated on, again, the badges, the incidents of slavery, they created the stand slavery, and American Freedmen. And we need to have politicians say, American Freedmen. And everybody say American Freedmen, or the descendants of slaves in the US, in order to get this out. And that's what I'm asking for. >> Thank you. >> Okay, thanks. And that's what we're asking about, and I'm going to ask my guests, Queen, call it Queen, engineer Edwards, who is one of the founding members of Solidarity with the Capital D, welcome. >> Yes, hi, good afternoon, good evening everybody. I want to say thank you again for inviting me back to the show to get this information out. It's extremely important when there's so many reparations, initiatives and movements that are going on that our community, who descends from slavery in the US, is a breast of what's going on. >> What is an American Freedman? >> So who is an American Freedman? >> Okay, so let me just explain two things. Solidarity Community Engagement Group has been the namesake of Dr. Sandy Daugherty from Duke University. He wrote from here to Equality, we named it on our hymn. So we're the boots, we're the stilettos and boots of the ground. We engage with the community, with events, workshops. We have different events so that we can educate people on that. And then United Sons and Daughters is our national organization. American Freedmen are the formerly emancipated slaves. The four million emancipated slaves link in congressional documents named them American Freedmen. So it's a legal status according to the United States government and emancipation. You know that because of the American Freedmen Act of 1865, the American Freedmen Bureau of 1865, and the American Freedmen Bank. So we have the Act of Bureau and the Bank. And what happened was that it's just, for some reason, the name was just never used. After Reconstruction, we were the Negroes. And so nobody really picked up on the fact that we had a status that could have been utilized. And it's not race based, it's based on lineage. So break it down to 2024, you've got a few moments with you. And this is the official flag. The Black Heritage Flag. The official Black Heritage Flag and the green and the gold means something, the sword means something, but I don't want to spend time in the flag. I want to spend time on what is happening now, and you said stilettos and boots on the ground. I don't wear stilettos. I do. I know you do. But I guess boots I can put on the ground. That's fine. What do you need people to do now? What is happening with this because you have legislation at the state level? So I want to really quickly, my team and I had a proposal to the state. Brandy Fuku Oakley has a state bill for American Freedmen. It's H3921, our proposal generated her bill. It's in the Judiciary Committee. There was a hearing on December 5th, 2000, December 5th, 2023, and it's been extended because they're doing the research to prove American Freedmen because right now we can't do anything race-based because I'm constitutional according to the Supreme Court. And we just talked them on Friday and it looks really good. We're trying to get out for this session, which ends on the 31st and may not. July 31st? July 31st. And they extended to July 31st and the session ends, so it may go to the next session. So we feel really good about that. We've been in talks with Senator Eldridge's office. We've submitted our amendments. They've taken into consideration, which we're really proud to have people take us serious. On the city level, I don't know if everybody knows, but we have a Boston task force. And that's been in place since December, 2023, when it was voted unanimously. The task force has slowly been putting everything together since May of 2023, and we're involved with them as well, too. But you're leading the fight for it, though. I most certainly am. And I think that what people need to understand is that it's not race-based, it's basically lineage-based, and we have a status in America, much like the Native Americans that need to be adhered to. And our people in the community need to get educated on their rights and their benefits of being an American free man. So let's put up this flyer where you're still talking to me. If you can show the flyer that we have, and you need people to do what? You can scan this QR code. Yes. And I want you to- A proposal for Office of Freedmen of Faith. That's the proposal that we submitted to the city and state, and it gives you all the details of what we're asking for, sign the petition. Also please get in touch with me. My name and my email address is on the flyer, and I need people to get in contact with me, because there could be upcoming meetings with city council where American freedom is being recognized. And I want to make sure that we, who are out of that lineage, are in the building at the time. Okay. Thank you. We'll put the flyer up later at the end of the show, although you won't be here with this at the end of the show. The other people coming up. So tell me the three things that you need to do. Does something need to be voted on? Do you have to be a registered voter to sign this petition? No. You can just be a citizen in the United, in Massachusetts, and be able to sign the petition saying that this is what we need to have an Office of Freedmen of Faith. And I just want to make a point. I did that on purpose, and my team and I administered this is because we feed these ongoing- This is the website. Grifts in the community asking for $15 billion, a half a million dollars from white clergy. No one organization should be in charge of receiving any cash reparations on behalf of American Freedmen. And that's how you have corruption, that's how you have grifts. So we're asking for a state or the city model of Office of Freedmen of Faith so that we can have somebody manage this, have line items, have transparency. And I think that that's the best way to do this if there is cash reparations being offered. Also the Office of Freedmen of Faith will be able to offer resources for those who are American Freedmen in their protected status, and that's what I'm asking for. And we are a protected status based on the 13th Amendment. It just has never been adhered to. So we should be mirroring the Native Americans. Free education, free no taxes, free health, whatever, because we are a protected status. And that's what me and my team are asking for. Now, do you have to be an American Freedman to sign this petition? No, you can be anybody inside a petition. There's also a comment section, and if you're an ally and you want to sign and say, "Listen, I believe in what Antony and her organizations are doing, and I'm signing as an ally, please feel free." You don't have to be an American Freedman. We are looking for allies, and this is not an exclusive group of people who are just trying to be divisive. We're looking for allies, because we want to educate all the community to understand what we're looking for. So you need them to sign the petition. Yes. You need to follow the website to see if there's any other initiatives like hearings or-- Yes. Keep people updated on what's going on in the community as far as hearings, the task force has meetings. You can always call me, email me, I'm available all the time to get people information on what's going on. We are looking for stilettos and boots on the ground. We're looking for other people to collaborate with us. There may be a time that we have to get stuff out by hand and do door knocking. And so we are looking for both stilettos and boots on the ground, male and female. And flip-flops and sandals. And flip-flops and sandals. And I just want to say also, we are really looking for brothers in the community to join with us. We want their voices to be heard. We are American Freedmen by nature, but we're looking for us to go back to the traditional way of civil rights, where we'll all work together for the betterment of our heritage. Thank you so much for being here. No, thank you. And so you and I are also having another date tomorrow evening in Black Teachers Matter and Radio Podcasts. Yes. WBCA 102.9 FM here at B&N Media, your community, radio and media station. Thank you so much. No, thank you for having me again. This is really important. And remember, anybody can call me anytime. So there's specific deadlines though. The Office of Freedmen Affairs is ongoing, we're waiting to get recognized as a people first, they're working on that as City Council, and then if that's the case, then we're asking for Office of Freedmen Affairs. We're also asking for the same thing on the state level. So it's ongoing. I think we have three, four hundred signatures now. So for the petition, ongoing. Any work we do is ongoing. And summertime is the perfect time to get in touch with people and find people at events and pass off flyers. So we're looking for people to assist with that. Street teams. Thank you so much for being here with us. Anthony Edwards, Queen Anthony Edwards, you're here because we need you here. We need you here not to just sit here and watch television. And we're going to take a short break. But it's not a break that you can just walk and go get a sandwich, you know, walk away. We need you to stay here with us, but if you need to take a short break, take 60 seconds, come right back and stay with us on another level. I'm Sharon Hinton. Thank you, Anthony. One scorching heatway will leave me powerless to cool my insulin. When the storm rolls in, my time to find a pet-friendly evacuation center will it run out? I'm relying on luck, but who knows if it'll be on my side. When it comes to disasters and emergencies, it's not a matter of if, but when. Take control. One, assess your needs. Two, make a plan. Three, engage your support network. Let's prepare so we all have a better story to tell. Mom was always organized, but she started forgetting to pay her bills on time. And she'd buy the same gifts over and over. Telling the girls about my Alzheimer's diagnosis was really hard. At first, we had our cries, but then we were like, okay, let's make a plan. Early detection gave us time to adapt together. It's so important for you to think about what you can do and making the most of what you have. You and your family are noticing changes. It could be Alzheimer's. Talk about seeing a doctor together. Substance use disorder and addiction is so isolating. And so as a black woman in recovery, hope must be loud. The moment I chose hope was when I couldn't look myself in the mirror anymore, I did not recognize myself. Absolutely. I am so proud because I did not think I was going to make it. And now, you know, I get to call my mom and say, I love her. I get to teach my son how to say, mama, I love you. So for me, hoping this moment, it is the thread that lets you know that no matter what happens, you will be okay. Have you ever helped a fellow betterman? Of course. Yes. Have you ever asked for help yourself? It's always tough, right? I always feel like I can solve my own problems, but eventually, you know, you just can't deal with it on your own. And you start to question and maybe people will be better off with helping. When you realize that you're not alone, once you take that first step, there is so much support. Have you ever helped a fellow betterman? Yes. I do my best reaching out to my brothers and sisters in arms. Have you ever asked for help yourself? Most of us, we're not going to admit that we need to help. We don't have someone to kind of help you guide those thoughts, it can be really bad. It's just a beautiful space when someone can trust you and say, "Listen, I need help." Interested in becoming a radio DJ, Boston Neighborhood Network's 102.9 FM is offering in force of radio production that can get you started. For more information, please head over to bnnmedia.org/services/portshops. Hi, we are back here on another level. I'm your host and producer Sharon Eaton-Henson here at Vietnam Media. And if you wanted to be a producer, you can do it too. Hopefully you listened to that public service announcement. If you did not, then you need to go to www.bnnmedia.org and become a community producer because that protects our democracy. Guess what? The media is owned by six corporations and the corporations are beholden to the stakeholders. And that may or may not be you. This is a presidential year. And I don't know if you're paying attention, but if you're not, I've got your attention now. Register and then vote. This is, when I tell you, democracy is on the line that is no joke. And before I go to my next guest, Ms. Mimi Turchinitz, who's a friend of mine, either. Turchinitz. She is the president of the Hyde Park neighborhood association. And my new friend, Laurie, is it Radwin? Radwin. Radwin. She's the coordinator of the Rosalindale coalition. And if you guys live in Boston and you've been here for a while, you've seen the transformation between Hyde Park. There's no eyes, right? If you're from Boston, there's no eyes. And Rosalindale. Rosalindale was a, Square was the place that you kind of went through. You had to go through, like, the Social Security office, the library, the registry and stuff like that. It's a vibrant, vibrant area, but that is in jeopardy because of what is about to happen. And what we're about to talk about now, which is squares and streets. It's not a dance group. It's not a rap group. Squares and streets is this initiative that the mayor, Mayor Wu, and some of the people that she has brought in are already in the process of doing and you need to know about it. Not just if you live in those particular areas, Hyde Park and Rosalindale, which is what we're talking about tonight, but all over Boston. Welcome. Mimi and Mari. Thank you. You know, you sent me all this information and we talked about it for several hours, actually. Mimi and I talk about it all the time because we're in Hyde Park. And so all things Hyde Park and Mimi's all over the place. I'm not even going to, Mimi Esquire, Mimi, Terta Esquire, she's actually a lawyer. And I have to give you props because you went to school for that. And Lori, you guys, all right, we just had a segment talking about stilettos and boots on the ground. And you guys have been on the ground for a while. And sometimes when you are on the ground and you hear all of this stuff, trying to get it to the people so they can make decisions is difficult. So thank you for coming here tonight. We're going to start out in the wide range of the squares in streets and squares for the squares, squares and streets. And what that means, that whole initiative is being rolled out in all the business centers and how it's affecting the housing as well as the economic centers of Boston wide. And then how it's affecting Hyde Park, and then we want to talk about Rosalindale. So Mimi, take it away. Thank you, Sharon. I'm good. Thank you for having me on. Always great to come on the show. So squares and streets is an initiative of this administration, specifically the goal is to, it frames a lot of different things, but ultimately we believe that the goal is to build more housing and affordable housing. More housing, more housing, some affordable housing. There's a recognition that we need more affordable housing. And the neighborhoods that have been identified, the neighborhoods that have been identified first are Hyde Park and Rosalindale. They're the first two neighborhoods, but there's an additional 14. So they've identified 16 neighborhoods that they're going to do the squares and streets initiative in. It's a zoning reform. The mayor was elected to reform zoning. People elected her and said this is something. That was quite a good platform. She said this. You're going to do away with the BRA slash now BPDA, but it's a part of it. That's a part of it. But this is an initiative of the BPDA and an initiative of the administration to transform zoning. And so part of the squares and streets is about zoning and rewriting the zoning code and part of it is about planning. But the objective, overall objective, is to recreate something called, or to create something called Article 26, which they have been able to propose and pass. And it's a reconfiguration of land use. And what it will end up doing is making neighborhoods more dense, creating more housing, doing demolition. And a whole host of things with the goal of having neighborhoods be walkable and have more housing and be 15 minute neighborhoods so anybody can walk to the square and get whatever they want. So that's kind of the goal in a transit-rich neighborhood that hasn't been planned in a long time. So that's the wide eagle view of what's supposed to happen. That's the narrative coming out of the administration. That's the narrative. Okay. So what's really going on? Well, I mean, I think what's really going on is that they identified these 16 neighborhoods and said these are places we want to build housing. We want to do more development there. We think the housing should be taller, denser, more gentrified, potentially, right? More more cafes and more this and so that ideally it's to do excessive building with no protections for displacement, no protections for green space, no requirement of trees, things like that, so that it's a real mix bag. So this is coming from a mayor who comes from Chicago where they have all that already. I mean, I'm just keeping a risk. I can say this. You can't say this, but I can say this. Chicago looks very, very different, New York looks very, very different, has a different look, has a different feel. And when you say to me, denser and higher, these are the two things I think about. I think about cities that are hot, that tear up old trees to put in new trees that don't have the same benefit as new trees, that also are hotter because there's more, in my yard, I found a groundhog. I've never seen a groundhog except on television when they ask, is it going to mean more? Well, you live in Hyde Park. Because they're growing so many things that the animals, I mean, I have a circle of life in my backyard, which I did not expect to see. We've got coyotes on American Legion highway, snatching people's dogs and killing people's dogs. I've seen-- They're hungry, Sharon. Because they don't have any places left, they've been getting pushed out for mother's development. So that, to my point, is what I'm saying. And then, so, you know, I want to, for our viewing audience, and I'm listening audience, to understand what that looks like. When they're driving down the street, and you see all these different pond tombs, and the already narrow streets are getting narrower, and then you're seeing coyotes on American Legion highway. I mean, I remember growing up in the neighborhood, and there was a lot more green space. And so, we saw those, but they were in their space. They weren't in my yard. And so, and then you're also, you know, part of the Crane's ledge, which is another initiative that's trying to save green space. And space that is owned by a church, which is a member of, you know, trans-prancing, Julie. And I worshiped that. And you have. And you campaign that they took. I have. But here's the thing. I recognize, so, when I think of tall buildings, I think of two things. One is I think of segregation and projects, which behaviorally was not healthy for anybody. And then I think of big cities. I don't want to live in a big city, which is why I live in Boston, or I'd moved to New York. I lived in New York. I know what that is. I don't want that here. How do we, so, the later run in the program, we're going to talk about how we get involved in that process, decision-making process. And we're going to talk about Hyde Park, but I want to bring Laurie in. How does this affect Rosalindale? Because, and before we get into who's making the decisions, these decisions that have already been made, what does that look like right now in Rosalindale? So in Rosalindale, there was a community process that was new and different. In the past, there's been for Rosalindale zoning and for Hyde Park, I think, as well, the articles that we're under right now. There was a steering committee formed. And there was outreach to be very inclusive, and it took two to three years. So our, we had a neighborhood strategic plan first, and the zoning was built on top of that. This is designed to be a seven to nine-month process, and the inclusiveness that we expected has been lacking. And I can give you some numbers, you know. We're going to get into that part. The inequity of the supposed equity of the plan, the equity lenses that supposed to be used. So right now, when, because I remember Rosalindale, I go to Rosalindale now and you get the farmers market, and you've got a bustling commuter rail. Now people are really, I think, more used to using the commuter rail than they were. Okay. Then you've got, I see more people recently, last week, I was downtown, and they were hardly any people down there. This is really a dead zone during the day. It was really weird, right? Because I grew up when, you know, you went downtown, people went downtown, they shopped. But it seems like if this plan, the way it's stated, works, then it should make the community business centers, like Rosalindale Square, Hyde Park, Cleary Square, which, you know, it's got the bridge in there for, I don't know how much longer, but it should make them more vibrant. It should. It should. But is that, that's the goal? No, that's the goal. No. I want to talk about the commuter rail, because that's, you know, we have the commuter rail. The issue of the commuter rail is it doesn't run that often. It doesn't bring workers into the center, and it doesn't take people out to places they want to go. So the people who come into Rosalindale Square, center to work, Rosalindale Square to work, aren't coming on the commuter rail. It doesn't feed from the areas that they live. And so the transportation moniker for this initiative really has to be peeled back a little bit to say what transportation who's taken whom where. In terms of vibrancy, we've got a lot of really great small businesses, and a lot of them are owned by people from DR, immigrants. We have a lot of vacancies too. But you also said that the problem with this plan is not really including the people that live there, and people who would have to park there, and people who have businesses there who are losing parking. Yes. So what we know about the people who have been involved is we don't have their residences. We don't know where they live. We do know there's been, in the metric they use called a participant contact, there's been 776 white people, and 54 Latino Latina, and 38 African American Blacks, 776 white people are participating to zone a community that's in which whites are the minority. And so it's inclusive because there's a lot of numbers, but who's deciding for whom? And I think that's been a big issue. So I have a question. Yeah. Mimi knows me. Oh. You don't look Dominican. You could be. Yeah. You don't look Latino. You might be black too. I'm not sure. Yeah, yeah. And I think that's a good question. I think that's a good question. I think that's a good question. I think that's a good question. I think that's a good question. I think that's a good question. I think that's a good question. I think that's a good question. I think that's a good question. I think that's a good question. I think that's a good question. I think that's a good question. I think that's a good question. I think that's a good question. 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We, both Hyde Park and Rosendale, have done a series of community meetings to make sure that people know what's going on and we've tried to get the word out and done door-knocking and we'll continue to do that. We had a community meeting with 300 people in Hyde Park that the mayor came to. We've had several other follow-ups. We just had another one that we had about 70 people come to. That's a tiny amount of people, right? There's over 30,000 people in Hyde Park. That was my point. Yes. How many where does it vote as though? I know you know that you ran for office. How many people in Hyde Park are registered voters versus, because it, well, it doesn't, I'm not sure that even matters if you've got a certain amount of registered voters and they don't ever get to chime in on the process. I mean, it's going to be too late by the time the next election comes. Let me just say that we've collaborated as much as possible in education and Hyde Park has done a super job of breaking things down so it's understandable. We really appreciate them. How do we affect this process? So what we're doing right now is one of the coalition members is devised a canvassing method. And what we're actually going to do is do block canvassing, asking the question essentially "have you ever heard of squares and streets?" Because there are a lot of people who just don't know about it. And we're going to be asking the BPA to stop their zoning writing. They're writing it right now based on a survey written at a college level that is only accessible online. They're not handing out the surveys if you understand my meaning. So we're going to start canvassing and we're going to ask the city to stop writing. Are we the go-to method of this particular administration? I mean, we had someone, the person that was on this show before you, who was involved in the Reparations Task Force, and there was a whole controversy about not having community meetings and then not really letting people know about it and they say go to the website. Go to Boston, go to the website. And you're saying the same thing with this process, right? They're saying go to the website, but then the website is too complicated. Much of it's done on the website. Much of it's complicated and it's an extremely dense and long survey to take online. It's, you know, it's very, very not accessible. What we're also going to be doing is demanding or asking the city to stop writing zoning until they recruit. They hear from people in proportion to their representation in the city. So if we're, if we're not, if they're not quantifying the demographics, we're going to do four of them. So, yeah, I mean, I know who's in the coalition. I know who's at the number of Latino, Latino who are at, say, a church meeting and we're going to start trying to get people involved where they naturally aggregate. Now you started the Ross and Dale coalition. I did. Why? So what happened was, I can't believe it's over 50 people now. Not everybody's active, like any group. But what happened was there was a development being built that nobody knew about. And it was in a part of the square that was going to affect the local, you know, small businesses. And I couldn't believe that they hadn't heard of this development. And so I started leafleting and pulled together some voice so that they could speak up. This was the square. The butters were another organization. And so there were like three of us doing this leafleting. And what happened was we became aware of other places where developments were being proposed that the butters didn't even know about. No, Mimi, you're the president of the Hyde Park neighborhood association amongst other things. And one of the co-founders is Southwest Boston CDC. And then you're part of the historic society too in Hyde Park, right? And then anything else? I mean, you're in a bunch of stuff. How do you, so you didn't create the Hyde Park neighborhood association with the president of it? No, no. Yes. So how many people are, and how often do you guys meet, how many people are in Hyde Park? So the Hyde Park neighborhood association meets once a month. We have a couple of hundred people on our mailing list. We've been building a squares and streets list also for people who have come to the community meetings and are trying to make sure that people get that information and get out all the information about what the BPDA is doing and the various meetings and stuff that's going on in the neighborhood. Our meetings probably have 30 people that come to them. We do them in person. We don't do them online anymore. So we're trying to make sure that it's about building community as well and bringing developers in and letting people understand what's going on and trying to educate and ask questions and make sure that people are engaged in the process of development. What do you hope people come to know about this squares and streets process? I think ultimately the important thing is that... We've had a big sigh over here. People need to be engaged. We understand that, yes, it's true, that the challenge of participation is always you're banging at the wall to get in and sometimes there's a crack and sometimes it breaks down and sometimes it builds up higher. So getting folks engaged, getting people to come to the meetings, we have our emails on here and people can email me, efchurchnets@gmail.com, get them on the mailing lists, come to a community meeting and participate in the things that we're doing and be part of the voice that we have. I mean, we created something called the Citizens' Petition that we filed with the Zoning Commission because remember we... That's the thing with the QR code, is that the...? No, no. The QR code takes you to a page in the Rosendale Coalition. Can we bring that up, please? The important thing about that code is it has the most important concerns that people should be acting on. Displacement, affordability, transportation, and inclusion. And actually, I wrote my first letter where I actually used the G word of gentrification because it's so crystal clear in the plan that they put out in a small idea of reception that the people who are making the decisions are looking at blocks that are the residences of people that don't look like them. Okay, let's place the number game now because some of the numbers that you showed... So some people think gentrification is a good thing and I've heard that, you know, gentrification is good and then there's the brain drain that people talk about. I mean, Boston has the highest number of hospitals and colleges and universities per square mile than any place in the world. And unfortunately, that's negatively impacting the tax base to be able to fund the schools because you've got all these nonprofits that are not paying their pilot funds, payment in lieu of taxes. See, we're teaching you all the time. And so, and then when you have more renters than homeowners, that's also affecting the tax base because, you know, so now there's this controversy with the mayor, thank you, with the mayor wanting to tax businesses and not put that heavy lift on homeowners. So there's all sorts of things in play and meanwhile, someone in the middle of traffic coming home is looking at the middle of coming's highway being dug up because they're going to put, you know, the bus lanes down there. And so people who look at the inconvenience of it, but what I hear from people of color is this is enough for us. Yeah, it's for all they do in this room. Replacement strategy. Yep, the displacement strategy. Talk about that, Mimi. Well, I mean, part of the challenge with this stuff is that it's... There is a desire on the part of the city to... My mother would say, "Gussy it up," right? Make it so that it's newer, fresher, richer. Give people the opportunity. Give more young people, right? We're trying to make sure that we have... College graduates who... Right, well, the goal is to have more young professionals be able to afford to live in the city. They can't live here anymore if they wanted to come back. They can't come back because they can't afford it. So there's some... And I know we don't all agree on this. There's some positive things with the squares and streets. Oh, I didn't say that. I mean, it can build more affordable housing. That is a positive thing. It can increase density. It can be some of those things. That's not a bad thing. But ultimately, the challenge is that there is... Feels like when you read the most recent language coming out of this... This ideas cafe that Lori was talking about that was in Rosendale. It's pretty clear there's going to be demolition. It's pretty clear that there's going to be gussying up of the neighborhoods, if you will. And so, and the fact that this is the building and what's built into this new language of the zoning code is it's form-based as of right. And so if you've got a particular zone, right, that gets mapped in a particular way, right, remember this is a piece of zoning that is for the whole city, but then each individual neighborhood has to go through a mapping phase. And Lori's been talking about the mapping phase, how they're going to map Rosendale. And then we're going to map Hyde Park. That's something that's supposed to be collaborative. But then the question is, what happens if the mapping proposal coming from the planning department doesn't comport with what the neighbors want, then who decides? And which neighbors are even getting their voice heard? You know, who's being at the meetings? Right, which is why people have to, even though sometimes it feels futile, people have to come to the meetings. The more bodies at the meetings, the more voices at the meetings, the better it is for the outcomes in these particular things. But here's the thing. This is good about, not even five minutes, about five minutes left. So I'm going to have to have you guys come back. This is a leap of dive. Can I just say really quickly, I'm not against more housing. No, I know, yeah, don't characterize me as that because it's not true. What I'm really interested in is truly affordable housing. More affordable housing, which squares the street does not contribute to, but go ahead. Right now, Boston is the second highest city in the country. Expensive? Most expensive. That's right, yeah. Most expensive. Cost of living. Not just rent, cost of living. And here's the, so what is the timeframe that you need people to move? Now, yesterday. So are there meetings that are coming up now that people need to be involved in that are already scheduled? No, so we're going to be, this idea survey went out. There have been a lot of voices saying we can't take it, we can't even read it. Hopefully they'll pause it. If they don't. They're going to start planning based on the feedback from a survey that's not just. And that could happen in a month. So people really need to get involved. In a month. So they need to contact you. They do. They need to contact me. They do. Now, are the other neighborhoods looking at what you guys are doing? Oh, yeah. Yeah, so there is, this is being rolled out. The next kind of group of neighborhoods is Codman Square, Four Corners, Fields Corner. And that's, they're the ones who have been activated. And there's, yeah, there's the corner that the Bing, Bing's bookstore in, is in. Four Corners. Further down, past, past Fields Corner. Glover's Corner, is that anything? I don't know. So there's four different distinct neighborhoods in the next block. And then there's going to, it's going to roll out to, to vary a few more. I will just interrupt for one second and just say about Dorchester about, they are looking, Rosendale is the cautionary tale. They look at those statistics. They put it, an article in the letter in the Dorchester reporters says, "We don't want to look like Rosendale when it comes to outreach." Oh, yeah. We're the cautionary tale. And I would just say one thing, Sharon. So one of the things that, that we have an ad hoc coalition of a lot of different organizations and individuals, we file the Citizens' petition. And that is something that I can come on and talk to you about it the next time. We have filed it with the Zoning Commission. We filed it several times. We modified it. The citizens' petitionists load things up. There's a QR code at the bottom of the screen. Please scan it. It's to modify the Article 26, which is the zoning language that they passed. So it's to add to it. It's to amend the current language that was passed. You know, I have the feeling, we've got like three more minutes. Right, yeah. So I have to thank you guys for being here. I have to get you back here. I remember before the pandemic, the wags and the cags that they had when the federal government rolled out millions of dollars and billions of dollars. For the caramel line, right? And for, right. For the housing around all the different, right? And I remember going to a meeting in, up on this corner. And nobody in that meeting looked like me. Right. And I said that. Yeah. And I said, you know, on top of the fact that you're having this at a time where most of the people who live around here are at work or in school. Right. What is this group? How do you get appointed to this group? How did you find out about this group? And you're telling me that this is supposed to be available for the community to make a decision about what's happening in the community and the community is not here. I live around here. And only because I'm plugged into stuff do I know about this and nobody from my community is in here. But you guys are moving forward with these decisions. How do we stop this? Well, you know, it's already in process, blah, blah, blah. So is this already in process? And we're slowing it up. And it's going to happen anyway. Can we really make a significant difference when we show up? I think it's in process. I think it's going to happen. And I think that we can participate and get involved and try to. We craft some of what's going on. I agree. And to get in touch with you, again, it's Eve. And I think it's going to happen. I think it's going to happen. And I think it's going to happen. I think it's going to happen. I think it's going to happen. I think it's going to happen. 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I think it's going to happen. I think it's going to happen. I think it's going to happen. I think it's going to happen. I think it's going to happen. I think it's going to happen. I think it's going to happen. I think it's going to happen. I think it's going to happen. I think it's going to happen. I think it's going to happen. I think it's going to happen. I think it's going to happen. I think it's going to happen. I think it's going to happen. I rebuke you in the name of Jesus is deep. Then he shoots her in the face. He shot her three times. He shot her in the face. The downward trajectory showed that she was going down to hide. She said, "Please don't hurt me." Pay attention because this is affecting you and your children and your children's children. Take care of yourself and thank you for being here with us on another level. I'll see you next time. ♪♪ ♪♪ I have a problem every year around the K-Day because the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. for some reason has been treated as America's civil rights mascot. On this day you'll have folks who would have never in their life with, agreed with, voted with, anything he believed in. One of the biggest biggest in the United States Congress, him, your dad, sent out a Dr. King vote. The march has begun every day. We rise like the sun and flight till the battle is won. You hear the footsteps listen 'cause we're coming like a game on the streets, so you better start running. It's time for some action now. Historical progressions, generations marching in succession through 400 years. Here's heat, blood, sweat and tears and counting. The resistance is mounting. ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ The preceding commentary does not necessarily reflect the views of the staff and management of WBCA or the Boston Neighborhood Network. If you would like to express another opinion, you can address your comments to Boston Neighborhood Network, 302-5 Washington Street, Boston, Massachusetts, 0211-9. To arrange a time for your own commentary, you can call WBCA at 617-708-3215 or email radio@bnnmedia.org. [BLANK_AUDIO]