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Boston honors the lives lost on September 11th at the Garden of Remembrance in Boston Common, and locals reflect on how that day has affected our country. Roxbury Community College and DoorDash partner to fund the Rox Box food pantry, a service fighting food insecurity in Boston. BPS Sundays gives Boston students access to local institutions, and will be extended through the end of the year. The annual Greek Festival in Brookline brings together Boston's Greek community for a day of food, dance, and culture. An interview with John Cruz III and Justin Cruz of Cruz Companies, a community-centered developer and one of Boston's first black-owned construction companies.

Duration:: 25m
Broadcast on:: 13 Sep 2024
Audio Format:: mp3

(upbeat music) - Good evening Boston, welcome to BNN News. It's Friday, September 13th, 2024. I'm Natalie Kanler, thanks for tuning in. 23 years ago, a tragedy occurred that changed the trajectory of American history. And on Wednesday, Boston honored the lives lost on September 11th at the Garden of Remembrance in Boston Common. (singing in foreign language) ♪ Let that high love stand beside her ♪ ♪ And guide her through the night with the light from above ♪ ♪ From the mountains to the prairies ♪ ♪ To the oceans wide with foam ♪ ♪ God bless America ♪ ♪ My home sweet home ♪ ♪ God bless America ♪ ♪ My home sweet home ♪ It was a senseless, horrific event tragedy of my brother and also other people who were murdered on 9/11. The world doesn't feel as safe anymore to me having ran through that. I feel like the world is more unsettled and the divisiveness in the country is worse. I wish that it were better after that, but I don't feel that yet. - It's hard to believe it's 23 years since the incredibly tragic and senseless violence trauma of 9/11. I think it's very important on this day that we remember, of course, all the loved ones lost, all of the heroes of that day, all those who suffered in the aftermath, whether they went abroad and served in conflict or whether they suffered injuries, either at 9/11 or in caring and doing the cleanup of 9/11. We continue to experience loss and so my heart goes out to the survivor families of all this. I also think it's an important day for reaffirming our commitment to the military, to military families, to veterans, to those who serve and make possible all the freedoms that we enjoy today. And finally, it is a day of service and unity. And I hope in moments like this, particularly in times of challenge for our country, that people come together. There's far more to bring us together. There's far more that we have in common than divides us. And I think that's something we need to be clear about, especially on a day like 9/11. September is National Hunger Action Month. And Roxbury Community College is now bringing more food security to its students through Roxbox. This week, Roxbury Community College and Food Delivery Service DoorDash celebrated the announcement of a new partnership that will provide $75,000 over the next three years to ensure that Roxbox is stocked with fresh food and personal care items. 37% of students in Massachusetts are experiencing food insecurity. And so we wanna make sure that that's never a barrier to student success. That's what the Roxbox is here to do. It's to serve students every month to make sure that they have access to food, hygiene products, diapers, a lot of students here are parents. And so making sure that access to food, access to personal hygiene products is never a barrier to student success. Food insecurity is huge. And when you talk about coming to campus, learning what you're starving, those two things don't connect. They don't go well together. And so what you have here with Roxbox is an initiative to make sure that our students have a full stomach and that they can really concentrate on what it is that they need to get done to help improve their station in life. Roxbox is an on-campus resource at RCC that provides healthy food to students who are food insecure. And this increased funding will support 700 students every month and ensure that every student at RCC has access to nutritional food. Just because someone comes to the campus, they appear to have everything that they need. They have all their books and their materials. But the reality is some of our students are hungry and they've had to make those difficult choices on whether to pay for getting here cost of attending, you know, and books and materials and virtuous food. That's why the Roxbox is so important for our students. They can come in, there's no judgments made on anyone for any reason on why they may be struggling to provide food for themselves and their families. It's really difficult to be able to show up ready to learn and to excel in school, particularly when it comes to higher education when you're first time becoming an adult for a lot of our students. And the Roxbox food pantry helps alleviate a lot of the stresses that a lot of our students may come across, particularly when it comes to food insecurity. Walking into a classroom on an empty stomach sets students up for failure. Without proper nutrition, meaningful learning becomes nearly impossible. Roxbox have helped me, especially being a college student 'cause it's very difficult, you know, shopping and getting the money to get all the supplies in Roxbox, I've supplied that for us and helped us in a big way. A lot of people go through things in life. Everybody has a struggle. Sometimes it's hard to focus when you are going through things and you're wondering how am I gonna feed my family? How am I gonna feed myself? What am I going to do when I get back home because I have nobody to turn to? For me, the Roxbox, they helped me. They was that supply for me. They was that source of resources for me. Through Roxbox, Roxbury Community College is ensuring that no student has to choose between their education and their basic needs, creating a stronger foundation for success both in and out of the classroom. This year, BPS Sundays rocked all the summer weekends, allowing BPS students and families to experience the best of Boston at no cost. And now the fun continues with an extension through the end of the year. On Sunday, Mayor Michelle Wu and Boston Public Schools announced the extension of its BPS Sundays program, offering students and families free access to some Boston's top attractions through the end of the year. The BPS Sundays program has been so beloved and well used. We've had over 36,000 students and families take part. Some of our institutions have estimated nearly half of those who have come have said it was their very first time visiting that cultural institution, whether it's the Aquarium, the Museum of Science, the Zoo, et cetera, even though these are Boston families who've been here and so we really see the difference that removing those barriers makes and the difference that it makes to not only bring to have the young person come for free, but to have family members be able to join them. The initiative has made a significant impact, particularly on families who might not otherwise afford access to these spaces. Through this program, BPS emphasizes the importance of providing enriching experiences beyond the classroom to support diverse learning styles. You have students from all walks of life, but you have distance franchise students that particularly have different learning styles and you want to compliment that not only with school facilities, but improved curriculums, but services outside of the school as well and connections to students that offer that experiential learning is super important. It's so important for all children in the area in Boston to have the opportunity to come and experience this beautiful zoo. Not all families might be able to afford the membership fees and for some it might be really challenging if they have multiple children and large families and having access to BPS Sundays makes it so that they can all come here, enjoy this beautiful environment and feel like they have an equal opportunity. The BPS Sundays program includes access to renowned institutions such as the Boston Children's Museum, Museum of Science, Franklin Park Zoo, the New England Aquarium and more and it is the mission of these institutions to underscore BPS's goal to educate and inspire future generations. We are thrilled to be having all of these young people in here. That's our mission. Ultimately, our mission is about preserving nature and biodiversity for future generations and that's what these kids are. So having them come in here and learn and have fun and take away something that they didn't have before is what we're all about. With its success so far, BPS Sundays is continuing through the end of the year, offering even more institutions and opportunities for Boston students and families to learn and grow together. You have a choice every single BPS Sunday. Do you want to go learn about animals and wildlife at the zoo and the aquarium? Do you want to get into art at the MFA or the ICA? Do you want to just run and play and climb at the Children's Museum or dive into science at the Museum of Science? We are so lucky to have this range of options in Boston and again, we continue to be in talks with our partners about expanding it, adding more institutions. There's been a lot of excitement also from performing arts organizations. It works a little differently when you only have a certain number of concert tickets but we are well on our way to expanding with to give even more offerings. From wildlife exploration to museum visits, BPS Sundays is helping shape the future of Boston's young learners, one enriching experience at a time. Boston's Greek community brought their vibrant traditions to life last weekend at the annual Greek festival in Brookline, uniting residents in a lively celebration of food, dance and culture. Last weekend, the Greek community of Boston brought their culture to life at the annual Greek festival in Brookline. Today is a great day for us Greeks. We have a bunch of people from all over Boston, Massachusetts, New England, coming to celebrate the Greek culture today and it's amazing because we're super proud of the culture here and what we get to share with people, we have amazing Greek food, Greek dances, Greek vendors here and it's so amazing just to see people loving our culture as much as we love our culture and getting to share that with everybody and with the world. The festival features traditional Greek food, music and dancing as well as multiple artisans selling goods that represent the culture. Because our group goes to Greece also frequently to dance and one of the comments that we get there is how impressed they are with how we keep up the culture here in the US. So we're very prideful here in America and it shows not just to the people around us but to those in Greece too. I have friends from other cultures and we obviously celebrate with them too and it's nice being able to see how different people celebrate at different events. Residents from all over New England appreciated the lively spirit and genuine souls of the Greek people. It means so much to me that people are able to see our culture and see the richness and tradition that we have. And for that, I have great amounts of energy when I dance. The friends that I've made will last me for life and there's nothing better than being Greek. So I'm not from here, I'm actually from Wisconsin and this community, one thing about being Greek is that you sit down at the table, you have a drink with somebody you don't know and everybody here is so friendly and welcoming and it's good to see people enjoying the community that I've got to make my home. No matter where you hail from, the Greek community is united by their love to their culture and their inherent graciousness. It's an opportunity for us to reach out and to share our culture with others. It's important for us to realize and to help others realize that the more that we share, the more we find that we aren't different from each other. It is a great opportunity, not only to come and to enjoy some Greek food, but to share in our culture, the music, the pastries, the fellowship, the philanthropia, the giving of who we are as Orthodox Christians with others. - As a Greek person, we're proud to share our heritage and on the great legacy that we have through our sense of community with our wonderful foods, our pastries and just our philotimo. Philotimo is a word, a Greek word, that means hospitality and friendship and just treating people the way you would want to be treated. - And as the festival drew to a close, the vibrant spirit of the Greek community continued to resume, leaving attendees with lasting memories and a deeper appreciation for the rich traditions they proudly uphold. (upbeat music) - As more Bostonians search for affordable housing, it can be difficult to find housing developers that truly care about the community. Cruise companies has been building up Boston since 1948, making it one of the first black owned construction companies to ever exist in the city. This week, I was joined by father-son duo, John Cruz III and Justin Cruz, who have turned their family-owned business into a community-centered developer and a nonprofit that encourages young people from Boston to aspire for more. - A lot of people don't, development is like an iceberg. You only see the tip of it. You don't know what's below. And the time required for development is you can't see it. You see the development there, but you don't see all the time. So that project probably from our first inception of saying we wanna build something on that spot, probably took almost eight years to develop to go through the different processes. So it took us eight years to finally, basically complete the project from its initial. And it's typical with development. It may not be as long as that, but it usually takes at least four years from your initial time you decide you're going to buy a building or piece of land and development, because there's so many processes to go through through the neighborhood, through the various approvals from the city and the agencies, and then the various financial institutions, because you can't do affordable housing with just one bank. It takes a myriad of different financial, state, local, feds to put enough of the money together to make it work. But we're extremely happy with it, because we moved our offices on the first floor in the basement of that building. So it's before we were scattered in two offices. So now we're all in one building, and we actually have plans to purchase the building next door, which is an old church building, and put an additional 54 units up there in the future. - Wow, and when do you guys plan to be officially opening the Haines building? - We actually opened it up of when May. - In May, wow, awesome. And you have people living there now. We're moving down as far as our office space. - Great, that's amazing. - We haven't officially opened the office part of it, 'cause we're still waiting for some leftover design items to come in, but hopefully in a month, we'll have the open house for the office. - Great, great. And another big part of cruise companies is cruise cares. The nonprofit that connects you guys with urban communities, uplifting urban communities. Can you tell me how you reach out to these communities and what sort of programs goes into this? - Sure, I mean, we have resident service coordinators that reach out to our communities and we bring programming to our communities. And that can be educational, recreation, entertainment. We really do, the acronym for cruise is community arts, recreation, education, and I just lost that, I had the last one. You can have that, S, I can't remember the last, the second one, the last one. But we outreach, we do surveys at the sites for sometimes what people, what they're looking for, know what the community wants is important sometimes before you bring anything to them. But we have holiday parties, Turkey giveaways, a trip to Martha's Vineyard where we take the community too. So we have a lot of different ways that we outreach scholarships all comes through there. We do bridge water state, we do a scholarship for students there, but it's really just a, - We take group of kids up skiing and it was originally focused around trying to help youth and the most vulnerable in the community. And it has expanded now to include others, but again, we've discovered when you take some of the inner city kids out and introduce them to a new environment, they say, oh, this is the way the other world lives. For example, skiing, they like it, it gets them out of the community, they see other things, and they quickly realize, hey, you need money to do this and that makes them think, if I'm gonna do this, I'm gonna need a job, small things, but it works. So the same with going to Martha's Vineyard on a bike swim ride, it lets them see another part of the world they may not see, and especially with Martha's Vineyard, where there's a large number of successful black homeowners there, it makes them raise the level of what you can be right in front of them. So I think it's a motivator factor. - Wow, yeah, they don't have the opportunity to see that perspective, right? - Yes, that comes out, right. And what sets crews apart from all the other real estate development companies that are filing through Boston, building big and building high, what makes the difference? - Well, I think first of all, we started off, and my father started the business, in 1948, when as a black man in Boston, you were last hired, first fired, and at that time, people call you the N word and get away with it, but it was construction. And the reason he started it was because he found it so difficult to get steady work that he had to start his own company to make enough money, and out of adversity grows an opportunity, is what I point to. And so we started out as a construction company, still are, still have that. So when we come in as a developer, we don't just come in building housing. We come in with jobs, creating jobs for the various trades, 'cause that's what we do, and then we switch over to the housing. So we bring more economic flow to the community than a lot of other developers, because they don't have the construction arm. And again, most of our workers are from the local community, so that has built up a lot of tremendous goodwill in the community, 'cause when people go by our job sites, they see people like us working on the job. So that's what I would say, one of the things Justin, you may want to add. - Yeah, I think you hit it. I mean, it's really the dedication to the community. I think it's the development, construction management, each one of those businesses have that same focus of uplifting and involving other vendors of color and local people of Boston. So we really do impact it economically, I think, the community in a way that others don't. And we're here for the long term. I mean, my dad mentioned about development. You see the end-in-the-end sort of building, but there's a lot that happens before that. And part of that is deciding before we do it, like how will this impact the community in the most positive way? And we're not here just to put up a building and move on, it's to actually make the community better place than when we found it. - We really feel that we aren't just warehousing people, and I'm not knocking, we need affordable housing, but we add to the wealth gap being closed by putting economic opportunities for jobs and businesses. - Right, absolutely. And what are some of the businesses that you guys work with closely? - Well, we work with a lot of the local contractors. The various, you know, we're blessed to be a third generation black-owned firm, extremely blessed. The way to close the income gap, the fastest by creating more black and brown businesses, especially we're third generation, creates second and third generation. That's our mission. We hope that we have a lot of second generation contractors working for us now, and hopefully to become third, that's the way you build wealth. - Totally, absolutely. And I think you talked a little bit about, or before we started about the new Bedford development that's happened, can you tell me about that and any other recent developments that are happening? - Sure, so we're really excited. I'll start here. One of the upcoming projects we're working on that we're excited about is in Newbean Square, and it's gonna be 170 units. 60 of it will be affordable rentals, and 110 will be condos. And some of those condos will be affordable. Again, part of the closing the income gap is through homeownership. And it's something that we're identifying and trying to tackle. So really excited about that one. My dad mentioned more Waverly Street, which is right behind Michael Haynes building now. That's gonna be another 40 units, 48 units. 54, you know, housing, which is gonna be great for the community there as well. We are working in New Bedford as well, and that's over 110 right now, units with some affordability in there as well. - Who and what we are is the community. We owe our success to the community, and we'll never forget that. - BNN wants to remind all of our viewers to register to vote for this year's elections, to register to vote, or check if you're registered, go to vote.gov. That's V-O-T-E dot G-O-V. Thank you for watching Boston. That's our broadcast for tonight. As a reminder, you can stream or watch the news on demand@bnnmedia.org. Each episode will be re-broadcast at 9.30 pm and 11 pm on Expanding Channel 9, a sound channel 15, and files channel 2161. And make sure to check out our BNN HD Expanding Channel 1072. You can also hear us on the radio, Fridays at 7.30 and 9 pm, and Monday through Thursday at 9 pm. And now you can watch BNN News on the go with the cable cast app. For BNN News, I'm Natalie Camler. I'll see you next Friday. [MUSIC PLAYING]