State senators take tour of Nubian Square

Lawmakers view businesses that are affected by their votes

Yawu Miller

Yawu Miller is the former senior editor of the Bay State Banner. He has written for the Banner since 1988.... VIEW BIO

“You’re in Nubian Square, the heart of Boston’s Black community,” state Sen. Liz Miranda announced to a dozen of her Senate colleagues gathered at the Roxbury Street headquarters of METCO, the voluntary school desegregation program. “It’s a place struggling to rebuild itself.”

The challenges facing business owners, employers and shoppers in the commercial districts could easily be those faced in the gateway cities such as Lawrence, Lowell, Fitchburg and Lynn represented by Miranda’s colleagues — traffic and parking, struggling public transit systems, a growing population of homeless people who are struggling with addiction, and people exiting incarceration and looking for gainful employment.

“There are hundreds of people getting their first drink at 9 a.m. to deal with whatever pain they have in their lives,” Miranda said. “Many people are just surviving.”

Miranda also showed her colleagues what’s working well in the commercial district — new supermarkets, social service agencies, new businesses and METCO, which serves school systems in the suburban districts of some of her colleagues.

“We are a $29.9 million program, which pays for buses and all of our staff,” METCO Executive Director Milly Arbaje-Thomas told the senators and their staff assembled in the nonprofit’s office. “We’re asking for $32.2 million this year so we can give everyone cost-of-living raises.”

Collin Knight of Live Like a Local Tours discusses the history of Nubian Square with Sen. Jamie Eldridge of Acton as legislative staff look on. PHOTO: YAWU MILLER

Arbaje-Thomas said the nonprofit, which sends students of color from Boston to surrounding suburban school districts, would be better served if it were included in the state’s education budget, rather than having to fight for yearly funding increases.

“We should be part of the regular education funding,” she said.

Sen. Jamie Eldridge, whose district includes METCO receiving districts Wayland and Sudbury, asked Arbaje-Thomas whether there are plans to expand the number of METCO seats.

“It would require legislative advocacy,” Arbaje-Thomas said. “Any expansion would have to come with an increase in state funding.”

After hearing from Mayor Michelle Wu, the Black Economic Council of Massachusetts and the Boston Education Fund, the senators headed out for a tour of the district led by Miranda and Collin Knight, founder and CEO of Live Like a Local Tours.

The Senate Tours, held yearly, give members a chance to see each other’s districts and gain an understanding of how the issues they vote on in the State House affect their colleagues’ constituents. Among the senators who attended Miranda’s tour of the Nubian Square area were Pavel Payano of Lawrence, Pat Jehlen of Somerville, Joanne Comerford of Northampton, Will Brownsberger of Watertown and Jamie Eldridge of Acton.

Payano said he sees a lot of similarities between Roxbury and Lawrence.

“They’re both up-and-coming communities,” he said. “In Lawrence, you’re seeing a lot of new businesses. It speaks a lot for the work people are doing to lift communities up.”

Both communities have seen new bank branches and other indicators of investment by private businesses and nonprofits. Both also underwent prolonged periods of disinvestment as they transitioned from majority-white to majority Black and Latino.

Speaking to Miranda’s Senate colleagues, Mayor Wu called the Nubian Square area the heart of the city and said the commercial district has suffered through painful chapters of Boston’s history.

“We’re still experiencing it, just under every policy issue we’re discussing,” she said.

Miranda has made health equity, economic equality, poverty mitigation and mass incarceration her priority areas. She has filed 77 bills since she assumed office in January, including a proposed constitutional amendment that would allow people incarcerated for felonies to vote and a bill that would create a fund to aid communities impacted by mass incarceration with job training, creation and placement services, prioritizing people who have experienced violence or incarceration. Prior to her election to the Senate, she represented the 5th Suffolk District in the House of Representatives for four years.

Comerford, whose district includes Amherst, Greenfield and Athol, noted that Miranda has prioritized economic and social justice issues in the Senate.

“Senator Miranda is galvanizing the Senate in support of this community,” she said. “She’s a unique voice for what we have to do if we value equity in Massachusetts. For me to have an opportunity to meet her constituents — it’s really important.”