Malcolm X Park

The city has completed most of a $9.6 million renovation to Malcolm X Park in Roxbury, a project that had generated some controversy over removing mature trees to make the area more accessible to people in wheelchairs.

On an ordinary spring afternoon, Malcolm X Park would be humming with activity. Now fenced off by a contractor, last week the park was mostly empty, save for a dozen or so men lounging and shooting baskets, thanks to a gap in the fencing, and surrounded by the rubble of torn-up concrete walkways and stone walls leveled by the excavators that began work on the park in March.

If there’s one thing community residents and city officials agree on, it’s that there was a meeting at Malcolm X Park Saturday, March 13, during which community residents asked Mariama White-Hammond, the city’s chief of environment, energy and open spaces, to spare the 54 trees marked for removal.