roxbury

When city workers dismantled the tents in the streets around the intersection of Massachusetts Avenue and Melnea Cass Boulevard last December, city officials and civic leaders stressed the importance of a regional approach that would distribute the drug treatment programs and transitional housing from the area to neighborhoods throughout the city and throughout the region.

Residents and community members in Boston’s predominantly Black Roxbury neighborhood are demanding answers regarding the school system’s long-term plan for the newly shuttered James P. Timilty Middle School building, calling the lack of communication frustrating.

Celebrating a return to normalcy after several years of canceled or modified events, the 49th annual Caribbean Carnival returned to Blue Hill Avenue with music, costumes and a slew of food vendors in Franklin Park.

If memory serves me correctly, it was John F. Collins in the late ’50s, who brought Edward Logue here to Boston to start up the Boston Redevelopment Authority. He arrived in Boston shortly after doing his “urban renewal” vision nearby in New Haven. Tearing down the old because it was old and building what was called here “the New Boston.”

Up until the late 1960s, the area of Lower Roxbury around Madison Park was a vibrant neighborhood where luminaries such as jazz drummer Roy Haynes, former state Rep. and minister Michael Haynes, Nation of Islam Minister Louis Farrakhan and former Boston Police Superintendent William Billy Celester came of age. But a plan that was hatched in 1962 would soon wipe the neighborhood from the city’s map.

The second iteration of the free neighborhood music series “Nubian Nights,” is in full swing in Roxbury this month. Presented by the Roxbury Cultural District, the series has held two concerts at the Roxbury branch of the Boston Public Library and will host the third and final concert on Sunday, Aug. 21 at 7 p.m.

U.S. Rep. Ayanna Pressley secured $20 million in federal funds for street improvements for Malcolm X Boulevard, Melnea Cass Boulevard and Warren Street. The funding for the three Roxbury thoroughfares will be targeted toward streetscape improvements aimed at improving climate resiliency, making sidewalks more accessible and streets more safe.

In addition to the usual complement of elected officials and office seekers, the Puerto Rican festival parade included eight floats, more than 300 classic and custom cars, more than a dozen dance troupes among the 80-or-so official entrants.

Nubian Ascends is a real estate project set to bring big changes to the arts, culture and culinary experience in Nubian Square. According to the project proposal to the city, plans include “a multi-layered mixed-use program that includes a 48,000-SF marketplace for artisans and makers, beside a food hall that showcases chefs from the on-site culinary arts program.”

In 1978, Highland Park residents submitted a petition to the Boston Landmarks Commission to secure a designation for the Roxbury neighborhood as a historical district. It’s taken 44 years, but on June 19, the mayor and the Boston City Council approved the designation.

The soothing sounds of live music are wafting through Roxbury all summer during the Mission Hill Arts Festival, a series of six events throughout the summer, including a concert series at The YARD at the Tobin Community Center in Roxbury.

In 2018, with the sale of the Winthrop Square Garage, then-Mayor Martin Walsh committed $28 million to revitalize Franklin Park –– a promise that is now coming to fruition. However, with proposed plans including closing one of the park’s major through roads to automotive traffic, neighbors are expressing concerns over increased congestion and the sacrifice of invaluable community assets within the park’s outer regions.