roxbury

City officials and representatives of the Nuestra Comunidad community development corporation and Windale Developers last Thursday cut the ceremonial ribbon on the first residential and commercial buildings on the Bartlett Station site, with 76 housing units and 13,000 square feet of commercial space.

Last Wednesday, city officials, police officers and elected officials met with Roxbury residents at the Central Boston Elder Services building in Dudley Square to discuss the short- and long-term plans for dealing with the population of homeless and drug-addicted people in Boston.

Residents sparred over the establishment of a cannabis dispensary in Dudley Square last Wednesday during a community meeting in St. John Missionary Baptist Church, where the dispensary owners presented their business plans, addressed community concerns and made a case to their fellow community members for their support going forward.

If all goes according to plan, the 25-story Rio Grande tower in Dudley Square will include 241 rental units, a restaurant, a public atrium, retail space and no onsite parking spaces.

At the July 11 BPDA board meeting, planners from the agency will seek approval of a draft request for proposals that calls for residential development on the Blair lot in Dudley Square, with retail and/or community space at ground level.

An ongoing crackdown against gypsy cabs in Dudley Square that has pitted merchants and property owners against the drivers.

As requests for proposals for three city-owned land parcels in Dudley Square continue to be refined, members of the community are making their voices heard to ensure that the redevelopment of the area adheres to the values and goals articulated by neighborhood residents.

The Roxbury Homecoming — Juneteenth Festival in Franklin Park was extremely well attended last Saturday.

Roxbury has long been known as the center of Boston’s black community. But it wasn’t always that way. Blacks didn’t begin moving into the neighborhood in great numbers until the middle of the 20th century.

Historic pride and preservation efforts in Roxbury are hardly a new trend. Nearly 100 years ago, an impressive volume, Picturesque Boston Highlands (Roxbury), Jamaica Plain and Dorchester offered an 1895 account of many areas that had then already endured as Roxbury landmarks.

Mansions built by Roxbury’s residents during the 1700s and 1800s are still standing. They are magnificent dwellings and figured prominently in our city's history.