The Muslim World food walk & cooking class

This announcement is posted for Discover Roxbury:

The Muslim world is very rich in cultural traditions and at present comprises around 50 countries, each with its own cultural and traditional food. Yet there are marvelous commonalities such as Halal ingredients. Learn about the regional spices and how to stock your own Middle Eastern pantry. Join Chef Nadine Nelson on a visit to a Halal market, a Sudanese coffee shop, and the new Common Word Cafe to see and experience aspects of North African Muslim culture firsthand. Afterward, participate in an interactive cooking class where you will prepare traditional Moroccan dishes.

Wednesday, January 20, 6pm-9pm. Rain or shine.
Tour departs Roxbury Crossing MBTA Station at 6pm.
Click here to purchase your reservation ($60) or call 617-427-1006.

POLL: Where is the love, Roxbury?
This is the last week to take our pre-Valentine’s Day poll. Tell us where the most romantic place is in Roxbury. Vote for your favorite as many times as you’d like until January 22. We’ll announce the results just before Valentine’s Day. Click here to take the poll.

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Free MFA Admission Tomorrow

In Celebration of the Martin Luther King holiday, the Museum of Fine Arts opens its door for free admission all day on Monday, January 18. In addition to all of its regular exhibitions and programs, some special events are offered – click here for more information.

Community Alliance of Mission Hill Celebrates

By Chris Pestana

Improving quality of life through advocacy and action is not only the Community Alliance of Mission Hill’s mission statement, it is also what the Community Alliance of Mission Hill promoted at its annual Community Day Celebration in September.

On behalf of the Community Alliance of Mission Hill, Mission Hill Main Streets was awarded a $3,000 grant by the Mission Hill Fenway Neighborhood Trust for an annual Community Day Celebration.

The celebration took place Sept. 12. About 400 people attended, for live music, food and a social gathering at the Tobin Community Center in Roxbury.
It was a “huge success, and a lot of work,” said Rich Johnson, president of the Community Alliance.

This past spring Johnson set a list of goals, among them the hosting of an outdoor celebration. He was unsure about how to pay for such a celebration until he came across the Fenway Neighborhood Trust grant opportunity.

After applying to the Fenway Neighborhood Trust, the Community Alliance was notified in June that it would be awarded $3,000 for a Community Day Celebration. Mission Hill Main Streets was the fiscal agent, because it, unlike the Community Alliance, it holds 501(c)(3) charitable nonprofit status with the federal government.

“People want tax benefits for donations, “ said Christine Rose, executive director of Mission Hill Main Streets, who helped orchestrate the additional donations to help pay for the celebration.

Organizations with 501(c)(3) status are eligible to receive tax-deductible contributions, because the organization must not be organized or operated for the benefit of private interests.

After being awarded the grant, additional outreach was done to local businesses and hospitals, where various donations were received in the form of services, food, supplies and cash to help with the celebration.

With the finances for the Community Day in place, the Community Alliance held meetings once a week to organize and pitch ideas for what approach to take toward hosting the celebration.

Johnson, who hatched the idea for the celebration, said: “The idea behind it is to build relationships and strengthen the community.”

Johnson said the greatest value from the celebration came from the things that led up to and followed the event. For the celebration to be successful, volunteers from throughout the community had to make themselves available and coordinate with one another. About 100 community members volunteered for the Community Day Celebration. At its conclusion, a thank-you party was held for those who contributed.

The Community Alliance, founded in 1993, is the only Mission Hill organization to hold monthly meetings open to anyone. Johnson said that because issues are discussed and then voted on as in a democracy, the city takes into consideration issues to help improve the Mission Hill area that are voted on and approved during alliance meetings.
The Community Alliance is strictly a volunteer organization, and is a “reflection of the neighborhood,” Johnson said.

Considering the success of the first Community Day Celebration, the Community Alliance plans to host another one in the future, and would like to organize more social events to bring the Mission Hill community together.

Chris Pestana is an undergraduate student at the Northeastern University School of Journalism.

Emerald Necklace Conservancy Looks Back, and Forward

By Emily Plourde

The Emerald Necklace Conservancy, whose mission is to help keep beautiful the Emerald Necklace, discussed at its annual meeting Nov. 4 one pending and one accomplished project to guide visitors to the Emerald Necklace’s seven-mile stretch of parks that meanders through Boston.

The conservancy’s agenda for the future includes turning the Stony Brook gatehouse in the Back Bay into a visitor center for the Emerald Necklace.

And just this year, the conservancy completed the Emerald Necklace Map and Guide, which is now available to the public.

Benjamin Taylor, chairman of the conservancy’s board, welcomed about 150 people who attended the conservancy’s 11th annual meeting, held at the Wheelock College Family Theatre.

Taylor acknowledged John R. Cook Jr. and Lynn A. Dalenew, new members of the board of directors.

The conservancy’s annual report, delivered by its president, Julie Crockford, noted the group’s past achievements and future goals.

“In the forefront of our agenda is the historic Stony Brook gatehouse in Back Bay,” Crockford said.

The conservancy plans for the gatehouse as a visitor center call for it to be a place where park-goers can find information about the Emerald Necklace, and it is hoped that the gatehouse will be a hub for tours. The number of conservancy volunteers is increasing, which might enable it to expand its education programs to include a course for Elderhostel tours and guided tours of the Emerald Necklace.

Peter Forbes, a writer, photographer, farmer and conservationist, said in his keynote speech at the annual meeting that he thinks that people should build relationships with each other before they can help conserve the land.

“The central work of this time is to create a culture of belonging that feels empathy for the world and for one another. Urban parks are the physical place where a culture of belonging can be nurtured and sustained,” Forbes said.

The Leadership Program and Summer Youth Green Team was recognized for the hard work its members did in fixing up some of the Emerald Necklace parks this past summer. Student group leaders were at the meeting and were acknowledged for their after-school and weekend work on leadership and conservation with Kate England, director of youth programs for the conservancy.

An award was given to volunteer Jill Conley for her skillful design in creating the map for the Emerald Necklace Map and Guide. Awards were also given to members of Berklee College of Music’s Gracenotes volunteers for their work in the Back Bay Fens.

More information about the Emerald Necklace Conservancy can be obtained by visit its website at http://www.emeraldnecklace.org/.

Emily Plourde is an undergraduate student in the Northeastern University School of Journalism.

Garden Society Hopes Translating Documents Will Keep Membership Growing

By Sarah Friedman

The Fenway Garden Society received a $1,000 grant from the Mission Hill Fenway Neighborhood Trust last year to translate important Garden Society documents into different languages.

The Garden Society’s initial membership application, a two-page form that provides the applicant’s basic information and how the applicant plans to contribute to the Garden Society, and the society’s gardening rules and guidelines will soon be available in Chinese, Russian and Spanish versions.

Victoria Stock, head of publicity for the Garden Society, said the society has 500 plots of land available for gardeners and more than 400 members, many of whom come from diverse backgrounds and speak various languages.

“Many of our gardeners are not primary English speakers, and this makes outreach difficult. It was proposed that we translate the rules and guidelines so that non-English speakers are aware of our garden standards,” she said.

The Garden Society has been active in the Fenway neighborhood for decades. The Fenway Victory Gardens were first planted during World War II. Victory gardens were planted to free up industrially processed food for the war effort.

“The Victory Garden was a concept that encouraged Americans to grow their own food to supplement their allowed war rations,” Stock said.

Today the Fenway gardens are the only remaining original Victory Gardens in the United States. Members of the Fenway Garden Society work together to preserve and maintain what was begun so many years ago.

“As a group, we socialize together as gardeners, rather than young gardeners, old gardeners, men, or women,” Stock said. “Within the garden, people of all stripes are able to meet and form relationships outside of normally established peer groups.”

Because of the connections the society creates among neighbors and because of ongoing community interest in the gardens, Fenway Garden Society memberships have been increasing.

First Lady Michelle Obama brought attention to victory gardens last summer by planting one at the White House, and the Fenway Garden Society has benefited from having such a famous advocate.

“Since she planted her victory garden at the White House, applications for new garden memberships have quadrupled. Certainly, she may not even know we exist, but we have felt her impact,” Stock said.

That impact has made language barrier issues in the Fenway Garden Society more prominent. More people have expressed interest in applying for membership, but the society simply could not accommodate people who speak different languages.

It’s an issue that was recognized by the Mission Hill Fenway Neighborhood Trust.

Lauren Dewey Platt, president of the board of trustees for the trust, said many board members are familiar with the “historical and neighborhood-based gardens.” The board thinks that people interested in the Garden Society should not be excluded from obtaining membership because they don’t speak English, she said.

Platt said the Fenway Garden Society received grant money because the board of the trust thought that its proposal to translate documents would benefit residents in the neighborhood. Platt thinks that the grant will help ensure an expanded sense of community because more people will be able to get involved in the Garden Society.

“It’s a process of being inclusive,” she said.

Phyllis Hanes has been a member of the Fenway Garden Society for nearly 40 years. Hanes’ favorite part about being a member of the society is that “it’s very economical.” Through the society, Hanes has been able to grow fresh vegetables inexpensively for herself and her friends.

Because of ongoing interest in the Fenway Garden Society, especially recently, Hanes thinks that translating documents into different languages will benefit the society and the community.

“Since the gardens have grown and are much larger, the rules are more important,” Hanes said. “It means a lot to your neighbors if you know what the specific guidelines are.”

Hanes hopes that the translations will help anyone who is interested in the society understand the goal of the organization.

“I hope it will mean that more people will be involved. Without those translations, there probably are some people that don’t understand that we want everyone to work together and be of help to each other,” she said.

Sarah Friedman is an undergraduate student at the Northeastern University School of Journalism.

T Riders Union Hearing Exposes Passengers’ Anger

BY JON BALL

Much has been made about the threatened cut in the 55 bus route, but discontent with MBTA service extends beyond the West Fens. Spurred by recent protests—after which Governor Patrick announced postponement of proposed service cuts and fare increases—approximately 50 people attended a November 7 People’s Forum on transit justice, hosted at Northeastern University by the T Riders Union (TRU), a project of Alternatives for Community and Environment, a Roxbury-based environmental justice organization.

The Commonwealth consolidated its transportation agencies into a new Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT), which incorporates functions of the MBTA, the state’s highway department, and the Mass Turnpike Authority, among others. TRU has spearheaded a “Riders on Board” campaign, and TRU member Stuart Spina noted at the hearing that not only does the new MassDOT board lack a single T rider, but legislation mandating inclusion of at least one T rider on the agency board was defeated in the legislature last January.

Spina noted that due to increases expected in commuter traffic from the Big Dig—and a resulting deterioration of air quality—federal standards required offsetting MBTA improvements. Proposed MBTA projects included a tunnel to connect both sections of the Silver Line; restoration of the abandoned portion of the E branch of the Green Line, and construction of the North-South rail link, which would tie North and South stations together by rail. However, as the Big Dig costs overran all estimates, no Big Dig funding was provided for the MBTA to do the mandated work, forcing the transit authority to take on billions of dollars in debt. Proposed cuts and fare increases are part of MassDOT’s response to Big Dig debt service.

“In 2000 the state gave the T a cut of sales tax revenue, but stuck it with $5.62 billion in Big Dig debt. So we had fare increases in 2003 and in 2007. TRU asks why should T riders be the ones paying for suburban drivers’ debt? The state, not fare increases and cutbacks, should pay that debt.”

David Jenkins, a Roxbury Environmental Empowerment Project organizer, noted that only ten percent of all MBTA users travel on the suburban commuter rail system, yet it gets 60% of the MBTA’s capital budget. “So that’s why there’s no Blue Hill rail line. This isn’t just about history, it’s about who matter in current priorities.”

Louise Baxter, a former Peterborough Street resident who moved to South Boston in 1971, noted, “ I came here from New Hampshire, and worked at the old Robert Brigham Hospital (now part of New England Baptist). In those days, we staff could room there in the basement, and they fed us at a reduced price. And later, at other jobs, the T helped me get around cheaply. Now, it’s harder for young people to get started. I’m glad I’m not young today.

“And now, the T proposes cutting weekend and evening service, while South Boston has changed. All the yuppies take the rush hour buses. But people in the projects working odd hours and the elderly are going to be hurt by service cuts and fare increases. And look how now there’s a luxurious new T station at Broadway just when homeless families are being shipped out of Southie to places without public transportation. How are they ever supposed to get off welfare like they’re expected to do?”

Fenway residents John Kelly and Galeen Jones spoke about disability issues. Jones, a 30-year resident, noted the threat to the 55 bus. And Kelly noted that “The Ride is a stepchild. It’s subcontracted out, and so the drivers are poorly paid. That makes for turnover, so the drivers never learn to take care of their riders. And often, a wheelchair just can’t get off the bus at a stop because of parked cars. Why don’t we treat bus stops like fire hydrants?”

Jon Ball is a longtime contributor to The Fenway News.

This article originally appeared in the December 2009 edition of the Fenway News.

High Notes are a High Point: Berklee Sing-alongs Charm Seniors

BY JOEL HARTE

A music therapy program at the Peterborough Senior Center is helping seniors rediscover their inner divas. Since October, a group of students at the Berklee College of Music has been running sing-alongs at the center, giving the seniors a new way to connect with each other and with the outside world.

“There is something about music and older people that affects them more than talking,” said Penina Adelman, director of the Peterborough Senior Center, located on Jersey Street in the West Fens. “You can see their facial expressions change.” The Berklee students come to the center once a week, and pass out shakers, maracas and other instruments to the seniors. They run through a song first to get the group warmed up, and then the singing begins.

Gloria Platt, a senior at the center who is a self-professed lover of “the schmaltzy stuff,” said the seniors usually sing classics that are well known, such as “Puff the Magic Dragon.” When asked about the popularity of the program, Platt said, “To be perfectly frank… it’s better attended than 90 percent of the groups.”

The sing-along’s popularity is partly a result of the quality of the music therapy program at Berklee. Students are required to think about music therapy clinically, which means that it is goal-oriented. “A lot of this music therapy stuff is about goals and focusing on abilities, rather than disabilities,” said Eddie Konopsaek, a music therapy major at Berklee. The students are taught to design therapy programs based on their observations of a client’s needs.

Peggy Codding, a Berklee professor in music therapy who runs the sing-alongs at the senior center, defines music therapy as “the use of music to restore, maintain, or enhance quality of life.” To do so, music therapists, who must be approved by the Certification Board for Music Therapists, first assess a client, then evaluate goals and set up a treatment program.

Music isn’t used as a blunt object to beat away any and all problems, however.

We are very much what you call an evidence-based profession,” said Codding, emphasizing that strategies differ widely based on a client’s abilities. For example, a music therapist could assist a stroke victim by helping him or her play a guitar with his or her weak hand, or try to get someone walking again by playing music to help him or her stroll on beat.

While it seems difficult to come up with a new strategy for each client, the students in the program at Berklee are, Codding said, “trained very heavily in improvisation.” They know how to play many instruments, and know many styles of music and the theory behind them. That attention to detail has had real results at the senior center. Certain seniors who were having trouble making friendships have “just come to life during this,” Adelman, the center’s director, said.

One of the reasons for this is that the program is interactive. “Among each other, just playing in a group, they’re forced to stay in the same rhythm, sing the same song,” Adelman said. She said the students who run the program are performers, “but this is focused on the bond between performer and audience.”

The interaction has created at least two fans of the students at the senior center. Platt noticed that people are more upbeat and energetic during and after the sessions, and Adelman said, “There are people for which this is the high point of the week.”

For the students, however, the high points are mixed with lots of hard work. Konopsaek, the Berklee music therapy major, said students learn the science but also have real-world experiences to back it up, which is what makes the Berklee program special.

It’s the singing, however, that gets Platt going. “I couldn’t live life without music. Music is my life,” she said.

Joel Harte is an undergraduate student at the Northeastern University School of Journalism.

This article first appeared in the December 2009 paper edition of the Fenway News.

Fenway’s own “Maestro” bringing music to local parks this summer

By Kaileigh Higgins

Weekdays you can catch Ricardo Slevira walking along Queensbury Street with his violin on his back and a skip in his step on his way home from teaching at Boston Latin School.

Slevira, a longtime Fenway resident better known to his students as “Maestro,” has spent most of his career sharing his love of music with others, and will take the next step to share it with others in upcoming summer seasons. He recently won a grant from the Fenway Mission Hill Neighborhood Trust to produce a summer concert series for the next six years in Fenway’s Ramler Park and Mission Hill’s Fitzgerald Park.

Slevira, who can be seen giving a summer concert series of his own at his Fenway victory garden three times a day, practicing and playing outside for whoever is around, is excited about his most recent community music endeavor.

“I’m very proud to say I’m a music director for two city parks,” Slevira said. “I get a big chance to influence the neighborhood. I get to provide some deserved therapy and culture for these neighborhoods.”

Before he began his journey to bring culture to the neighborhood, Slevira said, he was just a hyperactive kid singing and dancing in Montana. His parents divorced when he was young, and his mother, whom he credits for his love and dedication to music, raised Slevira and his two siblings.

“I remember sitting on the kitchen floor entranced by it, by music,” Slevira said. “Entranced by how she was happy singing, the song she was singing was happy; it’s like all of the sudden the world was changed and it was happy, just by singing.”

In the fourth grade, when he was invited to play the violin, he became dedicated to his craft and truly competitive. He continued his love of music throughout his high school years and then decided to continue his studies in college. He earned the Presidential Music Scholarship at DePauw University in Indiana.

“Music was a huge part of my life,” Slevira said. “I decided, ‘Sure! I’ll go to music school!’ ”
He headed east to the Boston Conservatory to earn a graduate degree in music performance. He moved into the Fenway area in 1989, and set up his victory garden there, which he has had since.

Slevira spent the next 15 years as a freelance musician, besides teaching private lessons and running grant-financed programs for inner-city kids. “I was really teaching the gamut,” Slevira said.

He ran several programs throughout Boston, teaching music to inner-city kids. He had originally received a grant from the Boston Conservatory Development Office to run a program in four schools for four years. “I found that (the kids) all wanted to work,” Slevira said. “They felt special.”

After four years, the program ended for lack of financing. Slevira went on to the Blackstone School in the South End, teaching fourth-graders to play classical music. Slevira gave them the opportunity to play for many audiences, trying to expose his mission and work to the community.

“My motto is ‘Viability is gotten through visibility’,” Slevira said. “So the more people saw us, the more we were of value.”

He then taught private lessons in suburbs such as Lexington and Belmont, but he still thought that something was missing.

“I missed the inner city,” Slevira said. “I missed the feisty, brave attitudes. That’s all they were asking for, an opportunity to make some music. So they fit me really well.”

It was also during this time that Slevira began to play for the Boston Ballet Orchestra, which he said was a “dream come true.”

Slevira was then approached by Boston Latin School to become its interim director of orchestras for one year. His position has since become permanent. In his eight years there, the program has tripled in size, the students have won gold medals, and they have performed on the Symphony Hall stage.

For his next endeavors, at Ramler and Fitzgerald parks, Slevira will be putting on four concerts during the summer months, with a program put on by musicians from his company, Ambiance Music, in addition to guest artists. Encouraged and supported by a friend and fellow member of the Fenway Civic Association, Freddie Viekley, Slevira has received financing for the next six summers, and hopes to garner additional money and support from Fenway businesses.

“I want consistency and tradition, just like the Esplanade,” Slevira said. “I want (the) Ramler and Fitzgerald Park music series to become (a) tradition that these neighbors know about, they talk about, extend to their friends, bring people in, reward themselves, treat themselves.”

Slevira plans to be a part of those neighborhood traditions for a while. “I love the Fenway, I wouldn’t live anywhere else. I plan on staying here for a very, very long time,” he said.

Kaileigh Higgins is an undergraduate student in the Northeastern University School of Journalism.

Urban Nutcracker: Familiar Classic Updated

Photo by Petr Metlicka

by Tracey Cusick

Like an updated Shakespeare play, BalletRox’s Urban Nutcracker puts a familiar story in a different setting. The story follows the same outline as the “traditional” Nutcracker story: a fancy party, the gift of a nutcracker, a young girl dreaming, and the nutcracker coming to life in the dream. The Urban Nutcracker takes place in a city brownstone rather than in a winter palace, the party hosts and guests are upper middle class rather than nobility, and the settings are late 20th century American rather than 19th century Russian. There’s not a ballroom to be seen, the presentation of the nutcracker takes place in a living room familiar to most modern Americans: it has a television and sofa along with the Christmas tree.

The dream sequence includes children on Hoppity Hops and hula hoop twirling dancers. Most of the dance is ballet, but tap, hip hop, and swing are also included. This production has the traditional music of Tchaikovsky from the original, but also features Duke Ellington. The cast members, especially the younger children, were terrific dancers and exuberant, there’s much energy in this show. Even the costumes are vibrant.

I was fortunate to be able to attend the final dress rehearsal. The working out of a few final kinks slowed the show a few times, but it was fun to see cast members watching the performance when they were not on stage themselves. Because it was a dress rehearsal, those of us in the audience entered by way of the stage door. We got to see piles of Hoppity Hops, hula hoops and boxing gloves, and wonder how these items would be incorporated into the performance. It all worked!

See the Urban Nutcracker on Dec. 12, 18 & 19 at 7:30 p.m. and Dec. 13, 19, & 20 at 1:30 p.m. at John Hancock Hall, 180 Berkeley St. It is accessible via the Green Line to Arlington Station or Orange Line to Back Bay Station.

Tracey Cusick lives in the East Fenway.

Students Hold the Upper Hand in Fenway’s Housing Market

by Lauren Landry

FENWAY — Three months ago, Elissa Garza, a 20-year-old Emerson college junior, moved into a Peterborough Street apartment with her best friend to be closer to work and school. Before their move, one woman lived in their apartment, paying double the rent Garza pays now.

“If you’re willing to do a split situation, the Fenway is definitely one of the more affordable rental areas in Boston,” Garza said.

The large number of students living in the Fenway has increased pressure on an already competitive housing market, making the neighborhood one of the most expensive areas in the city to rent an apartment. Similar pressures exist throughout Boston, which has made rents in the city 85 percent higher than the national average, according to a 2009 report prepared by the Kitty and Michael Dukakis Center for Urban and Regional Policy at Northeastern University.

In 2000, non-family households made up nearly 84 percent of the neighborhood. Residents have speculated the numbers are only increasing, as students continue to move into the area. Thirty-eight percent of Fenway residents are between ages 20 and 24, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

“The housing stock is limited, and there are far more students in the area than there are dormitories” said Michael Kane, executive director for the National Alliance of HUD Tenants, an organization that promotes affordable housing for local residents.

The Fenway is a convenient neighborhood for students who go to schools such as Northeastern University or Simmons College and want to live close to campus, but the cost has pushed out families. Four students crammed into a two-bedroom apartment can afford to pay higher rents than a single parent.

“Families are being priced out of larger units,” said Jessica Shumaker, deputy director for media and public relations of the Boston Redevelopment Authority. “Four or five students in a rental can afford to pay the rent easier as opposed to a family with only one or two incomes.”

Boston has the second most unaffordable rental market in the United States, according to Jessica Martin, the research manager for the Boston Indicators Project.

“Rents are pushed up by students,” said Tim Davis, an independent research consultant and former housing researcher for Boston’s Department of Neighborhood Development. “However, if rents go beyond a certain point, students can’t afford them either.”

Kane said the colleges and universities need to start repaying the city.

“The universities are tax exempt, so they are not paying for the land they occupy,” Kane said.

In lieu of paying taxes, Kane suggested schools grant access to their athletic facilities and provide educational and employment opportunities for city residents, improving relationships with the students.

By creating a better relationship with the students, Fenway residents may stop filling up U-Hauls and moving. There are only a few long-term residents living in the community and Joyce Foster, a member of the board of directors for the Fenway Community Development Corporation, said neighborhood stability has become a concern.

“Without the investment of time and concern represented by long-term residents, the fabric of the community is shredded,” Foster said.

In hopes of retaining current residents and lowering renting costs, City Councilor Michael P. Ross created the “No More Than Four” initiative, which prohibits more than four undergraduate students from living together in a single-family unit. Through this initiative, landlords will have to lower rents because no longer will they be able to cram six to eight students into one apartment, Johanna Sena said, director of community relations for Ross.

“The goal is to keep residents and gain residents by having more reasonable rents,” Sena said.

An increase in on-campus housing could also lead to more affordable prices. To create a better environment for students and long-term residents, Kane said the city needs to work with the colleges and universities to produce more sufficient on-campus housing.

Over the last 10 years, Boston has seen almost 10,000 new dorm beds come online, according to Shumaker, who also said that one housing unit is made available for every four dorm beds created.

Schools are still accepting more students than they have on-campus housing for.

“That’s the fundamental contradiction,” Kane said. “There’s going to be an increased rental inflation. Individual students are not responsible for them. We brought them to the city to go to college, but the universities aren’t providing enough housing.”

The colleges and universities in the area will need to work with the city.

“We obviously need to encourage [college and universities’] growth when appropriate, as it is beneficial to the economy,” Shumaker said. “But we need to make sure that this growth is positive for the neighborhoods.”

Lauren Landry is a graduate student in journalism at Emerson College.