inside this week:
Mixed reaction to Egleston Square proposal pg A2
business news:
ON CREATING FRAMINGHAM’S HaRBëR CLOTHING
Entrepreneur has passion for social causes pg A11
A LIFESTYLE P38
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SKYLAB’S BRIDGETTE WALLACE AND SMARTER IN THE CITY’S GILAD ROSENZWEIG TALK P18 URBAN ENTREPRENEURSHIP
‘The Colored Museum’ at Avenue of the Arts pg B1 Noir Fashion Week pg B1
HEAD IN THE CLOUD
THE BUSINESS BENEFITS OF CLOUD COMPUTING
Q&A: Craig Robinson pg B2
P24
WEARABLE TECH SUPPLIER DIVERSITY
A&E
P8
P40
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Thursday, March 5, 2015 • FREE • GREATER BOSTON’S URBAN NEWS SOURCE SINCE 1965 • CELEBRATING 50 YEARS
Cold war: City pulls plug on space savers Drivers vow to hold parking spaces By YAWU MILLER
BANNER PHOTO
Developers Kamran Zahedi, Darryl Settles and Marvin Gilmore discuss their commitment to fair wages on the hotel complex they are planning for Parcel 9, a vacant city- and state-owned parcel of land at the corner of Washington Street and Melnea Cass Boulevard.
Coalition pushing for higher wages in Rox. Hotel project meets vocal opposition from community members over worker issues By ELIZA DEWEY A coalition of community and labor activists packed the Roxbury Strategic Master Plan Oversight Committee meeting Monday, making a push for higher wages on projects developed in Roxbury. Although several development projects were discussed at the meeting, the prevailing issue of the night became the matter of fair wage standards for construction and other jobs created by new development projects in Roxbury. Members of the Committee began the meeting with an announcement that they would not
hold a vote that night on the socalled Good Jobs Standards, a set of criteria coalition members are proposing for worker wages for all future projects approved by the RSMPOC. Committee member Jorge Martinez said that a vote on the matter of Good Jobs Standards would be held at a meeting on March 16 instead. The gathering was a monthly public meeting of the RSMPOC, a 16-member body representing the Roxbury community. It was attended by an estimated two hundred people, who filled all the seats and stood around the edges of the meeting room at the Dudley Square Library. The announcement of the
delayed vote on the Good Jobs Standards proposal brought a chorus of boos from the audience. Prior to the meeting, Priscilla Flint Banks of the Black Economic Justice Institute told the Banner that after a concerted push from advocates on the issue, she expected a vote, and if one was not held, there “should be an outcry from the community.” While Monday’s meeting included status updates on four development projects, it was the proposal for a hotel on Parcel 9, a piece of public land located at the intersection of Melnea Cass Boulevard and Washington Street,
Roxbury residents interviewed by the Banner showed little support for Mayor Martin Walsh’s directive for city workers to remove space savers from shoveled-out parking spaces that began Monday this week. When garbage trucks completed their routes Monday afternoon, folding chairs, orange safety cones, milk crates and other makeshift markers remained fixed in numerous spaces on streets throughout Boston. The space savers occupy the
rarified patches of cleared pavement that punctuate seemingly endless banks of plowed and shoveled snow piled four to eight feet high along side streets. While work crews have cleared the snow banks from many major throughways — Warren, Washington and Seaver streets, Humboldt Avenue and Columbia Road — smaller throughways like Walnut Avenue and Townsend Street remain choked with snow banks, forcing cars to back up when school buses and trucks pass. The city has already spent
See SPACE SAVERS, page A10
Project draws attention to plight of U.S. middle class By YAWU MILLER As the nation’s economy continues to climb out of the Great Recession, corporate profits and the stock market are at record highs, yet American workers are working harder to earn wages that aren’t keeping pace with the rising costs of energy, housing and a college education. “Rich people are doing well, giant corporations are doing well and the middle class is still just getting hammered,” U.S. Sen.
Elizabeth Warren said in an interview on MSNBC’s Morning Joe news program. Warren is teaming up with U.S. Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Maryland) to launch the Middle Class Prosperity Project, an initiative aimed at developing legislative strategies to improve the economic prospects of American workers. “What is happening is that corporate executives and shareholders are getting more of the corporate profits while Americans are
See MIDDLE CLASS, page B7
COURTESY ELIJAH CUMMINGS
See GOOD JOBS, page A15
Elijah Cummings
BANNER FILE PHOTO
Elizabeth Warren