inside this week:
A&E
business news:
Radius building, five acres of Roxbury land to be auctioned pg 3
NNENNA FREELON WILL PERFORM AT THE CAMBRIDGE JAZZ FESTIVAL pg 10
Entrepreneur bakes up business success pg 8
plus R&B duo Floetry reunites for concerts pg 10 Review: Cirque du Soleil at Agganis Arena pg 11 Thursday, July 23, 2015 • FREE • GREATER BOSTON’S URBAN NEWS SOURCE SINCE 1965 • CELEBRATING 50 YEARS
www.baystatebanner.com
BRA seeks support for renewal
Agency asking state to extend urban renewal plans By YAWU MILLER For many Bostonians, the phrase urban renewal conjures up images of long-destroyed neighborhoods: the West End, the New York Streets section of the South End, Castle Square, Madison Park. So the Boston Redevelopment Authority has its work cut out for it, embarking on a citywide campaign to gain support for the re-designation of its urban renewal districts — a process that requires approval from the Boston City Council. Top of the list for the agency is to persuade Boston residents to get past the negative history associated with urban renewal. “I wish we could call it something else,” said BRA Senior Urban Designer/Architect Corey Zehngebot, speaking during a meeting with Roxbury residents. “You hear it, and immediately you have a visceral reaction.” In some ways, Zehngebot may have engaged one of the agency’s toughest audiences in bringing
ON THE WEB BRA urban renewal:
www.bostonredevelopmentauthority.org/planning/urban-renewal/overview BRA operational review:
www.bostonredevelopmentauthority.org/ news-calendar/news-updates/2015/07/16/ bra-releases-findings-of-independent-operational-r the urban renewal conversation to Roxbury, where in decades past the program was referred to as “Negro removal.” But the fact that the conversation around urban renewal is even happening underscores a shift in the BRA and how it does business. Ten years ago, when the agency sought its decennial renewal of urban renewal designations, BRA officials did so largely out of the public eye, pressing city councilors for support in secret meetings that violated state open meeting laws. “This year, we’re approaching different neighborhoods to have a genuine process,” Zehngebot said.
See BRA, page 7
PHOTO: DON WEST
U.S. Rep. John Lewis spoke about the importance of protecting voting rights during Monday’s appearance at the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate in Dorchester.
Rep. Lewis cites attacks on Voting Rights Act Congressman speaks at Edward M. Kennedy Institute By KELLEY CHUNN At age 75, the mind of Congressman and civil rights leader John Lewis (D-Georgia) is still on freedom. He recently appeared before a packed crowd at the Edward M. Kennedy (EMK) Institute in Boston to talk about the 50th Anniversary of the Voting Rights Act. “We have made a lot of
progress but we are not there yet,” Lewis said. “We should make voting simple and easy. Forces in our country want us to stand still. But we must move forward. We must open up the voting process for the people.” Lewis cited the historic Voting Rights Act of 1965, which he said today is under siege. In 2013, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down part of the historic law and ruled that parts of the act are
unconstitutional. Supreme Court Justice Roberts explained the decision by saying, “our country has changed for the better.” Lewis said the court put “a dagger in the heart of the Voting Rights Act.” Last month, Lewis joined other congressional Democrats in filing legislation called the Voting Rights Advancement Act to update and fix the law. Sponsors
See LEWIS, page 14
A presidential perspective on race Obama savors victories, makes case for racial justice By CAITLIN YOSHIKO KANDIL
WHITE HOUSE PHOTO BY PETE SOUZA
President Barack Obama speaks with a group of young civil rights leaders in a recent meeting. The president has been more outspoken on racial issues this year than in the past.
It was a remarkable week for President Obama: On Monday he commuted the sentences of 46 nonviolent drug offenders; on Tuesday he called for sweeping criminal justice reform in an address to the NAACP; and on Thursday he became the first sitting president to visit a federal prison. His message was clear: The United States locks up too many people for too long; African Americans and Latinos are disproportionately stopped, arrested,
charged and imprisoned; many communities are suffering as a result; and reform is vital. “Mass incarceration makes our country worse off, and we need to do something about it,” he said. “It’s shocking and surprising to see this kind of vision coming from the White House,” said David Harris, managing director of Harvard’s Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice. “I can’t imagine any other president having the breadth of knowledge that he displayed. … To the extent that other presidents have used crime as a code for race, this
president actually named some of the racial disparities that impact our communities in ways that others haven’t.”
Bold on black
Obama’s candid remarks on the country’s broken criminal justice system are the latest example of the bolder stance on race the president has taken recently, particularly since last month’s killing of nine black churchgoers in Charleston, South Carolina. Two days after the shooting,
See OBAMA, page 13