MAYOR MENINO is often wary of raising expectations in the neighborhoods. But he is taking a bolder approach in Roxbury's Dudley Square, the underdeveloped gateway to the city's minority communities.
Menino is pledging that the site of the long-vacant Ferdinand furniture building complex in the heart of the square will be transformed into "Boston's next great public building," where the comings and goings of 1,200 city workers will revitalize area shops and eateries. The city's school department, housing authority, and public health department are among the agencies Menino has mentioned as possible occupants.
Last week, he took a step toward fulfilling his promise when he announced a design competition for the new building during the annual convention in Boston of the American Institute of Architects.
Roxbury residents, merchants, and elected officials were unanimous in their praise of the plan during a symbolic demolition of the vacant 8-story building on Friday. That's generous, given that many in the gathering had been present in Dudley Square a decade earlier when former governor Paul Cellucci announced the redevelopment of the Ferdinand site as the future home of the state Department of Public Health. The idea bounced around for more than five years until former governor Romney buried it in a Beacon Hill bone yard.
Tired of empty gubernatorial promises, Menino took the property by eminent domain in 2006. Local merchants are counting on the mayor to be true to his word. John Jenkins, president of the nearby West Insurance Agency on Warren Street, says he moved his business two years ago from Quincy to Dudley Square in part because of the city's redevelopment vision, which includes a new police station and refurbished public library. "It's more the promise than the reality," says Jenkins, who shares the street with both family shoppers and a contingent of vagrants.
In addition to its home-style restaurants, notion shops, and specialty clothing stores, Dudley Square needs a better retail mix. A hardware store, copy store, and function room rank high on resident wish lists. Menino would do well to recruit such retailers during his current visit to the International Council of Shopping Centers in Las Vegas.
The city has set aside $19 million for land acquisition, demolition and preparation of the Ferdinand site. But redevelopment officials won't provide an estimate of total construction costs. The Dudley Square project would be a great boon to the future of Roxbury. But Menino must make clear what this vision will cost.
