Dudley/Brook site flier. Image courtesy of Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative

A vacant lot on Brook Avenue and Dudley Street in Roxbury, a neighborhood in Boston, MA, is scheduled for redevelopment. Recently, the lot has been a site of drug activity and gun violence. In some parts of Boston, vacant lots like the one on Brook Avenue/Dudley Street are likely to become high-end condos. But that is not what will happen here.

Satellite view of Dudley/Brook site. Image courtesy of City of Boston

The Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative (DSNI), a community-run non-profit organization in Roxbury, is spearheading the redevelopment of the Dudley/Brook lot. DSNI was formed in 1984 to give Roxbury residents control of development and address issues in their community. At the time, more than 20 percent of the land in Roxbury was undeveloped and at risk of becoming upscale hotels and offices. Today, DSNI has helped create 98 permanently affordable homes, in addition to urban farm sites, parks and open spaces throughout Roxbury. The Dudley/Brook lot is DSNI’s latest project in their ongoing campaign to empower Roxbury residents by expanding access to public services and resources.

I first learned about the DSNI in an article by Yes! magazine. The article described DSNI as the first community-run organization in the U.S. granted the power of “eminent domain” – the power to acquire private land for public use. This power allowed DSNI to advise the city on how to redevelop vacant lots like the Dudley/Brook lot. As a Roxbury resident myself, I was completely moved hearing the remarkable work DSNI has been doing. 

I learned about the Dudley/Brook lot when I attended DSNI’s community meeting on October 18th, 2022. There I met Minnie McMahon, who is a DSNI community organizer. She explained that development without displacement is a big challenge DSNI and other community-based organizations face. “How do we invest in a community with houses, businesses, and parks – all that good stuff without gentrifying?”

McMahon has always been interested in the questions of power and decision-making systems. McMahon went to graduate school at Tufts University for Urban Planning and Public Policy. There, McMahon spent a lot of time organizing and became interested in community land trusts, non-profit organizations that secure land on behalf of a community. In 2018, McMahon started working as the Programs and Operations Manager at Dudley Neighbors Incorporated, a community land trust embedded within DSNI. Then, in 2021, McMahon moved over to DSNI’s Community Organizing team. 

At the DSNI meeting on October 18th, although I had never interacted with DSNI before, McMahon welcomed me with open arms. She facilitated the meeting and eagerly invited participants to share their thoughts. Some questions raised at the meeting included: How do we make sure we have enough information on what the community wants? How do we engage people’s different opinions on how the Dudley/Brook lot should be used?

McMahon told me that this is something DSNI is constantly thinking about. It involves earnest attempts to do outreach – in a variety of ways – to get the community’s inputs. For the Dudley/Brook project, DSNI organized block events throughout the year where they told community members about the lot and gathered residents’ opinions through surveys. 

McMahon explains that this process often takes years. For example, in creating permanent affordable housing, DSNI first gets input from the community on what type of housing is needed. DSNI then tells the city what the community wants. The city drafts and sends out a “request for proposals,” a request for developers to build the housing. Developers respond with their proposals. The city then selects the developer and DSNI leases them the land. 

To McMahon, being a community organizer means “facilitating people coming together in learning, developing campaigns and relationships, and bringing together resources to do what they want to do.”

This work is not easy. With more people becoming active on social media, McMahon mentions that DSNI struggles to meet people’s varying needs. “Some people are like ‘what’s a computer?’ and some people are like ‘what’s a paper flier?’ There is such a range on how we get all the information.”

COVID has exacerbated DSNI’s challenges with outreach. “COVID definitely has made an impact,” McMahon explains, “People are more online now and isolated and are not joining groups in the same way.” DSNI recently hired a full-time communications person, who they hope will fill in this gap.

As part of their outreach efforts, DSNI plans to integrate art to diversify the voices represented in their projects. McMahon emphasizes, “All ways of thinking, various identities, race, culture, class, we need all of this, and this is important.” Currently, the DSNI uses a quota system to promote racial and ethnic diversity on their community board, which includes African American, White, Cape Verdean, and Latinx members. McMahon acknowledges that this may not represent the whole community and that DSNI is considering restructuring the board.

For the Dudley/Brook project, DSNI is working on how to best illustrate the community’s hopes for the lot. Some ideas shared by residents included a community center, open space, and affordable housing. The next step would be to draft a request for proposals. To do this, DSNI will compile the top two suggestions into a vision statement. 

“There is always going to be disagreement about how something is going to be used,” McMahon points out, “And that’s exactly our work, trying to figure that out with people and do good processes as best as we can, and take feedback and criticism to do a better job the next time.”

As McMahon states, DSNI’s work is ongoing. “There are basic things we know, like wanting to use social media and knocking on doors. Can we do this in multiple languages, not just in one language? Can we make sure we’re doing multiple opportunities to engage, not just one event? Can we be clear about the process, so we can also keep it moving forward?”