City of Boston Office of Urban Agriculture amplifies community voices, prioritizes development on urban green space

Providing and maintaining urban agricultural spaces for vulnerable urban populations, like many of the individuals and families who have historically lived in the Dudley Square area, can have positive impacts, Mardones said.

By Isabella Ratto
The Huntington News
May 2, 2023

Excerpt:

GrowBoston now runs the Grassroots Program and allocates city funding to establish more open spaces across Boston neighborhoods.

“The City comes into land through tax foreclosures, [which is] either developed into housing or community farms and gardens,” said Cassidy Chang, a third-year environmental studies major currently on co-op with GrowBoston as a program coordinator. “We work with interested community groups to help … transfer ownership [of these spaces] and allow them to implement [urban agriculture].”

One such community organization is the Dudley Square Neighborhood Initiative, or DSNI, which advocates on behalf of Roxbury and North Dorchester residents. This group is heavily involved in conversations around the Woodcliff Street project and helps understand what residents would like to see done in the purchase and development of the lot.

“We stand for community control and organizing our residents to make sure that things that come through our neighborhood are not going to displace them,” said Rene Mardones, director of community organizing at the DSNI.

During the organization’s almost 40-year history, this has meant direct involvement in a number of land acquisition projects including several related to urban agriculture, Mardones said.

“We own two urban farms in the Dudley area … and a 10,000 square foot greenhouse. The idea is that community members can participate,” Mardones said. “We run the planning process to get community input and provide that to the City of Boston.”

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