This fall, DND celebrated new businesses in our Main Streets districts, funding awards to four neighborhood green spaces, and new affordable housing in Jamaica Plain, among other activities. In this edition of News from the Hub, you’ll also read about our recent kick-off of the holiday season with Mayor Menino’s annual Holidays on Main Streets campaign, at which we announced the first-ever store window decorating contest, designed to give shoppers another reason to visit their neighborhood businesses. From all of us at the Department of Neighborhood Development, we wish you a happy holiday season!

Boston Home Center to Host “Boston Home Center University” Event
One-Stop-Shopping for Homeowners Back by Popular Demand

The City will host a third “Boston Home Center University” in early December, designed to offer attendees valuable tips about how to be a successful homeowner – from hiring a contractor, to financing a mortgage, to purchasing a foreclosed property – and how to take advantage of resources offered through the City of Boston.

Interested community members are encouraged to sign up ahead of time. Register online or call the Boston Home Center at 617.635.HOME.

City Launches Holidays on Main Streets Campaign
Announces First-Ever Store Window Decorating Contest,
Special 2010 Holiday Programs

DND’s Evelyn Friedman and West Roxbury Main Streets’ Cara O’Connor watch as pre-school students from the West Roxbury YMCA perform Frosty the Snowman. Photo courtesy of David Ertischek, West Roxbury Patch

Boston has kicked-off of the 2010 annual Holidays on Main Streets campaign, the small business initiative designed to highlight the many festive events taking place in and around Boston Main Streets districts through the end of December. On November 23, 2010, Evelyn Friedman and other city representatives joined residents and business owners at West Roxbury ski and snowboard shop, Wicked Sharp, for a celebration. View photos from the kick-off at West Roxbury Patch’ website.

This year, Mayor Menino is sponsoring a contest for the best-dressed storefront window dubbed “Deck the Windows of Boston Main Streets,” the winner of which will be recognized by the Mayor the third week of December. The competition, which will include three rounds of voting, will test business’ creativity in three categories: best representation of local style and history, most inviting for customers, and most festive.  Details below!

Round 1:  December 3rd – 8th
Windows must be decorated by Friday, December 3rd. The following week, a panel of local judges chosen by each participating Main Street district will select the best window display and submit that contestant to DND’s Office of Business Development for posting to the City’s website.

Round 2:  December 9th – 17th
Beginning on Thursday, December 9th, a photo of each Main Streets district’s top choice will be posted on the City’s website, and Mayor Menino will ask the public to vote for their favorite five storefront windows.

Final Round: December 18th – 21st
The top five selected by the public will be visited by a panel of ‘local celebrity’ judges, yet to be named, during the weekend of December 18th. The final top three storefront window displays will be honored on Tuesday, December 21st at a holiday celebration at the winning business, hosted by Mayor Menino himself. 

Check the City website for updates on the contest and be sure to vote for your favorites!

National “Small Business Saturday” Draws Attention to Boston’s Smaller Retailers

Boston recently joined American Express and the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s National Trust Main Street Center in proclaiming Saturday, November 27, 2010, “Small Business Saturday” in an effort to highlight the importance of supporting small businesses on the busy shopping weekend after Thanksgiving.

Read 11/16/10 press release »
Read 11/27/10 press release »

Mayor Menino Brings Main Streets to Mattapan
Community Celebrates as Mattapan Square Becomes Boston’s 20th Main Streets District  

On November 8, 2010, Mayor Menino announced that Mattapan Square would become the 20th Boston Main Streets district to be designated since then-city councilor Menino first brought the program to Roslindale Village in 1985. The new district will be tasked with strengthening business development, boosting job creation, facilitating storefront improvements, promoting a vibrant neighborhood commercial district, increasing services, and improving the overall quality of life in the neighborhood. Read full press release »

One of two well known "Rise" statues on Blue Hill Avenue on the edge of Mattapan Square.

Ashmont’s New ‘Sleeping Moon’ Sculpture Unveiled
St. Mark’s Area Main Streets Partners with the MBTA, Dorchester Arts Collaborative, and City on Continued Improvements to Peabody Square

From top left, clockwise: 1) the Sleeping Moon sculpture dedicated October 26th, 2010; 2) Evelyn Friedman speaks to the crowd about the continuing revitalization of Peabody Square; 3) Councilors Charles Yancey and Maureen Feeney, Representative Linda Dorcena Forry, MBTA General Manager Richard Davey, and DND Director Evelyn Friedman pose with others near the new artwork

On October 26, 2010, DND Director Evelyn Friedman joined Dorchester community members in celebrating the unveiling of a new sculpture in Peabody Square, entitled Sleeping Moon, crafted by acclaimed local sculptor and Dorchester resident, Joseph Wheelwright. The addition of the sculpture to highly viable intersection of Ashmont Street and Dorchester Avenue, marks another successful step taken in the revitalization of Peabody Square and is reflective of a strong partnership forged between City officials, St. Mark’s Area Main Streets, Dorchester Arts Collaborative and neighborhood residents. 

Roslindale Village Main Street Welcomes Five
New Businesses

On November 6, 2010, Mayor Menino and DND Director Evelyn Friedman joined Roslindale Village Main Street to celebrate the grand opening of 5 new local businesses: Jimmies Ice Cream & Sandwiches, Colorwheel Collection, El Chavo Mexican Products, Jazz Café & Bar, and Café Rialto. Each new establishment benefited from various business services, including technical support and financial assistance from Roslindale Village Main Street and DND’s Office of Business Development. 

The ribbon cutting for Café Rialto, owned by Elicia Niland (right of Mayor Menino), drew a large crowd of well-wishers to 4197 Washington Street.

Jimmies Ice Cream and Sandwiches owner Donna Cabral (far left) was pleased to host Evelyn Friedman (third from left) Mayor Menino, RVMS’s Jody Burr, and two young members of the Roslindale community for a ribbon cutting at the shop located at 48A Corinth Street.

Mayor Menino joined owner Vernee Wilkinson (far left) at the grand opening celebration of the Colorwheel Collection at 4266 Washington Street.

RVMS’ Jody Burr (left), El Chavo owner Alejandro Rodriguez, Mayor Menino, RVMS board member Jamie Pullen, and Evelyn Friedman celebrate in front of 4254 Washington Street in Roslindale Village.

Mayor Menino joined owners Lucky and Junior Buissereth (second from left and fourth from left) at the grand opening celebration of Roslindale’s new Jazz Café & Bar, located at 4174 Washington Street.

New Affordable Rental Housing Opens at Hyde Square’s Blessed Sacrament Development

Mayor Menino celebrates the completion of JPNDC’s Doña Betsaida Gutiérrez Housing Cooperative, Phase II of the ongoing Blessed Sacrament redevelopment.

On October 30, 2010, Mayor Menino joined the Jamaica Plain Neighborhood Development Corporation, New Atlantic Development Corporation, Harvard University officials, and community members to celebrate the completion of the new Doña Betsaida Gutiérrez Housing Cooperative on Centre Street in Jamaica Plain. 

The Doña Betsaida Gutiérrez Housing Cooperative, which is named for a longtime neighborhood activist, is the latest addition to the former Blessed Sacrament Parish site, and boasts 36 units of affordable rental housing, and 7,600 square feet of retail space. The third phase of construction, which includes the renovation of the 13,700 square-foot former convent into 28 Single-Room-Occupancy units will be complete in early 2011. Among other attributes, residents will benefit from an outdoor plaza for community gatherings and 145 off-street parking spaces. Read more here.

$900,000 Available in Affordable Housing Energy Retrofit Funding

The City’s Office of Environment and Energy Services and the Department of Neighborhood Development have recently partnered to make available $900,000 for energy performance improvements to affordable housing developments throughout Boston.  The funds, which will be administered through the Renew Boston and Green Affordable Housing Program, are part of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental and Energy Services’ $6.5 million award made in 2009 under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). 

“This partnership will enable important improvements to the energy performance of low-income multi-family buildings in our city, and we’re pleased to make it available to the affordable housing community,” said Mayor Menino in the September 23 announcement.  “This funding pool represents another way that we are putting Recovery dollars to work in Boston, and we’re grateful to Senator John Kerry, Congressmen Michael Capuano, and Congressman Stephen Lynch for their continued leadership in making that possible.”

The new funding is designed to work in concert with $1 million in energy retrofit funds made available by the Boston Redevelopment Authority (BRA), as well as the Low-Income Multifamily Retrofit program, an initiative of Massachusetts utility companies, and the Low-Income Energy Affordability Network (LEAN) that provides retrofit grants for existing low-income multi-family properties. Energy retrofit funding awards will be made to qualifying non-profit and for-profit housing developments based on a number of priorities and criteria.

Click here to learn more about the funding and find out how to apply.

City Awards 2010 Grassroots Funding to Four Community Green Spaces

Mayor Menino presents a check to South Boston Boston Grows gardeners in September.

On September 22, 2010 Mayor Menino announced $375,000 in competitive grant awards through the City’s Grassroots program to four neighborhood green spaces, including: the Southwest Garden on Rowe Street in Roslindale, Victory Programs’ ReVision Urban Farm on Blue Hill Avenue in Dorchester, Nightingale Garden on Park Street in Dorchester, and South Boston Grows on South Boston’s West Broadway. Among other activities, the funds will help maintain existing gardens, create new green space opportunities, and support urban agriculture designed to increase the availability of fresh food in Boston’s neighborhoods.

Grassroots, a program of the DND, promotes access to urban green space through the conveyance of city-owned land to non-profit organizations, and the provision of competitive grant funding of up to $150,000 for garden design and construction. Since 1985, the Grassroots program has awarded over $20 million in competitive grants to more than 170 community gardens throughout Boston, as well as a number of urban agriculture projects and open space initiatives. Read full press release »

Mayor Menino Engages Youth to Help City
With Up-Keep of Foreclosed Properties
Says Partnership with Local Teens Opportunity to Teach Responsibility, Civic Leadership

Mayor Thomas M. Menino meets with Clean Team members and leaders on October 26, 2010

On October 26, 2010, Mayor Menino and members of his Foreclosure Intervention Team announced the formation of the “Mayor’s Clean Team,” a group of local teens from the Dorchester Youth Collaborative and Catholic Charities’ St. Peter’s Teen Center who are helping the City maintain foreclosed properties.  Participants are trained and supervised by a team leader from both organizations, and are working closely with DND’s Real Estate Management and Sales division to help with maintenance activities such as removing debris and trash, landscaping, and minor exterior repairs. Read the 10/26/10 press release and view additional photos »