Former Youth Community Organizer Chrismaldi Vasquez poses
with Boston Mayor Thomas Menino. As a Youth Community Organizer,
Chrismaldi helped to organize the community in support of the Jackson
Square development project. A key feature of the project is a 40,000
youth & family center to benefit the community.
Youth Achieve Victory in Jackson Square!!!
The Hyde Square Task Force youth arrived at a major milestone and
achieved an unprecedented victory on June 1st when Mayor Menino and
Boston Redevelopment Authority Director Mark Maloney announced that
the Jackson Partners, Inc. Development Team was chosen to develop the
several acres of vacant and underutilized land surrounding the Jackson
Square T Station, on the border of Jamaica Plain and Roxbury.
The Jackson Partners $200 million plan calls for 400 units of mixed income housing, a new state-of-the-art Youth and Family Center, 60,000 square feet of retail/commercial space and a major recreation center. Jackson Partners is made up of the Hyde Square Task Force, the Jamaica Plain Neighborhood Development Corporation and Urban Edge.
This announcement came after many years of intensive youth community organizing, starting in 1999 when the Hyde Square Task Force teens joined with local merchants and residents to defeat a proposal for a K-Mart on this land. Over the past several years, Hyde Square Task Force teens have led meetings of over 600 residents, surveyed over 500 local youth on programming priorities for the new Youth and Family Center, worked with architects to design the center, organized large marches, and met with every elected official that represents the Jackson area.
In the Request for Proposals that the BRA sent out for this project, it stated: "Several hundred youth from the Greater Jackson area participated in community meetings.... The level of youth participation in this development is unprecedented in recent history."
At the press conference announcing the decision, Mayor Menino referred to a meeting with Hyde Square Task Force teens three years ago and said, "Their dream has become a reality today." Mayor Menino also stated that the teens were instrumental in moving the project forward, saying: "They were out there getting people excited about this project. It was a great lesson in civic engagement."
Jackson Partners will be working with several other entities on this project including: Mitchell Properties, Gravestar, Trinity Financial, and the Friends of Kelly Rink.