Our History
Reclaim Roxbury was founded in 2015 to educate and organize Roxbury residents in response to reports from then D7 City Councilor Tito Jackson that the Boston Redevelopment Authority was gearing up to develop over a million square feet of “publicly owned land” that it had under it’s control in Roxbury through a “Plan:Dudley Square'' special planning area process. Despite explaining that the goal of “Plan:Dudley Square” as a way to “uplift the community”, we knew that the BRA has a long history of removing Black people from their land, and building segregated communities! We knew we had to act fast to Reclaim Roxbury before it was taken away!
With the help of D7 Tito Jacksons office, we began holding community meetings monthly that led to the formation of “Reclaim Roxbury” as a standing community organization, with committees and chairs and a plan for our community to create our OWN standards and goals for our public land. After three years of door-knocking, talking and convening neighbors, community bbqs and meetings, research and direct action protests in 2018 we won a commitment from Mayor Walsh and the BPDA to ensure that the development of public land through the Plan:Dudley Square process would be community led, requiring 66% of housing be truly affordable, diversity equity and inclusion standards for development teams, requirements for good jobs, open space and eco-friendly building practices.
Not only did we help create strong community informed standards, but we also were able to push Mayor Walsh and the BPDA to bring more democracy into decision making in Roxbury public land development, demanding new RSMPOC members and an open process for Project Review Committees.
From 2018 through today, we have organized our members to weigh in on multiple developers proposals in response to our community-created DEI standards for development of public land in Nubian Square, while also engaging in numerous policy campaigns to advocate for development without displacement. Due to our efforts, over 14 parcels of land in Roxbury’s Nubian square are being developed by multiple diverse development teams following community guidelines. Currently 1114 affordable units, which is 68% of the total housing units in the “development pipeline” in Nubian Square (and counting) are being created through our efforts. Our standards for development have been adopted by Mayor Wu’s administration as the starting line for development of public land citywide in the city’s “Development without Displacement” citywide land audit, and is regarded as the best model for community led development of public land.
Check out our “what we’re doing” section & our blog to learn more about what we’re doing today to ensure public land for public good, our campaigns, and how you can get involved to Reclaim Roxbury. Join us!