Roxbury Residents Push Back Against Proposed Parking Garage: 'This is Our Neighborhood'

For nearly three decades, Maria Santos has run a small bodega on Dudley Street in Roxbury, watching her neighborhood transform through cycles of disinvestment and renewal. Now, she and dozens of other residents are mobilizing against a proposed 400-space parking garage that would displace a community garden and reduce street-level retail space—a move they say threatens the fragile stability they've worked to build.

"They want to pave over everything," Santos said during a packed community meeting at the Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative offices last week. "We fought for thirty years to have something green, something that belongs to us."

The proposed garage, backed by a development firm based in Cambridge, would occupy a 1.2-acre lot currently used for informal parking and community cultivation. According to city documents, the project promises 120 jobs during construction and $8.5 million in tax revenue over twenty years. Yet residents argue the numbers don't capture what they'd lose.

At the nearby Egleston Square, longtime resident James Chen, 67, echoed concerns about displacement pressures. "Rents in this area have already jumped 40 percent in five years," he noted. "Every project like this brings more outside money. Not all development helps the people already here."

The proposed garage has catalyzed rare unity across Roxbury's diverse population. At last Tuesday's meeting, Somali immigrant advocates, Puerto Rican business owners, and African American activists spoke in succession, each describing similar fears about gentrification and loss of community control. Between 2015 and 2025, Roxbury's median rent climbed from $1,200 to $1,680 for a one-bedroom apartment, according to city housing data.

"This isn't just about parking," said Dr. Lisa Huang, director of the Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative. "It's about who gets to decide what happens in neighborhoods. The voices that matter most should be residents who live here, not investors looking at spreadsheets."

The Boston Planning and Development Agency will hold a public hearing on July 22 at City Hall. Community organizers are preparing a counter-proposal that would preserve the garden and convert the remaining lot into affordable housing—a move some say better serves Roxbury's actual needs.

For Santos and others, the fight feels existential. "We're not against progress," she emphasized. "We just want to be part of deciding what that looks like."

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