Mayor Wu told civic activists in Mattapan this month that she agrees with their idea of forming a task force to address mounting concerns about public safety and aesthetics in the Mattapan Square business district. In her first appearance at the Greater Mattapan Neighborhood Council (GMNC) since taking office, Wu and members of her staff answered a variety of questions during the Sept. 9 virtual meeting, but the focus settled on conditions in Mattapan Square over the last 18 months.

“Let’s think about setting up something that’s not just meetings for meetings or duplicative of another group that is doing this,” Wu said. “I like to have a one-pager that says here’s our mission over the next 90 days, here’s the recommendations, and then there will be a phase of finding the funding for it. I think that could be a good way, and if this group wants to be the driving force behind that, we would love to provide the staffing and energy and convening structure around it.”

Wu’s comments came after about 20 minutes of focused discussion about Mattapan Square, which included concerns raised by GMNC chairperson Fatima Ali-Salaam and Cummins Highway neighborhood leader Ruth Georges.

“One of the things that repeatedly comes up for the many residents over the last year and a half is a constant worry about Mattapan Square,” said Ali-Salaam. “Many people are quite shocked at the level of disarray we see…There are some struggling with their own addictions whether alcohol or illicit drugs. There seems to be a lack of care for what the Square looks like and it’s overwhelming.”

She added that one of her long-time neighbors shared a story about the Square that broke her heart. The neighbor brought her granddaughter there during a visit and the younger woman was shocked by what she saw there.

“The grandmother told me she felt ashamed,” said Ali-Salaam. “That was like an arrow to me personally because I live near the Square. We need to figure out how to get between the building owners, shop owners, and us…Nothing has to be like this.”

Georges, who is president of the Cummins Highway Neighborhood Association (CHNA), made the call for a task force.

“I do think as one resident in the community, a larger strategic conversation with multiple city departments as it relates to code enforcement on the Square, capital investments in addition to private funding opportunities that need to be looked at,” she said. “I dare say we need some kind of committee that is working in tandem with Main Streets, civic leaders, and our elected officials who have consistently listened to our frustrations on this.”

She noted a major concern with the upcoming infrastructure investment along Blue Hill Avenue is how businesses and residents will attain the economic ability to stay when things improve. She stressed in a conversation with The Reporter that getting the attention of commercial building owners is going to be critical.

“The Square does not fully embody the kind of services the residents of the community want to patronize,” she said. “There are a lot of owners that were here and they fled and didn’t look back. They have not said to us that despite not living here, they would like to know what it is people who live here want in the Square…The city needs to commit to this task force…We have inherited a chronic issue that has been happening for more than 20 years.”

Wu said that since she has been in office, including her time as a city councillor, there have been concerns about Mattapan Square – whether those stressors are coming from the pandemic, newly arrived migrant families, the housing crisis, or the opiate crisis.

“There is this still constant thread that this is a gateway to the city of Boston and one that creates what could be a first impression for a young child or the sense of whether people feel safe and part of community,” she said. “I want to take responsibility…We need to make sure the city is being as strong a partner on this as we can be.”

She suggested models for the Square like those used in Uphams Corner where the Main Streets program and city worked together to hire local folks to clean and beautify the area.

The mayor said she wanted to “huddle” with elected officials and her administration team to plan for facilitating the task force with the GMNC.

Speed humps to be part of Blue Hill revamping

During the Sept. 9 meeting, the mayor introduced the new manager of the Blue Hill Avenue Re-Design Project, Maya Mudgal of the Boston Transportation Department (BTD). In a question from Rexford Road’s David Holness about getting speed humps installed, Mudgal said they will be included within the Blue Hill plan for side streets on the corridor.

She said they will be outside of the regular speed hump program and will likely come before the project rolls out. “We can anticipate traffic ebbs before they even happen,” she said. “We can’t predict people’s behavior, but we can try to anticipate that.”