inside this week
Dorchester metal worker puts neighbors to work pg 20
A&E
business news
BPS STUDENTS SHOW WORK AT THE MFA IN HOMiE EXHIBIT pg 15
Real estate broker sees opportunity in Boston pg 10
plus Civil rights icon Joan Trumpauer Mulholland reflects on the past pg 15 African Festival celebrates and educates pg 16 Thursday, July 28, 2016 • FREE • GREATER BOSTON’S URBAN NEWS SOURCE SINCE 1965 • CELEBRATING 50 YEARS
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Police hires come under scrutiny City resists reform, some say; Civil Serv. slams BPD on recruits BANNER PHOTO
Elected officials and community residents participate in a groundbreaking ceremony at the new Freedom House building, located at the site of the former Grove Hall Library.
Freedom House marks progress on new bldg. Renovations to be completed by early next year By YAWU MILLER
For Rashid Selman, music has been a lifeline. Through his turbulent middle and high school years, playing his tenor saxophone gave him solace. His passion for music was on display last week at the groundbreaking ceremony for the new Freedom House building in Grove Hall. As elected officials and community members gathered behind the former Grove Hall Library, which Freedom House
is renovating, Selman walked up to the podium, riffing on his saxophone. “Music has been my salvation,” he told the gathering. “By the time I got to high school, my grades were also in need of salvation.” For the latter need, Selman turned to the Grove Hall social service agency, which provides educational assistance to Boston teens. Working with coaches from the nonprofit, Selman was able to navigate high school, work through a year at Bunker
Hill Community College and gain acceptance at UMass Lowell, where he plans to major in business management, en route to his dream of becoming a music producer. “Thank you, Freedom House, for honoring me and my passion,” he said. Selman’s success story was meant to illustrate the effectiveness of Freedom House, but the crowd last week didn’t need convincing. The 67-year-old agency has for
See FREEDOM HOUSE, page 20
By JULE PATTISON-GORDON
City officials often say that their ability to diversify the police force is limited by the civil service exam and veteran preference. But some critics charge that the Boston Police Department and city have used practices that disproportionately hinder minorities and actively resist what reforms they could make. John Barros, city Chief of Economic Development, said at a July 14 town hall meeting on race presented by WCVB that the city’s efforts to achieve a BPD more representative of Boston’s population are pitted against legal requirements. “It’s unfair to talk about that and not talk about legal obstacles to diversify the police department,” Barros said. “It’s unfair to talk about that as an executive decision.” However, Iván Espinoza-Madrigal, executive director of the Lawyers’ Commission for Civil Rights and Economic Justice, said in a recent letter to Mayor Martin Walsh that minorities face
ON THE WEB Lawyers’ Committee letter: http://lawyer-
scom.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/ Walsh-Letter-re-BPD-Final.pdf WCVB town hall: www.facebook.com/ wcvb5/videos/10154415220959445/ Civil Service Commission ruling:
www.mass.gov/anf/docs/csc/decisions/ other/2015/bpd-investigation-072116.pdf a variety of unequal circumstances in the BPD. “There are no ‘barriers’ preventing the City from diversifying BPD,” said Espinoza-Madrigal in a letter to Mayor Martin Walsh last week. “Rather, the City is actively impeding progress by aggressively fighting efforts to diversify BPD, by disproportionately disciplining minority recruits like Claude Defay and by shielding its practices from public scrutiny by refusing to comply with the public records law. “ In the Defay case, the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination ruled in January that minority recruits were disciplined more severely in the academy than
See BPD HIRING, page 8
Report shows Jobs Trust impact Hundreds served by training programs By SANDRA LARSON
Developer “linkage” fees on large-scale commercial developments in Boston have led to job training and higher incomes for city residents in need, according to a new report from the city’s Office of Workforce Development (OWD). The report documents how the developer-funded Neighborhood Jobs Trust (NJT) in 2015 supported $1 million in training
programs for low- and moderate-income residents who face various barriers to employment, including homelessness, CORI issues, lack of college education and English language proficiency. Of 336 Bostonians served by NJT-funded programs in 2015, 78 percent were black or Latino; 81 percent lacked post-high-school education; and more than half came from the Roxbury, Mattapan or Dorchester neighborhoods. For the 79 percent who have landed
jobs so far, the overall average hourly wage is $14.90 per hour — with some jobs paying more than $20 per hour — and 83 percent of the jobs offer employer-provided benefits such as health insurance. “Our goal is to get people jobs, and good paying jobs,” said Vroselyn Benjamin, program and special initiatives coordinator at OWD, which stewards NJT fund disbursement. “Our main mission is to get them into career pathways with living wages and benefits.” The city of Boston’s living wage
See JOBS TRUST, page 6
PHOTO: SANDRA LARSON
Applicants attend a job fair run by BEST Corp., a Boston nonprofit that trains people for jobs in the hospitality industry.