Roxbury- Historic Inner Ring Neighborhood and home to Boston’s African American Community

Roxbury was one of the first towns founded in the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1630, and became a city in 1846 before being annexed to Boston in 1868.  As the need increased for more workers, old farms and estates were subdivided, and single family homes, row houses, and multi-family homes sprang up ton the neighborhood. By 1860 Roxbury had a population of 25K and became an urban American inner ring suburb thanks to the advent of trolley service in 1887. Roxbury’s population was filled in the 19th century primary with immigrants from England, Ireland and Germany. By the early 20th century Jewish immigrants established communities here and by the mid 20th century Roxbury became Boston’s primary African American community shifted from Beacon Hill and the South End. They were joined by immigrants from the Caribbean (especially Jamica). Social issues and the resulting urban renewal activities of the 1960s and 1970s predictably led to major decline in the neighborhood and Blue Hill Avenue became the epicenter of Boston’s 1968 riots in the wake of MLK’s assassination. Malcome X also grew up in Roxbury and his family home still stands in the community. Given the neighborhood’s rich activity history Roxbury is a center for Urban Farming, one of the Country’s first urban Community Land Trust and a major hub for leftist politics. After many decades of decline Roxbury’s population has begun to rebound since 2000s as it becomes increasingly popular with young professionals and families. Roxbury’s Hispanic population has also grown to 1/3 of the total population and many Black homeowners have stayed in the community and now are seeing their long awaited generational wealth begin to grow due to rising housing values.

Roxbury is a solid urban community with good density, solid public transit and bike infrastructure access, great parks, lots of walkable schools decent retail and cultural amenities and great access to central Boston. Rental prices are certainly high but for sale prices are pretty reasonable compared to the rest of Boston. I generally view Roxbury as a successful revitalization story as it has maintained its income and racial diversity while seeing slow and gradually improvements with lowered crime, improved blight & vacancy outcomes, raised home values with high Black ownership rates and 50% of its rentals are income restricted. For Roxbury to become a great urban district it needs more retail and cultural amenities, better urban infill along some of its blvds and Massachusetts Avenue and continued revitalization of its blighted pockets.

Click here to view my Roxbury Album on Flickr

URBAN STRENGTHS:

* Generally good sidewalks and about 85% of all intersections are up to modern ADA standard.
* Solid public transit throughout Roxbury but better on the northern edge of the neighborhood closer to Fenway and Dwtn. A transit trip to either locations is about 30 mins.
* Good coverage with Boston’s Blue bike system but the along two dedicated bike lanes running on the west and east side of the neighborhood. These connect to Fenway and Dwtn.
* Roxbury is still a minority majority neighborhood but has pretty good racial diversity (43% Black, 27% Hispanic, 10% White)
* Def a working classing neighborhood with 25% in poverty and more than half of all households below 75K but still a decent amount of income diversity.
* Good generational diverse and more households with kids than most Boston neighborhoods.
* Lots of walkable schools across all grades but ratings are mixed. Good mix of public & private schools.
* Lots of rental options but very expensive for National standards although certainly cheaper than more gentrified Boston districts. Studios lease btwn 2-3K, 1-beds btwn 1.5K-3.5K, 2-beds btwn 2K-4.5K, and plenty of 3 & 4 beds that lease btwn 3K-7K.  A ton of subsidized affordable rentals as 54% of all rental units are income restricted.
* For sale housing is expensive but lots of smaller more reasonably priced condo options. Studios or 1-beds selling anywhere btwn 200K-600K, 2-beds btwn 300K-800K. 3 & 4 beds sell btwn 350K- the low 1Ms. There is also an active Community Land Trust in Roxbury keeping some for sale homes affordable.
* Roxbury host a great array of well dispersed small and medium sized parks throughout and Franklin Park (the southern terminus of the Fredrick Law Olmsted designed Emerald neckless at its southern edge. Also plenty of pools and recreation centers.
* Pockets of well preserved Residential Historic Districts that most notable being the Fredrick Douglas Square Historic District, Moreland St Historic District, and several well preserved historic commercial districts like Nubian Square but also plenty of bland working class housing through the district. With more investment in Roxbury the quality of the urban-in fill has improved. This is concentrated at Nubian Square and the north 1/3 of the district abutting South End & Mission Hill.
* Decent retail including 1 supermarket and plenty of smaller grocerias, several drug stores, several banks, small clothing stores, a book store, plenty of salons, a handful of bakeries and dessert joints, a local public library, a couple post offices, plenty of churches and the Boston Medical Center is just north of the neighborhood. The AMC South Bay Center , suburban power center, sits just outside of northeaster Roxbury complete with a Macy’s Best Buy, Home Depot, Target and Cineplex.
* Blue Hill & Dudley have the best urban form with some solid hubs at Nubian Square, Washington & Blue Hill.

URBAN WEAKNESSES:

• Connectivity of blocks is pretty good in Roxbury but the lack of a solid grit makes navigation complicated.
• Several wider Blvds that feel pretty autocentric including Malcom X Blvd, Columbus/Tremont Blvd, Melena Cass Blvd, and Massachusetts feels pretty industrial but at least the street has been tamed.”
• Roxbury has come a long way on safety and cleaning up blight. While there are still pockets of crime and blight overall Roxbury is pretty safe and much better than it was 15-20 years ago.
• Decent but not great cultural amenities including some restaurants & cafes, several bars, a couple live music venues, a brewery, several historic sties & landmarks and convenient access to cultural amenities in Fenway, Mission Hill & South End for residents living in the north third of Roxbury.
• Could use a lot more boutiques and creative retail but this is generally a sign of higher incomes.