Vote for Change in Close Senate Race

When Dianne Wilkerson arrived at The Henhouse Wings and Waffles, her supporters had already heard she lost. Hugging them one after another, she made her way toward the side of the restaurant where a victorious US Senator John Kerry beamed overhead on a television screen.

As the crowd drew closer in a gathering quiet, someone shouted, “Turn off the television.”

It was time to speak.

But, before that happened, the state senator reached down to take off her black high-heels. Wearing a bright red dress-matching the color of her campaign signs, she then stepped up to begin. She was standing on a plastic milk crate that was covered with a piece of cardboard.

Rather than congratulate the apparent winner, Sonia Chang-Díaz, or even acknowledge that a close race had been lost, Wilkerson talked about what went wrong, including the votes she might have failed to get because polling places had been relocated. Within the district, polling places had been changed for ten precincts, most of them carried by Wilkerson.

“I think we lost two hundred at the David A. Ellis School,” she said, “people in wheelchairs that we just couldn’t transport.”

According to unofficial returns from Tuesday night, Wilkerson lost by 228 votes, despite support from Boston Mayor Thomas Menino and Governor Deval Patrick, along with endorsements from labor unions and the Latino political group, Oíste.

Also blamed for the defeat was the “inordinate amount of money” contributed to the Chang-Díaz campaign by fundraiser Barbara Lee. Wilkerson said she was afraid it meant the district “was for sale.”

“I think the issue, the idea that one woman should have so much influence in what happens in this district,” she said, “it bothers me to no end.”

Since the election of 1974, the Second Suffolk District had been all but officially maintained for a black office-holder. After almost 16 years in office, and even in her post-election speech, Wilkerson was still trying to reconcile the district’s black identity with its multi-racial population—encompassing Roxbury and part of Dorchester, along with the Back Bay, the South End, Bay Village, Chinatown, the Fenway, Mission Hill, and Jamaica Plain. On the one hand, Wilkerson took issue with a voter who criticized her for representing only Roxbury. On the other hand, there were the figures showing it was possible to become senator in the district without carrying the black vote.

“I think what this proves is that you could be a state senator without representing a good core of this community,” said Wilkerson, “and that makes me sick.”

* * * * *

After her victory party in Jamaica Plain at the Alchemist Restaurant, Sonia Chang-Díaz was mingling with supporters and occasionally stepping outside for a call on her cell phone. What used to be the more congested and smoky confines of Triple D’s and Buddy Hanrahan’s had been transformed. There were exposed brick walls and a high black ceiling with exposed rafters. Given all the space and hard surface overlaid with music, it was hard to hear talk even at close range, but supporters with anything to say were in a mood to cut through noise. And Chang-Díaz credited her victory to the mood of the voters.

“Voters have been telling us over and over again that they are frustrated and they want new leadership,” she said.

In her campaigning, Chang-Díaz tried to reinforce that feeling by drawing attention to the Wilkerson’s settlement over campaign finance violations six weeks earlier. Though Wilkerson called the violations “errors of accounting,” some went farther—accurately or not-- in their conclusions about how the money was used.

And, when asked two weeks earlier at a forum In Jamaica Plain what she would do to uphold the laws on campaign finance, Wilkerson responded with seven syllables: “Try my best to follow them.”

Chang-Díaz then said she would uphold the laws, not just try.

After the victory on Tuesday, Chang-Diaz supporters took pride in the campaign’s ability to identify and turn out voters, with little time wasted on trying to create buzz.

Chang-Díaz acknowledged role of contributions—from Barbara Lee, but also the small amounts from other supporters, along with volunteer work, some of it by grassroots activists at her celebration.

“I’m very happy to have Barbara’s support. She has been an advocate to progressive women leaders that we have been very fortunate to have in this state,” said Chang-Diaz. “None of the money is from lobbyists.”

* * * * *

The figures from Tuesday’s vote show Wilkerson winning the predominantly black precincts in Roxbury and part of Dorchester between Grove Hall and the Franklin Field area. She also carried Chinatown (Ward 3, Precinct 8) and precincts with subsidized housing developments such as Bromley-Heath, Mission Park, Alice Heyward, and developments along the Southwest Corridor. Chang-Díaz carried precincts in the Back Bay, the South End and Bay Village, part of the Mission Hill area, and nearly every precinct in Jamaica Plain. That included the precinct with the highest number of voters, in the Jamaica Hills area.

The outcome invites the conclusion that turnout was higher in precincts carried by Chang-Díaz , but it might be more correct to say that Wilkerson could have used more help with voter registration. As for the percentage of registered voters who turned out for the election, the total for the Second Suffolk race was 17.3%. In the precincts carried by Chang-Díaz , the turnout was 16.5%. In the precincts carried by Wilkerson, it was 16.7%.

Two Reasons to Vote in Boston Senate Race

Ever since the election of Bill Owens in 1974, the state senator representing the Second Suffolk District has been an African American. Thirty-four years later, the district’s incumbent, Dianne Wilkerson, remains the one and only African-American in the Massachusetts Senate. And, if that puts a spotlight on racial identity, Wilkerson has rechanneled the glare over the past 16 years to put racial divides in sharper relief—whether in housing discrimination, predatory lending, the achievement gap in public schools, health disparities, or traffic stops by police.

During a candidate forum September 4 in Jamaica Plain, at Boston English High School, Wilkerson even mentioned her own conflict with racial identity—at least with some African-American church leaders—resulting from her support for same-sex marriage rights. Her rationale was grounded in the civil rights movement, but the cheers were from what Wilkerson called a “Boston” audience—neither exclusively black, Latino, white, LGBTQ, or even progressive. Though the senate district includes most of Boston’s African-American population—in Roxbury and parts of Dorchester—it also includes areas dominated by whites, Latinos and Asians—including the Back Bay, Fenway, South End, Chinatown, and Jamaica Plain.

Two years ago, most of the areas outside the black community were carried in a tightly contested primary by Wilkerson’s challenger, Sonia Chang-Díaz. Mounting her second challenge in the Democratic primary on September 16, Chang-Díaz takes progressive positions. But this race between two progressives does have differences.

Take public education. Chang-Díaz talks in race-neutral terms about trying to get new revenue for reducing class sizes, or higher minimum wages so parents would have more time to be involved in their children’s education. At the forum, Wilkerson showed little enthusiasm for higher spending, but called for recruiting a “culturally diverse teaching population.”

“You go to our Department of Education,” said Wilkerson, “you don’t see blacks and Latinos at a higher level to be involved in the process of figuring out what to do with the black and Latino students.”

Wilkerson also drew attention to racial disparities in students placed in special education.

“I think we also have to deal with the fact that we have a special ed program that in fact has become the de facto population of black and Latino males, where we put the kids that other people can’t handle, and that my definition of ‘special’ is that very few people have it,” said Wilkerson. “If 75% of the black and Latino males are in special ed, there’s nothing special about it.”

If the comment sounded like the politics of resentment--some people versus other people—it also wasn’t very far from concerns of leaders in educational policy. Wilkerson went on to explain her attempt to set up a legislative commission on the status of black males, and she suggested a possible need for schools or classes where boys and girls are taught separately.

Before starting her second campaign, Chang-Díaz worked as Director of Outreach and Development at the Mass. Budget & Policy Center. She also previously worked as a teacher in public schools. In comments at the forum, she focused on the difficulty of teaching in Boston high schools, with an average class size, by her estimate, of 31 students.

“You cannot deliver the kind of individualized attention that every student needs with that kind of class size,” she said.

“I think, at $2200 per student, it’s hard to make the case that a lot of it is about money,” Wilkerson responded.

“Anybody who says we’re going to fix this with more money,” she said, “is dreaming.

Wilkerson also argued against the current amount of spending on incarceration as a way to reduce violence. She called for revisiting the state’s mandatory sentencing for certain offenses in school zones—which cover most of the city. And she disagreed with support by Chang-Díaz for limiting legal gun purchases to one per month.

Wilkerson’s reluctance in recent years to embrace across-the-board spending increases for improving schools and public transportation might be construed as a sign of her lack of clout. The problem with clout could also reflect the entrenched divide between the interests of Boston and at least the suburbs, if not quite all the rest of the state. But, with a trail of media reports over the years about her troubles with taxes, condo fees, nomination signatures, and most recently with reporting and record-keeping in campaign finances, there are some grounds for concluding the lack of clout is at least partially due to Wilkerson’s individual shortcomings.

At the forum, Chang-Díaz stopped short of making that argument explicitly, though she has faulted Wilkerson with a failure to be open with her constituents about which interests support her campaign, and how their money is being used. And that, according to Chang-Díaz, diminishes clout for all progressives.

“It harms the progressive agenda when we reinforce people’s cynicism by asking them to choose between good votes on the issues and good ethics and accountability,” said Chang-Díaz. “It pushes people away from voting and away from participation in our political system.”

In other words, Chang-Díaz is trying to convince voters that Wilkerson’s troubles are costing them clout and what clout is supposed to deliver. That’s precisely what Wilkerson is trying to refute in her campaign website (the heading says: “Dianne Delivers ‘08”). And in her campaigning, Wilkerson has talked up everything about filing bills to help victims of predatory lending, to having a role in Governor Deval Patrick’s approval of money for a new skating rink in Jamaica Plain and infrastructure supporting new development in Jackson Square.

But, when it comes to projects in the district, the two candidates also have their disagreements. One is about Columbus Center, the stalled megaproject over the Mass. Turnpike on the border of the South End and Back Bay. Chang-Díaz opposes giving the project additional state subsidy.

The candidates also disagree about another stalled project, the Level 4 biolab that Boston University has been trying to build in the South End, near Boston Medical Center. Chang-Díaz is opposed to the project, while Wilkerson has been joining with other local office-holders trying to increase regulatory hurdles for the lab—but also keeping a door open to community benefits, such as training and jobs.

“There are many states in the nation that we are competing with for the biotech industry, for the biotech jobs,” said Chang-Díaz, “but there’s not a single other Level 4 biotech—bioresearch—lab that is sited in a densely-populated area.”

Despite describing herself as an ally of the lab’s opponents, including State Representative Gloria Fox, Wilkerson also hailed it as the “leading edge” of biotech research.

“The reality is, if we’re smart as a community, we want to make sure that all of our sides are covered,” said Wilkerson. “My position is if we lose on this, I want to have a conversation about what that means in our community. If we win, there’s no lab, no harm found, and we go on our merry way.”

When Chang-Díaz made her first challenge two years ago, Wilkerson had failed to gather enough valid signatures to appear on ballot in the primary. This year, there was an abundance of signatures, and the overall increase in the number votes by people of color in Boston over the past decade belies the notion that they’re tuning out candidates.

Throughout the entire forum Chang-Díaz made practically no mention of her Latina and Asian background. It could be that approach will attract votes by diminishing identity barriers (as seemed to be the case in her strong showing in the diverse and progressive precincts in Jamaica Plain). But, before voters can transcend identity, they have to be mobilized. And, if neither candidate for senate in the Second Suffolk District can do that entirely on her own merits, then the two of them can certainly energize voters through one thing most legislative races in Massachusetts lack—solid competition.

Note: a number of polling locations in Boston have been changed. See list of polling place changes and an up-to-date list of polling places for the September 16 primary has been issued by the Boston Election Dept.

Three-decker Units: Any Owners at Home?

The following article was published August 21 in the Dorchester Reporter.

On a single dead-end street on Meetinghouse Hill, two extremes of Dorchester's troubled multi-family housing market can be found side by side. The difference between these two three-deckers on Navillus Terrace - creatively named for a man named Sullivan - reflects market price, but also conjures up a fortune-telling vision for the neighborhood.

With multi-family buildings accounting for a large share of properties heading toward foreclosure, and more foreclosure filings in Dorchester than any place in Massachusetts except Worcester and Springfield, the conflicting extremes are cause for concern, even if mixed with hope for a market recovery.

Late last September, after mortgage defaults led to a rash of boarded-up three-deckers on Hendry Street and elsewhere, causing property prices to plummet in Dorchester particularly, all the units in a three-decker at 10 Navillus - just three short blocks away from Hendry - sold for no less than $345,000 apiece.

The buyers seem to be habitual high-price mortgage borrowers. The mortgage on one unit was for a second home, and the lenders for the other units waived the requirement for owner-occupancy. Two of the owners have also bought units at other locations in Dorchester.

Next door, at 12 Navillus, there's a very different story. After changing hands three times in little more than two years, the entire three-decker was sold at auction last month for $260,000. The buyer was an investor and developer who also bought five other properties in Dorchester sold by auction since last November.

What neither vision at Navillus involves is owner-occupancy on even one floor, the thing most neighborhood activists say is most vital to improving any neighborhood.

The developer whose firm did the conversion at 10 Navillus, Michael "Dave" Scott, says, "You're going to see more investors buy this housing. It's going to be an investor's market."

Real estate analyst John Anderson has spotted both trends: unit sales at prices that still make him predict more foreclosures, and buildings at bargain prices often going to investor/developers who survived the slumps of the past.

"Everybody's having a field day, except the people who live in Dorchester," said Anderson. "We're still concentrating equity and wealth in the hands of the people who have it."

Pricey Condos in a Depressed Market

On paper, it would appear the equity in multi-family conversions is going to people like Scott, who shows up in several conversions as manager of the development company Southeast Properties. But Scott says he also pays back equity through renovations, and by providing jobs.

"I have a lot of expenses that you don't see," he said. "The rehab costs are really killing me."

Scott has been linked to conversions of more than one hundred units, whether in sales by himself, his development entities, or associates. Most of the units are in Dorchester and Roxbury, with many sales going to buyers who buy multiple units. Many of the buyers are listed as being from other states or locales outside of Boston, and the number of foreclosure filings against these buyers - whether at locations involving Scott or other developers - continues to climb.

Three weeks ago, in response to a Reporter article detailing at least eight foreclosures among his converted units, Scott said the figure was "impressive," given the overall market.

"If I don't have foreclosures, I think I'm doing something wrong," he said.

A review of additional and more recent transactions on properties where Scott has been involved shows roughly two dozen petitions to foreclose. That figure includes units where Scott represented a buyer with power of attorney, or where units in a conversion that involved him were sold again, usually within no more than a matter of months.

Scott says he sells units to "legitimate buyers," even though, he allows, they "sometimes make bad choices." He notes that condo units purchased for investment take time to pay off.

"I think it's a good investment," he says, "because after taxes, you're making money and you're building up equity over time."

But, for a good deal of his unit buyers, time tends to run out.

"It's a scary market," says Scott. "Everybody's pointing fingers. It's a high-risk area."

Scott points his own finger at appraisers, underwriters, and some buyers. He also points at 70 Sawyer Ave., a three-decker where a developer named Edward Mazurkiewicz sold three units for $439,900 apiece to a buyer from Hyde Park, Cristobal Toledano. The sales took place in May and June of last year. By May 1 of this year, foreclosure petitions had been filed in all three units.

He also points to Draper Street, where several converted units have drawn foreclosure petitions. Three of them were at 85 Draper St., a house purchased by Giles Moss-Hayes, who was represented through power of attorney by Patrick F. Lee. At 80 Draper St. across the street, Lee sold two units that would later draw foreclosure petitions. Each of them sold in November 2006 for $374,900.

Lee also represented Moss-Hayes in the conversion of 110 Norton St., where all three units sold in May and June of 2006 for $350,000 apiece. Foreclosure petitions would later be filed on all three units.

Over the past two years, there have been 17 foreclosure filings in buildings where Lee figured in a condo conversion. In his most recent transaction, Lee was the buyer for three units in a house on Theodore Street in the Franklin Field area where foreclosures are taking a serious bite out of housing prices. He bought the units in January of this year, at $315,000 apiece, from, wait for it… Giles Moss-Hayes.

A review of more than 200 conversions over the last two years in Boston - mostly in Dorchester and Roxbury - shows more than 100 foreclosure filings against owners who bought more than one unit, sometimes in the same building. Names that appear as unit buyers with mortgage trouble sometimes turn up later as investors converting more units, or as people with power of attorney to represent other buyers.

One of the stand-ins is Jerrold Fowler, a buyer from Norfolk, Virginia, who purchased a unit from Scott on Avondale Street in Lower Mills in November 2006. A foreclosure petition on the unit was filed last month. In the interim, Fowler was given power of attorney to represent buyers in seven other unit sales involving Scott.

Another unit buyer recycled into a developer was Tariq Muhammad. He lost three units to foreclosure in a three-decker at 43 Whitfield St.

After two of the units there were sold at auction to another developer with his own trail of mortgage troubles, they were resold this year to buyers from out of state.

In the developer role, Muhammad converted a three-decker at 310 Fuller St., where he sold two units last year for $355,000 apiece, and one this year for $365,000. A foreclosure petition on one of the units sold last year was filed in July. Meanwhile short sales and bank-owned condos, albeit without existing condo associations - have gone for less than half of that price on Fuller.

The New Market: Owners or Investors

In a local multi-family market where Anderson sees an "incestuous mess," some see opportunities, at least in the long term, and probably without more condos.

One investor and developer, who is mainly avoiding conversions, says there is a market for three-deckers and "plenty of value" in Dorchester. But he also says media reports have frightened off buyers, and even scared some owners into walking away from their property.

"There's some good buys out there," he says, "and, instead of waiting for the market to bottom out, they should be out there buying."

Some predictions call for the Dorchester market to begin recovering in one or two years. The executive director of the Mass. Affordable Housing Alliance, Thomas Callahan says there has recently been a "fair amount of activity" in its "soft-second" mortgage program to make purchases more affordable for first-time home-buyers.

"We are definitely seeing people taking advantage of the market drop," he said.

But Callahan says even the current lower prices on three-deckers are no match for the affordability of the early 1990s, when these houses were within range for buyers with an annual income of $30,000.

"What we say in our classes," Callahan notes, "is that three-deckers are not for everyone. You've got to really want to be a landlord."

Potential buyers interested in multi-family housing still have to compete with the market for conversions. A survey of recent conversions in Dorchester - on Mt. Vernon Street, Rill Street, Adams Street, Everton Street, Torrey Street and Topliff Street- shows several buyers who have also bought units at other locations. The prices are lower than figures for the condo conversions of two and three years ago - for sale of the entire building and for units, most of which have been selling for less than $300,000 apiece.

While the city works toward bringing owner-occupancy back to vacant houses on Hendry, at least one non-profit community development group is exploring ways to break the foreclosure cycle at other properties. Codman Square Neighborhood Development Corporation Executive director Gail Lattimore said it's difficult to get cooperation from most of the companies in charge of foreclosure sales.

And putting the properties back into control of owner-occupants or "good-guy" investors, she said, will require more intervention from the private and public sector.

"I'm a little concerned," she said, "that if there are lots of investors out there, I don't think it bodes well for Codman Square and the rest of Dorchester being stable as we go forward."

Editors note: Patrick F. Lee shares part of his name with a principal in the development firm Trinity Financial, but other than that, there is no connection between the two men.

All information about transactions referred to in the story was drawn from the Suffolk County Registry of Deeds.

Three-decker Condos: Rebound or Relapse?

The following post appears as an article in the Dorchester Reporter.

To judge by sale prices for three-decker condominiums in Dorchester, the housing slump is over—at least at a few locations. The prices do have connections to names that repeatedly turn up in foreclosure filings, and they stick out like tree stumps in a flood of declining values, but that hasn’t stopped the flow of credit—whether from small lenders or high-profile companies such as JP Morgan Chase.

One example of a unit with a rising price is a top-floor condominium in a three-decker at 43 Whitfield St, a few blocks west of Codman Square. After selling for $330,000 in February, 2006, the unit would be taken by foreclosure. In April of this year, Fannie Mae let it go for $65,000. Then, after less than two months and a certain amount of improvement, there was a new buyer who put up $339,000, with a 20% down payment.

The last transaction in June also stands out as a turnaround for the seller. This was a company called SRC Investments, whose president and treasurer, Sirewl Cox, figured in nine other transactions that have drawn foreclosure filings since last September. It was a director of the company, Lord Allah, who bought Unit 3 at 43 Whitfield St from Fannie Mae in April. Later the same month, he bought Unit 1, for $45,000. Each time, he turned over the property the very same day to SRC Investments for $100.

Once SRC Investments took title, it received mortgages for both units from a lender based in Jamaica Plain, Capital Trust LLC. Though Capital Trust was lending to a company that had no record of previous borrowing in Suffolk County, the mortgage notes—for loans totaling $72,000--were signed by Cox.

Attempts to reach Cox at phone numbers in Easton, Mass., and a broker’s office listed in Dorchester were unsuccessful. Capital Trust has yet to respond to messages by email and phone asking how it could give mortgages to someone with a paper trail showing several recent bad loans.

On its website, Capital Trust says its approach to lending provides “speed and flexibility that traditional banking environments cannot provide.” The website also says Capital Trust can “provide creative financing options for opportunistic real estate transactions” and “quickly fund loans that make sense.”

But some observers of the real estate market in Dorchester say what doesn’t make sense is the Unit 3 sale price of $339,000. One observer said, even with “top of the line” renovations, the market value would only run as high as $300,000.

Another observer familiar with the market said, “Based on what the current market conditions are, I won’t imagine it would be three-anything.”

When the unit sold June 3, the buyer on the deed was a Christine Hoyte of San Francisco, California. JP Morgan Chase gave her a mortgage of $271,000, on condition that she use the condo as a second home. To complete the transaction, she also gave power of attorney to a stand-in named Larneshia Bryant, whose name appears on the mortgage note.

But other documents show Bryant also has connections to Cox. The two of them were shown as joint tenants of a condo in another three-decker in Dorchester, on Roxton St, where a lender filed to foreclose on the mortgage in February of this year. The unit is listed as being owned by Cox and Larneshia Bryant Alexander.

Over a period of three months earlier this year, there were foreclosure filings against Bryant on seven other properties. Two of the properties were bought from Cox in 2006, less than two months after he acquired them. Two others, also turned around in less than two months, were bought from another seller whose mortgage was signed by Cox with power of attorney.

Bryant has one other tie to Cox, through a business entity called Strategy Investments. The company was organized three years ago, with Cox as president and director, and Bryant as treasurer and secretary. The company bought two properties—one in Dorchester and the other in Roxbury—on which lenders would later file to foreclose.

Strategy Investments is listed on the directory of an office building at 40 Court Street for Suite 700. That’s also the official address for SRC Investments.

The notary who stamped the mortgage note for Unit 3 at 43 Whitefield St, Rebecca Konsevick, was asked whether Bryant was supposed to represent the interest of the buyer.

“That was my understanding,” said Konsevick.

When told about Bryant’s business ties to Cox, the notary was asked which side Bryant was on when she signed the mortgage for Hoyte.

Said Konsevick, “I have no idea.”

* * * * * *

The previous owner who lost all three units to foreclosure at 43 Whitfield St was Tariq Muhammad. He bought these units and another in a three-decker on Wheatland Ave from Iris and Kelvin Sanders. The other two units at Wheatland Ave were bought by Cox, and both also went down the road to foreclosure. Over the past three years, lenders have filed petitions to foreclose on a total of 12 units sold by Iris or Kelvin Sanders—all of them in Dorchester.

Muhammad also bought a three-decker for conversion at 310 Fuller St, with the help of a $120,000 loan from Kelvin Sanders. The house shows signs of repairs. After selling two units last year, each with 5% down payments for $355,000, Muhammad sold a third unit in February of this year for $365,000, with a down payment of 10%.

Just down the street, a realtor at Dorchester Associates, David Cahill, has been working on the sale of a whole three-decker which has been listed on the market for $369,021. When asked about the slightly lower price for a single floor sold in February--$365,000—Cahill called the figure “ridiculous.”

“When I see those prices pop up in the public record, I just shake my head,” he said. “It’s unbelievable.”

By way of comparison, Cahill noted the difficulty in selling condos at the new development right next to Ashmont Station, The Carruth. Based on that, Cahill says, it would be harder to sell condos in most other parts of Dorchester, especially if they’re farther away from rapid transit and commercial centers. The condos at 310 Fuller Street are roughly half way between Ashmont Station and the commuter rail stop at Morton Village.

“It’s not an area where people are going to go shopping for condominiums,” said Cahill.

But that didn’t stop Marcus Emile.

He was the buyer at 310 Fuller St who paid $365,000 and signed for a loan of $328,500. The loan was from Dreamhouse Mortgage Corporation. On its website the company says, “Our team of experienced mortgage experts is committed to your success and will go above and beyond traditional means to insure your satisfaction.”

The unit at Fuller St wasn’t the first for Emile. Four weeks earlier, he bought another property, in the St. Mark’s area, a three-decker unit at 15 Santuit Street for $340,000—from Kelvin Sanders. The down payment on the unit was 10% and the loan was from Countrywide Bank.

As with previous three-decker acquisitions by Kelvin and Iris Sanders, there was also a single buyer who took multiple units. In this case, the buyer was John Castodio. One deed shows him as being from Stonington, Connecticut. One of his mortgages for 15 Santuit St requires him to use the unit as a second home. On the other mortgage, the owner-occupancy requirement has been waived.

Cahill says the transactions at high prices make some owners more reluctant to sell at the normal market rate. And if more of the high-priced units go into foreclosure, he warns, there will be more converted three-deckers without active condo owners associations—which might limit the unit’s next sale to cash-only.

“No bank in their right mind’s going to finance it,” he said.

* * * * * *

Less than two years ago, some three-decker condo units in Dorchester, often with freshly made improvements, were selling for as much as $435,000. At least ninety units were sold in conversions—mostly in Dorchester—involving Michael D. Scott (and other variants of the name) and his associates or their business entities. So far, there have been at least eight foreclosure filings on the properties. Some of the units have recently been listed for sale, at prices as low as $174,000, and one unit—on Lafield St—sold June 30 for $190,000. Less than two years earlier, Scott sold the unit to a buyer from Maryland for $375,000.

Some properties bounce from one foreclosure to another. This happened at 24 Gayland St, Dorchester, a conversion in which Scott figured. After the first buyer lost unit 2 to foreclosure, Scott bought the unit and sold it again at a higher price less than two weeks later, in February of last year. The new buyer also has mortgage trouble. A foreclosure petition was filed against her last month.

There have also been repeat foreclosures among Cox and his associates. After he lost a property he originally bought on Claybourne St with Jacquelyn Pittman, Cox bought a property that Pittman lost to foreclosure on Reservation Road in Hyde Park. That purchase led to another foreclosure petition, against Cox.

Pittman also lost a property to foreclosure at 2 Rock Ave in Dorchester. It was purchased in January of last year by Larneshia Bryant. A foreclosure petition was filed against Bryant in March of this year.
















www.298fuller.com

Dorchester Day: Passage in Pageantry

The sun was shining on Dorchester Avenue, but the supersized papier mâché face of Prospero was tossing in the wind and tugging on a piece of wood attached to Shanaen Anderson. Preparing to ride in the Dorchester Day Parade in a flat-bed semi-trailer, she was among the DotArt students who would be mounting puppets to represent characters in Shakespeare’s The Tempest.

In the DotArt creation that rolled down the avenue on Sunday afternoon, Shakespeare’s castaways and heirs to Dorchester’s seaborne founders were delivering an ecological message that hearkened back to the first refuge for endangered species, Noah’s ark. Cruising the waters painted along the side of the trailer was an endangered shark missing a fin. Trailing behind were carts bearing an elephant, a giraffe, and DotArt kids needing to get off their feet.

One of the DotArt parents, Ceronne Daly, was ready for the four-mile journey by her 7 year-old daughter, Alexis. She packed four bottles of water, along with carrots and grapes.

Walking in front of another flatbed, for DotOUT, Rosie and Anna had a pail for their Yorkshire terrier companion, Che. DotOUT members on the trailer had an easier time, playing the role of sun-bathers or even getting some shade from the umbrella with rainbow colors. True, they were another cast upon a shore, but the locations posted on signs were clearly in Dorchester: Tenean Beach, Savin Hill Beach, and Pope John Paul II Park.

Following DotOUT was First Baptist Church, just as Union soldiers from the Civil War marched in front of the Dorchester Lacrosse league. Vietnamese war veterans also marched in uniform, while other veterans showed their opposition to war in Iraq. And, as they passed through Fields Corner, one spectator yelled to the anti-war group, “Send ‘em home. Send ‘em all home.”

Elsewhere in the rolling chain were the double Dutch girls with SWIRLS (“Sisters Working for Real Life Solutions”), Estrellas Tropicales, and the St. Ann’s CYO girls’ basketball champs. Vietnamese formations won applause, while rotating shifts of lion dancers ran up to giggling bystanders. When Caribbean carnival dancers approached with their glitter and outspread peacock feathers, the less encumbered bystanders started moving to the music.

As always, there were elected officials and candidates—from the mayor and the governor, to several City Councilors, state legislators, and a Governor’s Councilor. Former City Councilor Albert “Dapper” O’Neil had passed away since the last parade, while the Vietnamese presence he once deplored has become a fixture in the parade and a multi-million dollar investment along the avenue. A year ago, O’Neil made his last appearance, going down the avenue in a 1977 Cadillac Coupe de Ville. But, insubstantial or not, the pageant had a place for him this year, too: a black 2007 Lincoln Town Car, with O’Neil’s name in green and orange, and one more sign: “The Legend Lives On.”

Also: view parade photo essay.

Civic Summit: Getting from Small to Large

The civic mind begins with small things.

Rough patches left in the pavement in Roslindale by a utility company. The way a precinct in Beacon Hill with low voter turnout in city elections keeps getting redistricted. Or the dissatisfaction by a Grove Hall resident with quality-of-life services: “Things just don’t get done,” she says.

When more than 450 people gathered Saturday for the “civic summit” at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center, most of them were from either neighborhood groups or non-profits. Both kinds of groups usually cover a limited territory. For the neighborhood groups, it often means land use or public safety. For non-profits, it’s the economic development project, the social service, or advocacy for a particular need.

But the summit co-chaired by City Council President Maureen Feeney was supposed to help groups move beyond their usual boundaries. Even as participants arrived, they were given stacks of business cards so they could follow up on new contacts from around the city.

Feeney reminded them of a low point in Boston’s civic engagement, the 14% turnout of registered voters in the 2007 election for City Council. But Mayor Thomas Menino and the event’s other co-chair, the executive director of the Mass. Convention Center Authority, Jim Rooney, brought up some high points of civic engagement, from the War of Independence to the opposition that stopped the extension of Route I-95 through Boston.

The morning workshops were closer to the small things: zoning, organization building and resources, political action, and getting out a message through the media. But the people taking on these topics at the workshops were from all around Boston. And the topics themselves often require organizations to think beyond their own territory and natural allies—whether in a dispute over land use or in being portrayed by the media.

At lunchtime, there was a shift toward a larger perspective, in a talk by Dr. Thomas Sander, Executive Director of Saguaro Seminar: Civic Engagement in America at the Harvard Kennedy School. Sander compared the recent gains and losses in civic engagement to the beginning of the 20th century, when new groups took shape in response to immigration and the massive population shift from the countryside to the city.

A century later, Sander explained, there have also been dramatic changes. He acknowledged research indicating that racial diversity can make people close ranks more closely among their own kind, while being less trustful of others. But he vouched for the advantages of social capital, even on a small scale. One example: getting to know neighbors is more effective at reducing crime than increasing coverage by police.

“We didn’t think the answer is that we all ought to live in gated communities,” said Sander.

Likewise, during the town meeting after lunch, small things connected to something larger. Participants from Dorchester noted that desirable streets could be only stone’s throw from a “hot spot” for gun violence, just as a student attending a prestigious exam school can ride the same bus route on which another student was fatally shot last year.

When asked to identify the “most important issues” facing Boston, more than three hundred participants put education and youth development in first place, followed by economic development and public safety. They also identified education and youth development as the issue that would benefit the most from civic engagement, followed by public safety and the environment.

Other results from the town meeting showed there was a gap between the turnout at the summit and Boston’s population. Almost three-quarters of those at the summit were white, and two-thirds were at least 45 years old. They listed concerns about youth participation, a disconnect between citizens and government, even feelings of “us vs. them” in community groups.

But, for all the concerns and the demographic mismatch, participants tried to figure out their next move. For the year 2020, their goal was a city with a 100% high school graduation rate and a school system on par with those in the suburbs. For the year ahead, the list began with after-school tutoring, a campaign against litter and graffiti, and more summer jobs.

They were only lists, but the small things had gotten larger.

Crossing the Line from Violence to Peace

Kai Leigh Harriott and Anthony Warren had spoken to each other before, face to face. It was three years ago, in a courtroom. Warren apologized to the five year-old girl for the gunshot that left her paralyzed two years earlier. Harriott responded by forgiving.

Wednesday morning, at the Dorchester House Multi Center, Warren apologized once more, this time in a statement recorded at the Old Colony Correctional Center in Bridgewater, Massachusetts.

“She gave me a second chance to really make a difference,” Warren said, “to show people here that forgiveness is good, to work on myself and change my life.”

Appearing on a screen and facing a darkened room, Warren was dressed in a prisoner’s outfit. After Harriott finished watching the videotape and the lights went back on, she responded once again.

“Thank you for making an apology,” she said, “because you can inspire so many people when you say don’t carry guns and don’t do bad things.”

As it was re-enacted, apology crossed boundaries, starting with the one between the offender confined to prison and the survivor confined to a wheelchair.

“Many of us are behind invisible bars,” said Harriot’s mother, Tonya David. For survivors of violence, David explained, the bars were the bitterness and rage trapped inside.

The excerpt shown at Dorchester House was part of a declaration of “peace month” by violence prevention groups, community leaders, and elected officials. The full-length video, with messages from nine inmates, will be shown May 10, at the Teen Empowerment’s “Youth Peace Conference.”

Randy Muhammad, who does prison ministry for Nation of Islam, Muhammad’s Mosque No. 11, said young people usually see violence represented in the glamorization of popular culture, especially in gangsta rap. Speaking at the “peace month” announcement, he said young people need to see the truth in the video or even in visits to prison.

“We have romanticized the idea of violence. Violence is promoted,” he said.

“A lot of the time, these images are glorified,” he said. “That’s not the reality.”

Community leaders also say people who go to prison can speak with the most authority to discourage violence.

“We believe those who are behind the walls are part of the problem,” said William E. Dickerson III, Senior Pastor of Greater Lover Tabernacle Church, “but they can be part of the solution as far as violence on the streets.”

An aide to City Councilor Chuck Turner, Darrin Howell, explained that getting the reality inside the prison on tape was an idea that came from another inmate, Darrell Jones. Howell said one reasons why Jones tried get out a message from behind bars was the death of his 23 year-old son, Darrius, on January 16. He was shot after leaving the funeral of a friend who had been killed.

Before the speakers began their program, 17 year-old Kevin Hurd, Jr. was looking over familiar faces and names on a traveling memorial to victims. He pointed to badges for two of them who were shot on bus rides just a few blocks away from each other in Dorchester.

“I know too many of them—way too many,” said Hurd.

“The majority of people up here, I knew their faces—around the neighborhood, playing basket ball with them,” he recalled. “So many good people.”

And why do bad things happen to good people?

“It’s life,” he said. “People with too much time on their hands do senseless acts.”

Some of the victims have also been described as “known to police.” The label implies the killing wasn’t random, and that people not involved with gangs would be less at risk. But that distinction broke down in 1993, when 15 year-old Louis D. Brown was killed by a stray bullet. He was on the way to a Christmas party held by a violence prevention group for teenagers.

Brown’s mother, and co-founder of the Louis D. Brown Peace Institute, Clementina Chéry, explained that the response to violence has to move beyond assigning blame.

“They’re our children,” she said. “And we have to look at the shame and the pain our children inflict on us and begin to turn that around.”

That happens in the annual Mothers’ Walk for Peace, when the faces of victims reappear as they were known to friends and family. Survivors walk side by side and cross the line from rage to compassion for other survivors. From there it’s only one more step to the exchange between Kai Leigh Harriott and Anthony Warren.

“We shouldn’t be shocked when a child says, ‘I forgive you,’” said Chéry. “That should be the norm.”

* * * * *

• Saturday, May 10, 1-5 p.m., Strand Theatre (543 Columbia Road, Dorchester). Boston Youth Peace Conference, organized by Teen Empowerment.

• Saturday, May 10, 6 p.m. Annual vigil in memory of Bobby and Mathew Mendes, at Dudley and Wendover Streets, Dorchester. Organized by the Bobby Mendes Peace Legacy.

• Sunday, May 11 (registration begins 7 a.m.), starting from Town Field, Dorchester. Mothers’ Walk for Peace. Proceeds to benefit outreach to survivors and elementary school program to aid in prevention and healing.