Turner uses allegations to draw attention to Roxbury

By Megan Donovan
Image by AP Photo/Angela Rowlings

ROXBURY-- City Councilor Chuck Turner awaits trial which is set for June 21st. Tuner was re-elected to a sixth term last November by a 20-point margin amid federal corruption charges.


Despite preparing for court, Turner says his focus is still on the neighborhoods he represents, including Roxbury, Lower Roxbury, and parts of the Fenway, South End and Dorchester.


Turner says, though, the allegations have affected his family and what he can do in office. “The president [of the education committee] won’t let me sit as chair, but you don’t have to be chair of a committee to be involved,” Turner said.



His projects include prodding the State Department of Conservation and Recreation to repair an old ice rink in the North End and make it available to youth programs. He is also spurring his community to participate in the census.


Harold Raymond, 54, a former Roxbury resident, started a 41 unit housing project on Rockland Avenue with Turner in 1995. He called the allegations against Turner a political stunt and said the attention would work in his favor.


“It fits into the scope of his community activism by drawing attention,” Raymond said.


Turner accuses former U.S. Attorney Michael Sullivan of filing the charges to remove him from office. Turner argues the charges are retaliation for the pressure he put on Sullivan from 2000 and 2004 after a series of police brutality cases. Tuner also said that Sullivan may want to run for office.


“[Sullivan’s] saying to himself, ‘If I can take out Diane [Wilkerson] and Chuck it will help gain favor with white politicians,’” Turner said.
He also links Sullivan to former US Attorney General John Ashcroft, who hired Sullivan to the Boston office of his consulting firm. He says that perhaps his plan is make opportunities to put his people in office.


“One of my concerns is activity that puts tax money down industry rat holes,” said Turner about the worries he has about Sullivan and Ashcroft seeking power.

Turner has turned the attention of his corruption charges to attention in his community, Councilor John Tobin of neighboring District 8 said.


“He has a full staff right in the middle of his community in Dudley Square and at city hall,” said Tobin. “He’s always been there for them.”


Turner’s challenger in the November election, thirty three year-old Carlos Henriques, said he saw inadequacies in the way the government was being run by, what he called, “gatekeepers.”


“Politics have gotten more attention in Roxbury since the elections of Deval Patrick and Barack Obama,” said Henriquez, who he cites as some of his own inspirations for running for office.


Though he had the support of The Globe and Herald, age, experience, and personal connections to Turner are reasons why Henriquez says he lost the election.


“Turner maintains his innocence and his community supports him until otherwise proven guilty,” said Henriquez.

Bringing Food Justice to BPS and Roxbury

By Megan Donovan

ROXBURY----At the Hi-Lo market in Jamaica Plain, Didi Emmons picks 10 bags of white beans, five onions, eight carrots and a head of garlic which will work as the base for her vegetarian bean chili. She’s preparing for a test run that could result in her chili recipe as the main entre in the cafeteria of some of Boston’s poorer public schools located in Roxbury, Dorchester and Jamaica Plain.

Emmons says too many children eat processed foods and wants school cafeterias to be able to prepare more than ready-made foods high in saturated fat. She wants to get more calories on a healthier plate so that these students get the right nutrition and aren’t hungry later. Her solution: teach “food justice” and put fresh vegetables on the menu.

“These students need to know they are at a disadvantage,” Emmons said. “Because some come from lower income families, they are a fast food target.”

Emmons set out to make healthy, filling and delicious food for kids three years ago when she started a program called Take Back the Kitchen, along with Boston Police Officer Bill Baxter and curriculum manager Kelly Dunn. The program offers cooking classes to middle school students about how to eat healthy foods that taste good. It includes ‘side-by-side’ lessons for parents and children to learn how to shop at the grocery store and how to prepare simple meals.

“Didi’s recipes and honesty has gotten through to them,” Dunn said. “She’s in touch with the community and realizes that they don’t have a lot of time or money, but she finds a balance and comes up with delicious food.”

Once in Emmons’ class, the students claimed to have an allergy which suddenly disappears when they smell fresh vegetables roasting in the oven.
Emmons has opened four restaurants, Veggie Planet in Cambridge, DeLux and Pho Republique in the South End and the café portion of Dudley’s non-profit Haley House.

“I’m still wrangling with the idea that I need to make a name for myself and to be appreciated for my culinary creativity. But that’s not always satisfying. I want to know, what can I do to help?” Emmons said.

Bing Broberick, currently the Business Marketing Manager at Haley House, said that the lack of healthy food options in the area is what drew Emmons to the area.

“I had a vision of over-stepping the black boundary,” said Emmons who is white. “There is a whole world I was not aware of. The non-profit scene in Roxbury is so huge.”

At Haley House, ex-convicts make up the majority of employees. Emmons says she has never been the victim of a crime in her 5 years working in Roxbury. Instead, she has gotten to know the community and says she has met incredibly resourceful men and women who have changed her outlook on life.

“They were my adoptive family,” Emmons said. “There is a lot of concern for other people [in Roxbury] that you can’t find in JP or Brookline.”

Emmons has moved on from Haley House but is still teaching Take Back the Kitchen courses and is writing her third cook book.

She demonstrated her veggie white bean chili recipe to 50 public school cafeteria managers last Thursday and is optimistic change is coming to menus.