Demolition of the Dearborn Middle School in Roxbury would represent the litmus test for the tale of two cities (“Preserve busing-era landmark, and help housing shortage, too,” Editorial, Nov. 4).
Preservation isn’t just about buildings and spaces. It’s about the people who bring those buildings and spaces to life.
I started high school when busing in Boston began. The tale of two cities, and two school systems, was clearly evident and ugly.
Fast-forward to today and the most recent school assignment plan, and the city’s failure to address school quality is a sober reminder that our busing wounds have festered and have yet to heal.
Demolishing the Dearborn building would affirm that we’d rather forget than atone for a segregated and unequal school system that may be worse now than when busing was ordered in the 1970s.
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Neighborhood pride from all walks of life in the Highland Park and Fort Hill section of Roxbury and beyond was on display in celebrating the recent restoration of the Fort Hill Tower, whose site is steeped in Revolutionary War history.
If we are one city, why isn’t the struggle for educational parity equally as important as the struggle for independence?