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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2024-12-11-LHRC-min Town of Lexington Human Rights Committee Meeting Minutes for Wednesday, December 11, 2024 Conducted hybrid LHRC MEMBERS PRESENT Christina Lin, Chair (CL); Stephanie Hsu, Vice-Chair (SH); Stephanie Ryan (SR); Rachel Levy (RL); Dana Bickelman- Town of Lexington, Human Services (DB); District; Colleen Dunbar- Town of Lexington, Police (CD) Liaisons in attendance -Eileen Jay, School Committee (EJ); Hemali Shah, Chief Equity Officer (HS); Members of the public- Johnny Cole (JC), Abby McCabe (AM), Juanica Buchanan (JB), and Wendy Lebo (WL) The minutes recorded by Dana Bickelman 1. Chair update - LHRC charge update was shared with Doug Lucente, Chair of the Select Board and waiting for this update to be put on the Select Board agenda. Until the updates are approved, the committee operates under the existing (old) charge. 2. Civil Rights Trip Update Member Rachel Levy (RL) was joined by resident Wendy Lebo (WL) to share about a recent Civil Rights trip that was organized through Temple Isaiah. What made the trip so powerful and successful was they went with an organization called Etgar, which means "challenge" in Hebrew. The whole concept of this trip is challenging yourself to face nuance, face history, face the current day, and struggle with retention to the complexity of past and present life. The tour included visits to Montgomery, Selma, and Birmingham accompanied by a guide the entire time. In preparation for the trip, Temple Isaiah hosted three study sessions covering the history of the Black experience from enslavement through the Civil Rights years. Post trip, classes in Spring 2025 will cover racism in Boston. RL visited the National Center for Civil and Human Rights in Atlanta. The center was an amazing experience and set the tone for the rest of the trip. The lunch counter exhibit was an immersive and powerful experience. The instructions are to go up to the lunch counter, sit down, put on the headphones, place your hands on the counter, and close your eyes. Participants are challenged to endure just under 2 minutes of ‘absolute 1625 MASSACHUSETTS AVENUE • LEXINGTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02420 vitriol’ whispered through the headphones. The chairs you sit in shake, and it's a very jolting experience. Staff are ready with tissue on standby at the end of the experience. During the demonstrations in the 1960s, the real experience lasted 45 minutes with hot coffee poured on people's heads and cigarette butts extinguished on people. The formal trip kicked off with lectures held at the hotel, given on the bus or at different sites. A lot of information was infused throughout the trip. In Montgomery, they visited the Rosa Parks Museum which follows her experience from the bus ride, arrest and through the 381-day bus boycott. After the museum, they visited the Lynching Memorial at The National Memorial for Peace and Justice. The design is inspired by the Holocaust museum design. As you walk in, you see a series of pillars that impress on you the magnitude of what happened. They have over 6,000 recorded lynchings, and each pillar represents a place with names and dates of when the lynchings occurred. The designer chose a rust color and a metal that, when it rains and water drips down, looks like it's bleeding. They also visited the Legacy Museum: From Enslavement to Mass Incarceration which was immersive and interactive sharing first person experiences of the enslaved and incarcerated. There were also examples of literacy tests designed for failure as a voter suppression tactic. The questions included how many seeds are in a watermelon and how many bubbles are in a soap bar. The group visited the Freedom Monument Sculpture Park, which opened on Juneteenth of this year. There is a lot of beauty, joy, hope, and incredible pain. It documents those enslaved people who were freed and made it onto the census in 1870. Selma was next, and when the group arrived, they heard a talk from Joanne Bland. Joanne was 11 years old when she participated in the marches. Joanne's older sister is the youngest person to complete every step of the 54-mile March and wrote a book. The group then traveled to Birmingham and saw the site of the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing. Across the street from the church is a memorial dedicated to the four girls murdered that day. As the group walked, they met 91-year-old Bishop Calvin Woods, who told the group his story. The group's last day was back in Atlanta, and they went to the Martin Luther King Jr. Center. This is where Coretta Scott King and MLK were laid to rest. The group then went to services at Ebenezer Baptist Church, where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and his father were preachers; and where 1625 MASSACHUSETTS AVENUE • LEXINGTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02420 Reverend Senator Raphael Warnock led services that day. He is the 1st Black senator of Georgia and an amazing speaker. WL discussed the planning process for the trip. Etgar has over 20 years of experience organizing these trips. They specialize in trips for Jewish, interfaith, and interracial groups. The company handles the itinerary, hotels, and most of the meals. SH and RL have been talking about the next steps regarding a trip. There was some other discussion afterward about the schools and what is taught and the curriculum around this trip and conversations around civil rights and also what happens after people return from trips like the one Rachel and Wendy went on that people come back moved and have this energy and feeling to do the work and have these conversations. 3. Next, the Chair introduced Abby McCabe, planning director for the Town of Lexington, to discuss Hartwell Avenue's proposed construction. The Chair mentioned that the passing of the MBTA zoning law now is a good time to help the community better understand the impacts of the housing crisis. In April of 2023, Town Meeting adopted the MBTA Communities Zoning Law. It took about a year to get applications, and the planning board started getting housing proposals this past year. Right now, they've received eight applications in total. 15% of the total projects are allowed to be “inclusionary”, and they have income limitations. Tonight, the planning board has a proposal from Boston Properties for 17 Hartwell, and Abby explains that this is the biggest proposal yet, with 312 rental units, and 47 of them are affordable. Also, tonight is the 1st public hearing for 185 Bedford Street, a proposal for 25 rental units. Abby also explained that the process after proposals come in can take longer as building permits are needed. When the construction begins, it can take up to 2-3 years, so it does take time before people can move into units. Christina shared her screen and wanted the committee to look at the website and an application and think of issues and topics we should be looking for when looking at the application. HRC hasn't had that discussion. On the website, Abby said to select "current projects" because these projects have been presented to the planning board and have gone through the public hearing process. Looking through an application together, the inclusionary dwellings narrative would be something HRC would be interested in looking at. Affordability was discussed, and Abby 1625 MASSACHUSETTS AVENUE • LEXINGTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02420 mentioned that the Affordable Housing Trust is looking into ways to offer financial support to make housing available to lower-income people. The co-chair mentioned it would be a good idea for Abby and the planning board to attend a Commission on Disability meeting as they would be interested in this information and have questions. Christina asked if the planning board has the authority (i.e., if the building has a certain number of handicapped units but not enough handicapped parking on that level) to compare accessibility needs to other communities. Abby said the planning board's authority is really on the exterior of the building site, but they can often make special requests to applicants and developers. But it's good for Abby to hear about accessibility, advocate for more accessibility, and bring that information back to the planning board. There will be more follow-up and ways for HRC and The Commission on Disability to connect with Abby, her staff, and the planning board. 4. The Chair thanked everyone for contributing to the meeting and wanted to return to MLK Day. The theme this year is Women of the Movement. It's very much in line with Rachel and Wendy's presentation today, and thinking about women who were pivotal in the civil rights era and their last legacy and impact. Christina was very excited to announce Loretta Ross is coming to our MLK Day program. Christina also mentioned she's looking for some volunteers. So, what are we doing in addition to listening to Loretta? And we're still trying to figure out if there's gonna be a conversation component or what that might look like. In addition to that, this year, there are so many women figures in the Civil Rights Movement that we want to do an exhibit and have as many of them featured as possible. Christina was thinking of a poster exhibit and has about 30 women on the list so far. There's a 3rd piece, which is an activator fair. So often every year, we talk about how we can listen to our guests, keynote speakers, and panelists; they provide much historical knowledge and information. Then, we asked our community and participants what we would do with all this information. This year, we wanted to connect people more to resources regarding actions they could take. Lastly, Christina and Stepanie discussed the virtual roundtable; two people are currently signed up. With it being a busy time of the year, it may be worth reaching out and meeting with these individuals separately. The dates of the next roundtable will likely be in the spring, and we can have these individuals come in person then. We can also extend an invitation to an HRC meeting. SH mentioned it should be discussed during the January meeting of the first two roundtable events and that it's important we take action on anything that came from those. 1625 MASSACHUSETTS AVENUE • LEXINGTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02420 Christina asked members about topics and discussions they wanted to see on upcoming agendas. She has heard there has been interest around immigration rights and a meeting on understanding free speech, what it means, and what hate speech is. She also wants Jonas Miller, Director of Communications, to come to a meeting and share more about communications. SH mentioned the Boston Public School Committee meeting last week and encouraged everyone to attend in the future and take the school bus ride to the meeting. The bus left Lexington at 4:30pm and took 90 minutes to get to Boston. This is the experience for Boston-based METCO students twice each day. Committee members remarked on the demands on students to endure the long bus ride each way, especially at younger ages. Meeting Adjourned Next Meeting January 8th, 2025. 1625 MASSACHUSETTS AVENUE • LEXINGTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02420