The Voice of the South End: How Steve Fox Built a Neighborhood Coalition
Interviewed by Irwin Levy, Friends of Titus Sparrow Park Board Member
In this Community Corner, I profile longtime South End resident and community leader Steve Fox. Through decades of neighborhood advocacy, from his early work in Boston City Hall to helping launch the South End Forum, Steve has played an important role in building stronger collaboration across the community. His role in growing the South End Community Board Facebook group, now more than 20,000 members strong, has also helped create a vital space where neighbors connect, organize, and stay informed about the issues shaping the South End.
Steve Fox, Marleen Nienhuus and Al Desta
Finding a Home in the South End
Steve Fox’s path to Boston, and specifically the South End, was a familiar one. After finishing graduate school at Boston University, Steve rented an apartment on Dartmouth Place. Then, more than 30 years ago, Steve and his partner scraped together a small down payment and bought a home on Rutland Square. Steve called it the “ramen noodle period,” balancing both a mortgage and school loans. It remains their home to this day.
Learning the City Under Mayor Kevin White
Statue of Mayor Kevin White at Faneuil Hall
After working in the nonprofit sector, Steve was tapped to work for then Mayor Kevin White, first as a Special Assistant and eventually as Executive Assistant. The role gave Steve a front row seat to the evolution of Boston’s neighborhoods during one of the city’s most transformative eras. Mayor White’s 16 years in office saw a building boom that reshaped downtown Boston, the rebirth of Quincy Market, and the creation of neighborhood focused “little city halls.”
Steve shared one memorable story from his time in City Hall:
“The mayor was due to be the guest of honor at the Ritz Carlton across from the Public Garden, given by the Governor of Puerto Rico, who was in Boston for a visit. White found out the Governor’s real motive for the visit was to try to woo businesses to relocate from Boston to Puerto Rico. Angry at the Governor’s subterfuge, the mayor informed me he wasn’t going, and told me I was to go in his place. So here I am, a young twenty something taking the Mayor’s head table seat between the Massachusetts Lieutenant Governor and the Cardinal with the Governor of Puerto Rico staring at me. They even had the Puerto Rico Children’s Choir do a mini performance while I sat there sweating. The mayor’s message was heard and not one Boston business relocated!”
Community Service Takes Root
Steve loved his time in the mayor’s office, but after four years realized he needed a steadier income. He went on to a career at Digital Equipment Corporation, one of the foundational companies of the Route 128 high tech corridor.
Still, the seeds of public and community service had already been planted. Steve became deeply involved with the Rutland Square Neighborhood Association, eventually earning the nickname “Rutland Square Town Crier” in a Boston Globe article.
Building the South End Forum
Roughly 20 years ago, the South End had 20 separate neighborhood associations. At the same time, there was growing recognition that the community needed a more unified voice to discuss issues affecting the neighborhood as a whole. Out of that need, the South End Forum was born.
Steve described the more than two year process of building the Forum, bringing nonprofits into the conversation while keeping the neighborhood associations at its core. Care was taken to avoid creating a cumbersome parliamentary body while also respecting the independence of each organization. Decision making was built around consensus.
After helping launch it, Steve said the Forum grew “by leaps and bounds.”
“We were meeting in person every two months. Then Mayor Marty Walsh came to the Forum every September with his entire Cabinet for a two hour discussion and Q&A on anything any South Ender wanted to ask.”
The South End Forum felt unstoppable until the arrival of COVID. The pandemic created a hiatus that took several years to recover from. Eventually, the Forum returned as a hybrid organization with both virtual and in person meetings, thanks to an organizing team that included Nicola Truppin from PBNA and Bob Barney from the Claremont Neighborhood Association, both working closely with Steve to relaunch it.
For more than a year, the AC Hotel Boston Downtown has generously hosted quarterly meetings. Attendance regularly exceeds 100 participants both online and in person, and when major issues such as Mass and Cass are discussed, meetings are often standing room only. Elected officials consistently attend, either as presenters or participants.
Turning Challenges Into Strength
Steve believes the South End’s political structure, while often criticized, has actually become a strength.
“The South End is unique in that we have been gerrymandered into three city council districts, with three separate City Councilors. To some, no single councilor for all of the South End seems to weaken our voice, but we’ve made lemonade out of lemons by working closely with each of them and building consensus among them on issue after issue, together with the city’s four at large councilors. So we’re blessed to have all the Councilors be so responsive to us. Rather than from one voice, we can be heard through many.”
A Digital Community Hub
The South End Forum also inspired another major community resource that is now in its 17th year: the South End Community Board page on Facebook.
Recently surpassing 20,000 members, the page has become one of the neighborhood’s central hubs for information and discussion. Steve described it this way:
“Much like the SE Forum, the Facebook page tackles topics from the molecular to the atomic. Without question, the two most bedeviling issues are winter space saving for parking spots and trash practices, particularly as it relates to rodent control. For a long time we’ve been exploring options, solutions, timing, and even containerized collapsable trash receptacles in lieu of plastic bags.”
I asked Steve about the demographics of community involvement. “Younger people don’t necessarily want to go to hearings or attend a board meeting on the third Tuesday of the month for example. But they are often hyper focused on a specific issue and will delve deep and work hard to resolve it. We are trying to use WhatsApp to harness this energy within a subgroup”.
The Ongoing Challenge of Mass and Cass
It seems nearly every South End conversation eventually returns to Mass and Cass.
“Mass and Cass, both personally and professionally, has been a key South End challenge for over a decade. The complexity of balancing public safety and public health with the right judicial initiatives and approach is daunting.”
Steve explained that progress has only come through persistent collaboration between neighbors, city leaders, and service providers.
“Since October, we’ve been able through a really focused partnership between the city and neighbors to combine public health and public safety objectives in our street outreach efforts and place some 600 people from the Mass and Cass area into detox and residential recovery and treatment programs. That is an astonishing turnaround.”
He also emphasized the reality that recovery is rarely linear.
“Addiction is not linear, so we recognize there will be relapses and defections from a recovery path, of course. But through continual re engagement we seem to have the three essential components of a solution, the trinity we call it, moving in the right direction.”
A Neighborhood That Leads With Compassion
Steve ultimately tied the story of Mass and Cass back to the South End’s deeper identity.
“During the HIV/AIDS epidemic, Boston Medical Center was the only place welcoming people stricken with this disease. The South End has throughout its history always led the way.”
And it is hard not to say the same about Steve Fox himself.
Steve Fox has helped bring people together across the South End for decades, creating stronger connections between neighbors, organizations, and city leaders. His commitment to community building continues to leave a lasting mark on the neighborhood.
Thank you for reading Community Corner. More stories highlighting the people who make the South End and St. Botolph such a special community are coming soon.
— Irwin Levy, Board Member, Friends of Titus Sparrow Park
