Opinion

Location 101

Thursday Dec 8, 2016

Recently, a press release from Boston Parks & Recreation and the Mayor's Office of Neighborhood Services inviting the public to a meeting about improvements to Ramsay Park located in the South End. Constantly, as in city press release, Ramsay Park at Jim Rice Field is identified as being in Boston's South End, it is not.

Perhaps, the City of Boston has been misinformed because this park was dedicated to Capt. David L. Ramsay who came from Sterling Street which is now Melnea Cass Boulevard in Lower Roxbury.

Lower Roxbury often gets lost at City Hall. I grew up in this neighborhood and know it well. It is not the South End and David L. Ramsay, a Vietnam War hero was killed in battle on August 17, 1970 was from Roxbury. The official address of the park is 1999 Ball Street another street that disappeared under the park.

Today, the zip code for my old neighborhood is 02118 a South End zip code but it is still Lower Roxbury even without being 02119. anymore.

I never knew Captain Ramsay a decorated USAF fighter pilot but I attended that dedication of this park back on November 20, 1999 because I was a Lower Roxbury person and came to honor his service and sacrifice for his country.

It is well past time to correctly identify David L. Ramsay Park at Jim Rice Field as being in Lower Roxbury. It is also well past time for the City of Boston to recognize who Ramsay was and why he is honored in his hometown of Lower Roxbury.

How can the city rehab this park if they don't even know where it is located? I am proud of my Lower Roxbury roots in my old St. Philip's Parish.

I am also proud of Dave Ramsay, the man, a hero from Roxbury.

Sal Giarratani