Q&A: Stephanie Cave - Roslindale Village Main Streets Exec. Dir.

Roslindale Village is busy and booming, and much of the neighborhood's success goes to Roslindale Village Main Street. RVMS' Executive Director Stephanie Cave sat down with Roslindale Patch to discuss the Farmers' Market, Dog Day Afternoon and more. Cave started her position in February of 2011.

Patch: What is your goal as the executive director?

Cave: Overall, we’re always working to strengthen our business district through outreach, and be there for our local businesses as a resource. (Also) planning and working on events that promote the district, and working with different partners to make Roslindale an appealing destination.

Patch: On Sept. 22 at the Farmers' Market is the Dog Day Afternoon...

Cave: (RVMS) crown(ed) a Mayor Dog – it's a prestigious title. You do not have to be neutered or spayed. It’s probably the cutest, most special dog. In the past we’ve had 50 to 70 dogs at this event. Ayanna Pressley and Rob Consalvo (were) judging. This is the third (Dog Day Afternoon), but first Mayor Dog.

We have our annual Taste of Roslindale, that is on Oct. 18 at 6:30 to 9 p.m. at St. Nectarios Church in Roslindale Village. This year this is our sixth year, and we're bringing an elevated feeling to the event. We are tying it to a harvest theme, and asking restaurants to incorporate local and seasonal ingredients into their dishes. We hope to have some of our farms (from the Farmers' Market) partner with the restaurants to provide them produce at wholesale. We’re doing some new cooking and food demonstrations. We’re also doing some interesting raffles.

Buy tickets now online at roslindale.net/taste - for $40 it's all you can eat, and a cash bar.

Patch: How many restaurants will be at Taste of Roslindale?

Cave: 21. Roslindale and West Roxbury. The Cooperative Bank is the lead sponsor.

Patch: So what’s new in the Village?

Cave: We received great news about the George Greenamyer Sculpture that is supposed to go up – it’s called ‘Traffic.” It’s a seven-year project, and we got final funding from the Brown Fund (on Sept. 18). The sculpture is being painted, and will be completed in th next two months or so. And we hope to have it up in the late fall. It’s going to be in the traffic circle at Corinth, Belgrade, and Robert Street across from Sullivan’s Pharmacy. 

Marla’s Obsession is installing new signage soon... The Robert street Bridge – we want to put LED lights under the bridge to create an illuminated gateway coming into the Village. We're working with city and state officials, and don’t expect it to be a high cost, but we're looking at grant opportunities.

Patch: Tell us about Domino's wanting to move into the Village at 4238 Washington Street?

Cave: RVMS is in opposition to Domino's (coming to the Village). And our strong opinion is we are really trying to raise awareness and advocate for local businesses, and work with property owners to come up with options for that building that compliment our current tenant mix. One reason we are opposed to Domino's, is we don’t think it compliments the business district already - we have several pizza shops in the area. We hope the owner can seek out other opportunities. We realize we have no legal sway, but we’re hoping to still appeal to the city at the licensing hearing on October 3. We're creating a petition to present at the hearing.

Patch: What about the Subway Restaurant right next door to where the Domino's wants to be?

Cave: The community did not know about Subway until the lease was signed. But Domino's announced their intentions.

Patch: How's the Roslindale Village Farmers’ Market going?

Cave: We started in June and go through the end of October. This year we're seeing record attendance. We have about 2,500 people a week, upwards of 3,000 and more. We average 28 vendors a week, up from 22 last year. There are specialty food items, and we've been able to recruit a lot new vendors.  

We have weekly childrens' entertainment, and we're drawing around 80 kids a week. We just had our Backyard Stomp fundraiser, a concert – at Steve Gag’s house on South Street. The season is going to finish up strongly – Oct. 27 is our Harvest Day, and it's a celebration of all the success of the market and the season. We're maybe doing a Halloween Hat Day.

For more information for everything Roslindale Village Main Streets check out its website here.