CSANA was founded in the 1980's as the
'Chester Square Coordinating Committee' in response to the
needs and ideas of residents by using the talents and skills
of our residents to enhance the quality of life in our area
of the city. It was incorporated in 1995 and the name changed
to 'Chester Square Neighborhood Association' in order to
obtain tax-exempt status as a 501(c)(iii) corporation. This
change allowed the organization to accept donations as charitable
contributions and the donors could claim a tax deduction.
The group was reorganized as we now know it in 1997 in an
effort to be more inclusive and more casual. The rules were
rewritten to allow any member to move to bring something
up for discussion and have a vote at in a meeting, without
clearing it with a steering committee beforehand, and there
are no attendance requirements.
During the last twenty years, CSANA has
at one time or another orchestrated Easter egg hunts and
Halloween pumpkin decorating contests, summer barbecues,
children's Christmas parties with gifts for all, annual
Christmas caroling around the Square, weekly swimming and
boating jaunts for middle-school aged children, biennial
park and neighborhood clean-ups covering Mass. Ave. and
Northampton Street, bulb planting in tree wells on Northampton
Street and in the two parks of the Square.
In addition, CSANA secured brick sidewalks
in Chester Square with white flowering pear trees on both
sides of each end of the Square, published a "Good
Stuff To Know" booklet with information for new residents
and reivewed every major development in the South End, Lower
Roxbury area for its effect on the residents, testifying
before every major city board, including Landmarks, Board
of Appeal and Liquor Licensing Board.
Most recently CSANA has secured significant
funding to pay for a landscape design and master plan for
the parks in Chester Square and for a beginning at implementing
such a plan when it is complete.
