Q&A: Christina DiLisio, Roslindale Village Main Street's New Exec. Director

Roslindale Village Main Street's new Executive Director Christina DiLisio sat down with Patch to talk about her new position, her old position, food and more. 

Patch: Congratulations on your new job! When did you leave your job as the Mobile Food Truck Coordinator for the city of Boston?

DiLisio: Technically, I am still the Mobile Food Truck Coordinator. That will formally end March 18. March 18 is my first full day at Roslindale Village Main Street. I'm doing both jobs part-time until March 18.

Patch: Where do you live?

DiLisio: Somerville. I grew up in Chicopee in Massachusetts. I've been living in the Boston area since 2000. I came up for undergrad and stayed. (DiLisio graduated from Simmons College).

Patch: What's your age? Married? Kids?

DiLisio: 33. I'm not married. No kids.

Patch: Why did you want your new job?

DiLisio: I wanted this job because working for Roslindale Village Main Streets lets me take everthing I did as the food truck coordinator and expand it in a much more comprehensive way.

The food truck program in my role feels like a part-for-whole - RVMS does everything (the food truck program did), but kind of does across the board. It offers small business support, and (works with) development while working with the community, various stake holders, working with the city, and seeing how things have an impact within several environments.

All the work I did with the city of Boston was specific about food trucks, but I will take what I learned and spread it across here through things such as development issues. There are many projects and initiatives going on here with things happening in Roslindale. I think all the stuff I did as the food truck coordinator can be applied here because the topic doesn’t matter. Food trucks are indeed needed. But what I was doing was nut-and-bolt community work, but in a very specific context.

I also wanted this job to work across an entire community and feel like I was getting a chance to really know a place. Because of the work I have done as food truck coordinator, I’ve looked at very particular like at what parking spots truck can operate, and worked with abutting people and businesses within a 200-foot radius. It’s a distorted view of the community. I think when you’re meeting with the community about economic development you can’t just look at one site. If a business goes in, it’s not just affecting what’s near it. It has a broader range of impact. The food truck program was cognizant of that, but from a day-to-day operation.

Patch: What are you working on?

DiLisio: Today (March 1) is my first day. The challenge is going to be to manage my enthusiasm because it’s going to be tempting to get involved in everything. That’s not possible.

It’s tough to say. Particular things I’m interested in: the Farmers' Market is a big one; it’s the oldest one in Boston. It’s grown having relocated to Adams Park. It's a community anchor, and there's an obvious food connection.

Also, I'm very interested in the substation development. Partly, because you don’t see many instances where you have a development is going to be a new building with all the implicatons that go with that like LEED-certification and green building considerations. There's going to be a historically-reserved building in an area that’s dense and that needs to be reworked in some way. They're still figuring out the transit area and car traffic patterns, and figuring out demographics of Roslindale. Roslindale is a family community - but that development is a lot of studios or one-bedrooms, what does that mean to the development of Roslindale in the coming years? Does Roslindale want to support a young professional crowd?

Patch: Is Roslindale going to see an influx of mobile food trucks now?

DiLisio: No, not necessarily. That’s probably the other challenge of this job. I had a sexy title – food truck coordinator. But I'm getting the business community to trust me. I’m fearful there are concerns that people (think) food trucks are coming into Roslindale.

I saw (my previous job) as someone who has had a crash course in the realities of first-time entrepeneurs and first-time business owners and how you launch them into brick-and-mortars. Food trucks aren’t going to just do something because the city says so, or because a non-profit says something. At the end of day they’re going to make their own decisions, and the community makes decsions for itself. For Roslindale thinking about food trucks - it wound’t be filling in a need. This is a destination area for dining, lunch spots, this is an area that food trucks can compliment the area.

For Roslindale thinking about food trucks - it wound’t be filling in a need. This is a destination area for dining, lunch spots...

Food trucks will always be there. This is a conversation we could have a year from now and be just as timely.

Patch: You’ve researched food system issues, published reports and articles on topics including food policy councils, food planning for municipalities through comprehensive and/or sustainability plans – how is that going to play into your work with RVMS?

DiLisio: I don’t know if food policy coucncils plays in as much. But some of the other research will play in. I've gotten to know many, many different cities across the US, and people drafting plans of sustainability that specifically address food systems.

Patch: What's a food system?

DiLisio: A food system has five different components: producer sector; processing sector; distribution sector; consumer sector; and waste recovery. All those five things make up the totality of food systems. Some are disproportionate, with some time being more consumers. Sometimes there's no processing. There’s no food processing going on Roslindale, like big plants making peanut butter. But because you have those five different sectors to work with, cities and towns have lots of ideas to create a strategic plan for where they want the community to go. So Roslindale is in position to think about how food systems like restaurants play a key role in economic development.

Patch: What events are you excited for in Roslindale?

DiLisio: Oh man, so many events! The ones on my radar just to begin with are the Egg Hunt on March 30. It’s a kid-friendly time. It’s intimate. Of course the Farmers' Market launch isn't until June.