Q&A: Steve Gag, Board President of Roslindale Village Main Streets

Steve Gag, the president of Roslindale Village Main Street talked with Roslindale Patch about his favorite restaurants in the Village, what he likes about the neighborhood and what's coming soon. Steve Gag, 60, is married with two children who recently graduated college.

Patch: How long have you been president of the Board of Directors for Roslindale Village Main Street?

Gag: I’ve been it for one year, but did another stint as a president about eight years ago. This is my second time, I was re-elected for another year term and officially started November 1.

Patch: That is a volunteer position? What does the position entail?

Gag: Absolutely (it's a volunteer position). It entails just about everything. Mainly to steer the organization's policies, fundraising and activities. And I would say that I found that we’ve got a good base being in the community for 27 years. We have a lot of supporters contributors and businesses we work with closely. The piece we’re taking on this year that is bigger than in the past is the substation to bring something in there and get something in that building. We’ve never done real estate. We’ve worked on getting something designated before.

The substation is a former MBTA substation – the building at the corner of Cummins Highway and Washington Street has been vacant since 1972. The organization Roslindale Village Main Street started in 1985 and that was one of the first items that came up on the list, and said we had to do something on it. We have been working on it one way or another. The most recent activity has been in last 10 years working with Boston Historic Incorporated. 

Sign-up for your daily Roslindale Patch newsletter

Patch What is your other job other than your Roslindale Village Main Street position?

Gag: I am the Chief Operation Officer for a nonprofit organization called the Boston Global Bridge Institute. And we’ve been in existence for about five years. I started it with a friend, a business partner. We are working on a couple different issues. One of them is transnationals. Boston is blessed having many people who grew up in another country or living in the United States on work visas. They still have a firm grasp of their country of origin. Through technology and travel they are living in two different places, and more depending upon who they are. We want to celebrate that and bring those different cultures together with more traditional Bostonians. Over the last couple of years we have concentrated on the Turkish community - it's a very welcoming community wit about 7,000 of them in the Boston area. They are small business professionals with a very strong identity with America and still speaking their native tongue.

The science and technology assets in Boston are better than any other place in the world. Our dream is to create a Davos-Klosters Forum like in Switzerland,facing economic issues in Europe but moving it into the science (field) and doing it in Boston. 

Patch: How long have you lived in Roslindale?

Gag: 27 years.

Patch: Why do you like Roslindale?

Gag: I grew up in small town in the Midwest in Marshall, Minnesota. (The town was) 5000 people when I was growing up. I guess what I like about Roslindale is that it enables me to capture some of the feeling of neighborly-ness like in the community when I was coming up...

My dad owned a pharmacy with my uncle and grandfather. It was the hub of the town with people coming in and out exchanging stories with each other. Everybody knew each other. It’s that small town America kind of way in the way we do commerce today. But we have it in Roslindale. There are interesting places to shop, go to the farmers' market.. There's always someone next door or in the square you could have a cup of coffee with and learn something and be neighbors and friends with.

Patch: What upcoming events are you excited about in Roslindale Village?

Gag: We’re going to continue on making the farmers' market even better. In early spring we have our annual gathering of farmers' market volunteers. That is something I look forward... And I would say another part I’m really looking forward to is engaging with people on how to make our neighborhood better.

There's our annual Roslindale Village Main Street Party on December 12 at Sugar Baking Co. and Restaurant for the community. I really like to have conversations and push things further. How do we make this business community better?I like to have conversations with friends and neighbors to get them involved in any way possible.

Patch: If you were given $100 to spend in Roslindale Village what would you do with it?

Gag: {Laughs} I love all the restaurants. I'm thinking about going to one of my many favorite restaurants. And also going to the food shops to the Cheese Cellar, Roslindale Fish, to Tony's Market, to El Chavo, and to Bob’s Pita Bread. Those places are unique to Roslindale. You can go to other places and can’t find their stuff anywhere else in Boston, unless you look really hard.

Patch: Anything else you'd like to share?

Gag: The owners of 4238 Washington Street – we're working with them – we fought on the issue of Domino’s, but we really want him to be successful. We don’t think they’re thinking out of the box. We're encouraging them to think about lots of other ideas... The owner took an abandoned gas station and made a well-built building that's better than most in the business district. That’s a great asset to the community, we want to make it profitable for him. We want to give people what they want. It’s that balancing act. We’re working on it.