BOSTON — Business owners and residents from Roxbury, Dorchester and Mattapan have delivered a letter to U.S. Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy asking the Trump administration to withdraw $80 million in federal funds committed to Mayor Michelle Wu's Blue Hill Ave single-lane redesign — a project they say she has been ramming through over four years of community opposition she refused to hear.

The letter went to Duffy on Wednesday, June 10, carrying more than a dozen community-leader signatures and a petition signed by more than 2,200 residents and business owners. A press conference to announce the appeal was held at 10 a.m. Friday, June 12 outside 2300 Washington Street. The redesign would convert the roughly two-mile stretch of Blue Hill Ave from Mattapan Square to Grove Hall to a single car lane in each direction, with the center of the road reserved exclusively for a dedicated bus corridor.

The Mayor, residents say, has made up her mind already.

Former Massachusetts state senator Dianne Wilkerson — a Dorchester resident and one of the signatories — said the community had logged more than 100 meetings on the project, in person and virtual, without securing a single sit-down with Wu. She framed the appeal to the Trump administration as the only remaining lever.

"We've watched the Mayor stand up, demand respect and relief for Charlestown, Brighton residents, showing up, calling for meetings, even hosting meetings in person to listen to residents concerns while steadfastly refusing to meet with Roxbury, Dorchester residents," Wilkerson said in the press release. "If you won't talk to us, we'll find someone who will!"

Community activist Priscilla Flint said the federal appeal was a last resort. "We recognize this is an extraordinary step but they left us no choice," Flint said. "We have run out of options and all attempts to meet with Mayor Wu over the last 4 years have been ignored."

Omar South, a Blue Hill Ave business owner who organized the 2,200-signature petition, said the immediate trigger was a closed-door City Hall meeting on the project Wu had hosted a few weeks earlier — without inviting any of the City Councilors who represent the affected neighborhoods. "The Mayor ignored them too and hosted a private meeting a few weeks ago in City Hall and didn't even invite them," South said. "She left us with no choice." Dorchester resident Reggie Stewart, also a signatory, called that closed-door meeting "the last straw."

The community's case to Duffy isn't just about Blue Hill Ave. It's about decades of transit improvements promised to the neighborhoods that never fully arrived.

Dorchester resident Louis Elisa, the listed contact for the press conference, traced the arc back to 1987, when the Washington Street Elevated rail — the original Orange Line over Roxbury and Dorchester — came down. The city and the MBTA promised replacement transit improvements that the community says were only partially delivered.

"Since the Ell came down in the late 80's, Roxbury, Dorchester, and Mattapan have been disconnected from the rest of the MBTA system," Elisa said. "We'll negotiate directly with the USDOT if necessary but it's time to collect on the promise."

This isn't the first time the Trump administration's Department of Transportation has cancelled major federal grants for transit projects in these neighborhoods.

Wednesday's letter to Duffy asks the same DOT to pull another $80 million from the same neighborhoods — but this time at the explicit request of the residents and business owners themselves.

This is a developing story.