Mapping South End Community Development
By: Rose Southard, Lindsey Connors, Michael Hipson, Jeffrey Lau, Allison Kelly
The South End
The South End is a diverse residential neighborhood located adjacent to Boston’s Back Bay. This neighborhood is home to young families, professionals, and immigrants and the neighborhood is known for its elegant townhouses and many small parks. Originally built on tidal flats during the mid-1800’s, the South End neighborhood was planned to attract the wealthy merchant class. Today, the South End is home to major tenants including Boston Medical Center and Boston University School of Medicine.
Community Development South End Walking Tour
We as a class would like to thanks Luis Aponte-Pares, a retired UMass Boston professor, who has shaped the Community Development program. Luis has a long resume of community development work in both Boston and New York. He is a longtime South End resident. Luis bought his apartment when the South End was still affordable for a public university professor. According to Luis, neither he nor many of the people in his building would be able to afford their apartments were the units on sale today at market rates. Luis told us much of what is in this report on the South End. Luis’s tour was both personal and historic and a valuable addition to our education in Community Development.
Sites Visited
Tent City History
The evolution of Tent City from a 1968 protest site to a modern residential development stands as a testament to the effects of how community participation can be used to change the course of city development and public policy. The protest, which lasted from April 26–30th, 1968, involved a sit in of approximately 50 protesters on a vacant lot in the south end intended for a parking garage. Mel King, then already a veteran protester against the BRA’s urban renewal initiatives, had been working with the Community Assembly for a United South End (CAUSE) for several years by this time. Activists were frustrated that the BRA seemed to have free reign to demolish neighborhoods without considering the well-being of residents. The Tent City sit in was a turning point for this movement, and although it only lasted four days this protest and the exposure it garnered can mark a turning point in the fight for affordable housing in Boston. Almost 20 years later, on the site of the Tent City protest, 269 units of mixed income housing were constructed. In Chain of Change: Struggles for Black Community Development, King writes of Tent City: “This site was the fact and the symbol of all we had been fighting against for so long.” On April 30th, 1988, the 20th anniversary of the Tent City sit-in, the housing complex was dedicated and named “Tent City”.
Sources:
“Activists Erect Tent City in Boston: April 27th, 1968” http://www.massmoments.org/moment.cfm?mid=126
Chain of Change: Struggles for Black Community Development: Mel King, 1981
South End Technology Center @Tent City
Mel King, as told by Susan, founded the South End Technology Center through MIT because the internet was an up-and-coming and game-changing tool at the time that he wanted accessible to communities of color, particularly the Black community in the South End. The internet was an “informational highway,” meaning it can serve as a tool for sharing information across large geographic areas. It also had a double-meaning for communities of color, as highway construction has also historically marginalized and destroyed communities of color through having highways being constructed right through their geographic spaces. Mel King refused to have this new up-and-coming tool be destructive towards communities of color as the the highways did, and envisioned it being a tool to uplift communities instead. Through the SETC, community members of all ages have technology access through computers, a fabrication lab, a recording studio, and much more. Members are also encouraged to both learn and then share with other community members their knowledge of operating technology and software through programs and workshops.
Capacity
SETC is heavily volunteer-ran. Mel King, founder and Executive Director, works as a volunteer, as does their Education Organizer Susan Klimczak. They currently have 5–6 consistent adult volunteers working 20 to 50 hours a week, along with approximately 40 paid youth from April to August and 5 to 10 paid youth from August to April. They have one part-time paid computer instructor who currently works 20 hours per week.
Villa Victoria
In the 1960’s through effort and push back from the community, Villa Victoria was developed. The neighborhood was predominantly inhabited by Puerto Rican residents during the 1960s and was going to be torn down to create luxury housing. The residents of the neighborhood came together to campaign against the resident displacement they were going to face. Churches, community groups and activists created a proposal with an architect which became the plans for Villa Victoria. Today Villa Victoria still stands as an affordable housing development. The IBA — Inquilinos Boricuas en Acción also located in the neighborhood provides help and services for the residents of this community. The IBA helps the low-income residents of through education, basic needs services and workforce development programs.
Source:
ibaboston.org/who-we-are/
The United South End Settlements
The United South End Settlements (USES) was the first settlement house in Boston. Today, USES consists of four settlement houses and a children’s museum dating back to 1891. USES originally focused on providing services to improve housing, public health and sanitation, developing day care programs that included medical care for children, and creating mental health programs. USES currently serves as a national model of successful neighborhood engagement through improvements in education, health, safety, and economic security of low-income individuals in Boston’s historic South End and Lower Roxbury neighborhoods.
