The winner of the Urban History Association's Eighth Annual Graduate Student Blogging Contest, "Connections." 2024
by Joshua Rosen
"In 1974, when Richard Wise was hired as a community organizer in Boston's Jamaica Plain,[1] there were thirty-one abandoned buildings in the center of the neighborhood. He remembers cars burning underneath the elevated train line nearly every week.[2] Banks refused to loan money to anyone who lived or wanted to live in the area, which meant no one could sell or improve their home. Today, fifty years later, the neighborhood is beautiful. Well-maintained triple-decker houses line narrow, tree-lined streets. Centre Street and Amory Street buzz with bars and restaurants. There are more than a dozen playgrounds, each within walking distance of one another. And the median rent for a one-bedroom apartment is more than $2,800. The median sale price for a single-family home exceeds $1 million. Most Americans can only dream of affording to live there..." READ ON; https://tinyurl.com/4cam5wct