The Dig - Greater Boston's Alternative News Source
In preparation for this run, ATB producers went to City Life meetings to partner with those who were interested in sharing stories of displacement. In doing so, they were shocked by the number of people who wanted to participate.
“They [Northeastern] gave us no opportunity for discussion or response to their views,” West said. “It’s like a hammer that came down on us unexpectedly and out of the blue with no opportunity to respond to it.”
The issue is a lot more complicated than the singular incident of EMF evictions: Gentrification and displacement have long since transformed formerly working class neighborhoods like Cambridgeport to upper-middle enclaves.
“We have to recognize, you know, people enter the building renting because the circumstances mean that renting is what works for them ... I think we have to have protections and safeguards to allow those individuals to continue getting the benefits they’re entitled to.”
Boston film director Robert Patton-Spruill helped rebuild his section of Roxbury from ruin. Now he wants to sell, but his neighbors have other plans for his property.
SAME SHIT, STL GLD: MOE POPE AND THE ARCITYPE RETURN WITH MORE THAN JUST ANOTHER DOPE RAP ALBUM
This name-changing charade is insulting, and only possible because so many residents either don’t know—or don’t give a damn—about how Boston is the last major metropolis in America with an urban renewal agency.
This is what happens when you give the neighborhood what it needs
I’m glad this column has allowed me to shine a light, however small, on the ills that plague the city. But we need more voices like mine, and more willingness to take risks.
Few things are less democratic than a state of the city, state, or union address. They are subjective greatest hits lists for captive audiences, written by people who are paid to make their bosses shine.
