Most North “hood” in the northeast (Springfield, Lowell: low crime, school)
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What crazy is that case the primary defendant, G-Fredo is suspected to have murdered -not shot at- at least 5 people. He is 19 years old.
It is my opion that with the clearing for the SW Corridor ~67, followed by bussing ~74-88, followed by crack ~85-94 Boston has this long period where the social fabric of the inner city was really just being decimated. This along with deep-seated racism both systemic and interpersonal and a huge market in Northern New England to sell to and with no enemies up there...
These things created the culture in these Boston rap videos. If the SW Corridor had never been cleared, if public housing and schools had already been integrated when they were supposed to I think there'd be way more equity, unity, and cohesion in Boston that wouldn't have created the extreme poverty we saw and still do see in RoxDotMat. Because this type of gang culture doesn't exist so flagrantly/brazenly in most cities that I know of Certainly not ones with incomes and demographics like Boston.
I think you are kinda onto something. I'm not that judgmental on rap but if it starts getting or promoting violence it's just a turnoff. Rap at least from what I've heard though is a young mans game. You don't see that many new rap bands from people in their 40's on up. I know other types of music where that does happen. there's nothing wrong with explaining loss and emotions in music although I think it really depends as to how. A guy I used to know we nick named Country Song. His dog died, his wife left him, he lost his job, his son went to Iraq... but thats how that music is although to be honest quite a bit of music can be violent and sexual if you look at the lyrics.
The thing is that it's a bit hard to argue that a complete area is rich or poor when we have smaller neighborhoods. Mattoon Street in springfield practically looks like the back bay but the condos there are nearly 220K with a $200-$300 monthly HOA fee. Someone just flipped one buying at 75k and selling a month later for 150k. Yet you could go a mile or so to the north end and see people pretty poor. Holyoke you can go from Northampton St to the flats where it's really poor.
Access certainly follows other access. Maybe this might open a can of worms but would it be safe to suggest that properties by the rail stops in boston have higher value than bus stops?
What crazy is that case the primary defendant, G-Fredo is suspected to have murdered -not shot at- at least 5 people. He is 19 years old.
It is my opinion that with the clearing for the SW Corridor ~67, followed by bussing ~74-88, followed by crack ~85-94 Boston has this long period where the social fabric of the inner city was really just being decimated. This along with deep-seated racism both systemic and interpersonal and a huge market in Northern New England to sell to and with no enemies up there...
These things created the culture in these Boston rap videos. If the SW Corridor had never been cleared, if public housing and schools had already been integrated when they were supposed to I think there'd be way more equity, unity, and cohesion in Boston that wouldn't have created the extreme poverty we saw and still do see in RoxDotMat. Because this type of gang culture doesn't exist so flagrantly/brazenly in most cities that I know of Certainly not ones with incomes and demographics like Boston.
I would actually like to point to the 1967 Riots as an equally important catalyst. The decline of businesses along the BHA corridor decimated Roxbury/Dorchester/Mattapan. Most of these fleeing business owners were Jewish folks that felt unsafe given that there businesses were burned and looted during the violence. These businesses in the immediate aftermath didn't end up in Black owned hands and instead for a period of time remained vacant. That killed economic development for the growing community.
I think you are kinda onto something. I'm not that judgmental on rap but if it starts getting or promoting violence it's just a turnoff. Rap at least from what I've heard though is a young mans game. You don't see that many new rap bands from people in their 40's on up. I know other types of music where that does happen. there's nothing wrong with explaining loss and emotions in music although I think it really depends as to how. A guy I used to know we nick named Country Song. His dog died, his wife left him, he lost his job, his son went to Iraq... but thats how that music is although to be honest quite a bit of music can be violent and sexual if you look at the lyrics.
The thing is that it's a bit hard to argue that a complete area is rich or poor when we have smaller neighborhoods. Mattoon Street in springfield practically looks like the back bay but the condos there are nearly 220K with a $200-$300 monthly HOA fee. Someone just flipped one buying at 75k and selling a month later for 150k. Yet you could go a mile or so to the north end and see people pretty poor. Holyoke you can go from Northampton St to the flats where it's really poor.
Access certainly follows other access. Maybe this might open a can of worms but would it be safe to suggest that properties by the rail stops in Boston have higher value than bus stops?
I like rap. I can tolerate violence. A passing mention of violence is indicative/reflective of the reality for many inner-city youths.Its also just part of the ar I fully understand it and get it. What makes me uncomfortable is when people are seriously rapping about real crimes they commit and plan on committing with the sole purpose of gaining a following and intimidating other people. Even more so when the entire rap is about said violence AND your just high school age. It's not normal, it's not just "art" this is tied to very real, tangible violence. These guys are from Thetford Ave. This wasn't very musical.
-When at Trinity College there was an adult student (still in his 20s but older) in my class. We chatted a bit but never became close friends. We were both African American and from Boston so we bonded a bit. He was from Thetford Ave. He had been shot at age 14 at Thetford Playground.
-When at Roxbury Latin a new student from Roxbury entered my class in 9th grade. His sister came to events in a wheelchair, turns out her sister had been shot and paralyzed at age 3.
When teaching at Epiphany School one of my coworkers-a master teacher- was a ~27-year-old woman with what I thought was a birthmark on her shoulder. No, she had been shot at age 16.
My thing is the violence has affected so many young people I knew growing up. I can sort of get the sense of when people are serious. And it can really poison and corrupt people. Here's one example:
After high school, a girl I knew from Dana Hall whose father was a wealthy black businessman in Milton. He was a single father and remarried a woman from Atlanta. Her son is Justin Martin, a fairly prominent actor in High School Musical 3 as well as the Denzel Washington film Flight. We ended up at a few parties together and had some mutual friends (via the private school world/jack and jill) but his southern accent was so thick I really didn't feel like talking to him much.
Born into a middle-class family in San Deigo, moved to Atlanta then to Studio City, and became wealthy via acting. Once his mother married the man in Milton, she and Justin moved to Milton. Once in Milton he quickly began hanging out with folks in Mattapan and Dorchester and here's how it ended up for him...
I would actually like to point to the 1967 Riots as an equally important catalyst. The decline of businesses along the BHA corridor decimated Roxbury/Dorchester/Mattapan. Most of these fleeing business owners were Jewish folks that felt unsafe given that there businesses were burned and looted during the violence. These businesses in the immediate aftermath didn't end up in Black owned hands and instead for a period of time remained vacant. That killed economic development for the growing community.
The thing is the riots were not so big in Boston (in part because Mayor Kevin White was able to get in contact with James Brown who was holding a concert at the Boston Garden that night. Most of the city's youth was in the Garden at that time) A large chunk of prime demographic of the riot was indoors and downtown. Boston also had Welfare riots in Grove Hall in 1965/66.
Boston seemed to have a lot of its 'hood culture" established as a result of the white flight of the bussing era. Abandonment, arson, lower property values...This gave black people more purchasing power and more real estate to spread into Dorchester and Mattapan and then eventually Hyde Park. This isn't a bad thing but it's under the conditions and backdrop in which people were afforded that opportunity, it led to a spread of lower incomes into areas that already had poor and violent schools. It wasn't as though a ton of middle-class black people were expanding further south into Boston, it just wasn't unfortunately. A few did... and Mattapan was redlined for that, but I don't know that it ever really materialized. It wasn't as though all the high crime areas today were high crime areas in the 50 60s and 70s. Just as many intensely high crime areas of the 50s 60s and 70s are much lower crime today.
I'd also say it's not as though Boston was in good economic standing prior to 1968. The city was an outdated, dysfunctional dud so far as I can tell.
Towards the end of bussing, crack arrived and violence rose sharply. At this time the mob had died down and was on the lamb or locked up, for the most part. This opened up a huge power void that the inner city black crowd that now had crack money, was able to fill. And that shows it's been. Nowadays there are more Cape Verdeans and Dominicans involved as well. But in the late 80s gangsters started to come from around the US to set up camp in Boston. The Orchard Park Trailblazers were founded by a dude from Queens, Daryl Whiting. The Columbia Point Dawgs were founded by a group of a guy from Detroit who found it easy to take over the nearly abandoned complex.
Last edited by BostonBornMassMade; 01-22-2021 at 02:00 PM..
The thing is the riots were not so big in Boston (in part because Mayor Kevin White was able to get in contact with James Brown who was holding a concert at the Boston Garden that night. Most of the city's youth was in the Garden at that time) A large chunk of prime demographic of the riot was indoors and downtown. Boston also had Welfare riots in Grove Hall in 1965/66
The BPL report actually cites two riots ('66 and '67) but more interestingly to me is the effect on BHA. This essentially accelerated white flight in Mattapan and Dorchester.
Hartford ct Bridgeport new haven Waterbury ct are all ghetto .. I see a lot of people talking about Lawrence mass Hartford ct is way worse check them crime rates the statistics the murders .. Hartford is a lot bigger too
Eh... I try to be nice with Hartford. It has potential but I don't think the state really gives them enough resources to do much. It's frankly so small relative to the size of the highways. Sure springfield has i91 cutting part of it off ( brightwood neighborhood) but with hartford it's like sliced right in half and is smaller. Never really went to bridgeport but I'd like to go to mongers market at some point. There's a drain in hartford and it's a bit hard to stop. Police are leaving to suburbs. I've seen examples of officers get their urban experience and then go to suburban areas all across the country. You can't exactly go from say Halifax to Boston. But you might be able to go from springfield to cinncinatti or nashville etc.
Lawrence...yeah. The last mayor did quite a bit of good but some problems take much longer. I might have mentioned this on another thread but lower incomes try to get around the sales taxes so it's pretty hard to have low ended work without retail. Add in cheaper tobacco and it adds up.
Hartford at least has a function and jobs. And a bit more of a varied history. And modern amenities and things to do. Lawrence is just hood and lower middle class and sort of just there. Neither is a nice place to live your day to day but Hartford’s worst hoods are probably worse than anything in MA overall. Doesn’t negate the fact that there are hood north’s of Hartford though.
But in terms of gun crime no one really approaches the level of Dorchester. Which is alone is as populous as Hartford but much smaller.
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