Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Yes but into extremely myopic to think that biopharma and tech would be here if the city as a whole didn't balance its books, bring crime down, see new businesses investments and become more expensive and desirable. If Boston didn't get a handle on crime and abandonment then RE values all over the place would've remained suppressed and underdeveloped or businesses that cannot afford astronomical RE but could afford cheap RE would have eventually cropped up.
Remember places like Allston, Somerville and East Cambridge had a ton of townies and were extremely underdeveloped and still had very serious issues of property crime too. We just don't think of them that way anymore. Tha'ts why the tech companies initially popped up on the 128 belts anyway. Or at least a significant part of the reason.
Harvard and MIT being here have a lot to do with it. The research innovations from these institutions have been and continue to be a launchpad for hundreds of startups in MA.
Homie, it wasn't the asylum jefe, asylum herd that gentrified Somerville. If you want to see what happens when we let in too many look no farther than Lawrence.
Yes, it was. They came in step with the gentrifiers and they came together for a reason. Usually, you need immigrants to come and make a neighborhood "interesting/diverse/vibrant" before gentrifiers will come. That's standard in most places with few exceptions mostly in the Southern US or more locally in South Boston/Charlestown.
Harvard and MIT being here have a lot to do with it. The research innovations from these institutions have been and continue to be a launchpad for hundreds of startups in MA.
Of course they do Harvard and MIT were always here though. Didn't stop Central Square and East Cambridge from becoming ghettos. You need the infusion of immigrants to stabilize neighborhoods and fill service positions. Plenty of influential organizations around the country locate din bad neighborhoods that lack immigration relative to boston (see Yale/New Haven)
Places like Lawrence Chelsea and Lowell were worse in the 1970s and 1980s than hey were by the 2000s. That is due to a lack of immigration and the accompanying depopulation and cultural stagnation.
A place like Somerville doesn't become interesting to people with disposable incomeuntil there are other newcomers to break the ice. I mean they happened sort of at the same time but yea...Same with Jamaica Plain.
Are you even familiar with DACA people? Some of them are even in Ivy League schools.
Passport at window A, jury duty next week at window B!
Single teenage mother with three kids fathered by three different FNU LNUs? MS13 or Latin Kings banger? Unemployed high school dropout? Mexico is that way!
Of course they do Harvard and MIT were always here though. Didn't stop Central Square and East Cambridge from becoming ghettos. You need the infusion of immigrants to stabilize neighborhoods and fill service positions. Plenty of influential organizations around the country locate din bad neighborhoods that lack immigration relative to boston (see Yale/New Haven)
Places like Lawrence Chelsea and Lowell were worse in the 1970s and 1980s than hey were by the 2000s. That is due to a lack of immigration and the accompanying depopulation and cultural stagnation.
A place like Somerville doesn't become interesting to people with disposable incomeuntil there are other newcomers to break the ice. I mean they happened sort of at the same time but yea...Same with Jamaica Plain.
As was stated the newcomers to Somerville that got people interested were college grads...not working class immigrants. Lots of Tufts grads had been moving to somerville in the late 90's/early 2000s. Other college grads followed. Now the place is filled with professors and biotech folks.
Yes, it was. They came in step with the gentrifiers and they came together for a reason. Usually, you need immigrants to come and make a neighborhood "interesting/diverse/vibrant" before gentrifiers will come. That's standard in most places with few exceptions mostly in the Southern US or more locally in South Boston/Charlestown.
Once again homie, Lawrence is what happens when you let in too many uneducated and unskilled illegals. Do you want Boston to turn into Lawrence?
I think what initially attracts people to a neighborhood is cheaper real estate. That was a big reason college students flocked to Somerville and of course the close proximity to Boston.
In Dorchester the gentrification in the 2000s seemed to be pioneered by gay men. They liked the old victorian homes that were still on the low side price wise. There wasn't much else there to enjoy aside from the history and close proximity to Boston. They didn't move there for the Pho.
Once again homie, Lawrence is what happens when you let in too many uneducated and unskilled illegals. Do you want Boston to turn into Lawrence?
I'd like to know how they're keeping Lawrence spillover from getting into the prestigious Andovers or maybe it's already happening in those towns more than folks care to recognize?
As was stated the newcomers to Somerville that got people interested were college grads...not working class immigrants.
Um no this is objectively false. Everyone knows Somerville had many Haitian, Brazilian and Latino immigrants beginning in the late 1980s. That's why for 20 years most of Sommerville Public Schools has been non white. Even as early as 1994 13% of SPS students were Black.
So, as I was saying, the hipsters who are moving in now are pushing out the first group that gentrified Unions Square: starving artists and broke graduate students. Before this group moved in Somerville was predominantly home to a large immigrant community. Many of these immigrants came from Brazil to learn English and make money and in the process they ended up making Union Square their home. This community has not been entirely displaced through the generations of gentrification. It lives on actively in certain pockets of the neighborhood.
In 1986, an Immigration Reform and Control Act was passed on the federal level,
stating that “recent immigrants are not eligible for any form of public assistance for at
least two years after they have arrived in this country and have become documented”.6
This presented a particular challenge to the immigrant community. Immigrant rights
advocates and local activists became concerned that Central American immigrants in
Somerville were being placed in an untenable situation
On April 16, 1987, the Board’s legislative matters committee recommended,
in a 3-2 vote, that the resolution be adopted. A week later, on April 24, 1987, the hard
work of these advocates and activists resulted in the ratification of the Somerville
Sanctuary City Resolution, signed into effect by Mayor Gene Brune. It was declared that
the city’s “2,000 to 4,000 illegal immigrants…were entitled to some of the same basic
rights and privileges as regular city residents.”8
It specifically extended protection to
those refugees originating from Haiti, Brazil, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Ireland,
reminding residents that they had no obligation to report a person’s residency status, and
that their immigration status should not serve as a basis for discrimination.
I could give you dozens of evidence. On this matter you are objectively wrong. 100% Somerville has been 20% or more imigrants since the 1990 Census.
Last edited by BostonBornMassMade; 10-13-2022 at 11:02 AM..
I think what initially attracts people to a neighborhood is cheaper real estate. That was a big reason college students flocked to Somerville and of course the close proximity to Boston.
In Dorchester the gentrification in the 2000s seemed to be pioneered by gay men. They liked the old victorian homes that were still on the low side price wise. There wasn't much else there to enjoy aside from the history and close proximity to Boston. They didn't move there for the Pho.
Yet they moved into areas approximate to Pho?
Pittsburgh and STL have cheap real estate and good schools too. You know what they dont have? Immigrants.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.