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WOW Neighborhoods

by Alison Barnet
Thursday Feb 27, 2014

I run into them all the time: people who have recently moved into the South End...or Charlestown...or Southie...or Roxbury...and LOVE it. They love the South End's architecture, the restaurants, the proximity to theatres, the sidewalk cafés, the way you can walk everywhere, the cute shoppes with quirky names, and even how safe it is-they expected danger. They're thrilled to live in condos, and they're going to make a killing when they sell (interesting expression: "make a killing").

It's nice they like life in our WOW neighborhood so much. They're having fun, the time of their lives, and you can't beat it.

A friend sent me a Metro article, which he labeled "cannon fodder for one of your next columns!" Rightly so. It stated with authority and elation that Fort Point Channel is the "new South End"-"The growth in this neighborhood is wow for the next five years." Chelsea is "a soon-to-pop neighborhood," and Victorian neighborhoods in Melrose are "hot." WOW! And then there's "the Berry." "There is no question that the definition of the South End is expanding when local real estate agents are advertising Roxbury condos over the Mass. Ave. line as South End living...Younger singles and couples who can't afford the South End, but who want to be near the desirable shopping, restaurants and coffee houses, are extending their search into Roxbury...They report to their friends that they are living in the South End, though" WOW!

I remember many years ago, pre-WOW, when a white couple moved in on the Roxbury side of Mass. Ave. and was mortified that the phone exchange would be Roxbury's 445. They went to considerable lengths to have it changed.

But now! WOW! Those who've never been to Roxbury will LOVE it. And the people who used to live there? POW! The newcomers and the realtors believe they're absolutely on the right track, without any idea what the effect of their actions and attitudes is on the neighborhood. Imagine wanting Roxbury real estate values to climb as high as the South End's! YOW! Don't they care what's going to happen to people? OW!

Then I picked up a BU Daily Free Press and read "Pricey luxury apartments add to Allston gentrification." A developer plans to build new apartments that "will demand higher prices unfamiliar to most Allston residences, with single bedroom units costing up to $2,100 a month." He justifies these rents (which some consider relatively low) by citing Allston's proximity to transit and to other Boston neighborhoods. Has Allston moved? Wasn't that always the case?

He plans to "improve the atmosphere of the neighborhood, not just for economic reasons," by which he means getting rid of a local bar that is "a source of negative activity." Soon, other sources of negative activity-people sleeping on benches, public telephones, businesses with metal grates, black people, and poor people-will be removed too. And the students?

The business owners interviewed are enthusiastic. What a surprise! They like the idea of "nicer buildings," which they believe "will help bring the right kind of people to Allston....it'll be the young professionals who've just finished college and got a good degree and have started a good job who are able to afford them," says one.

Haven't we heard all this before-ad nauseam-about every WOW neighborhood in the making? OK, it's true that Allston has some real student dives, apartments that are overcrowded, fire traps, and bug-infested. But what about inspections, fines, taking landlords to court? Is there no middle ground between dump and luxury? This is another case of the venerable misconception that ANYTHING would be better than what we've got. I say: Be careful what you wish for.

The BU reporter continues, "While the apartments may price out prospective residents with lower incomes, there are still plenty of affordable neighborhoods around the area, albeit at the cost of convenience" (emphasis mine). How cavalier! Joe used to have a cheap apartment in Allston and now he's living miles away and hates every minute of it. It takes him an hour more to get to work. Why would he mind the "inconvenience"? Like those MBTA messages, "We apologize for the inconvenience," when to riders it's a lot more than inconvenience.

Soon after reading the Allston article, I heard a man on a radio program refer to displacement as "the unfortunate aspect" of gentrification. That also was putting it mildly. It may be unfortunate to him, but disastrous for others. WOW!

As the late Marlene Stephens says in "Neighbors," the 1977 South End documentary recently shown at the South End library, "It reminds me of the [American] Indians." HOW!

Alison Barnet is the author of the recently-published South End Character, which can be purchased for $10 at the South End Food Emporium, 465 Columbus Ave.; Blunch at 59 East Springfield Street; or the South End Branch Library. They do it "for the neighborhood" and make no profit from the book.

Alison Barnet is the author of Extravaganza King: Robert Barnet and Boston Musical Theater. She has lived in the South End since 1964 and has been writing about it for almost as long.


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