In the midst of the Cold War, Dwight D. Eisenhower argued that if the United States was invaded by a foreign entity, roads would be needed for survival. As a result, he signed the Federal-Aid Highway Act in 1956 which allotted substantial funds to municipal governments for the construction of highways, giving life to the once forgotten Boston highway plan of 1948. City officials began implementing the plan –through evictions and the razing of buildings– much to the dismay of many Bostonians and were stopped short when protests arose. Following the cancellation, community members worked alongside the governor to develop the land into a public park and train line.
While community activists succeeded in stopping the intrusive highway project, their additional success in developing their land has now made the surrounding neighborhoods more expensive and less accessible to long-time residents. This gentrification has quietly forced many people in Roxbury, Back Bay, and Jamaica Plain to leave the neighborhoods they once worked to defend. This paradox must be acknowledged when determining the causes of gentrification in the area and needs to be addressed by Northeastern students who are contributing to gentrifying these neighborhoods.
People Before Highways
On January 25th 1969, thousands of Bostonians congregated on the steps of the State House. This “People Before Highways” protest was in direct opposition to the state’s proposed two-part highway plan. The first part of the plan was the Southwest Corridor Expressway, which was intended as an extension of I-95 into the city through the south. The second part was the Inner Belt, a loop that would have encompassed the city center. Both highway extensions would have cut through greater Boston in the south and Cambridge and Somerville in the northeast, dividing neighborhoods and putting thousands of homes at risk of destruction.
The “People Before Highways” movement was historically significant in that it was the only successful public opposition movement to urban development in Boston at that time.
Former Governor Francis Sargent canceled the highway plan in 1972 and then worked alongside community organizers from Back Bay to Forest Hills to redevelop the already scarred land along the Southwest Corridor, turning it into Southwest Corridor Park and MBTA Orange Line in 1990.
Today, the same predominantly low-income communities of color who organized against the highway project and helped to develop the land are facing intense gentrification.
Gentrification In Boston
From 1990 to 2016, Boston experienced more concentrated poverty resulting from increases in housing prices and rent. As the cost of living outpaced median income, lower income residents began being forced out of their homes. Though this trend is prevalent across the United States, Boston stands out as an exemplary case.
Boston was ranked the third most intensely gentrified city in the United States between 2013 and 2017 in a 2020 study by the National Community Reinvestment Coalition. Included in the list of gentrified neighborhoods are the South End, Jamaica Plain, and Roxbury, all three of which are situated along the Southwest Corridor. This should be a pressing issue for Northeastern students, as these neighborhoods are prime locations for those looking to live off-campus.
Gentrification in these neighborhoods, as with almost all cases of gentrification, does not have a singular cause. Redlining and intense university development, with the development of Northeastern and Wentworth University, is at least partly to blame.
Redlining was a practice performed in the 1930s, in which the federal government mapped neighborhoods, assigning “red” grades to those deemed risky to receive bank loans. The lack of investment into these “red” areas –which were overwhelmingly low-income communities of color– has since helped to facilitate contemporary gentrification.
Increased investment into universities like Northeastern encourages population growth, which can significantly alter the neighborhood where the university is located, particularly with the creation of large-scale student housing developments and the promotion of off-campus housing.
Though these two factors have contributed to gentrification, the development of the Southwest Corridor is much more detrimental.
The Southwest Corridor and Gentrification
Redlining and investments into institutions of higher learning have occurred in neighborhoods not affected by such intense gentrification. This then begs the question, what is different about the South End, Jamaica Plain, and Roxbury?
The development of the Southwest Corridor is the answer. Extensive scholarship has been produced discussing how public investment can lead to increased property values and neighborhood change. A UCB and UCLA study identifies public investments, such as rail transit and parks, as one type of catalyst that may help trigger or accelerate gentrification. A University of Pennsylvania study shows how the 1980s extension of Boston’s Red Line directly contributed to higher property value and subsequent gentrification near Porter Square, Alewife, and Davis Square by making these neighborhoods more attractive to buyers. Additionally, scholars dubbed the term green gentrification to explain how proximity to public parks can lead to increased housing prices.
The South End, Jamaica Plain, and Roxbury are located near Southwest Corridor park and multiple Orange Line stops. This proximity to a prominent public park and sophisticated transit line has led to increased property values and housing costs, which drives long-term residents out. Though this trend is expected given the literature produced on gentrification, it highlights a paradox. The same communities who worked alongside city officials to develop their neighborhoods, following their successful opposition to Boston’s callous urban development scheme, are now being priced out and forced to leave.
Remembering History
In the 1960s and 1970s when the “People Before Highways” protests were at their peak, its organizers and participants had seen the devastation of the West End, Haymarket Square, Adams Square, and Squally Square. They had experienced the brute force used by the Boston Redevelopment Authority (BRA) in enforcing eminent domain and kicking people out of their houses. They had witnessed the highway plan coming to fruition, with state-sponsored bulldozers demolishing 500 units of housing in the south end. Through their collective trauma, community activists in South End, Jamaica Plain, and Roxbury organized against the city of Boston in order to protect their neighborhoods, houses, businesses, and livelihoods.
Scollay Square area, Government Center, and West End areas, 1963 (Northeastern University Library).
And yet today, their neighborhoods are being gentrified, with residents from South End, Jamaica Plain, and Roxbury being quietly displaced. This paradox highlights an unintended consequence of the progressive anti-highway movement, accentuating the racist, classist, and altogether abusive system of historical urban development and its effects on gentrification today.
As this topic pertains to Northeastern students, these neighborhoods are popular off-campus living areas. Mission Hill, located in between Roxbury and Jamaica plain, is home to all Northeastern Greek Life houses, multiple athlete houses, as well as hundreds of Northeastern and Wentworth students. Though the power to reverse gentrification is not in the hands of university students alone, it is important for them to be cognizant of how they impact the existing communities, as well as be knowledgeable of their new communities’ history.
