“Shortages and insecurity in on-campus housing continue to push students to look for housing elsewhere—in surrounding communities.” Housing instability within Somerville continues to worsen as universities struggle to accommodate their rising student populations. Meanwhile, rental prices in surrounding communities increase. The growing divide between students and the community puts pressure on city officials, universities, and […]
BOSTON’S BOOMING LIFE SCIENCES INDUSTRY MOVES TO SOMERVILLE
Image by Boynton Yards “The more we can encourage developers to build commercial properties, ironically, I think the more affordable housing that’s likely to result in.” The largest life sciences cluster in the nation, Cambridge’s Kendall Square, is reaching a saturation point. The industry, on the other hand, has no signs of slowing down and […]
SPECIAL SEQUEL: DESACRALIZED
As another historic Black Boston institution is gentrified, a congregation displaced by condos reflects on this trend and what it means BY CLAIRE SADAR AND ALYSSA MALDONADO-ESTRADA [Read the first installment of this series] City churches were designed to be walkable and serve their immediate neighborhoods, but as historically working-class or African American neighborhoods gentrify […]
WINTER HILL STAR MARKET SITE DEVELOPMENT IN DISCUSSION
The potential project, still in an early stage of planning, has benefited from community feedback (Somerville Wire) – On Nov. 8, the Land Use Committee held a public hearing to discuss the possibility of having the Winter Hill Star Market site developed by Mark Development, LLC. While community members did express some concerns, the response […]
OPINION: ONE TOOL AGAINST DISPLACEMENT, RENT HIKES, SPECULATION
“TOPA would allow communities to slow displacement and gentrification by removing some homes from the for-profit, speculative, escalating market, and making them permanently affordable.” Speculators are driving up prices, blocking new home-buyers, and promoting destabilization of neighborhoods, displacement of long-time residents, and gentrification. Is this inevitable? Those issues were the topic of my last newsletter. […]
