Urban Village

The Tragedy of the West End

Urban Renewal In Boston

West End Corner

Setting the Stage for theSetting the Stage for the

Urban VillagersUrban Villagers



What do we know about American Cities in the 1950’s?

What do we know about Boston at that time?

What do we know about the West End?

How did people perceive the city?

How did prosperity, views of older things

and transportation come into play?

From last week’s film, what do we know about the politics

of that era?

What was the relationship between the Irish-American political

leaders and the Brahmin Bankers?



Lewis Mumford, America’s leading

urbanologist visited BC in 1957 to speak

to the Boston College Citizens

Seminar.

There he painted Boston’s Obituary

•Declining Tax Base

•Shrinking Population

•Dilapidated Public Services



At that time Boston had

two skyscrapers - the

1915 Customs House

(496 ft.) and the the

1947 Old Hancock

Building (495 ft.)

Source www.skyscraperguy.com & www.boston-online.com

Nr Height (ft) Year Building1. 792.8 1976 John Hancock Tower2. 750.0 1964 Prudential Tower3. 604.0 1983 Federal Reserve Building4. 601.0 1969 Boston Company Building5. 600.0 1987 One International Place6. 592.0 1983 1 Financial Place7. 591.0 1971 First National Bank Boston

8. 525.0 1981 One Post Office Square 9. 509.0 1977 60 State Street10. 505.0 1972 1 Beacon Street11. 500.0 1969 28 State Street12. 496.0 1915 Custom House13. 495.0 1947 Old John Hancock Tower14. 477.0 1966 State Street Bank15. 452.0 1991 125 High Street

16. 390.0 1988 75 State street17. 387.0 1967 John F. Kennedy Federal Office Building18. 381.5 1988 101 Federal Street19. 342.0 1992 Massachusetts General Hospital20. 298.0 1930 United Shoe Machinery Building

Source http://www.aviewoncities.com/building/_buildingsboston1.htm



The three year

preceding Mumford’s

visit to BC a number of

important events took

place that shaped the

mood of the era



President Eisenhower

signs legislation to

create the National

Highway System - $40B

- 160,000 miles - the

dream of moving to

suburbia.

www.fhwa.dot.gov



In 1954 the Central Artery was

built in Boston severing

downtown and West End and the

North End.



In 1956 the Columbia Point Housing Project was built.

Why the West End?Why the West End?

Boston's West End is the most well documented

neighborhood destroyed by urban "renewal," made

famous initially by Herbert Gans's book, The Urban

Villagers, 1962. Although approximately 63 percent of

the families displaced by urban renewal were African-

American or Hispanic, this Boston community was

mainly inhabited by working class Italians. It was a little

piece of Italy, with narrow winding streets alive with

urban social life. Too crowded and unAmerican for the

middle class tastes of City planners, it fell to the

bulldozer in 1959 and was replaced by high rise,

expensive apartment buildings.

Source: www.yale.edu/socdept/slc/urban/urban.htm

The West EndThe West End

23 Nationalities

48 Acres behind Beacon Hill from Mass General

Hospital to North Station

Between 1958 and 1960, the demolition years,

3,000 units of housing destroyed and 10,000

people forced to move

Views of the West EndViews of the West End

Social clubs were common, formed along ethnic

and street lines, this is the Annual Banquet of the

Norman Club, 7 May 1944, an Italian association.

Courtesy of Bostonian Society/Salvatore Tringali


Views of the West EndViews of the West End

The people who lived in

the "slum". A 1948 shot of

a playground in West end,

with the actor,Leonard

Nimoy in upper right.

Courtesy of Bostonian Society/Robert H. Levine.


West EndWest End

Rich Jewish Heritage

Anshe Vilner's 3rd West End

site at 16 Phillips Street

actively served its

congregation from 1920 to the

1970s

Source:

http://www.angelfire.com/biz/LikeJACKnMARIONS/shulsWE.h

tml

The Process of DemolitionThe Process of Demolition

July 1958 - Prior to DemolitionSource: www.yale.edu/socdept/slc/urban/urban.htm


March 1959 - Half - DemolishedSource: www.yale.edu/socdept/slc/urban/urban.htm


September 1960 - Completely- DemolishedSource: www.yale.edu/socdept/slc/urban/urban.htm


Boston Planning Board

“An Obsolete Neighborhood”Source: www.yale.edu/socdept/slc/urban/urban.htm


Boston Planning Board

And a New PlanSource: www.yale.edu/socdept/slc/urban/urban.htm

From this to this From this to this ……..


The New West EndThe New West End


A brief aside A brief aside …… yes, landfill yes, landfill

This detail from a

1991 bird’s eye view

of Boston shows the

present West End

and its shore-

line. The 1630

shoreline

superimposed on

this view shows the

extent, location, and

use of made land.

Nancy S. Seasholes

Gaining Ground: ‘Landmaking

in Boston’s West End Courtesy Tom

Kane.

In Theory In Theory …… Revenue from luxury towers would

trickle down and make neighborhoods boom.

But did it happen?

Next Castle Square in the South End was bulldozed.

Urban Renew continues to take land in the South End by

eminent domain.

Roxbury and North Dorchester are Redlined.

Neighborhoods continued to decline.

Key Terms Key Terms ……Eminent domain, recognized in both federal and state

constitutions, is the power of government to condemn

private property and take title for public use, provided

owners receive just compensation.

Source” http://www.cato.org/events/020514pf.html

The term insurance redlining, describes the practice or

policy of refusing to write an insurance product or varying

the terms of an insurance product because of the

geographical location of the property and because of the

racial or ethnic composition of the area.

Source See Squires and Venez., "Insurance Redlining and the Process of Discrimination,," The Review of Black Political Economy,

Winter 1988.

Boston by the decadesBoston by the decades

1950’s Backwater Town

1960s Urban Exodus

1970’s Racial Tension

1980’s and 90’s Unlimited Growth

The Urban VillagersThe Urban Villagers

•Identify the area Gans is talking about.

•What are its current boundaries?

•Have you been there? If so, what are your impressions?

•What sort of feeling do you get for the old West End?

•How do you assess Gans’ analysis of this book?

•What kind of job does he do blending psychology, sociology, and

political philosophy?

•What were the perspective of the residents?, City Officials? Gans as

participant observer?

•How was daily life organized in the West End?

•What was the view of the Catholic Church?

The Urban VillagersThe Urban Villagers

What is “Value Imposition?”

Is it significant in our own work in our placements? Examples?

What are the ways of avoiding “Value Imposition?”

Why is it so difficult to avoid?

Significance of the Urban Villagers forSignificance of the Urban Villagers for

understanding of neighborhoodsunderstanding of neighborhoods

A battery of questions ……

1. What are the symbolic boundaries of your neighborhood?

2. What are the sub-neighborhoods?

3. What infrastructures exist within the neighborhood to handle

important political, economic, and social issues?

4. Is there something akin to a peer group society?

5. Or unlike the West End, are there community institutions and

why?

Significance of the Urban Villagers forSignificance of the Urban Villagers for

understanding of neighborhoodsunderstanding of neighborhoods

A battery of questions ……

6. What are the most important community institutions and why?

7. How have your feelings and perspective of the neighborhood

changed with necessary exposure?

8. What do you notice now that you missed before?

9. What makes the difference?

In understanding a neighborhood there is no substitution for

living there, talking to others, doing business, forming

friendships, feeling at home. The West End teaches us the

in adequacies of only using statistical analysis.

Urban Village

Documents

Transcript of Urban Village