Mixed-use development would transform Dorchester block

Dear anon,

I am going to have to agree with Sally here. What you are describing is closer to the "natural" ebb and flow of the real estate market not gentrification. Gentrification usually involves two cycles, the first being a new group of people moving into a neighborhood, i.e. artists in the South End, who displace lower income residents, and the second cycle when wealthier individuals are drawn to a place that is "new" or "cool" but has been made "safer" by the "early adopters'. The second cycle is traditionally when you see rents and values reach even higher heights. Dorchester, outside of people that are OFD, does not have the historical record of early adopters, i.e. artists, LBGT community, that places like the South End, JP, Southie did.

Now, there may have been a period or two of development within Dorchester in the 70s & 80s but most of it seemed to happen in the late 90s, i.e. South Bay, Fields Corner Rehab, and parts of Savin Hill. But by stating that the gentrification was not as prevalent in Dorchester as it was in the South End or South Boston implies that it was not gentrification. I also disagree with your perception of the timeline too. The South End, JP, and South Boston did not start their "revitalization" until the late 80s and into the 90s with the real boom in the early 2000s.

I can't speak to the real estate trends in South Dorchester, but North Dorchester has not been gentrifying since the 70s, in fact far from it. The 1980s and 1990s were horrible decades for North Dorchester in terms of violent crime, declining property investment, and loss of working class and middle class people (not just families). Things really started to change in the early 2000s. While there have always been small pockets of steady investment (e.g., Savin Hill, Jones Hill, Melville Park) it has only been in recent years that I would say North Dorchester has started to see the return of substantial numbers of middle class people and, in some areas, real "gentrification." I would count this area of Dot Ave around Glover's corner as pretty squarely part of North Dorchester and my sense is that it is starting to see real interest because of the rejuvination of Fields Corner further down Dot Ave and the gentrification that I think has started to now spread out of Savin Hill along Dot Ave from Columbia Road to the Glover's Corner area. Right now, parts of North Dorchester are a total value. The housing stock requires renovation, but it tends to be large and formerly grand. There is public transportation on the red line (and commuter rail now that the Fairmount line stations are done) littered all over the place, and real estate is still priced pretty low (in Boston terms). I think you are about to see what the gentrification of Dorchester will really look like.

Do you actually actually live there and use dot ave to commute to work every day? Or are you one of those suburbanites who would love to see fewer cars in the city so there's more open parking spaces for your land barges whenever you're in town to see a game?