Hey, there! Log in / Register
A quiet Boston neighborhood gathers over some hot dogs and beer
By adamg on Sun, 08/04/2024 - 7:58pm
Cabral tends to the grill while other residents chat.
Residents of the Boston Trailer Park in West Roxbury - the city's only trailer park - gathered in front of Donna Cabral's trailer yesterday for some hot dogs, beer and conversation.
Cabral, one of the trailer park's newer residents, and Karen Ariale came up with the impromptu hot-dog fest as a way for residents to better get to know each other or just hang out and chat. Cabral volunteered to grill the dogs - something she got quite familiar with in the nine years she owned Jimmies in Roslindale Square (where Sweeties is now).
The trailer park, its 100 or so trailers even less visible from VFW Parkway than it used to be, now that a large apartment complex sits in front of it, just south of Spring Street, is one of West Roxbury's two remote neighborhoods that still have unpaved roads, along with the Grove.
But those unpaved roads also say something about the determination of trailer-park residents to keep up their off-the-beaten-path neighborhood, which sits between the apartment buildings and the Charles River. One resident used to fill up a dump truck with gravel every year to fill in any potholes; he's gone now, but residents created a garden along the wooden fence that separates them from the apartments. Behind one of the blooms sits a toy dump truck as a memorial.
It's a quiet area, close to both nature and everything West Roxbury and Dedham have to offer - at prices far, far lower than what a house in other parts of West Roxbury would cost.
The trailer park dates to the 1940s - when somebody used the land to sell mobile homes - including those meant to be taken on trips, as opposed to today's more permanent structures.
Over the years, residents have faced some major challenges.
Living basically on the Charles used to mean the risk of flooding. That began to ease in the 1970s when the Army Corps of Engineers started buying thousands of acres of land along the Charles to basically act as giant sponges after heavy rains, protecting people lived long the river.
Then, in the mid-1980s, the guy who owned the car dealerships along VFW Parkway bought the trailer park and moved to evict its residents so he could expand. The residents, aided by then City Councilor Maura Hennigan, fought him for 16 years, until he finally gave up and agreed to sell a non-profit housing group most of the land - some trailer owners had to move from a parcel he wanted to keep. In 2010, the non-profit in turn sold the park to its residents.
Neighborhoods:
Topics:
Free tagging:
Ad:
Support Universal Hub
Help keep Universal Hub going. If you like what we're up to and want to help out, please consider a (completely non-deductible) contribution.
Comments
Reminds me of the trailer
Reminds me of the trailer park on Homestead Air Force Base in Florida next to the pond. This one is a lot bigger though.
Basically a retirement community with the option to take you home on trips every now and then.
I don't get the trailer park stigma? They seem like a great place to live.
its a sign
A trailer park is a sign of poor people. And there's a stigma attached to that.
YMMV
I grew up in trailer parks - 5 different ones, in fact. In many areas of the country trailer parks are effectively low income housing projects.
And trailer parks come with all the real benefits - and problems and stigma - that housing projects do in urban settings. It doesn't matter that most parks are private and most housing projects were not - it was all about a pocket of concentrated poverty.
Like most housing projects, you can get tight knit groups of neighbors who watch out for one another. You get extended families living across units. You get people just starting out who are striving for a better life and often manage to get there through hard work. The ones I lived in were also home to a lot of divorced moms with then unenforceable child support orders living on welfare or working very low pay jobs with long hours.
Sometimes you get park owners who live on site and care about the people who are living there ... like the time my mom nearly sliced her finger off and the park owner took care of me and my brother while her husband drove my mom to the ER. Sometimes you get park owners who don't live there, don't give a shit, and don't invest in the property and then blame the failing roof in the laundry area on the tenants being trash ... somehow. It is a real crap shoot and one is typically without other choices or options.
During the Reagan Recession, when I was a teen, there were also unemployed families with the utilities cut off and serious drug problems. My corner of the park had some troubled folks, to be certain, but also had the tight knit social support structure that living in close spaces on the edge (or over the edge) of society can create. When my neighbor's wife ran off with a crackhead and left him with two small kids during a period of high unemployment, I would have babysat his kids for free but he was too proud. So I took payment in venison sausage (yes, he hunted for meat). That sort of social support was not uncommon.
And yes, the stigma is real and people living in trailer parks often face obstacles simply due to living there and the assumptions that rich made about people who lived there, even those who managed to excel and achieve. For example, my standardized test scores generated interest from Stanford. They sent my guidance counselor a postcard for me to return if I was interested in an application. In fact, they sent three. The first two that I returned were ignored because I had a trailer court address. The third was quickly sent to my guidance counselor's home address. I wasn't the only one this happened to, and it wasn't the only time that I was judged to be trash simply due to my social economic stratum.
I like that Boston has a
I like that Boston has a trailer park within the city limits; it's the ultimate anti-bougie statement.
Had no idea.
Had no idea.
what I love about uhub
this is the kind of local reporting I love about universalhub. Thanks Adam for covering this unique and sweet neighborhood story
I used to live In the
I used to live In the apartments at 1459 VFW, And I thought it was pretty neat to be living next-door to the only trailer park in Boston. I have two very dear friends that live there, and they were always available to hop “across the fence“ if I needed anything. I also took some beautiful walks there during Covid because there’s a lot of nature there, including some bunnies and of course the Canada geese.
It is a complete shame that that new monolith of an apartment building is next-door.
Le sigh…
Street View
Google Street view has a few years where the car ventured into this mobile home park. And its before the apartment complex went up. They were just vacant lots before
But now... some mobile home owners have up-in-their face views of some apartment complex and the apartment dwellers get an overview look at some trailer park from their balconies.
*eye roll*
Adam
Adam, just curious... does Boston have NYC beat on this one? Meaning.. does NYC have a trailer park also or is Boston alone here.
Internet says they are illegal so there are none. But some links suggest Staten Island might have ONE trailer park. But come on, Staten Island is basically New Jersey so it (shouldn't) doesn't count. Do the other boroughs have them?
"New York City's Only Trailer Park"
NYT, 1999: On the Ground Floor Of the American Dream; At New York City's Only Trailer Park, Affordable Homes and Rules to Live By
https://www.nytimes.com/1999/01/31/nyregion/ground-floor-american-dream-...
Staten Island, the West
Staten Island, the West Roxbury of New York