Week 13 – Community Activism Chapter 4: Community Activism and Environmental Justice: The Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative (Layzer 2012, 83) Background (Layzer 2012, 85) * The downfall of urban areas in the nation began in the late 1800s due to improved transportation and cheaper construction techniques. * This process propelled after WWII along with the construction of a national highway system. * The Federal Housing Administration’ s insurance program, which made mortgages possible, leaned toward single family homes opposed to apartment complexes. * Beginning in the early 1950s and continuing into the 1970s, white Americans left the cities due to the migration of African Americans from the south and school desegregation efforts. * “Redlining” prevented minorities from moving into suburban areas by discriminatory public and private lending and insurance practices. * By the 1980s older cities had an increase in poverty, crime, and physical deterioration. * A prime example of this is the Dudley Street neighborhood. This area started out filled with wealthy Bostonians’ country estates. It was a thriving working class immigrant community. * During the 1950s suburbanization hit the neighborhood, shifting the population from predominantly white to mostly African American. * Businesses vanished: the number of private enterprises on Dudley Street fell from 129 in 1950 to 26 in 1980: on Blue Hill Avenue the dropped from 210 in 1950 to 47 in 1980. * The 1,300 vacant lots in the 1.5 acre community became dumping grounds for trash from all over the city. * Efforts to clean up the community were ignored by elected officials. The Case (Layzer 2012, 87) * The Dudley Street Neighborhood initiative, formed in the mid-1980s to reverse Dudley’s devastation by embarking on a citizen-led urban revitalization. * DSNI began with a massive cleanup campaign and proceeded to involve citizens in creating and implementing a plan for an urban village that included affordable housing, small businesses, parks, community gardens, and a town common. * The neighborhood became “a national symbol of comprehensive community based empowerment and development in depressed inner-city neighborhoods with moderate help from local government. Origins of the Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative (Layzer 2012, 88) * Cleaning Up: Don't Dump on Us (Layzer 2012, 91) * Imagining (and Creating) an Urban Village (Layzer 2012, 93) * Cleaning Up Brownfields and Fostering Urban Agriculture (Layzer 2012, 99) * Sustaining the Momentum (Layzer 2012, 101) * Outcomes (Layzer 2012, 102) * As of 2010 DSNI had more than 3600 voting members, although in conjunction with the DNI it employed only eight full-time staff. * In the summer 2009 work on the south phase of the Dudley Village Homes project, funded by contributions from nonprofits and featuring solar panels, was finished. * The project received a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Silver Rating. * Conclusions (Layzer 2012, 103) *