Witness the Rapid Transformation in Boston’s 5 Most Gentrified Neighborhoods 

Two things: I grew up there, but left years ago, and every time I return I’m amazed at how much things have changed, but there’s still the “missing middle” when it comes to housing. Anything livable is insanely expensive, so it’s not worth it for me to return yet. Also, no love for Dorchester? That’s the biggest section of the city!

I wish you had done Cambridge. The construction that is going on near Alewife is mind-blowing.

Former Dorchester resident: I grew up in different parts of Dorchester from late 1992 to 2021 and moved out of Boston after living there for nearly 30 years. Boston has been one of the most gentrification since early 2000s. Unfortunately, I was priced out.

I used to live in Boston's South End for many years, but the rents went TOO high and I had to move to another neighborhood. I miss it.

Incredible to see the transformation. I used to be student at Northeastern and lived in the South End in the very late 1980s to mid 1990s. Roxbury used to be a pretty rough place. Many thanks for the video. Much appreciated. Brought back memories of the fantastic time I had as an international college student. I used to pay $750 monthly rent on Columbus Ave in the South End back in those days!

Former JP resident: Besides some of the high rises you mentioned, most of the new construction fits the aesthetic of JP. Triple deckers with “charm.” However, the prices are astronomical. Many long time locals have stayed put, so it still has a big community feel, but for new homebuyers… good luck. Hit the Galway House for great vibes and pizza!

I grew up in Scituate on the South Shore, went away for college and came back, and had lived in and around Boston until 1999/2000 when the prices got to where I thought it wasn't worth it, and moved out of state! Last place I lived was an older garden apartment in Arlington, right on Mass. Ave., which was a freezing cold wind tunnel every winter. I couldn't stand it!

I grew up in Somerville it’s not a neighborhood of Boston anymore. Lived there my whole life. It’s still 617. I was priced out after 38yrs. From Union sq. Plus assembly is terrible bring good times back

Lived in Somerville before I moved back down south. Loved my time there and wish it were more affordable. I used to wake up Sunday mornings and walk down to Union Square Donuts. Also loved the quick access to the red line to get in and out of the city.

Ok. the reason people can no longer live in the neighborhoods they grew up in, is because the cost of housing went bonkers! Boston has had a housing crisis since the 1980s. So what did a lot of towns do? (I"m talking about you, Newton!!) They specifically passed low growth or no growth zoning regulations, where everybody and their brother gets to veto anything that gets built. They also prohibited any apartments over retail establishments. The result is that all over Boston, not just Newton, you see squares and intersections with 1 story retail establishments and some 3 deckers near by. If you look in old photos, you see that nothings really changed. In the meantime, you've had the schools around Boston grow like crazy, and attract more out of state students who have parents with lots of money. So as soon as they're able to, (Usually sophomore, but sometime in their senior year) they move off campus with some of their friends or at least acquaintances. These students are able to afford to pay 1000 a month in rent, even if the apartment is shambolic. Pack in 5-6 students and the landlord can collect 5-6k in rent a month. There's no way a working class family can afford that. Combine that with the limited or no development of new apartments and you have families displaced like crazy. (It takes 5-6 years to get a parcel through the development and approval process in Boston thanks to the 4000 page zoning &building code guidelines, which with that many pages, someone will find something to stall your development.) Someone was trying to get a 1500 apartment development in North Quincy through the zoning process, wound up shaving it down to 1000, and then 500 and then gave up on the project. And who was it who is responsible for this? Largely all the residents of Greater Boston who show up to the zoning meetings. Some if not all fail to understand that unless their kid is lucky enough to found a start up that makes money like crazy, their going to have to go to another time zone to visit their kids. Things have gotten so expensive that one of the recent million dollar lottery winners said he could finally afford to buy a house. That's not good.

Americans actually believe this represents fast change. Most of the world builds real high-rises in cities - particularly near transit - and don't waste space with surface parking, the ugly heat sink. Most places just build sufficient housing near buses or subways that run without constant delays. Most of the world just does it without all the bending over for drivers and eternal griping about "gentrification" and thus they don't have the stupid rents that we do. Oh, and, yes, you have to pay more to live in a better location. What a shocking and unfair thing! Maybe it wouldn't be such a big deal if the buildings around our T stations weren't mostly three stories high. One gets the idea that Americans - Left and Right - just don't travel much.

South End was gentrified 20 years ago, Ink Block was just the last to go

The thing that amazes me out here in the western us is the fact that even some of Boston's outer suburbs are relatively dense and walkable like say Arlington. From what I understand, Boston is a little behind on bike infrastructure compared to west coast cities like San Francisco, Portland and Seattle, but makes up for it with superior urban form.

Nice video showing the before/after. Unfortunately the greater Boston region is failing to build enough housing, especially in the suburbs with so much exclusionary zoning. Boston and DC used to have similar rents but Boston prices have skyrocketed. DC is still expensive but is much more manageable due to more more housing being built and TOD not just in the city but in the suburbs as well. Good rent cost comparison for equivalent neighborhoods is DC Navy Yard vs. Boston Seaport.

hey man. Fantastic video. I'm working on a essay on gentrification and urban renewal. Wondering if you have any recommendation on academic literature on that.

I lived in Eastie from 2017-2019. In the years since I visited a few times and every time I did I saw new and renovated apartments everywhere. I also found Eastie to be similar to Brooklyn in some ways.

I simultaneously both gentrified and was priced out of Mission Hill, part of Roxbury.

I think one of the best things we could do to help the housing crisis here is moving the state capital to either worcester or springfield. Culturally speaking it would be kinda sad to see but it would move lots of people jobs and traffic westward where life is cheaper and less pressure on housing stock. Bostons economy is strong enough that it doesnt need the benefits that come along with being capital as much as worcester/springfield could and it likely even puts more strain on the city than it offers as benefit at this point . It would also free up those state buildings already in boston for other uses. The only downside i see is that some of the big business hq’d in boston may not want the capital further away for lobbying purposes.

you should do new haven CT. home of yale sandwiched between new york and boston. crazy development here

People from Somerville MA do not consider themselves Bostonians, having lived there for years. It is a suburb of Boston. It used to be called Slumerville.

Regarding urban places on the east coast, take a goooood look at Halifax... The population growth there redefines the term "rapid."

The one thing no one mentions when talking about housing is that all the housing being built in cities is for RENT only not for purchase. People can not build wealth when renting and have no investment in their community because they do not own. Housing needs to built that people can purchase!

I think the edge of Roslindale and Jamaica Plain is worth attention. That area has changed so much. I couldn't imagine trying to get an apartment near there anymore. Update: I saw the annotations and thought places had been skipped.

I’m 25 miles north of Boston and have lived here for 20 years now. Gentrification is starting to claim a lot of the old mill buildings in Lowell for loft conversion. Although the rents for them are lower than in town, they’re too expensive for most locals. The student population is also driving up rents for everyone else.

Why no episode on Toronto, you know the fastest growing and changing city in North America. currently there is 250 cranes in the Toronto area

The first development in "Roxbury" is in Mission Hill, which has been home to Northeastern students since the 2000s. You can say that is a gentrification apartment building for sure (I can't afford it), but it's not in Roxbury. The Upham's Corner one is a high percentage of affordable units, so I don't understand how that's gentrification? The one after that on Dudley St also has a high percentage of affordable units. With regard to Roxbury, there hasn't been a lot of unaffordable development, so I would argue the bigger threat is people buying cheap multi-family homes and converting them to single families, or high-income people moving to current Roxbury apartments because it's cheap and displacing other people who can't afford to live elsewhere. This has been happening in Cambridge and Somerville a lot, you'll see 3-family "triple-deckers" get converted into single family 5 beds that go for upwards of 1.5 million dollars. Doing that should be illegal IMO

Almost all of new housing projects, including so called luxury ones look extremely cheap and tacky. Some of those won't last more than two decades. Clearly we lost our ability to build decent buildings. Utter shame.

Walking, running, bicycles, escooters, green open spaces, electric buses and trams are all parts of a good transportation system

Questions: average prices for new apartments, vacancy rates, percent full time residency

Next time you're in our fair city, check out the changes in my neighborhood, Brighton. Holy-moley.

Because of Boston and surrounding communities desire to welcome business, traffic and development has exploded everywhere. It’s really sad. Lots of open space and woods gone. No real planning. New Hampshire is just a bedroom community for Boston and is now nothing more than housing developments and strip malls.

The area around the Ink Block in the south end is an unbelievably good transformation. Although January and February are freezing cold, Boston is one of the best cities in the U.S to live in without the filth, crime, and corruption of other blue cities.

How does Boston FEEL - say now, compared to 10 years ago?

I’m waiting for the real estate fallout in Boston. The poster here mentioned the new construction homes going for $1.2m, and that was actually roslindale, not JP. $1.4m was probably the price of a new house in JP over the past year. And for that, you get…not much. The greenspace in the neighborhood is decent. The restaurants are falling like flies, though (the stretch outside of Forest Hills T station used to be nice, now places are dropping like flies there, like The Dogwood). And you can forget about trying to go into CVS or 7/11 without getting past a loiterer gauntlet. I wouldn’t be shocked if there’s some sort of return to office incentive program that local governments are trying to dish out to businesses, because untethered to a geographical location, there’s really no reason to pay these exorbitant prices. I’ve seen better living conditions in neighborhoods whose homes are a quarter the price of what you’d pay to live in JP

I was born and raised in boston 80s 90s 2005 all the same mostly shit change in 2010

Adding more housing is not going to help lower costs. The more they build, the more people will come, making Boston more congested. The Boston metro area takes in over 300,000 students a year, and many of them, every year, want to stay after they graduate.

How do you talk about Boston gentrification and not bring up Southie? its the most gentrified neighborhood in the city. Southie should've replaced Somerville on this list since its a city and not a Boston neighborhood.

I just wish the buildings weren't so ugly.

geez these architects are so uninspired

Sometimes you want to go where everybody knows your name...

Should've added Seaport

All these buildings are so small. Why so little ambition?

The Ink block did not start the gentrification of the South End. It came at the end of the gentrification of the South End. You are obviously not a Bostonian.

We need to end the myth that building “luxury” apartments raises rent. More housing = lower prices. It’s not about the type

I liked some of the ‘befores’ better.

I hope Boston continues to build more housing. They need to stop working on ridiculous and counterintuitive garbage like rent control and keep building more units. That’s the only way prices will come down

No bike lanes: FAIL

Almost zero culture left in Boston. I’m glad I left and moved 40 minutes north. The vibe is just dead and everything is over-priced.

Lived in the SouthEnd in the mid 90s to about 2001. Largely gentrified by the LGBTQ community…..was the absolute coolest neighborhood. Never saw a stroller or that many kids. Went back a few years ago and saw one $1000 stroller after another, little kids running around everywhere. The gays made it cool, then many were priced out, especially renters. Hey breeders, next time put-in the hard work yourself and find your own neighborhood to park your strollers.

All housing is good housing, idk why you had such a negative tone about "luxury apartments". Are developers supposed to purposefully make the apartments bad?

Low income housing doesn't stop people from being priced out of their neighborhood that enables people not to workand caters to only a specific group of people

Cities need to do more to encourage people to ride bicycles. Safe protected bike lanes and trails are needed so adults and children can ride safely. Speak up for bicycles in your community. Bicycles make life and cities better. Ask your local transportation planner and elected officials to support more protected bike lanes and trails. Children should be riding a bicycle to school and not be driven in a minivan.

Interesting video, but dude, if you’re not from the place, don’t try to encapsulate what the people who live there think. I’m here referring to how you frankly state that Somervillians consider themselves as “ Bostonians.” They don’t. Old Sonervillains certainly never would, and likewise the new ones are absolutely Somerville identity oriented. so while you are not wrong that often Somerville is considered in the larger metro area metrics of Boston, identity wise it is distinct in diversity, cultural, enclaves, history, and just about every social metric that makes a place substantive enough to call home. Which is one of the reasons people will pick somerville rather than Boston, beyond just price. But it’s tacky to not be from a place and then try to lay claim and clout like you understand what the people believe. Especially when you’re that far off.

Boston is trash, I lived there for 34 years, left for the DMV.... get paid MORE and the cost of living is lower.

We need to make room for the Lived Black Experience. These new projects must be reserved for those who built our country, I.e. the Blacks. No other group has played such an important role in history as the Blacks.

Bicycles make life and cities better. Ask your local transportation planner and elected officials to support more safe, protected bike lanes and trails. Every child should be able to ride a bicycle to school safely.