Somerville's Urban Exodus

Gerald Gamm's article "Urban Exodus" is quite interesting. Although I am not quite familiar with the "suburbanization" of Somerville, I feel that a lot of what Gamm talks about relative to Dorchester and Roxbury can be applied to the area of Somerville. In 1971, a staff member of the New York Times stated, "We believe that the set of events in Boston illustrates what is going on all over America. The rapid white exodus from Boston had become a national symbol of the urban crisis." Basically places like Dorchester and Roxbury were seeing a lot of racial movements, with the white population moving out and immigrants moving in. However, "left behind are the poor who cannot move and those working-class and middle-class families who have chosen not to."

I feel that this is the same case with Somerville. According to Wikipedia, Somerville has a mix of blue collar Irish-American, Italian American and to a slightly lesser extent Portuguese American families. Although I am not certain, I can guess that through time there was a white exodus, with white people moving out, and immigrant families from Brazil, Haiti and El Salvador moving in (as is what we see today).

Likewise, another point that Gamm makes in his article is the fact that most centerless suburbs fell apart. However, he felt that "churches and synagogues have helped define the centers of discrete communities" and therefore, have helped to keep these towns together. I feel that in the area of Somerville, churches and synagogues might help to keep certain religious entities together, but the town of Somerville. Somerville is known for its high crime rates, slum-like areas, and especially high theft rates. Likewise, sources state that the creation of the Red Line in-to Somerville in 1985 caused a dramatic "gentrification," especially in the area between Harvard and Tufts University. It was also accelerated by the repeal of rent control in the mid-1990s. Residential property values approximately quadrupled from 1991 to 2003. "This has led to tensions between long-time residents and recent arrivals." I can clearly see how this could happen, and it relates to Gamm's point about having a center to keep the community intact. I feel that the Redline does the opposite, although sounding silly that a subway could make this impact.