Streets of Hope

Medoff and Sklar focus mainly on the Dudley neighborhood of Boston. Similar to Roxbury and Dorchester, Dudley also experienced a "white flight" where white people/families moved out of the area and racial minorities (mostly African Americans and Latinos in Dudley's case) moved in. Unlike Gamm's arguments for religion being the driving force behind "white flight" in Roxbury and Dorchester, Medoff and Sklar attribute Dudley's situation mostly to unfair policies of government organizations and national banks. They talk about redlining and blockbusting, and the displacement of many low-income families for the sake of building higher end condos. They also touch on the city government's attempts to "help" and "improve" the area, which in actuality were nothing more than a way to appear as if they were helping without meeting the community's needs at all. Medoff and Sklar then go on to explain how the people of the Dudley Street area, along with the Riley foundation, were able to organize and actually effect a change in their area. They worked together, got the attention of the city, and made something happen. I think this is a great example of community organizing. It was during a time prior to the Internet, and I think can be looked to to show both the advantages and the drawbacks of online community organizing today. Had those involved in DSNI, Riley, etc had access to the Internet, I think they would have been able to reach out to more people, and perhaps achieve things a little more efficiently. However, I also think the lack of Internet is what made their town meetings so effective. Everyone was forced to be in the same location and talk face to face, inspiring passion, conflict, a feeling of solidarity, and other things that just can't be felt through a virtual setting. This is definitely something we should keep in mind with our project in terms of encouraging active and effective involvement among our participants.