Yes, it’s the tentative return of the Tohu Bohu Book Club, discussing the fourth chapter of Better Together. We started with the Introduction, and had a good start on that, then had another interesting discussion about Valley Interfaith and house meetings, then we kind of slowed down with the chapter on Branch Libraries, and finally a month ago my questions about The Shipyard Project came up empty. So I lost motivation, I admit, and without wanting to whine, I may well give up the Book Club unless I get the sense that people really want to talk about this book. I’ve started procrastinating, which means I view writing this as work, which was never the point.
Anyway, the chapter on the Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative is the first that I have some independent knowledge of. Actually, I’ve just now looked at the map, and it looks like the extended DSNI area goes all the way to Upham’s Corner, which was a stone’s throw from the three-decker YHB lived in for a couple of years. The heart of it, though, was further away, and I rarely ventured into it, which, of course, is much of the point. OK, as usual, a few comments and questions (bitter aside—I’m clearly not particularly good at sparking discussion with my comments and questions, so Gentle Readers are all encouraged to replace mine with their own):
- The most remarkable thing about the chapter, to my eyes, was the moment when the Dudley Advisory Group, in a meeting, reacted to the hostility of the locals not by defending themselves, but by “scrap[ping] their laboriously crafted plan” (p. 82) and starting again. The lesson here, I think, is not that the particular steps of the DSNI were successful, but that the money people didn’t worry as much about being successful as about treating the residents respectfully. It’s not just emperors who need that voice in the ear saying ‘you could be wrong, you know’.
- The thing about capitalism, according to Jack Kemp, is that without capital, it’s just another ism. In Boston, there were banks that really did a good job of loaning money where capital was needed (and lucrative), and there were banks that didn’t. Now there is only one bank. The history of Dudley Street and environs is told by the withdrawal of capital, as much as anything else, and in Boston that’s a race issue, and the banks' role in race in Boston is pretty clear to anybody who cares, but not obvious to people who ought to care but have other things on their minds. Anyway, I spent a little bit of time looking at houses for sale in the (greater) neighborhood, and I’ve got to tell you, it’s astonishing to me that people didn’t kill all the bankers in the 70s. Maybe they were too busy being beaten with American flags.
- I am skeptical that the practice of granting a group of residents power of eminent domain would be wise in almost any other neighborhood. On the other hand, it seems to have been useful here. Have they tried it in Detroit? Could it work in the post-90s economic environment?
- OK, YHB is a nut about public transportation, but as an erstwhile Bostonian, I can’t help but notice that the whole issue is ignored here. And if you say ‘Dudley’ to a Bostonian, that Bostonian will probably think of Dudley Square, the bus hub for southern Boston. And if that Bostonian doesn’t live in Dorchester, Mattapan or Roxbury, he (or more certainly she) will not have been there. There is no T stop in the DSNI area. The area is serviced only by bus, and the bus routes are meandering time-wasting jokes. If I wanted to leave my Dorchester home and go out to dinner, it was faster to go to Harvard Square than to go to Dudley Street. College Students in ‘good’ neighborhoods (such as the Fenway, Back Bay, Allston/Brighton, and the North End soon learn to take the T and ignore the bus. It’s even worse of course for residents on the other side of the river, who would need an awfully good reason to go from Cambridge or Somerville into the DSNI area, but go into the Fenway, Back Bay and Allston/Brighton all the time. That is an economic death sentence to a Dudley Street restaurant, hairstylist or record shop. City services generally are pretty weak in that part of town, but I’m particularly disappointed that Mssrs. Putnam, Feldstein and Cohen ignore the public transportation issue.
OK, that’s a start. In a general way, I find that I once again am thrilled by the project in question, but disappointed in the chapter, which leaves a lot of questions unanswered, and refrains from judging which policies as opposed to procedures may be adapted for use elsewhere. I know the book is process-oriented, and that that’s the point, really, but it frustrates me.
,
-Vardibidian.