Running header: More than Brick and Mortar 1

Isaiah Barnett, Jameson Halleen, and Sara Lioanag

Beth Tarasawa
Race and Social Justice
28 February 2017

More than Brick and Mortar

The Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative (DSNI) was born from a community taking a

stand and telling the city of Boston that they would control the fate of their neighborhood.

Although many city development and planning officials tried to push their own agendas through,

DSNI was able to remain strong and demonstrate that they themselves were more than capable of

planning, building, and maintaining their own success. Below we will discuss some key

principles that the representatives of DSNI used to breathe life back into their struggling

community.

When a city is looking to redevelop a neighborhood, the most important goal of that

effort must be creating community participation and invested interest. This must be on the

forefront because when the residents of a neighborhood are involved and utilized, they view the

project as a part of their community. As Peter Medoff and Holly Sky say in Streets of Hope

Residents saw that by coming together in large numbers and demanding what they were

rightfully entitled to, they could change their neighborhood for the good, (Medoff & Sklar,

1994, p. 72). For the first time since the neighborhoods decline, the residents of the Dudley area

were shown that they had control over the fate of their own streets.

In addition to creating broad community participation, organizations must demand racial

and cultural equality. In order for an organization to be representative of any given community,

equal consideration must be given to all the different voices within that community. We saw this

struggle occur within DSNI. When DSNI was first formed, it was mainly comprised of people

that did not even live in the territory that they were advocating for. This caused an uproar from
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the community complaining that they did not see their neighborhood there. After that incident, it

was decided that Instead of a 23-member governing board with only 4 designated community

slots, there would be a 31-member board with a resident majority, (Medoff & Sklar, 1994, p.

57). Race plays an important role in this story too because the previous DSNI board was

primarily white and not representative of the community. Residents had to complain that they

wanted to be represented more equally for the board to change. Later DSNI went on to challenge

the racial norm even more when they required that the team building their community center

must be 45 percent Boston residents, 44 percent minorities, and 8 percent women. These

numbers actually fell a bit short of their original diversity goals but are still unheard of today.

Following racial and cultural equality, starting from local conditions is a critical principle

for community building. It can be difficult to restore an entire city and foster participation.

Starting from local conditions is a smart way to get people involved and have a stronger effect

because people care about the community and neighborhood that they live in and have an

incentive to restore it. The Dudley neighborhood was brought together by its residents through

picking up trash and protesting illegal dumping in the area, creating change in their

neighborhood. In addition, by starting from local conditions, it allows more accessibility to those

who do not have reliable transportation. It is easier to help when the work is done on ones own

street. Starting in small areas can also lead to other areas wanting to do the same, creating a

domino effect.

Next, it is important to build on strengths that already exist within the community. Many

communities may not realize the potential that their area has so it is up to organizations like

DSNI to give people a picture of the outcome. In the Dudley area the main asset or strength that

the community had was all the vacant lot space. With a fair amount of elbow grease and the right
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to eminent domain, DSNI and the residents of the area were able to turn trash dumps into

treasure.

After building on community strengths, our group ranked the principle of supporting

families and children next. This principle, although important, is not much of a community

building principle as it is a community principle. The community being built should strive to

support families and children, which can be accomplished by creating solutions to do so. For

example, DSNI gained control of the neighborhood through eminent domain. With this control,

all the city land was then owned by the community land trust, Dudley Neighbors, Inc. This land

was redeveloped into housing (Medoff & Sklar, 1994). DSNI valued affordability and quality

with the homes they built, thus, supporting the families and children that would later, live in

those units. The principle can stand within the community itself, rather than as one of community

building.

The next principle after supporting families and children is the principle of integrating

community development and human service strategies. This principle is the seventh of the eight

principles, because it is one of the finals steps of rebuilding a fallen community its one of the

steps that you take after the grunt work is done. The goal of integrating community development

and human service strategies is to not only to build up the physical community but also to build

up the people that make up the community. The DSNI prides themselves on having a mission

that goes beyond bricks and mortar (Medoff & Sklar, 1994). The organization adopted the

slogan Building Houses and People Too, the slogan in five words explains the the importance

of the community and the people in the community and how you cant have one without the

other (Medoff & Sklar, 1994).

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The eighth and final principle is forging partnerships through collaboration. Though this

principle is last, it is just important as the other seven. Forging partnerships through collaboration

brings outsiders in and allows them the opportunity to look into the community. For the DSNI it

was an opportunity to get the youth involved and find out what it means to live in the community

from a younger perspective. For example when the community prepared to build a community

center, the DSNI paired some of the children together with architects. This was valuable for a

couple of reasons. Firstly, it helped the architect know what types of elements should be included

because they were told by the youth, who would be using the center the most. Secondly, it gave

the youth the opportunity to work with architects and with professionals that normally would not

have the opportunity to work with. Forging these partnerships through collaboration are valued

by many people from various walks of life.

The Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative was a success story of community restoration.

The Dudley area was once a squalid dumping ground with vacant lots and unhappy residents.

Now, it is a thriving neighborhood with a strong sense of community and amazing facilities.

DSNI was able to completely turn their neighborhood around by gaining their governments

attention, taking huge risks, and gathering the residents to create change. The tremendous

amount of youth participation played a large role in the Dudley areas rebirth. By involving the

children in the neighborhood, it created a sense of responsibility within the children. These

children later went on to help their community even further by participating in local government

and DSNI as adults. Building a strong sense of community helped turn the area around. From

things as small as picking up garbage to those as big as becoming a member in local government,

all facilitate change for a community. The residents of the Dudley area and throughout Roxbury

rebuilt their neighborhood through community participation and smart tactics. DSNI
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accomplished an unbelievable amount for their neighborhood and can be an inspiration for many

other communities.
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References

Medoff, P., & Sklar, H. (1994). Streets of hope: the fall and rise of an urban neighborhood.

Boston, MA: South End Press.