Streets of Hope Book Review

Last week, while on vacation, I started reading the book Streets of Hope. It is the true story about a section of Boston called Dudley Street, and there battle for community control over there neighborhood.

In the 1980's there was a concern that the City of Boston was developing a "revitalization" plan for Dudley. A decade earlier Bostons South End was "revitalized". By this I mean that the old abandoned building were bought up by land speculators, apartment building were transformed into condominiums, and the a predominantly poor neighborhood was replaced with an affluent neighborhood in a short time. Another word for this in gentrification. Upon hearing rumors of the city's plans the neighborhood quickly organized and the Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative (DNSI) was born. A community group with complete community control, funding from Bostons largest philanthropic organizations, that would stand up for the communities rights sometimes in partnership and sometimes in opposition with the city government. Over the next several years, DSNI put together there own revitalization plan that allowed the hundreds of parcels of abandoned land to be developed into new housing (apartments and private homes) at a cost that was in line with the income level of the neighborhood.

There are several things that were important to me in this book. First DSNI was a community based organization, not an organization in a community. It was run by the community, with a strong commitment from neighbors. Many times there meeting would have 200 + people in attendance. They listened to peoples concerns and reflected them in there actions. Many times we call in the experts to "fix" the problems in our society, who often times make broad sweeping changes without input from the people who will have to live with the consequences of those decisions.

Secondly there relationship with the City was a cautious association. The authors talk about politicking as usual, getting the mayor to back what they want in order to get the rest of the city officials and employees to act on there requests. But what they understood was that they were setting the terms and if the mayor was not responsive they would act. One great story was how they were able to get the hundreds of abandoned cars removed from the streets. During an election year they took bumper stickers from the Mayors re-election campaign and plastered the all over the abandoned cars to draw attention to them. The cars were removed shortly there after.

Lastly, I am utterly amazed at how they were able to get so many people involved. Having been part of an organization that labeled itself as a grass roots organization, and having done a lot of work in my neighborhood, I am all to familiar with doing a lot of work and getting the same 4 people to turn out to a meeting. I believe there success was in there ability to create a broad organization. If the community started talking about an issue they would respond. There was not any discussion about weather or not it was part of there "mission". When a need was pointed out they organized people to meet that need. Over the years DSNI has not only created and implicated there own neighborhood revitalization plan, but have worked on a number of issues including; a trash dumping campaign, jobs, teen empowerment, Multi-cultural festivals, Anti red-lining coalition, daycare, food project, ext. (See time line) No issue was to small or to difficult to be addressed. I believe this was a key to there success. No one would be turned away. If you had an issue that you were passionate about most likely there were working on that issue.