DESCRIPTION OF ISSUE
WHERE/WHEN APPLICABLE
HISTORY
TESTIMONIES

DESCRIPTION OF ISSUE:
Boundaries between neighborhoods in the Heart of the City are unclear. Various city and state agencies define the neighborhoods differently from one another and differently now than they have in years past. Historically, the names and identities of neighborhoods in the Heart of the City have merged and split and shifted many times. Residents' perceptions of boundaries often do not match up with the Planning Districts as defined by the Boston Redevelopment Authority. This ambiguity contributes to a lack of orientation and sense of belonging and identity among residents of the neighborhoods.

Residents rely on a variety of measures to define the boundaries of their neighborhoods. Zip codes, wards, and precincts are all long-term boundaries people use to define the place they live in. Rules of thumb such as "Mattapan is everything south of Morton Street" or "Roslindale has green spaces at all four corners" are used by some residents. Others use anecdotal boundaries passed down over the years or lump their street with a particular neighborhood because they identify or associate with that neighborhood more strongly.

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WHERE/ WHEN APPLICABLE:
-- Grove Hall lies on or near the boundary between Roxbury and Dorchester. Some residents consider the Grove Hall Mecca Mall area to be part of Roxbury and others consider it to be part of Dorchester. When the Department of Neighborhood Development erected a "Grove Hall - Welcome to Roxbury" sign on Blue Hill Avenue, some residents were surprised and frustrated. Various city agencies have wildly divergent definitions of the boundary. The Boston Housing Authority defines Grove Hall as well as the neighborhood north of Seaver Street as part of Dorchester. The BRA defines this entire territory as part of Roxbury.

Normandy Street is the original boundary between Roxbury and Dorchester, which were separate towns with independent governments until the two were annexed to Boston in 1868 and 1870. The border between the two towns at Grove Hall was originally defined by the country estates of two men.

-- The neighborhoods southeast of the Forest Hills MBTA Station (Weld Hill and Woodbourne) are regulated by the Jamaica Plain Neighborhood Council, yet the Boston Redevelopment Authority (BRA) lists the area as part of Roslindale.

-- The border between Mattapan and Dorchester is also unclear. The BRA includes the Franklin Hill area in its definition of Mattapan, as well as the entire Franklin Field neighborhood south of Talbot Avenue. According to the Mattapan Community Partnership, however, Mattapan is defined by zip code 02126, begins south of Morton Street, and includes neither Franklin Field nor Franklin Hill. Residents of the Franklin Field area consider themselves to be Dorchester residents.

-- The boundary between Roxbury and Jamaica Plain at Egleston Square is unclear. For decades, most people would agree that Columbus Avenue defined a very rigid boundary between the two communities. In the 1980s affordable housing advocate Mossik Hacobian said Columbia Road was "like a Berlin Wall in people's minds." Gang conflict was frequent along this fault line. Today, however, the integration of the Hispanic population in Jamaica Plain and the African American population in Roxbury is more advanced. In particular, census tracts north of Seaver Street reflect a rapidly increasing Hispanic population. Today, more and more residents of Egleston Square associate themselves with Roxbury, and peoples' perception of the line between the two neighborhoods is moving south.

The Boston Redevelopment Authority defines Green Street as the boundary between the two communities. This definition would be blasphemous to residents of the upscale and largely white Parkside neighborhood, which is strongly associated with Jamaica Plain and is very loosely connected to Egleston Square.

-- According to the city zoning code, the entire Arboretum, with the exception of the Walter/ Weld property, is located in Jamaica Plain. According to virtually all other sources and most residents, the entire Peters Hill tract of the Arboretum is part of Roslindale. Roslindale strongly associates itself with this section of the Arnold Arboretum, even naming one of its neighborhoods after the Hill. For many residents, a sense of ownership of the Peters Hill section of the Arboretum is important to the identity of the neighborhood.

-- The Canterbury urban wild area southeast of the Forest Hills Cemetery between Canterbury Street and American Legion Highway has an ambiguous identity. Under various definitions, the Canterbury parcel is a part of Roslindale, Jamaica Plain, and Mattapan. This has led to much confusion among business owners in the area and a lack of coordination in terms of future development in the area, which is highly prone to flooding.

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HISTORY: 
-- According to historian Cynthia Zaizevsky, "Jamaica Plain has never been a clearly defined area." (Jamaica Plain Preservation Study, 1983). Over the course of its history, Jamaica Plain has been part of Roxbury, then of West Roxbury, and finally in 1874 a part of Boston. Even Eliot Square was once considered part of Jamaica Plain (Jamaica Plain, Boston 200 Neighborhood History Series, 1976).

-- Franklin Park was initially called the "West Roxbury Park." As late as the 1970s, the Boston Public Works Department considered both Roslindale and Franklin Park part of West Roxbury (Boston's streets, squares, places, avenues, courts, and other public locations, 1976). In 2002, however, the Parks and Recreation Department and the Boston Redevelopment Authority (BRA) consider Franklin Park part of Roxbury, and the police from a Roxbury district are technically responsible for patroling the park. Franklin Park was included as part of the Roxbury Master Plan in 2000 and 2001.

-- Mattapan was not originally a neighborhood, but a business district in Dorchester. Through the mid-1900s, residents considered Mattapan to be Mattapan Square only. The scope of the area was redefined in the 1960s when the Boston Redevelopment Authority gave the section of Dorchester around Mattapan Square its own postal code in order to break the sprawling neighborhood of Dorchester into smaller areas. Now Mattapan technically extends all the way up to Codman Square, but these boundaries are completely inaccurate to and unused by long-term residents (Bill Walczak, local historian and director of the Codman Square Health Center).

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TESTIMONIES:
"From a zoning perspective, we have very clear definitions. But our definitions are not necessarily the same for the Department of Neighborhood Development. Their lines are different" (Susan Elsbree, Boston Redevelopment Authority, from an article by Jamal Watson, "All mapped out in a city of proud neighborhoods, many dispute the boundaries," Boston Globe, March 13, 2001).

"The Canterbury site is in Jamaica Plain - I had to go to a zoning ordinance there. But its also in Roslindale - that is where our mail comes from. And its also in Mattapan by some counts. There is no absolutely clear way to know. And the Boston Nature Center is supposed to be in Mattapan - but Roslindale is the one that would respond to them in a fire emergency. We just made up our own address for the cemetery" (Thomas Daily, director of the St. Michaels Cemetery).

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