OWNERSHIP
CONDITIONS
CONTEXT
HISTORY
SOCIAL ISSUES
TESTIMONIES

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Click here for data from census tract 1001. (From U.S. Census 2000).

OWNERSHIP:
Boston Housing Authority

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CONDITIONS:
Housing units:
The Franklin Field development is the largest public housing development in the city, with more than 400 apartments for low- and moderate-income families, elders, and disabled residents. The complex is comprised of groups of individual buildings separated by small courtyards. More than 380 family units have between one and five bedrooms each. Of these units, 40 are two-bedroom townhouse units and 148 have private entrances with small yards. Approximately 45 one-bedroom apartments were designed specifically for elderly residents.

In 2002, 15 of the units were completely redesigned and renovated for grandparents bringing up their grandchildren. This and another major renovation at Franklin Field have been part of a City effort to renovate formerly vacant housing and make it livable again. At Franklin Field, this effort has involved taking large numbers of vacant units and converting them into fewer, larger units. The 15 units new  "Grand family" housing units were previously 32 units of one-bedroom apartments.

In March 2003, The Boston Herald  reported that two Franklin Field properties received a score in the lowest remedial range for housing from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Public Housing Assessment System. Franklin Field properties 3 and 4 received this lowest of rankings, while Franklin Field 5 received a slightly better, but still substandard score (Steve Marantz, "Blocked exits, roaches, fleas dog BHA units,"The Boston Herald, March 13, 2003).

Courtyards and grounds:
Franklin Field apartment buildings are separated by three open courtyards of various sizes. The largest courtyard holds old but not entirely dilapidated wooden and metal playground equipment, including a jungle gym, a short, squat, rusty slide, picnic tables, and small fenced yards. Some of the play equipment is missing important pieces. A basketball court lies within another courtyard at the Franklin Field development, while the third courtyard is long and narrow and contains no play equipment.

The grounds at Franklin Field are typically well cared for and generally free of trash, although in 2002 several benches were broken and in poor condition.

Residential streets:
Stratton is a tree-lined residential street that runs along the southern edge of the Franklin Field housing development. Several vacant lots lie along Stratton Street across from Franklin Field housing, some of which are unfenced and trashy.

Westview Street separates Franklin Field public housing development from Franklin Field, which is also known as Harambee Park. Westview reaches a dead end at Lee School and St. Mary's Cemetery. The road ends at a messy pile of trash and debris. From here, residents of Franklin Field development can easily access the school and its playground equipment on foot, including a basketball court, whereas St. Mary's Cemetery is inaccessible.

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CONTEXT:
The 46-acre Harambee Park/ Franklin Field is adjacent to the public housing units. The neighborhood, the park, and the public housing complex are often referred to collectively as 'Franklin Field.” Although the public housing complex is in close proximity to Blue Hill Avenue, residents have a very limited number of stores to choose from along this stretch of the avenue.

Franklin Field is accessible by MBTA bus #22, which provides transportation to Egleston Square, Dudley Station, and Mattapan station.

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HISTORY:
Early history:
In 1894, the City bought an old muster field as the site for a new recreational area that would complement the passive recreational opportunities offered at Franklin Park. The area was named "Franklin Field" so that people would consider the two greenspaces connected. The field was in use by 1898 and was immediately popular throughout the city.

Franklin Field was originally much larger. Its territory extended south into the land where Franklin Field Public Housing complex now lies. Housing was first built on the site for war workers, particularly those working at the nearby Navy Yard. Five hundred and four housing units were built in 1954 with funding from the Department of Housing and Urban Development and the State. The original residents were almost entirely white and predominantly Jewish, and the majority of them moved out of the development within five years (Vale, L, From the Puritans to the projects: public housing and public neighbors, 2000).

The percentage of non-white residents of both Franklin Field and Franklin Hill stayed constant at about five percent between 1958 and 1963. Between 1963 and 1970, the nonwhite population increased to more than 75 percent. By the end of the 1960s, more three-quarters of residents at Franklin Field were without jobs and nearly half of the non-elderly households were headed by a single parent. A more gradual increase in the non-white population followed over the course of the proceeding decades, stabilizing at more than 90 percent in the 1990s (Vale, L, From the Puritans to the projects: public housing and public neighbors, 2000).

Recent history and renovations:
By the 1970s, the population at Franklin Field was predominantly African American. It was federally owned, but managed by the Boston Redevelopment Authority. According to a Neighborhood Profile Report from 1977, the housing complex was plagued with severe vacancy problems. The elderly felt isolated from the rest of the neighborhood. Most crime in the area went unreported.

For eight years in the late 1970s and early 1980s, Franklin Field residents worked to convince the Housing Authority and State officials to renovate the units. By 1984, the Federal and State Governments had spent $25 million on the renovation of the 348 housing units. This equal out to over $100,000 of funding for rehabilitation per unit of housing at Franklin Field (in today's dollars). The work, which involved the enlargement and upgrading of apartments, the reconfiguration of buildings, and relandscaping of the site, was completed in 1987.

Residents were skeptical about the rehabilitation effort throughout. When surveyed after the $26 million changes were complete, they said they continued to feel unsafe in the buildings  and preferred their apartments before the "improvements," (Vale, L, From the Puritans to the projects: public housing and public neighbors, 2000). 

Conflict and reconciliation among youth:
According to the head of the tenant association at Franklin Hill housing complex, Georgia Jones, youth from Franklin Field and the nearby Franklin Hill public housing complex were at odds with one another in the 1980s and early 1990s. Youth gangs claimed their turf and residents frequently felt unsafe moving from one area to the other.

In 1992, grass-roots efforts to provide youth with positive alternatives to crime and violence were initiated by residents of the two communities. A local non-profit took equal numbers of children from both areas on out-of-town field trips and showed them alternatives to their own lifestyles. According to Jones, now the two groups play sports together and "the place is livable."

In 2004, however, tensions have again flared between the two communities. Police believe that the recent slew of homicides in the area are the result of fueding gangs in and around the Frankiln Field and Franklin Hill housing developments (Donovan Slack, "Efforts to Halt Gangs Fall Short," The Boston Globe, Sept. 7, 2004).



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SOCIAL ISSUES:
Youth population and youth centers:
In both Franklin Field and Franklin Hill, the majority of the population is under the age of 18. Until March 2002, all Boston Housing Authority public housing facilities had Youth Centers with a full time youth worker. Most Youth Centers were closed, however, when the Youth on the Rise program was eliminated by the Federal Government.

Tenants and tenant associations at Franklin Hill and Franklin Field as well as in the South Street public housing development in Jamaica Plain protested this decision. In response to the protests by tenants at Franklin Field and Franklin Hill, a private organization stepped in to continue and expand upon the program for the youth in these two housing developments. Developing Attitude Respect and Intellect (DARI) Associates, a private contractor, took over the youth centers in April 2002. DARI offered cooking, Latin dance, and robotics classes, as well as tutoring, field trips, and other coursework. The organization has not, however, secured permanent funding to run the centers.

Violent crime:  
Over the last two decades, violent crime and gang-related violence have been high in and around the Franklin Field public housing complex. In 2000, Boston Police identified the neighborhood as a hot spot for gun-related incidents and violent crime.

Rent hikes:
More than 6,000 residents of state-funded public housing in Boston may face increases in rent from 30 percent of their income to 32 percent of their income in 2004, or perhaps higher. (Elisabeth Beardsley, "Plan would force steeper rents for low-income tenants,"April 25, 2003).

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TESTIMONIES:
"When I think about how much we've gotten done I am hyper just like a child. You can work to make things better but first you have to love where you live" (Georgia Jones, head of the Franklin Hill Tenant Association and a founder of Project FREE, on the work that residents of Franklin Field and Franklin Hill public housing developments have done together over the past decade).

"In my opinion the youth center is leading the community. You have to remember there are a lot of children in the community" (Shelia Boyce, head of the parents' advisory board at Franklin Field, from an article by Jeremy Schwab, "BHA youth programs struggle to survive," Bay State Banner, June 13, 2002).

"I believe the BHA youth are better served than before because they are better hooked up with their community organizations just like the rest of the kids in their neighborhoods" (Lydia Agro, Boston Housing Authority spokesperson, from an article by Jeremy Schwab, "BHA youth programs struggle to survive," Bay State  Banner, June 13, 2002).

"A great many people rallied to our side after Eric [Paulding's youth gang related] death. In place of things like vengeance and rumor that had come to define the relationship between Franklin Field and Franklin Hill for so long, we focused on trying to de-escalate emotions with things like conflict resolution and group discussions. Since then, the kids have done all the work to make these [peace] retreats so successful. Now, kids can move pretty freely between the developments without fear" (David Dance, community organizer with Project Free, from an article by Peter Gelzinis, "Teen's tragedy left miraculous legacy of peace,"The Boston Herald, April 15, 2002).

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