OWNERSHIP
CONDITIONS
CONTEXT
DESIGN ISSUES
SOCIAL ISSUES
TESTIMONIES

Click here for map and orthophoto

Click here for data from census tract 924. (From  U.S. Census 2000)

OWNERSHIP: 
-- Franklin Hill Public Housing: Boston Housing Authority
-- Apartments south of Franklin Hill Avenue: Wayne Apartment Project Limited Partnership
-- Apartments on Lorne and Austin Street: Brown Kaplan LPS (built by Lena Park Community Development Corporation, and known simply as "Lena Park" by local residents). 
-- Apartments on American Legion Highway just northeast of Franklin Hill: Amiff Housing Associates.

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CONDITIONS:
This rocky, upland section of Dorchester lies between Blue Hill Avenue and Franklin Park. It includes a dense cluster of apartment buildings and town houses that are run by four different organizations, as well as a cluster of individual homes of a variety of sizes and types of ownership.

The three- and four-story Franklin Hill public housing complex, with two courtyards and an associated child care area, lies at the center of the neighborhood. Franklin Hill is managed by the Boston Housing Authority (BHA) and is covered in greater detail in a separate entry of the database. Wayne Apartments are located just south of the Franklin Hill housing, next to a development of Amiff Housing. Finally, free standing townhouses built by Lena Park Community Development Corporation (CDC) lie southwest of Franklin Hill public housing. The townhouses are in excellent condition and abut a playground and open lot.

The various housing complexes in the neighborhood have several shared resources. People from within and outside the Franklin Field public housing complex have participated in programming by the BHA such as ESL and GED programs. They have also enjoyed computer access at Franklin Field. Lena Park CDC owns a large facility on American Legion Highway that provides convenient recreational and educational services to the community around Franklin Hill, as well as affordable housing to a few. The Lena Park property has a basketball court, classrooms, and other recreational facilities. Finally, Faith Pentecostal Church – completed in 2002 – provides services and spaces for youth activities. 

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CONTEXT:
Demographics:
According to the 2000 Census, more than 48% of residents in this census tract are under the age of 18. Approximately 80% of residents consider themselves to be black or African American, with more than a quarter Latino and almost 8% white (residents can consider themselves to be more than one race). More than 80% of residents rent their homes. The median household income for the area was $22,846 in 2000 and almost 38% of residents live below the poverty level.

Access to open space:
This community has extraordinary access to the largest open space in the area: Franklin Park. People are separated from the park by American Legion Highway, a busy four-lane road. A quick-response lighted crosswalk provides access from the neighborhood over American Legion Highway and into the park from Lena Park CDC headquarters. However, the crosswalk does not access an active area of the park, but an overgrown, unattractive area that is covered in brambles and difficult to walk through. Also, there is no easy-access crosswalk available near the greatest concentration of housing in the neighborhood (just north of American Legion Highway).

Closer to Blue Hill Avenue, the neighborhood has excellent access to Franklin Park at one of its most beautiful entrances. The park is used heavily by area residents, particularly "The Loop" along the original Circuit Drive -- a walking route that runs along this edge of the park -- and the picnic facilities along American Legion Highway.

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DESIGN ISSUES:
American Legion Highway:
Crossing American Legion Highway can put people, especially youth, at risk. Cars often travel at high speeds and are not looking out for pedestrians. The crossing has proven fatal for at least one young boy attempting to cross the street in recent years.

Paved common square:
One of the two Franklin Hill Apartments common spaces is cemented over, bereft of trees, and often filled with litter from the garbage dumpsters, which dominate the common space.

Trashy street:
Austin Street, which is adjacent to Lena Park CDC, is in better condition than in previous years. However, it is still a vacant trashy strip of land that may attract crime and abuse.

Unclear neighborhood boundaries:
Residents and planners disagree about whether Franklin Hill is in Mattapan or Dorchester. Many Mattapan residents treat Morton Street as the informal boundary between the two neighborhoods, but the Boston Redevelopment Authority (BRA) and Lena Park consider the land to be part of Mattapan.

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SOCIAL ISSUES:
Crime:
In recent years, Boston Police have targeted Franklin Hill as being one of several "hot spots" of violent crime in the City. According to residents and police who attended a community meeting at Lena Park on November, 29, 2001, elderly people in particular are being "preyed upon" in the area, particularly near the fence between Lena Park, Wayne Apartments, and Franklin Hill. Fearing retribution, older people seldom report the crimes.

The Franklin Hill Giants is a gang of youth from the area. They have a rival gang from Esmond Street. Rivalries with gangs from Franklin Field have dissipated in recent years in light of work by local volunteers and groups such as "Project FREE" to promote peace between the groups. However, in 2004, tensions between the two communities had revived.

In 1999, local police and the district attorney's office focused on gangs operating in and around the Franklin Hill public housing development. through a program of aggressive enforcement, undercover narcotics surveillance and tracking; collaboration among probation, parole, and prosecutors; fast-track prosecution and incarceration; and education.

High percentage of renters:
This neighborhood has a high percentage of renters (more than 80% renters in this census tract) and very few home owners. But many residents are not adversely affected by rising costs in rent because their housing is subsidized.

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TESTIMONIES:
"Its very tricky. Franklin Hill is not in Mattapan -- even if the BRA says it is. Franklin Hill is not in [zip code] 02126" (Eric Johnson, community organizer for Mattapan Community Partnership, Sept. 2002).

"In my childhood, a natural corridor of rocky cliff and field, wild flowers and tar pits, extended from the corner of Franklin Field after crossing Blue Hill Avenue to the west, all the way to Franklin Park.This was the run of gangs from our streets when playing cowboys and Indians - for with two brief asphalt intermissions one was deep in brush, grass, or woods from one end of the roundup to the other" (Mirsky, M.J. "Who lost the Emerald Necklace? In Search of Franklin Park," The Boston Globe Magazine, 1979).

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