CONDITIONS
CONTEXT
HISTORY
ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES
SOCIAL ISSUES
PLANNING PROCESSES
TESTIMONIES

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CONDITIONS:
Location:
Mattapan is the southernmost neighborhood in the Heart of the City. Its commercial center is Mattapan Square on Blue Hill Avenue near the gateway to Milton. The Heart of the City database focuses on the northwestern section of Mattapan near the Boston State Hospital site and Franklin Park.

Neighborhood boundaries:
Mattapan was originally part of Dorchester, and the boundaries between the two neighborhoods are blurry. Some residents have described Mattapan and Dorchester as "sister neighborhoods" so closely aligned that boundaries between them are unimportant. To other residents, Morton Street is a hard and fast border between the two. To Dorchester historian Bill Walczak, Mattapan is nothing more than one of many commercial squares in Dorchester. Even in documentation such as the 2002 phone book, the Mattapan Library is still listed as being in Dorchester.

Housing:
The sections of Mattapan that lie in the Heart of the City are primarily residential areas with a mix of public housing, small apartment buildings, single homes, and two- and three-family houses. The neighborhood is primarily a middle class black community with dispersed poverty, according to Steven Busby, chairman of the board at the Mattapan Community Development Corporation. There may be a house where the residents make $150,000 a year next to a house where the residents are on welfare.

In recent years, as housing prices in Roslindale, Jamaica Plain, West Roxbury, and Hyde Park have increased -- in many cases dramatically -- prices in Mattapan have remained relatively stable. Rental real estate data for Mattapan is relatively weak because analysts rely heavily on asking prices found in The Boston Globe and very few advertisements are found in the Globe for housing in Mattapan (three advertised apartments in 2000).

However, some good data is available. According to Banker & Tradesman, the single-family home is the most common housing type in Mattapan. The median price in 1998 for a single-family was $114,000. By 2000 that number had risen by 39% to $159,000. Rent for a two-bedroom apartment rose 55% between 1995 and 2000 from $775 to $1,200. The median sale price for a one-bedroom home rose 18.7% from 2000 to 2001 to $189,900.

Median home prices by neighborhood  between 1998 and mid-2002. Data from the Boston Department of
Neighborhood Development and the Boston Indicators Project.
        
               Mattapan       Citywide
1998        $130,000        $162,500
1999        $149,450        $182,000
2000        $180,000        $231,583
2001        $210,000        $263,900
2002        $221,250        $300,000

Records of homes sales in Mattapan show that between 2000 and 2001, as elsewhere in the Heart of the City, median sales prices for homes increased while volume of sales decreased. For example, the price of a two family home in Mattapan increased by 30% while the volume of sales decreased by 16% (Commercial TRENDS annual report 2001, Department of Neighborhood Development).

Overcrowding:
Mattapan residents often live with two to three families per unit of housing, and many adults hold down two or even three low-paying jobs. According to the "housing overcrowding index" (more than 1.01 persons per room), about 13% of housing in Mattapan was overcrowded in 1990. This is the highest level of overcrowding of any neighborhood in Boston and represents more than a 100% increase in crowding in Mattapan since 1980 (Boston indicators of progress, change, and sustainability). This is part of the reason that income per household in Mattapan has been the fourth highest of all neighborhoods in the city in recent years.

Communities:
Wellington Hill is one of the most distinct of Mattapan's communities. Defined by a steep hill with the Lewenberg Middle School at the top, this solidly middle-class neighborhood of one- and two-family homes is known as a stable community, with 38% of housing units owner-occupied and a median household income of $35,867. Many homes in the neighborhood have undergone renovations in recent years, and the Morning Star Baptist Church is building expansive new facilities for its substantial congregation at the base of Wellington Hill along Blue Hill Avenue.

The neighborhood south of Morton Street and east of Blue Hill Avenue is more densely populated than Wellington Hill. Triple deckers predominate, and the housing stock is in many cases in poor condition. Here, 26.6% of residents own their own homes and the median household income is $30,496. In 2000, 33.3% of residents in this census tract are not native to the United States and 32% speak a language other than English at home.

Some refer to the Franklin Hill neighborhood along American Legion Highway as part of Mattapan, as well as the community east of the eastern campus of the Boston State Hospital site. Others refer to these areas as part of Dorchester, or "the Franklin Field area." Franklin Hill is characterized by high-density public and private apartment complexes, as well as close proximity to one of the most beautiful and accessible sections of Franklin Park.

The Mattahunt area south of the Boston State Hospital site is a community of single-family homes interspersed with woodlands. Many of these homes have been constructed in recent years, and significant new development is anticipated in the near future.

Economic development:
Mattapan has the fourth highest household income in the city (Corey Dade. "Finally, future looks bright for Mattapan." The Boston Globe. March 13, 2003). This is due, in part, to the fact that households in Mattapan tend to be overcrowded, sometimes with more than one family living in a single housing unit. Mattapan, and in particular its large immigrant population, is known for its entrepreneurial spirit. Many residents run small, informal businesses out of their homes, but lack formal training in business. Many residents hold down multiple jobs (Corey Dade, "Finally, future looks bright for Mattapan," The Boston Globe, March 13, 2003).

Mattapan Square, which is outside the Heart of the City, is the commercial heart of Mattapan. Located at the intersection of Blue Hill Avenue and River Street, Mattapan Square has one of the most active and long-standing merchants associations in the city. To the great frustration of some and the satisfaction of others, Mattapan Square is not a designated Boston Main Street. Unlike many Main Streets areas, Mattapan Square has significant slanted on-street parking. The square features streetlights with an antique iron appearance and a series of banners. Most other commercial activity in Mattapan is also located along the Blue Hill Avenue corridor.

Mattapan has very few jobs within its neighborhood in comparison to other Heart of the City neighborhoods. Blue Hill Avenue has a total of 1,300 jobs and Mattapan Square/ River Street has a total of 1,400 jobs ("Access Boston 2000-2010," Boston Transportation Department).

Transportation:
Mattapan has a dense, heavily used bus system. Route #28 from Mattapan to Ruggles has 11,700 users each day, and is one of the busiest in the entire MBTA system. The two major roads in northern Mattapan are Blue Hill Avenue, which has a daily traffic flow of 24,000 cars, and Morton Street, which has a daily flow of 34,000 cars ("Access Boston 2000-2010," Boston Transportation Department). The Fairmount Commuter Rail (see more info)makes one stop in Mattapan – at the corner of Morton Street – but the station is obscure, poorly signed, and seldom used by residents. Extensive upgrades to the station, announced by the MBTA in April 2005, are scheduled to be completed in November 2006. (Mac Daniel, "T To Begin Upgrade of Fairmount Rail Corridor," The Boston Globe, April 14, 2005) A 2.55-mile stretch of 1940s vintage trolley line extends south into Mattapan from the Ashmont Station Red Line in Dorchester, carrying about 7,000 passengers each day. The trolley, which has been closed for repairs and replaced with bus service since June 2006, falls outside the Heart of the City area.

Public resources:
The neighborhood of Mattapan has few public facilities relative to other neighborhoods in the Heart of the City and in Boston as a whole. There was only one youth center, senior center, or other public site for neighborhood meetings until 2003, when the Mildred Avenue Middle School and Community Center opened. The neighborhood has no public high school and its library is in poor condition. 

One important exception to this general trend is the Boston Nature Center and Wildlife Sanctuary. The Boston Nature Center, the new George Robert While Environmental Conservation Center, and the Clark-Cooper Community Gardens are located in Mattapan and are an important natural and educational resource for residents.

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CONTEXT:
Demographics:
Mattapan is a 96% minority community, and the majority of residents are black. Approximately half of residents were born in Caribbean countries – particularly Haiti and Jamaica – and in Africa. Haitian Creole is widely spoken in the neighborhood. In 2000, according to the City's Department of Neighborhood Development, the total population of Mattapan was 37,313 (a 3.7% increase since 1990). As in other areas east of Franklin Park, the HBoston neighborhoods.

The population, spread over 2.8 square miles, has 13,326 people per square mile and a per capita income after taxes of $14,918 ("Commercial TRENDS Boston," City of Boston Department of Neighborhood Development, 2002). 

Ethnic breakdown of Mattapan: 
                
                     2000            1990          1980
White                4%              8%             15%
Black               77%            84%             79%
Hispanic          13%             7%               5%
Asian/ PA         1%             1%               0%
Muti-racial        4%              --                 --   
 
Connections to greenspaces:
Mattapan residents make heavy use of Franklin Park. The Clark-Cooper community gardens at the former Boston State Hospital has approximately 250 plots and is either the largest or second largest community gardens in the City. The Clark-Cooper gardeners are primarily residents of Mattapan.

Unlike other neighborhoods in the Heart of the City, the sections of Mattapan that are within a half mile of the major greenspaces in the center of the city are not complemented by smaller neighborhood parks, tot-lots, and gardens. The neighborhoods described above have no smaller public greenspaces that are part and parcel of the fabric of the neighborhood. Also, Mattapan residents have very little awareness of the Arnold Arboretum, despite its proximity to them.

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HISTORY
Mattapan is the original Native American name for the Dorchester area. According to one local historian, Mattapan means "a good place to be," or possibly "a good place to sit."

When Mattapan was first settled, it was not a neighborhood, but a business district within Dorchester. Through the mid-1900s, residents used name Mattapan to refer exclusively to Mattapan Square. The Boston Redevelopment Authority redefined the parameters of Mattapan in the 1960s when it gave the section of Dorchester around Mattapan Square its own postal code. Its goal was to break the sprawling neighborhood of Dorchester into smaller chunks. 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).

Like other neighborhoods in the Heart of the City, Mattapan developed both residentially and commercially as the railroads and streetcars made downtown Boston increasingly more accessible to the suburbs, particularly with the opening of trolley service to the area in 1893. The Irish were the first to move to Mattapan, followed by Jewish families, beginning in 1908. Between 1920 and 1940, Blue Hill Avenue was the center of the Jewish working class community in Boston. The 1950 Census shows that Mattapan (including the Franklin Field area, which is frequently considered part of Dorchester) had a population of 44,520 Jewish residents at that time.

In the 1960s, Mattapan underwent a dramatic ethnic transition. In 1960, only 473 black people lived in Mattapan. By 1970, the number had increased to 19,107. Later analysis revealed that blacks almost always paid more than whites for equivalent housing in Mattapan whereas whites paid more for equivalent housing located farther away from black neighborhoods (Levine & Hammon, 1993).

Many scholars have attributed the rapidity of this ethnic transition – often referred to as the Jewish exodus – on the Boston Bank Urban Renewal Group (BBURG), which was established to facilitate home ownership among African American families. BBURG targeted or "red-lined" an area where loans to African Americans could be made. This area included parts of Mattapan, and indeed the flight from Mattapan of the white Jewish community was dramatic. However, census data reveals that the transition from Jewish to African American in areas such as Wellington Hill was underway before the genesis of BBURG in 1968. Historians such as Gerald Gamm suggest that BBURG was only one of many factors influencing the demographic shift.

While original black immigrants to Mattapan were African Americans, beginning in 1970 a large number of Haitians settled in the neighborhood. By 1999, The Boston Globe reported that there were between 70,000 and 120,000 Haitians living in Mattapan (the largest concentration in Massachusetts). Today, immigrant populations from the Caribbean and Africa comprise about half of the total population of the neighborhood.

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ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES:
Brownfields:
Contaminants in the area where the new Mattapan Middle School was built included asbestos, lead paint, underground storage tanks, drums containing chemicals, and possibly PCBs (Steve Marantz, "Report lists site contaminants at proposed Mattapan school lot, The Boston Herald, January 13, 2000). These materials can be particularly hazardous to young people if they area not properly mediated, and some Mattapan residents questioned the process that sited the new middle school in this location, arguing that the public had little input in the decision.

Open space:
With 19 acres of open space for every 1,000 children, Mattapan has the second lowest amount of public open space available per capita of any neighborhood in Boston (the South End has the lowest level, while Mattapan’s neighbors – Roslindale and Hyde Park – have 105 and 76 acres of open space per 1,000 children). At the same time, new open space has been acquired in Mattapan over the past decade. Including the Boston Nature Center, almost 50 acres of urban wilds have been formally protected since 1990 (The Boston Foundation - Boston Indicators Project). 

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SOCIAL ISSUES:
Access to Community Centers:
In the past, residents felt that Mattapan was underserved by public community centers, with only one, isolated community center serving the entire neighborhood. The opening of the Mildred Avenue Middle School and Community Center in 2003 improved access. 

Crime:
For decades, Mattapan had a reputation as a dangerous neighborhood. In recent years, however, overall crime has dropped significantly, and then increased once again. Between 1998 and 1999, the overall crime rate decreased by 9%, according to Boston Police Department statistics, and between June 2001 and September 2002, the crime rate increased by 11%, according to the Boston Police Department.

Immigrant issues:
Mattapan has a larger Haitian population than any other neighborhood in the city, as well as a large Cape Verdean population. Thus, the neighborhood faces the challenge of providing special services to non-English speakers. Deportation is a risk for immigrants even if they are convicted of a minor crime and have lived in the United States for many years.

Large and growing youth population:
About 33% of residents in the Wellington Hill community and south and east of the area were under 18 years old in 2000 (an increase of 3% since 1990). Along with Dorchester and Roxbury, Mattapan has the largest youth population in the city proportional to its total population.

Overcrowding:
Overcrowding is a significant problem for many Mattapan residents, in particular for recent immigrants from places such as Haiti who are holding down multiple jobs and sending money home to relatives. In 1990, this neighborhood had the highest overcrowding index in the city.

High school:
Mattapan does not have a high school. Some residents bemoan the loss of a sense of community identity that comes from the lack of a neighborhood high school and neighborhood sports teams.

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PLANNING PROCESSES:
BRA economic study:
In the spring of 2003, the Boston Redevelopment Authority launched a $250,000 economic study to direct future growth in Mattapan. (Corey Dade, "Finally, future looks bright for Mattapan; BRA plans $250,000 study to spur economic growth," The Boston Globe, March 13, 2003). In the fall of 2004, the Redevelopment Authority assembled a consulting team to make recommendations for Mattapan and they are expected to hold their first meeting at the end of January 2005. Mayor Menino refers to Mattapan as one of the "gems of the city" and believes the economic development initiative will improve the area (Robert Preer, "Square Talk: Why Not Aim Higher? City Looks at Big Picture In 3 Business Districts," The Boston Globe, January 9, 2005). 

Redevelopment of Boston State Hospital property:
Planning for the redevelopment of the 175-acre former Boston State Hospital site will directly impact Mattapan. Community members have been heavily involved throughout the planning process, which has made little progress for almost two decades.

Nehemiah Homes:
The Greater Boston Interfaith Organization is planning for a possible development of 170 three-story residences in Mattapan near Mattahunt Elementary School between Walk Hill Street, Blue Hill Avenue, Cummins Highway, and Harvard Street. The homes would be built on City-owned land and sold to owner-occupants who earn $60,000 or less, each of whom would rent the second apartment to help pay the mortgage (Andrea Downs, "Mattapan; no nails yet, but housing plan zeroes in," The Boston Globe, March 31, 2002).

Public Library:
In 2002, the City planned to replace Mattapan’s small, inconveniently located library with a more modern library of twice the size. The City has said that construction will begin in 2007. 

Middle school
A new middle school was constructed in Mattapan on Mildred Avenue and opened in 2003 to address the needs of the burgeoning youth population in the neighborhood.

Public art:
A public art display was installed during the year 2005. The design includes a 19-foot pair of granite statues forming an archway located near the Milton town line to represent a community gateway. The project was funded by Boston's Edwards Ingersoll Browne Trust Fund (Robert Preer, "Square Talk: Why Not Aim Higher? City Looks at Big Picture In 3 Business Districts," The Boston Globe, January 9, 2005).


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TESTIMONIES:
"If you look at the Mattapan station, it's the perfect example of what I'm talking about, about Mattapan being ignored. It's still very active, and it basically works the way it is. But it really is dumpy" (Edward Jay Jr., vice president of the Mattapan Board of Trade, from an article by Shari Rudavsky, "Mattapan T-Station a picture of neglect, residents say," The Boston Globe, September 8, 2002).

"This [BRA economic study of Mattapan] will help us to look at, 'Who are we and how do we take what we have and develop it?' Because if we don't develop, we're not going to survive" (Corey Dade, "Finally, future looks bright for Mattapan; BRA plans $250,000 study to spur economic growth," The Boston Globe, March 13, 2003).

"There was a lot of mistrust at the beginning. The [Boston State Hospital] property was undeveloped for 20 years. We'd heard rumors of this and that, but because we waited for so long, we wanted something that would benefit the community. We knew the Mass. Audubon was out in Lincoln. Lincoln? This is Mattapan!" (Charlotte Thompson, a Mattapan resident of 34 years who worked at the Boston State Hospital and now serves on the board of the Boston Nature Center).

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