OWNERSHIP
CONDITIONS
CONTEXT
HISTORY
ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES
DESIGN ISSUES
SOCIAL ISSUES
PLANNING PROCESSES
TESTIMONIES

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Click here for data from census tract 1001 (north of Woodrow).

Click here for data from census tract 1002 (south of Woodrow).

OWNERSHIP: 
-- Franklin Field (Harambee Park): City of Boston Department of Parks and Recreation
-- Franklin Field (Public Housing Development): Boston Housing Authority

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CONDITIONS:
Boundaries:
There are no hard and fast boundaries to the Franklin Field neighborhood. City agencies and residents cannot even agree on whether the neighborhood is part of Dorchester or Mattapan.

In 1984, the Franklin Field Corporation defined the boundaries of the neighborhood very broadly: everything south of Columbia Road, north of Morton Street, and west of the Fairmount Commuter Rail. The information below, however, refers primarily to the neighborhood south of Franklin Field/ Harambee Park, north of Morton Street, and west of the commuter rail tracks. Neighborhoods north of Talbot Avenue are covered in other entries.

Franklin Field/ Harambee Park:
Harambee Park, known to most residents as Franklin Field, is located at the intersection of Talbot and Blue Hill Avenues. The Park forms the northern boundary of the Franklin Field public housing complex, which is the largest public housing complex in the Heart of the City. South of the Franklin Field complex is a neighborhood of two- and three-family homes. The streets of the neighborhood are not laid out in a grid pattern, but rather in a complex, looping pattern. There are many one-way and non-parallel streets. The neighborhood can be difficult to navigate, particularly for first-time visitors.

Arbutus/ Balsam/ Lucerne Streets:
In 1977, Arbutus and Balsam Streets were described as the most blighted streets in the Franklin Field neighborhood. Today, these streets have rows of neat new homes, several of which were built by Habitat for Humanity in the 1980s. A well-tended community garden is located on Lucerne and Balsam Streets and cared for by the surrounding community. An attractive and well-landscaped parking lot serves a nearby church.

The Federal Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the City demolished the majority of homes found on these streets in the mid 1970s. Then, throughout the mid 1980s, the neighborhood was characterized by large swaths of vacant land that were dumped on regularly. Drug deals, prostitution, and shootings were common occurrences. This past contrasts sharply with the situation today. Although crime continues to be a problem in the neighborhood, investment has transformed the most blighted sections of the neighborhood.

Area just south of Franklin Field:
The Franklin Field public housing development lies just south of Franklin Field/ Harambee Park along Westview, Ames, and Stratton Streets. With more than 400 apartments, Franklin Field is the largest public housing complex in the Heart of the City, and one of the largest in the city as a whole. Located on five streets directly south of Franklin Field, several of the westernmost apartments are undergoing significant renovations in the spring of 2002. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, the housing was allowed to deteriorate and protests against housing conditions by residents were ongoing.

Stratton is a tree-lined residential street along the southern edge of the Franklin Field housing development. Many vacant lots lie along Stratton Street, some of which are unfenced and trashy and others of which receive better care. In May 2002, the Boston Housing Authority (BRA) was refurbishing severeal of the housing units at the end of Stratton Street.

Westview Street separates Franklin Field public housing development from Franklin Field/ Harambee Park. Westview reaches a dead end at the Lee School and St. Mary's Cemetery. The road ends at a pile of trash and debris. From here, residents of Franklin Field development can easily access the school and its playground equipment, including a basketball court, on foot. St. Mary's Cemetery, on the other hand, is inaccessible from here. The Cemetery was established in 1851 and is part of the Boston Catholic Cemetery Association, which also manages Mt. Calvary and New Calvary.

Vacant land:
In August 2002, more than 80 parcels of land are available for purchase through the Department of Neighborhood Development (DND) in the Franklin Field neighborhood (as defined above). This is the largest cluster of parcels available through DND in the Heart of the City.

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CONTEXT:
The neighborhoods and public housing complex surrounding Franklin Field/ Harambee Park are closely identified with Franklin Field, a 45.6-acre park that includes playing fields, a tennis center, a Boys and Girls Club, a swimming pool, basketball court, and a tot-lot. Franklin Field, in turn, is closely associated with Franklin Park to the west. The two parks were intended to be connected by Angel Street, although there are no signs to facilitate the flow of people between the two open spaces. In 1990, a brutal, high-profile attack of a young woman at Franklin Field named Kimberly Rae Harbour negatively colored public perception of the park as a safe place to be.

Demographics:
Over the past 30 years, the white population of the neighborhood declined, the African American population first increased and then declined, and in recent years the Hispanic population has grown significantly, from 7% in 1980 to more than 35% in 2000, according to the U.S. Census for the census tract immediately south of Talbot Avenue.


Demographics over time South of Franklin Field (the Hispanic population may be of any ethnicity). 

                       Blacks             Whites         Hisp.
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1970               73.2%             25.6%            --
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1980               88.0%              4.0%           7.0%
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1990               88.7%              3.5%         14.5%
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2000               57.0%              1.6%          35.5%

One section of this neighborhood -- the area southeast of Woodrow Avenue -- was one of the only communities in the Heart of the City to increase in population between 1960 and 1970 when the neighborhood as a whole was experiencing a period of out-migration. In 1977, when surrounding areas were blighted with abandoned buildings and low average family incomes, this neighborhood southeast of Woodrow Avenue had a high rate of owner occupancy. Most of the buildings were in good condition. The median family income was at $7,250 (compared to $6,120 for the community immediately to the north) ("Neighborhood Profile Reports: Franklin Field," 1977).

As a whole, Precinct 10, where Franklin Field is located, had a total of 98.4% minority residents according to the 2000 Census. The census tract most closely associated with the Franklin Field neighborhood (#1001) grew in population by 14% between 1990 and 2000. About 37% of residents living in the neighborhood south of Franklin Field are under 18 years of age. This is up from 35% in 1990. In comparison to the proportion of youth in other Boston neighborhoods, the youth population in the Franklin Field neighborhood is large and growing. With a median household income of $23,524 in 2000, the community south of Franklin Field/ Harambee Park is slightly more affluent than the neighborhood immediately to the north of the park.

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HISTORY:
Franklin Field (the park):
Franklin Field itself was so named by landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted in the late 1800s in order to create an association between Franklin Field and Franklin Park. Franklin Park itself was named after Benjamin Franklin. In the early 1900s, Franklin Field was the most popular playground in city. The neighborhood as a whole has been described as "baseball crazy" (von Hoffman, A., Local Attachments, 1994).

For all of the communities that have lived in the neighborhood, Franklin Field has been a place where community members congregate. Not only have the playing fields been well used since they were first built, but the stone wall along Franklin Field has been a gathering place, first for Irish residents, then for Jewish residents, and most recently for Black and Hispanic residents who gather to watch games on the fields, sell home-cooked food, or simply soak up the sunshine.

Franklin Field/ Harambee Park: In the mid-1980s, a group of community members began lobbying to change the name of Franklin Field because they did not feel the name reflected the character of the surrounding community. The group was successful and Franklin Field was renamed "Harambee Park," which means "pulling together" in the East African language of Swahili. Despite the community-led effort to change the name, virtually all residents today continue to refer to the park as "Franklin Field."

Franklin Field (the neighborhood):
The Franklin Field community was originally part of Dorchester. The area was opened up for settlement when the Midlands Branch railroad was opened in 1855. Trolley service along Blue Hill Avenue opened in the 1890s, and an even greater residential construction boom followed. Irish were the first to settle here. The Irish were replaced by Jewish families beginning after the Chelsea Fire of 1908 ("Neighborhood Profile Reports: Franklin Field," 1977).

Jews were replaced by Black families in 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s. Ethnic transition in Mattapan and Franklin Field was well underway in the 1960s, when the Boston Banks Urban Renewal Group (B-BURG) program was initiated, ostensibly to provide capital to the poor for home ownership. The program accelerated out-migration of remaining Irish and Jewish residents and offered low down-payment mortgages to African American families. Unscrupulous real estate brokers used scare tactics to purchase homes below market rate. They then sold the homes to African American families for exorbitant sums. Many new homeowners, particularly those who had purchased their first property, failed to make payments on their homes. Foreclosure was often the result ("The Boston Plan: Revitalization of a Distressed Area: Blue Hill Avenue," 1977; Levine & Harmon, The Death of an American Jewish Community, 1993).

This period was therefore characterized by mortgage foreclosures, abandoned homes, and absentee landlords. Although this trend affected much of Dorchester and Mattapan along Blue Hill Avenue, housing abandonment was most severe south of Franklin Field. The area was dominated by a high rate of business and residential failure, although there were significant investments made along Talbot Avenue ("Neighborhood Profile Reports: Franklin Field," 1977).

As noted in the 1977 Neighborhood Profile Report, the effects of this decline went beyond the economy. At that time, according to the City, for many in the Franklin Field neighborhood "...mental depression is so obvious and so deep that the need for social services has become extremely demanding. This depressed state for individuals also affects their attitude towards home ownership, renting, neighborhood interaction, credit and the capitalistic system of government, and ultimately the family" ("Neighborhood Profile Reports: Franklin Field," 1977, p22)

In the late 1970s, City strategies for lifting the Franklin Field neighborhood out of its decline were various. At that time, the City saw vacant lots as the key to the revitalization of the area. According to the 1977 Neighborhood Report, "The all-important public improvement effort will be the City's ability to maintain and dispose of the City-owned vacant land in the area in a comprehensive way to insure a re-use of the land that is either for, or complementary to commercial development"("Neighborhood Profile Reports: Franklin Field," 1977, p18).

The City implemented an open space management program designed to secure large parcels of open land and offer abandoned lots at low prices to abutters in order to get as much land as possible into productive use. Lena Park CDC was granted money to provide housing counseling to families facing mortgage default. A home improvement program offered grants to cover a percentage of the costs of home repairs. The City saw investment in Franklin Park, and particularly in the zoo, as a critical element of redevelopment. In general, the 1977 Report called for a "new image of Franklin Park."

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ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES: 
-- The soil in vacant lots in this neighborhood often has very high lead levels. Exposure to these lots can make the blood lead levels of children abnormally high, leading to developmental problems. The soil around standing homes also often has a high lead content. 

-- Before the 1980s, maple trees lined the streets just south of the Franklin Field public housing development. At that time, the trees became vulnerable to rot and most were removed from the streets. In recent years, the disease has returned and put more trees in the area at risk. In recent years, neighbors have organized a calling campaign and successfully gotten the diseased trees removed.

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DESIGN ISSUES: 
-- As noted above, there are approximately 80 parcels of vacant land available for purchase through the Department of Neighborhood Development (DND) in the Franklin Field neighborhood. It is likely that even more are privately available for redevelopment. Much of the vacant land is unproductive space that attracts dumping and crime, although fencing, regular care, and attractive landscaping have transformed some vacant lots in the area into productive spaces.

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SOCIAL ISSUES:
Crime:
According to the Boston Police Department, the total number of reported crimes committed in the Franklin Field/ Franklin Hill area between 1999 and 2001 has remained steady at approximately 1,100. In 2000, the neighborhood was identified as one of eight violent crime "hot spots" in Boston by the Boston Police Department. The Department identified these areas in order to flood them with the resources necessary to restore public safety ("Gun violence in Boston is rising from record lows," The Boston Globe, Aug. 27, 2000). Possibly as a result of these efforts, violent crimes in the area decreased by 31% between 2000 and 2001. Assaults, larceny/ attempted larceny, and vandalism were the most frequently committed crimes between 1999 and 2001.

Gun violence:
According to the Boston Police Department, the Franklin Field neighborhood had one of the highest concentrations of firearms-related incidents in the city in 2001. In May 2002 there is a heavy police presence in this neighborhood, with officers frequently circling even the smaller residential streets.

Gang/ youth violence:
According to the head of the tenant association at Franklin Hill, Georgia Jones, gangs from Franklin Field and Franklin Hill were at odds with one another in the 1980s and 1990s. During the late 1980s and the early 1990s in particular, it was unsafe for people from one community to visit people from the other.

As a result of citywide efforts dubbed the "Boston Strategy" and local efforts such as "Project Free," which Ms. Jones and other community members began in 1992, the Franklin Field and Franklin Hill communities mow work together. Project Free brings young people from the two residential developments together on a regular basis to play ball, go bowling, and participate in "peace retreats."

Drug trafficking:
According to many residents, constant drug trafficking is a more serious problem in the area than periodic spurts of violence. 

Growing youth population:
As noted above, the youth population in the Franklin Field neighborhood is large and growing. The demand for schools and child services will increase, despite the fact that the number of schools in the area has declined over the past several decades.

Transit dependence:
Despite the fact that the Fairmount Commuter Rail runs along the eastern edge of the Franklin Field neighborhood in the Heart of the City, and despite the fact that this community is highly transit-dependent, the commuter rail makes no stops in the neighborhood north of Morton Street. Residents must depend on buses, many of which are fueled by diesel and contribute to high asthma rates in Roxbury and Dorchester.

Civic engagement:
In the mid-1900s, this neighborhood was a center for political activity. Today, engagement in the political process among residents is low. There are only 695 registered voters in this neighborhood out of about 1,800 voting-age residents. Residents cast only 199 cast ballots for the September 2002 primary (Sarah Schweitzer, "A powerless precinct in political heyday, district a hotspot; now, residents say their votes ignored," The Boston Globe, Oct. 27, 2002).

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PLANNING PROCESSES:
-- The Boston Redevelopment Authority (BRA) is reviewing a "Home Again" residential ownership construction project at 41 Jones and 74-78 Ashton Streets south of Franklin Field. The development would cost approximately $7 million. 

-- The MBTA is considering adding a number of stops on the Fairmount Commuter Rail and adding to the number of trains that run on the line. The improved line would be called the "Indigo Line."

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TESTIMONIES:
"Codman Square and other neighborhoods east of Franklin Park changed so suddenly that they lost a memory of their own past. The Codman Square neighborhood changed at a rate of about 25% per year for a while. It lost its institutional and neighborhood history in the process" (Bill Walczak, local historian and director of the Codman Square Health Center).

"This area has decent housing stock, although it is poorly maintained" (Steven Busby, Mattapan CDC).

"This district has a diverse population but a very young population in comparison to other parts of the city, and many of them fall into the ages most prone to be involved in crime" (Pervis Ryans, Captain of the B-3 police force, from an article by Jose Martinez, "Hub cops target crime 'hot spot' in Mattapan," The Boston Herald, May 21, 2001).

"The nights before the election -- oh my god, it was unbelievable. Blue Hill Avenue was cut off and all you could see was trucks with signs. And everyone was there - the Italians, the Irish. And every politician" (Janice Bernstein, remembering Blue Hill Avenue in the Franklin Field neighborhood in the 1950s).

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