So what first started gentrification in Boston?

[mdovell]

I remember the 80's it was bad and then by early 90's really bad but by the end of the 90's things changed. Anyone have any idea what caused the gentrification?

[GeePee]

Originally Posted by mdovell

I remember the 80's it was bad and then by early 90's really bad but by the end of the 90's things changed. Anyone have any idea what caused the gentrification?

Jobs.

[msRB311]

I think a lot of it was keeping up with the Jones' and wanting a certain lifestyle...many families went from one person working to two...and yes Boston has accumulated a lot of jobs in medical, tech, pharma, finance over the decades where it wasn't difficult for people to get those jobs.

[bostongymjunkie]

Jobs were key, but also home ownership was difficult and younger people wanted access to rental housing and the cultural and social amenities of city living. Gay people played a big role in early 80's/90's gentrification of some neighborhoods, because they could have a life here that couldn't be had in the burbs at the time. After the 90's it was certain job sectors and the globalization that came largely from tech and the internet, in my opinion. Boston became "the place to be" for many young people. It took on a life of it's own in trendy fashion. Now it's the place not for trendsetters, but for unoriginal corporate bandwagon jumpers. Sorry for being so indirect.

[msRB311]

when did Boston ever take on a life of it's own in terms of trendy fashion?

[bostongymjunkie]

Nobody ever said Boston did. If you read the sentence that preceded it, you'd get it.


Boston became "the place to be" for many young people. It took on a life of it's own in trendy fashion.

[msRB311]

I did read it smart ass. Boston has never been a trendy fashionable place. No need to mention fashion then bud.

[bostongymjunkie]

I never said Boston was a trendy place. The idea of Boston being "the place to be" took on a trendy life of its own. But I'll mention anything I want, bud.

Now, shame on me since Ive already violated my own promise to myself that I wasn't going to respond to any of your dumb and insipid comments. But I can't sit while you put words in my mouth. So carry on, bud.

[robr2]

Certain parts of Boston were always desirable places to live:

Beacon Hill
South End between Shawmut Ave. and Tremont St.
Back Bay

I recall a friend of my SIL I met at a party around 1990. She and her husband were selling their big house/empty nest in Lexington and moving to a condo on the corner of Washington St. and E. Berkeley St. in the South End - the wrong side of Peter's Park. I forget the amount they were paying but it was a very sketchy place to live IMHO. The called themselves urban pioneers.

In 1994, I got a job on Washington St. near the Park and it was already seeing changes. Harrison Ave. was filling up with architects and interior design firms and new restaurants were opening. It was really changing. Today, there are condos, restaurants, offices, Ink Block, etc.

Why? It was the first block of pre and post war boomers looking for something different by moving from the 'burbs to the city. It grew in the 2000's with more boomers retiring with great wealth.

[msRB311]

I recall JP being popular in the 80's with yuppies as well.