Description and Details

The Jack­son Square Rede­vel­op­ment Ini­tia­tive aims to revi­tal­ize Jack­son Square, locat­ed in the com­mu­ni­ties of Jamaica Plains and Rox­bury in Boston, Mass­a­chu­setts. Jack­son Square was a thriv­ing com­mu­ni­ty cen­ter that was demol­ished in the late 1960s and ear­ly 1970s for an 8‑lane exten­sion to the I‑95 that was pro­posed by the Mass­a­chu­setts Depart­ment of Pub­lic Works. This result­ed in the demol­ish­ment of 775 homes and 300 busi­ness­es for the inter­state infra­struc­ture. Com­mu­ni­ty mem­bers were against the infra­struc­ture, and in 1974 the gov­ern­ment decid­ed against the I‑95 exten­sion after the area was demolished. 

In sub­se­quent years, the area had high vio­lence rates result­ing in fur­ther com­mu­ni­ty involve­ment in spark­ing change. In 1999, through exten­sive com­mu­ni­ty orga­ni­za­tion and pub­lic offi­cials also want­i­ng change, a Jack­son Coor­di­nat­ing Group was appoint­ed by the Boston Rede­vel­op­ment Author­i­ty. This led to over 80 pub­lic meet­ings and a com­mu­ni­ty goal of revi­tal­iz­ing the area while pro­tect­ing res­i­dents at risk of dis­place­ment. In 2005, plans were put forth by the orga­ni­za­tions involved in the rede­vel­op­ment to revi­tal­ize the area into an urban cen­ter. These orga­ni­za­tions became the Jack­son Square Part­ners, and include Jamaica Plains Neigh­bor­hood Devel­op­ment Cor­po­ra­tion (JPNDC), Urban Edge, The Com­mu­ni­ty Builders, and Hyde Square Task Force. The Jack­son Square Part­ners was des­ig­nat­ed by the Boston Rede­vel­op­ment Author­i­ty to devel­op Jack­son Square, but ini­tial plans were stalled due to eco­nom­ic uncer­tain­ty. In 2011, the plans were revis­it­ed and approved. Com­mu­ni­ty involve­ment has con­tin­ued to be an impor­tant dri­ving force in the project, with over 800 res­i­dents con­tribut­ing to the vision of the rede­vel­op­ment and being involved in all steps of the plan­ning process. The project is also under con­tin­u­ous review by a com­mu­ni­ty advi­so­ry committee. 

The project has numer­ous fund­ing sources, includ­ing the City of Boston’s Mayor’s Office of Hous­ing, the U.S. Depart­ment of Hous­ing and Urban Devel­op­ment, Jack­son Square Part­ners, Massachusetts’s Depart­ment of Hous­ing and Com­mu­ni­ty Devel­op­ment, and sev­er­al more. The 250 mil­lion dol­lar project aims to revi­tal­ize more than 8 acres of land with 14 build­ings, cre­at­ing 300 new hous­ing units with more than half reserved for afford­able hous­ing for low-income fam­i­lies. Since the project’s start in 2015, this goal has been sur­passed with both build­ing and ren­o­vat­ing exist­ing prop­er­ty. Addi­tion­al project goals include recre­ation­al facil­i­ties and improv­ing the pedes­tri­an expe­ri­ence with bike lanes and access to pub­lic tran­sit. Cur­rent­ly, three projects are ongo­ing that will add 219 afford­able hous­ing units, bring­ing the total hous­ing unit addi­tions of the 12-year project to 487. The next steps for the ini­tia­tive include a green cor­ri­dor and a plaza to con­nect the main streets.  It is one of the largest com­mu­ni­ty-dri­ven devel­op­ments in the coun­try and impacts 11,550 peo­ple with demo­graph­ics of 44% Lati­no, 32% African Amer­i­can, 18% white, and 6% mul­tira­cial or oth­er races. 

CEE sub­jects: Con­struc­tion Engi­neer­ing and Man­age­ment, Envi­ron­men­tal Pol­i­cy and Sus­tain­able Infra­struc­ture, Trans­porta­tion Engineering

Discussion Questions

  • What are the impor­tant take­aways from view­ing this cor­rec­tive exam­ple? What else do you think could have been done to improve the over­all com­mu­ni­ty expe­ri­ence? Are there any com­mu­ni­ties you can think of that could use a sim­i­lar revitalization? 
  • What role do civ­il and envi­ron­men­tal engi­neers play in ensur­ing the suc­cess of the project?
  • What are some take­ways con­cern­ing trans­porta­tion infra­struc­ture and its impact on a com­mu­ni­ty after review­ing this study?

References

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