Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative Creates an Urban Village

http://www.cpn.org/topics/community/dudly2.html

Case Study: Urban Village Vision Process Towards a Wholesome Community
Summer 1996
DSNI Mission
To empower Dudley residents to organize, plan for, create and control a vibrant, high quality and diverse neighborhood in collaboration with community partners.

Profile of the Urban Village
Boston
Population
12,018
24,068
574,282
Race/Ethnic CompositionWh : Bl : Hsp : C.Verde
7%-37%-29%-25%

59%-24%-11%-6%
Per Capita Income
7,634
8,631
15,581
Unemployment Rate
16.3%
8.3%
Households
3,513
7,584
228,466
Housing Units
4,040
8,680
250,365
Home Ownership
21%
22%
28%
Persons less than 18 years of age
36%
34%
19%
Vacant parcels
in 1984 1300
in 1996 1000

"Together, We'll Find the Way"
The Beginnings In 1984, Dudley residents came together to resist the patterns of abandonment and gentrification that had already pushed low income people out of the South End and the West End. Red-lining, disinvestment and arson fires combined to physically and spiritually devastate the community, the devastation symbolized by 1,300 vacant lots. We refused to accept these conditions. At DSNI's founding meeting, residents declared our intention to control community land and services for the benefit of the community.

The Vision - Our Urban Village Turning planning on its head, we created the vision for the neighborhood: the 1987 plan for an urban village. It laid out comprehensive strategies for the physical, economic and human development of a vibrant, diverse, empowered community where people could live, shop, work and play.
Our vision for an urban village built on the community's greatest asset - the rich diversity of cultures, talent and willpower of residents.
Dudley Village: A work-in-progress
Dudley village is work in progress. Early organizing victories against illegal dumping and trash transfer operations lead to hope that seemingly impossible barriers to progress could be removed. Hope replaced dispair. As we came together and started to develop a village spirit, more accomplishments followed:
The City of Boston's adoption of our plan as its redevelopment plan for the Dudley area.
Eminent domain authority to assemble parcels of vacant land for development.
Long-term control of land through a community land trust (Dudley Neighbors Inc.) to ensure neighborhood benefit and to prevent speculation.
Over 225 new affordable homes built according to criteria set by residents.
More than 300 units of housing rehabilitated.
Over 300 of the 1,300 vacant lots transformed into attractive homes, safe play spaces, gardens and community facilities.
The "Unity Through Diversity" mural, designed and painted by neighborhood youth.
Improved environmental safety from lead-contaminated soil, hazardous wastes and illegal dumping.
A DSNI Board of Directors elected by, representative of, and accountable to community residents.
A full youth summer camp program ran by "Bird Street Community Center" at Mary Hannon Park, and the park upgraded by the City.
The Multi-Cultural Festival in September, an annual community building event, sharing cultural pride and contributions through food, music and crafts.
Collaboratives of human service agencies and other organizations to achieve coordinated services responsive to residents' needs and priorities.
The opening of the Dudley Town Common at Dudley, Blue Hill and Hampden, serving as an elegant gateway to Dudley village.
A number of key features to the village are in the works:
Conversion of the old Dudley Mill Works building into youthbuild Boston's training headquarters and charter school, DSNI's new office, as well as commercial space.
The City of Boston's commitment to renovate the old vine Street Municipal Building (the Cape Verdean Community House) as a community center.

A Vision For the Future
Out of the rubble, Dudley residents have dreamt, fought and built. We have new housing, community gardens, play spaces, multicultural festivals, new neighbors and friends. We also have a new spirit of hope and possibility.
We are now taking the next steps in defining and realizing our urban village. It is time to take our vision to the next step based on what we have been able to accomplish. Our understanding of what we want and need has changed and grown as the neighborhood has changed and grown.
This report is about the steps we just took to update our shared vision. Over a period of eight months, we designed and carried out a community visioning process. Residents from throughout the neighborhood have met together in several groups to develop an updated and shared vision. Many of those in the earlier sessions came back; many long time residents participated for the first time; and many new neighbors joined in; participants and workers at some of the area's businesses and agencies also took part. Some spoke English; some spoke Spanish; some Cape Verdean Creole.
It was a fun and creative process. We challenged each other to think boldly, to push the limits on traditional barriers and expectations. We encouraged each other to dream and to treat those dreams as things that we can and will accomplish together. We envisioned a whole and wholesome community:
One which builds on and respects our rich cultural diversity and our sense of community values.
One in which we, the residents, have political and economic power.
One with a planned environment that is physically beautiful, environmentally sound, green and clean, affordable and safe for everyone.
A neighborhood based on a profound respect for lifelong learning.
One with a full range of recreational, educational and cultural activities.
One with safe, reliable, accessible and affordable transportation.
One where there are strong partnerships with public and private institutions that share our vision.
Please take a look at what follows - at all the ideas - big and small - that, together, will create the entirety of our village. discuss it with your neighbors. Add to it. Because this is a guide of our minimum expectations.
Perhaps the best way to describe what we think in a few words is in this poem:

You're What it Takes (To Make a Village)
by Paul Yelder

Some will claim It takes stores and shops Others believeWe need more bus stops
These are important That's for sure But You're what it takes For a Village to endure
Houses with yards Some will say Safe places where Our children can play
These are important Yes, indeed But You're what it takes For a Village to succeed
Mail-boxes, tot-lots Malls and park benches Clearing up vacant lots Eliminating foul stenches
These are important I will admit But You're what it takes For a Village to be legit
You're what it takes For a Village to be real Sharing with your neighbors A love you can feel
Yes, You're what it takes Both young and old You give us true worth More than silver, More than gold

Village Visioning
Groups met throughout the neighborhood. Using the type of scenarios that are on the next page, we dreamed about what we wanted in out future village, and shared these dreams within our groups. We drew, we talked, we wrote. We told stories. We recorded our best ideas on "post-its" and put them on the wall. Some of us took a field trip to other "Villages" and neighborhoods in the area. Some talked to friends and relatives about their vision. We added more of "hot ideas".
Then we grouped or clustered the ideas that came up with cluster names. We recorded everything publicly - so the entire group could see, discuss and make our changes together. We were weaving the fabric of our community to create something truly shared. We asked ourselves, if this is what we want, then what do we need? We tried to understand the relationship of the clusters to each other, and came up with some new insights.
Here are a few samples of the initial dreaming that we did:

Scenario:
Imagine . . . It is a pleasant Saturday morning in May. You are meeting a friend at the Dudley Town Common - the village gateway - for a leisurely stroll down Dudley Street.
Describe what you do, where you go for the next hour or so.
We talk and gaze at the beautiful flowers that the neighborhood planted. We sit at the Common and plan our time - what to do for the next two hours. We decide to go to the movies. Before that we go have an ice cream near the Commons in the ice cream parlor. We walk in the neighborhood stores, gaze around and buy nothing. We chat with other neighbors whom we meet along the way. We buy some popcorn in the neighborhood pop corn shop and watch the neighborhood kids swing, play ball and cheer them up. We could even go to visit the beautiful animals in the zoo close by your house
-Bahjah Zarinah Muhammed and Raheil Bernard
. . . For the most part, Dudley Street today is cleared of traffic. I notice the monorails soaring swiftly and silently overhead . . .
As I continue my trek to Dudley Common, I pass the Dudley shopping Mall which is really sort of a plaza. I see the parking area reserved for electric cars. Instead of gas stations, I see the service station designed for electric cars. Actually, all it is is a picturesque stone wall that is fitted with electrical outlets for customers to recharge their cars while shopping, if necessary. . .
-Warren Brown
I see shop owners sweeping the front of their stores. The street cleaners and cleaning trucks are sweeping and washing the streets. What a time we had with the City getting the contracts so that these residents could have these much deserved jobs with the right pay and benefits.
Out Bed and Breakfast place is always open. However, it's usually full. What a perfect spot for it in the middle of the village. . . .They can walk to the commuter rail if they want to connect to anywhere else in the state. Thank God that it was remodeled and we have that beautiful parking lot. So many of my neighbors own and operate everything in our community.
Well, we're still learning. There's a Board of Trade meeting at 7PM. We're looking over our guidelines and procedures for our new Resident Banking and Lending institution...
- JacQuie Cairo-Williams

Village Visioning
After all the small group meetings, a core team took the reports from all the sessions and put them together. We clustered the clusters and came up with the theme areas listed below.
This was a truly amazing process that allowed us to consider hundreds of ideas.

Themes From Visioning
Out of the many dreams, stories, and images of out future that emerged from these vision groups, these were the themes or goals that seemed to organize our ideas:
Encourage lifelong learning
Build and sustain unity through neighborhood activity
Community economic power
Physical and visual quality of life
Harmony with nature
Community security
Community friendly transportation
Self and group expression
Political power
Mutually supportive relationships
Within each theme, we listed "standards" - that capture values or principles that will ensure maximum community benefit - and "actions" - the concrete activities that will help us meet our goals. The ultimate "standard" by which every activity will be judged is that it must benefit the community.

Encourage Lifelong Learning
What is our community's "competitive advantage" in these tough times? One advantage that will allow us to succeed is that we value learning on every level - for young and old, in and out of school. We want the information, knowledge, and skills to control our destiny.

Standards
Actions
Family, community and personal values
Community information center: organizers and speakers with information
Respecting what's healthy for the neighborhood
Parent involvement - paid release time form work
Superior public schools
Kids and adults playing together from all cultures
Maximum inclusive access to school information and participation
Opportunities and safe place to play
Value all learning styles
Community schools - open non-school hours
Less theft, more respect for property
Families and kids going to Sunday school and church
Community (including youth) evaluation of schools
Earning and learning program
Adults going to school

Job training programs
"This is the first time that anyone has asked my opinion about anything of importance." -- Vision Pilot Group Participant
Build and Sustain Unity Through Neighborhood Activity
Our village is a culturally vibrant, active, people-centered, mutually supportive community with a sense of "can-do" optimism. We want play spaces, community gatherings, and a full range of neighborhood services, activities and activism.

Standards
Actions
Be inclusive
Community centers
Learn from our elders
Schedule for park activities
Productive meetings
Playgrounds
Build people/Build community
Integrational activities
Everybody work together across diversity
Seats and benches for elders
Take care of each other
Block parties
Intergenerational interaction
Bike paths
Encourage participation
Community meetings to inform the community
Everyone has a role
Foster grandparent program
Celebration of victories
Organized youth program
Highlight what we have
Monthly contributions to the emergency fund
Neighborly feelings
Build neighborhood associations
Encourage the "successful" to stay and come back
Local nursing homes
Communication among residents
Local medical clinic
Interfaith cooperation
Rehabilitation center for addicts
Resident-centered service delivery system
Swimming
"We lived here in the 70's, but we moved out. Now, we're back because the children want to be close to our family. It's so exciting to be here and see all the wonderful things that are happening." --Cape Verdean Creole vision group

Community Economic Power
We don't just want more jobs and businesses; we want ones that build the economic power of community residents. Our future village is a place where we can shop, eat, play, bank - right here. Our unique multicultural richness also attracts visitors.

Standards
Actions
Support local businesses
Technology to set up job bank
Businesses giving back to the community
Friendly banking and ATM
Resident priority in local jobs
Multicultural food court
Jobs for residents - people going to work
Ice cream parlor
Resident-owned business
Open air market
Convenient local shopping
Movie theater
Tourist attraction
Pharmacy
Chain stores, only if they give back to the community
Dry cleaners
Laundromat
No liquor stores
Bookstore/international magazines
Cultural clothing stores
Bakery
Outdoor cafe
"Once we all get together and stay together, we can do anything." --Jessie Farrier

Physical and Visual Quality of Life
Dudley Village is a planned physical community - one that is high quality, affordable, resource efficient and well-cared for.

Standards
Actions
Residents plan for a total physical environment
Store, residents, city sweep streets
Our fair share of city resources and services
Build and renovate more affordable housing
Environmentally sound housing (resource efficient)
Reception (function) hall
More affordable housing
Parks for kids
Fix up sand box at Mary Hannon Park
Nice bus stops
Mail boxes
Lights
Only NYNEX pay phones
Better looking St. Patrick's Church
Streets plowed in winter
Spray pools (fountains)
More public trash cans
Street improvements
Parking lots
"I looked out my window last night and said, 'Oh what a beautiful light' and realized that it was the Dudley town common. It used to be so dark." --Jessie Farrier
Harmony with Nature
Our community is clean and green, and reflects our respect for our surroundings.
Standards
Actions
Seeing ourselves as extensions of the earth
Clean streets
Enforce laws that apply to a clean community
Signs to keep community clean
Able to sit anywhere and feel comfortable
Rubbish receptacles emptied
No more graffiti
Energy efficient housing
Plan and maintain open space
Adopt a tree
Botanical gardens maintained by city
Plants (not fences)
Fruit trees
Tree-lined streets
Statues of M.L. King, Cabral and Mariana Bracetti
Water fountains
Apple trees
"This is OUR place! That's why we all take care of it." -- the original play "A Village Grows in Dudley"

Community Security
A truly safe and secure community will be an outgrowth of successful realization of out entire vision. Two of the foundations are, a village spirit of watching out for each other, and the establishment of this as a neighborhood where negative activity will not be tolerated. Villager and police must each do our part.

Standards
Actions
Safe community
Foot patrols
Rapid police response time
More involvement in reporting crime
Respect, communications between community and police
No drugs
Police do their job
Resident committee to watch over parks and public spaces
Able to leave car doors/ windows open
Seat belts on school buses
Positive activity replace negative activity
Supervision on school buses
Signs that appeal to people's conscience
Lights
"There's no better place to live. We don't need to be ashamed of living here. Our friends, family, children and older people all are here" --Jose Barros

Community Friendly Transportation
Dudley village is children and pedestrian friendly. Residents can move safely and conveniently within the neighborhood, as well as to other areas of the city.

Standards
Actions
Community voice on transportation issues
Better driver training
More affordable transportation
One fare/bus transfers
Reduce/restrict traffic
No potholes/smooth running traffic
Pedestrian friendly
Free shuttle bus to South Bay (from Uphams Corner & Dudley Station)
Reliable public transportation (buses and trains)
Dudley owned private transportation system
Good air quality
More school bus stops
Environmentally friendly vehicles
Train and bus shelters
Trash cans at all bus stops
Electric cars and buses
"We won't get all the things we want if we (e.g. Blue Hill Avenue) become just a thoroughfare for commuters" --Mt. Pleasant vision group

Self and Group Expression
The nourishing of the human spirit - on an individual, ethnic group and on a community level - is a critical part of a wholesome neighborhood.

Standards
Actions
Create a unique sense of place
Arts
More opportunities for public expression
Murals
Unity through diversity - promote community cultural pride
Dancing/Music
Concerts on the Dudley Town Common
Street Theater
Live music in restaurants
Cultural opportunities for youth
Museum
"Everybody is dreaming for a better community" --Cape Verdean Creole vision group

Political Power
In order for our voice to be heard, we need to register to vote, vote, be informed and advocate for ourselves.

Standards
Actions
Be able to determine our own destiny - Vote!
Educate people about why Register to vote
Resident power!
Advocate for resources
Inform people about elections
Community phone to inform policy makers
Groom local people to run for office
"We've never been shy to dream and never so faithless as to not take risks." --Clayton Turnbull

Mutually Supportive Relationships
We can't do it alone. It is through cooperation that we come to understand that anything is possible.

Standards
Actions
Cooperation with other communities
Government and residents working together
Leverage for neighborhood groups
Institutional support
$ (money)
Use media - get message out; fight stereotypes
"You know what's best? We ALL had a chance to help plan this village. That's why it works.That's why people of all ages and ethnic backgrounds feel like this is really OUR place!" --the original play, "A Village Grows in Dudley"

Next Steps
Building on our tremendous accomplishments, we have updated our shared community vision. We have dared to dream, and to believe that we can define our village, and have power over out destiny. We will continually lift the ceiling on our sense of possibility
This vision will provide the framework for the DSNI staff and committee work. We will now work to translate vision into reality. We will look for the resources, work with partners and implement a strategic plan to achieve our goals.
Along the way, there will continue to be many remarkable things - big and small - happening in Dudley Village. Some will be very visible, like new businesses, gardens, lights, new families moving in, tot lots, and, who knows, maybe even a greenhouse.
Others will be less visible, but no less striking - like a safer neighborhood with a positive community spirit, even greater participation in our community decision making process, and every eligible Dudley resident will be registered to vote!
If we all stand and work together, we will achieve our vision!

More Information
Gertrudes Fidalgo or May LouieDSNI617-442-9670

Case Study: Holding Ground: The Rebirth of Dudley Street
The award winning documentary about community vision, struggle, and change.Produced by Leah Mahan and Mark Lipman.
Holding Ground is at once a cautionary tale of urban policies gone wrong and a message of hope for all American cities. Through the voices of committed residents, activists and city officials, this one-hour documentary shows how a Boston neighborhood was able to create and carry out its own agenda for change.
SynopsisIntroductionThis section traces the decline of the Dudley Street neighborhood in the 1960s and 1970s due to disinvestment and arson. Some 1,300 vacant lots in the area become Boston's dumping ground.
From the AshesIn 1985, angered by a neighborhood revitalization effort initiated without their participation, residents take charge of a community meeting. They create the Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative.
Don't Dump on UsTo create a sense of community power, DSNI's first campaign forces the city to clear vacant lots of appliances, rotting food, and abandoned cars and to close two illegal dumps.
Turning the TablesMore than 200 residents create a comprehensive plan to revitalize their neighborhood. The city adopts the plan as its official plan for the area.
Take a Stand, Own the LandFor development purposes, DSNI asks the city for eminent domain authority over privately held vacant land in its area. In 1988, it becomes the first grassroots group in the country to have this power.
Not Just Bricks and MortarThis segment depicts the broader social aspects of DSNI. The Young Architects Program provides youth with basic architectural skills that they use in building models for two planned community centers. DSNI also takes on a serious drug problem at the only park in the neighborhood.
Breaking GroundDespite a lack of local bank and developer investment, DSNI breaks ground on new housing in 1993. Later, a ribbon-cutting ceremony celebrates the completion of the first 6 of 300 homes. Homebuyer classes prepare residents to get mortgages, which usually have been denied in the past.
New VoicesShortly after the completion of the first new homes, drug dealers move back into the park. At a winter vigil in the park, a teenager encourages all teens to become involved with DSNI. Young people take leadership in the multicultural festivals and together create a mural. The program ends as the community elects new DSNI board members, including neighborhood youth.
Holding Ground on Public Television Holding Ground is coming to public television in May 1997!
Holding Ground offers compelling viewing to people of all ages who are interested in the revitalization of America's cities. It will be of particular interest to:
Architects and urban planners
Bankers
Community development organizations
Environmental Organizations
Foundations
Government officials
Human service providers
Labor organizations
Police and corrections officials
Public health officials
Religious organizations
Youth organizations It will be a welcome addition to high school, college, and university courses in:
Anthropology
Architecture
Community Organizing
Criminal Justice
Environment
Film Studies
Government
Multiculturalism
Political Science
Public Health
Race Relations
Social Change
Social Policy
Social Work
Sociology
Urban Planning and Urban Studies