The city of Boston faces two
enormous problems, sea level
rise in its harbor that is
getting worse with climate
change, and a dearth of
affordable housing, pricing out
many longtime residents.
Solutions to one of the problems
may compound the challenge of
solving the other.
Researchers have called this
green genritication.
-- Green gentrification.
Paul Solman reports on the
fallout in Boston.
Paul in east Boston, long home
: To the city's latest wave of
immigrants, sparkling new
waterfront apartments where
abandoned piers once rotted.
A brief ferry ride away,
downtown Boston.
Convenient.
Stunning.
>> We unlocked a part of the
waterfront that had been fenced
off from the community and
reintroduced it to the people
free to calm use the place.
Paul: And to folks dying to live
here, says developer Nick
iselin.
>> We thought there was not such
a thing as a one million-dollar
condominium in Boston.
Paul: Which came to a startling
$1 million for just 1500 square
feet.
But a major selling point for
those who can afford it, the
project is carbon neutral.
As it says on its website,
climate change ready.
A newly created living
shoreline, with the
stabilization of existing sea
walls.
New public open spaces support
wildlife habitats, promote
community gatherings, a kayak
launcher, highlight recreational
and programming opportunities.
There are even a few dozen
affordable housing units.
What is not to like?
Are you from around here?
>> I live here.
Paul: What about all these
condos going up?
>> They created a ghetto, a
white ghetto.
Paul: He feels unwelcome.
A group of students from east
Boston high school, possibly
more so.
>> Last summer me and my friends
were skipping rocks and they
said we were disturbing them.
>> They are snobby people.
>> They say you can't be here,
but it is not private property.
Paul: In fact, it's a public
area, with public bathrooms,
mandated by state law.
>> We finally got the leasing
office.
Paul: But, challenges community
activist Kannan thiruvengadam --
>> Do I know there is a public
restroom I can use?
Those things have to be obvious,
that makes a space welcoming.
The sign is writing here.
Paul: Public restroom in port
said lobby.
And if you can't find a
bathroom, how public is the
space?
>> Is it open?
It is locked.
In fact, guitar player Rios and
the students, off after a half
day at school, were among the
very few non residents on these
9 acres of public space.
>> We used to live here and we
were forced to move out.
Paul: You could not afford it?
>> We were forced to move out,
there is a lot of
gentrification.
Paul: Gentrification the age-old
, problem of urban
redevelopment.
>> People are getting displaced,
there is not enough opportunity
for people with middle to lower
income or even a bit above.
Paul: This is gentrification
with a new twist, green
development greening.
Green gentrification, adding
appeal to a project, and cost,
implying --
>> There will be, little by
little, a removal of socially
more vulnerable groups, working
class, middle-class groups.
Paul: Researcher Isabelle
anguelovski champions climate
control but enclaves like this,
in her words --
>> Become islands of resilience,
privatized.
Paul: While their 47,000 or so
east Boston neighbors are
discouraged from coming near, if
not forced out of town, as so
many of the students we ran into
were.
>> I have to walk to school now,
it is like an hour.
Paul: You walk an hour a day to
school?
>> It used to be 10 minutes.
My shoes are messed up.
Paul: How long have you had
those?
>> A month.
Paul: Meanwhile, those who get
to stay will be at the mercy of
time and tide.
East Boston, once five separate
islands, is mostly landfilled.
The sea level will rise 40
inches by 2070, creating a flood
risk to half the neighborhood.
Low tide not a problem, but a
few hours away, storm surges
like one in 2018 which flooded
this complex.
It got up to the sidewalk?
>> It came onto the ground
level.
I could not step on without
being in the water.
Paul: And the east bostonians
behind the development?
>> This is a ramp.
>> If rain falls, it will be
here.
Paul: As for the promised
amenities, that public kayak
launch has become a tavern --
the living shoreline?
>> This is meant to be the
living shoreline.
Where are the kids, the grass,
the blue hair?
Paul: The fact is this very
, project is now vulnerable to
climate change.
Nobody built in anticipation of
the vulnerability because why?
>> Because they were not
required to.
The assessments had not been
done.
Paul: So, any fixes?
Boston now has a new mayor,
Michelle Wu, who ran on a
platform of economic equity.
She has reverend mariama
white-hammond to help implement
it.
>> I went to a little, all girls
private school and the girls
were afraid to come to my house,
said they were worried they
would get shot.
Paul: White-hammond actually
protested this project when it
was first proposed some seven
years ago.
>> We marched because we were
deeply concerned the units built
were not billed for the
residents that were currently
here.
Paul: But how does she see east
Boston development now, as the
mayor's top climate adviser.
>> It is not the melding of the
old and new, it is the old being
overwhelmed by the new.
>> If people live near a good
part, the prices are higher,
which means poor people live in
the places nobody wants to live.
Do not improve those
neighborhoods?
It is a real catch 22.
My family has as much a right to
live near a great park as the
people who live downtown.
The problem is, if I upgrade the
park in that community, property
values rise.
>> Gentrification is a problem.
It is happening for many
reasons.
Market forces, people are
getting displaced.
Whether or not we have green
spaces here, that gentrification
would be happening.
Paul: And thus the last
question, to community activist
la Battaglia.
Green gentrification compounds
the problem?
>> It exacerbates it.
Paul: Exacerbates the problem of
choice venues versus this land.
-- A problem facing choice urban
venues all over this land.
For the pbs newshour, Paul