Is Gentrification the New Segregation?
Bostonist learned from today’s Globe that Boston City Councilman Paul Scapicchio (about whom some unrelated, but interesting, news here) wants to change the rules regarding affordable housing lotteries to give priority to neighborhood residents. In the past, similar rules were rejected on the (probably correct, we suspect) theory that favoring neighborhood residents would perpetuate racial segregation (because new housing in, say, a mostly white neighborhood would end up going mostly to white people). But Scapicchio and others are backing the move now because, Scapicchio says, the problem of racial segregation in Boston has been supplanted by gentrification. To this, Bostonist can only say, unironically, “Really?” We certainly cannot deny that gentrification is an issue, and that affordable housing is scarce and precious (Bostonist is currently vying for one of two available affordable units in a Somerville development; judging from the turnout at the required informational meeting thi
