Mattapan, Massachusetts

Mattapan is a neighborhood in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. Historically a section of neighboring Dorchester, Mattapan became a part of Boston when Dorchester was annexed in 1870. As of the 2000 census, it had a population of 28,145. Like other neighborhoods of the late 19th and early 20th century, Mattapan developed, residentially and commercially, as the railroads and streetcars made downtown Boston increasingly accessible. Predominantly residential, Mattapan is a mix of public housing, small apartment buildings, single-family houses, and two and three family houses. Blue Hill Avenue and Mattapan Square, where Blue Hill Avenue, River Street, and Cummins Highway meet, are the commercial heart of the neighborhood, home to banks, law offices, restaurants, and retail shops. In 2008, Mattapan is scheduled to open its new Library Branch site. The new library is projected to cost over $4-million.

Demographic change

In the 1960s and '70s Mattapan went through a major change in the makeup of its population. It changed from a predominantly Jewish neighborhood to one that is now largely African American. The years between 1968 and 1970 made up the most dramatic period of ethnic transition. According to Levine and Harmon in their book "Death of an American Jewish Community", redlining the area, blockbusting, and fear in neighborhood residents created by real estate agents brought about panic selling and white flight. The banking consortium Boston Banks Urban Renewal Group (B-BURG) allegedly drove the Jewish community out of Mattapan and are claimed to bear partial responsibility for the deterioration of the neighborhood, especially along the Blue Hill Avenue corridor. This widely held belief has been disputed, with differences between Catholic and Jewish community life in Boston being the greater contributing factor. [http://partners.nytimes.com/books/first/g/gamm-exodus.html]

Again, according to Levine and Harmon, the reason behind this orchestrated attack on the community was to lower market values to buy property, sell the housing with federally guaranteed loans at inflated prices to black families who couldn't afford it, and to get the white community to buy property owned by the banks in the suburbs.

Today Mattapan is seeing another major population shift, albeit a natural turn over of housing, as a large number of immigrants from Haiti and other Caribbean countries continue to move in. Mattapan now has the largest Haitian community in Massachusetts, and is also largely made up of African Americans and immigrants from other Caribbean countries. The neighborhood also faces many problems related to gang violence in modern times. Boston-based rapper Big Shug frequently refers to the neighborhood as "Murderpan", due to its high crime rate.Fact|date=October 2008 Today community leaders are working with police to control gang violence within the area.

Transportation

The Mattapan-Ashmont trolley line of the MBTA serves Mattapan as well as several bus routes. The Fairmount Line of the MBTA Commuter Rail also serves Mattapan at Morton Street, providing service to downtown Boston and the suburbs. In the near future an additional station at Blue Hill Avenue will be added.Fact|date=February 2007 Plans for the reconstruction of Mattapan station have been approved and construction should begin in late 2006.Fact|date=February 2007

References

* [http://www.cityofboston.gov/neighborhoods/neighborhoods.asp?id=7 Neighborhood Profile]
* [http://ksgaccman.harvard.edu/hotc/displayplace.asp?id=11452 Heart of the City, Mattapan] , The Rappaport Institute for Greater Boston at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University article on Mattapan

External links

* [http://partners.nytimes.com/books/first/g/gamm-exodus.html Why the Jews Left Boston] , New York Times book review of "Why the Jews Left Boston and the Catholics Stayed".
*Death of an American Jewish Community (ISBN 0-02-913866-3).
* [http://hcs.harvard.edu/~fup/password/otherplaces.html First Year Urban Project] , A Harvard University urban program.

Notable Residents

*Big Shug- Rapper under DJ Premier and Guru of Gang Starr
* Thomas M. Finneran (b. January 27, 1950 [1] ), Massachusetts politician, is that state's former Speaker of the Massachusetts House of Representatives, having served in that capacity from April 1996 to September 2004. After serving the Boston neighborhoods of Dorchester, Mattapan, and Hyde Park, as well as the town of Milton as state representative for 26 years, he resigned his seat and accepted the position of President of the Massachusetts Biotechnology Council. He continues to reside in Mattapan in his former district.