Over the years, gentrification has been described and perceived in over-simplified ways. The loss of community, local culture and resident-valued physical aspects and amenities are rarely considered. As a result, anti-displacement policy efforts - tied to the broader housing crisis - have had little to no effect. Displacement and its contributing factors are multi-layered, yet data is often scattered and fractured.

The Mattapan Anti-Displacement Mapping Project is a research project focused on anti-displacement that combines data, storytelling, art, design and community organizing. We are piloting a website and app that comprehensively compiles vast and scattered land use data, paired with multimedia storytelling and artistic presentation through a participatory action research approach.

With seed funding from the Sasaki Foundation in 2020,  we have been working in partnership with community members and researchers to document and track neighborhood change over the past three decades, in order to pinpoint what are all of the elements and indicators that can signal to residents and policy practitioners alike that a community is gentrifying for worse (reach out if you would more explanation on what I mean by that), putting residents at risk for being displaced.

Inputs:

• Land Use Data

• Resident Oral Histories (Audio and Video)

• Environmental Stats

• Social and Economic Demographics

Technical 

•Open source

•User- friendly Interface (UI/UX)

•Multi-entries

•ADA Accommodated,

•Accessible for increased public digital access (libraries)

Scalable and replicable in other communities.

Additional Attributes:

• Geocoded urban layers and polygons; reflects geographic boundary shifts

• Highlights culturally valuable sites; places of meaning; history of developments and design of those developments

• Sites of Opportunity: Vacant parcels (city owned and privately owned)

• Sites of social meaning

In this one, small historically under-supported neighborhood in Boston, we are challenging the perspective of what gentrification is, as we challenge this phenomenon effecting cities across the country. The model is being refined so that it is plug and play in any community in the US.

We will be launching our project website soon. Check out this project video presentation below for more details and reach out if you would like to support.

Check out this link an article on the project.

Watch the presentation.