Ian Witherby Community Organizing BC GSSW July 3, 2014 !Mystic River Development Enterprise

The Mystic River Development Enterprise (or MyRiDE) is a new Charlestown community initiative designed to revitalize the Terminal St waterfront area of Charlestown with new affordable housing, a farmer’s market, and community garden & park area. While traditionally viewed as a prosperous neighborhood of Boston, Charlestown is actually struggling to provide adequate food, shelter, and opportunity for its young people and minority families. The MyRiDE project is a economical, achievable, and sustainable long term solution, utilizing partnerships with existing social organizations, businesses, and public services.

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THE MYRIDE STRATEGY !The MyRiDE strategy integrates three crucial and interconnected components into a cohesive, community-based and -run program.

1. Construction of a new food market at 200 Terminal St (a now-vacant warehouse) with collaboration from Whole Foods and local growers;

2. New affordable housing will be constructed on the upper floors of 200 Terminal St, providing much needed transitional housing for those families who cannot afford local subsidized housing, but who also cannot afford market rent, thus keeping them local and engaged in their community.

3. Supplemental food for the market will be cultivated in a new community agriculture project next door to 200 Terminal St in an industrial space currently occupied by little more than an underutilized parking lot; excess green space will be transformed into prime waterfront recreational and park area, and will be staffed and maintained by local workers.

All three components are interconnected; each reinforces the success of the others. MyRiDE is integrative both in what it accomplishes and how it succeeds.

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“Make no small plans.” -Daniel Burnham

KEY COMMUNITY RESOURCES !200 Terminal St !This warehouse, located at the corner of Medford St and Terminal St, is the key location for MyRiDE’s community market. It is currently vacant and available. Its open first floor and accessible physical space make it ideal for a

community market. PolicyLink (2011, p. 11) reminds us that Community Sustained Agriculture “[CSAs] require land for farming and often need a distribution center for gathering and packaging its products.” As such, 200 Terminal St acts as distribution center and as community space simultaneously.

Whole Foods Market in 2013, Whole Foods purchased several low-cost supermarkets in and around Greater Boston, including in Charlestown. Residents noted that the market was one more step in “the ongoing gentrification of Charlestown… [it] immediately served to both u n d e r s c o r e t h e l e g e n d a r y “townie”-“toonie” divide while holding t h e p r o m i s e o f actual ly br idging it” (Goodison, 2013). Whole Foods can help in both setting up the community market and contributing manpower — as well as growing experience — to the project. Their collaboration is instrumental to MyRiDE’s success.

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Charlestown Community Center & High School

Located across from 200 Terminal St is the Charlestown Community Center and Charlestown High School. Both are actively utilized (D. Shea, personal interview, 2014), will provide manpower for the community garden, and will be a collection point for local talent seeking to showcase, sell, or contribute to the market.

Medford St Parking Lot

Only about 10% of Medford St Lot spaces are utilized on a given workday. Once revitalized, this lot will provide garden space for 200 Terminal St. and extra park space for the Ryan Playground (WNW) as well as a new skate park. Sander (2006, p. 16)

remarks that to create s o c i a l c a p i t a l , governments can “help create neighborhoods t h a t h a v e m o r e o p p o r t u n i t i e s a n d places for residents to connect: e.g., front porches, sidewalks, and public multi-use parks.”

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Abutters DeltaDental of Massachusetts and Haley & Aldritch will be community champions of this portion of MyRiDE.

The parking lot sits behind a seven-foot fence on the north side of Medford St; removal means that 8 major Charlestown cross-streets end their downhill routes at the water’s edge, positively impacting public perception and pride.

DATA ANALYSIS What is Charlestown, and why do we care?

Demographic Characteristics !Type of Communi ty : Boston neighborhood, founded 1629.

Location: South of Mystic River

Population: 16,000 (City-Data, 2014.)

Ethnic populations are not evenly d i s t r i b u t e d t h ro u g h o u t t h e neighborhood; rather, non-White res iden ts l i v e i n ex t reme ly segregated enclaves and are further separated by type of housing (most White residents own their homes). (D. Shea, personal interview, 2014.) MyRiDE’s community parkland brings these disparate social groups together in the enjoyment of waterfront property. Sander (2006) says “it is especially valuable when communities can create more bridging social capital”, which MyRiDE will do by engaging multiple local interests at once.

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“Economic and social production organizations [like MyRiDE] work to recreate both the physical and social fabric of communities.” -Rubin (2008)

Race & Ethnicity of Charlestown Residents (City-

Data, 2014)

Socioeconomic & Employment Factors There few options for local employment; most commutes take residents outside of Charlestown. More than half of all Charlestown residents live in non-family households and in rented housing. Almost 25% of residents have less than a high school education and almost 20% live below the poverty level. Charlestown has almost four times as many single-m o t h e r h o u s e h o l d s a s

Massachusetts, and pays an average of $300 more per month for rent. Charlestown residents ages 15-25 (half the population) are almost 6 times more likely to be infected with Hepatitis C. (Boston Public Health Commission Research and Evaluation Office, 2013; City-data, 2014). MyRiDE’s reliance on CSA (Community-Sustained Agriculture) will improve Charlestown’s health; PolicyLink (2011) maintains that “[a]ccess to healthy food is associated with lower risk for obesity a n d o t h e r … c h r o n i c diseases” (p. 6). MyRiDE addresses the interests of t h e s e l o w - i n c o m e residents by filling their most important needs — shelter and food. Physical development, maintenance, and security will be provided by Charlestown residents, also meaning more local jobs, shorter commutes, and community social investment.

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The Sanchez Market on High Street, one of very

few local markets catering to lower-income

families.

Source: City-Data, 2014