One Man, One Street, And A Whole Lot Of Revitlilization

"When builder Michael McGough made his first real estate shopping expedition to hardscrabble Dix Street in Dorchester about 10 years ago, he walked a gantlet of sidewalk auto repairs before encountering prostitutes, junkies, and bags of trash in the apartment building he was checking out.

But McGough saw beyond all that. He had a vision.

'I said, "I'll take it!"' McGough recalled recently, standing in the penthouse unit of another property he has since rebuilt across the street.

McGough's vision -- at least initially -- was limited to the project at hand: transforming the $200,000 building into decent rentals. Little did he know that the next decade of his life would become a mission to renovate Dix Street itself, dilapidated house by house, as the street's period architecture and Dorchester soul tugged at his heart -- and his wallet."