Somerville, a 4.2-square-mile city outside of Boston, has successfully attracted young, educated people, but many worry what an influx of 'hipsters' will do to the small city.
"[Daniel] Hadley, the director of SomerStat [the mayor's data analysis team], says the changes in Somerville actually started in the town next door. 'To me, the story really starts in back when rent control was abolished in Cambridge, in 1995,' he said. 'That's when you suddenly see a lot of people fleeing Cambridge and coming over the border,'" explains Beth Teitell.
"Dan Zevin, an author who moved to Somerville in 1984, a couple of years after the Davis Square Red Line station opened, recalled what the city was like before the immigration from Cambridge started. 'All that was there was Barnaby’s Tap, this old-man alcoholic bar with guys who would meet for their breakfast beer,' he said."
"Zevin spent 15 years in Somerville. 'Little by little, Barnaby’s became Redbones, the barbecue place, and then a coffee shop opened, and then the Somerville Theatre got revitalized, and suddenly this rundown theater became this cool indie theater.'"
Read the full story: Somerville worries it's growing too hip
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Planetizen Federal Action Tracker
A weekly monitor of how Trump’s orders and actions are impacting planners and planning in America.
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Desperate measures: Advocates weigh draining Lake Powell to fill Colorado River
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Eastern Nebraska is running out of electricity
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Seattle passes record-breaking transit services expansion
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City of Rosemead
Rutgers University, Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy
One Hundred Miles
University of Michigan School for Environment and Sustainability (SEAS)
Hunter College, City University of New York (CUNY)
The Architects Foundation
City of Cambridge
Montrose County
The Pocatello Development Authority