Category: informality

Dangerous, overcrowded, invisible, informal, unenforced: Part 3, unenforced and invisible

8 May, 2013 (09:00) | Allston, Apartments, Boston, Building Codes, egress, Enforcement, fire, informality, Landlords, overcrowding, Regulation, Rental, Student housing, Zoning | No comments

By:David A. Smith   [Continued from yesterday's Part 2 and the preceding Part 1.]   Now we know that 87 Linden Street, where Binland Lee died in the April 28 fire, was way over-occupied, because that was in the unstated but manifest interest of both landlord and residents.    As I’ve observed elsewhere, in any [...]

Dangerous, overcrowded, invisible, informal, unenforced: Part 2, blocked and uninspected for ten years

7 May, 2013 (09:00) | Allston, Apartments, Boston, Building Codes, egress, Enforcement, fire, informality, Landlords, overcrowding, Regulation, Rental, Student housing, Zoning | No comments

By:David A. Smith   [Continued from yesterday's Part 1.]   Yesterday’s post on the tragic death of Binland Lee, in her attic room in an overcrowded student rental, dealt with the fire’s facts – and if that were all to the story, it would simply be a tragic incident.  But everything is connected to everything [...]

Dangerous, overcrowded, invisible, informal, unenforced: Part 1, dying in the attic

6 May, 2013 (14:42) | Allston, Apartments, Boston, Building Codes, egress, Enforcement, fire, informality, Landlords, negligence, overcrowding, Regulation, Rental, Student housing, Zoning | No comments

By:David A. Smith   Tragedy exposes an ecosystem’s weaknesses.  A rowdy college party, a lit cigarette, an overcrowded student house, a remote and small-scale landlord, informal subdivisions and excess occupancy, and a building inspection system that gives the illusion of enforcement.  Combine them and a young woman is dead.   Binland Lee, BU senior … [...]

A street at war: Part 2, after the City’s task force

1 February, 2013 (12:10) | Boston, Cities, Ecosystem, Foreclosure, Hendry Street, Homeownership, Housing, informality, Neighborhood, Rental, Subprime |

By:David A. Smith   [Continued from yesterday's Part 1.]   Yesterday’s post, using excellent gritty reporting from Globe reporters (Andrew Ryan, Meghan E. Irons, Akilah Johnson, Maria Cramer, and Jenna Russell) published in the Boston Globe (December 18, 2012), followed the timeline of Hendry Street (blue font) in Dorchester, one of Boston’s worst neighborhoods, in [...]

A street at war: Part 1, before the City’s task force

1 February, 2013 (12:07) | Boston, Cities, Ecosystem, Foreclosure, Hendry Street, Homeownership, Housing, informality, Neighborhood, Rental, Subprime |

By:David A. Smith   For years, if not decades, a siege war has been fought on Hendry Street in the Dorchester section of Boston.  Like most wars, this one is dominated by boredom punctuated by brief intervals of sheer terror, but unlike most wars, this one is was largely unreported until an enterprising team of [...]