Is Somerville following the paths of Fort Point and Greenwich Village?

By Pam Rosenblatt

It happened to Greenwich Village. It is happening to South Boston, especially Fort Point. Will it happen to Somerville?

“It” is gentrification, and it happens when low-cost, physically deteriorated neighborhoods experience physical renovation and an increase in property values, along with an influx of wealthier residents who push aside the prior residents. For years, once overlooked artist enclaves have become trendy communities with the original inhabitants eventually getting pushed out.

In Somerville, the arts community that found a place in the city in the days before skyrocketing rents has become a mainstay and has contributed to the city’s recent success and revitalization. Mayor Joseph A. Curtatone often touts the multitudes of creative artists who make Somerville home.

Jason Schupbach, director of ArtistLink, an initiative sponsored by the Massachusetts Cultural Council, works closely with the Somerville Arts Council and Curtatone’s office.
“The mayor is very proud of the fact, and says it all the time, that Somerville has the highest concentration of artists in the entire Northeast,” said Schupbach. “I think he’s right. So it would be a disappointment of the artists didn’t have a place to do their work.”

Schupbach said that operative costs do rise annually for the artists because of inflation.
“If they start to get too high, then they’re definitely going to kick out a lot of those people. You start to lose a lot of those people who don’t have a lot of extra money,” he said.

Artists can be especially hard hit by skyrocketing rents, said Schupbach. Generally, artists have middle to low incomes levels, though they are highly educated. 

“So they don’t have a lot of extra money every month to pay for their place of business, which is what they see it their place of business,” he said. “That’s where they’re running a business out of.”

It’s important for artists to have affordable space, he said. 

“And the definition of affordable depends on where the artist is on their career and how much they make in their second job and all that kind of stuff. And if it truly goes above the place where it’s just affordable, most artists will tell you in the City of Boston, you can expect to pay,” he said.

The Boston Metro Region, including Somerville, has places near a train line where the expected rent is $1 a square foot per month, which is about $12 a square foot per year.

“So, for a 300-square-foot space, you would pay $300 a month and that would include taxes and utilities and everything,” said Schupbach.

In Somerville, especially the Union Square area, two of the largest artist studio buildings are Joy Street and Vernon Street. The Joy Street Building has been newly renovated in the past five years and is geared for artists who have already established themselves professionally. Vernon Street Studios is more for the artist just out of school and beginning a career.

Joy Street Studios is a high-end building, and the rents reflect that.  Schupbach feels Joy Street Studios is the premier artist work space in New England.

“It’s starting to get $12 to $13 a square foot.  It, in my mind, begins to price out a lot of people in the city. The consequence of that is that you really endanger the creative community and also a piece of the economy,” he said.

ArtistLink has been working with the city of Somerville to identify new locations where people could go in such a case. 

“I think it’s definitely on the city’s radar. They haven’t been ignoring it in any way, shape or form,” he said.

Locating new space isn’t an easy task, he said. 

Joe Freeman is one of the principal owners of the Joy Street Studio property. The property has 62 artists work spaces with only two not yet rented. Both available units have a monthly rent of $500.

“The success (with Joy Street) is in relationship to downtown Boston.  The rents
for artists studio spaces has escalated to $45 per square foot.  We’re fortunate Somerville abuts Boston. Somerville costs about half of what the rental fees cost in Boston,” said Freeman.

Comments

[breath_of_life]

I think there are segments where this has occured.

It's fairly small when compared to Greenwich and South Boston.... but you could make the argument for Davis Sq and some other small pockets... have pushed out some longer term residents

On the other hand more if not most rest of the city seems to be heading toward a more Chelsea/ East Boston/ Dorchester type area... with immigrants and working class being the dominant resident

[Imux]

The PDS "vision" of Somerville: elite trust fund liberals living in Davis/Union and West Somerville and the underclass they love to keep down living in the rest of Somerville. Somerville is headed to a harsh 2 class city - the elite lefties (trust fund and daddy's money kids) in Davis/West Somerville and the illegal immigrant / underpaid slaves in East Somerville.

Has anyone else noticed how the PDS just loves the illegal immigrant community? Why would they not? These lowlife PDS scum love to have the immigrants around to "champion" their cause and then use the poor SOBs to clean their toilets and toil for wages under the going rate. The leftist PDS'ers can't deal with middle class people who demand a fair wage - they want the illgeals who they know they can cheat.

[Bill Shelton]

Pam, I appreciate your raising this issue. But I believe that if "it" is displacement of long term residents by newcomers who bid up the cost of housing, then it has been going on for at least 20 years, and intensely so for the last 10.

I believe that the greatest toll this has taken is the unraveling of the community fabric as people who made up real neighborhoods, and maintained extended families, and coached the little league, and volunteered for civic activities, and kept neighborhoods safe by looking out for each other have have been squeezed out, along with their children. Some of these are artists, but a lot more aren't.

I would like to know if our city's leaders have any proposals at all to deal with this.

[Bill Shelton]

Pam, I appreciate your raising this issue. But I believe that if "it" is displacement of long term residents by newcomers who bid up the cost of housing, then it has been going on for at least 20 years, and intensely so for the last 10.

I believe that the greatest toll this has taken is the unraveling of the community fabric as people who made up real neighborhoods, and maintained extended families, and coached the little league, and volunteered for civic activities, and kept neighborhoods safe by looking out for each other have have been squeezed out, along with their children. Some of these are artists, but a lot more aren't.

I would like to know if our city's leaders have any proposals at all to deal with this.

[Matt]

I think that the only way to protect yourself from "it" is to own your home (something I unfortunately don't right now) - If you do that, then you would actually like gentrification, because your investment would pay off bigtime when the property values go up.

[Yorktown Street]

Matt, my wife and I do own our home, but we don't like gentrification. We're not planning on selling and moving to Billerica (unlike a number of people who grew up in Somerville!). We chose to live here, and we choose to stay. So, it hurts us when friends and neighbors who rent can't afford to stay here any longer.

[Tricky]

Ron - there's a parallel universe of involvement (to some extent) to the Little League-Pop Warner axis. The youth soccer program in the city has been growing by leaps and bounds every year, as witnessed by the dust-up earlier this year over available playing time on city fields.

I'd also be willing to wager that, despite the involvement of every yuppie family in town, the soccer crowd is still more diverse than what you'd find at a Little League game (JAR's selfless involvement notwithstanding).

[Ron Newman]

You addressed a comment to "Ron", but I haven't posted here at all. (If someone else here is also a Ron, my apologies.)

[Tricky]

Sorry, Ron; the last day before school with the Trickettes is frying my brain cells. My comment was directed towards Monsieur Shelton.

[no quarter for artists]

Ron: I'd wager that the increase in soccer players has more to do with Latin youth in the city than yuppies, as most of them don't have children.

In regards to the entire story: gentrification is a serious problem for many low income families, not just artists. I'm sick of hearing this whining about the needy artists when my friends' families are being forced out. Why should an "artist" get priority for affordable housing over any other profession?

[Tricky]

No Quarter: I'll wager you've never been anywhere near Powderhouse Square on a Saturday morning in the fall or spring. It's quite a mix of people - old Somerville, new Somerville, yuppies with kids, first- and second-generation immigrants from all over. Check it out.

In regards to your issues with gentrification: Any idea what can be done (if anything) to keep long-term renters in place? I'd like to see some sort of sliding property tax rebate for seniors who've been in their homes for 30-40 years, but I'm puzzled as to what can be done with the rental situation (which is what I assume your friends' families are dealing with).

I'm not sure

[Imux]

The article is discussing artist work spaces... not living spaces.

I have no idea what this article is intending to do except maybe throw a big pity party for the "artists". I've seen some of their work and 90% of the "art" over there is just not art to me. No wonder they're broke. Plus, if they decided to lay off the weed, booze and drugs they could maybe get a real job and afford their work spaces.

[SOMERVILLE SPY]

I agree Imux. I too have wondered about the artistic talents of these individuals.

Basically this article is trying to promote the artsy fartsy crowd that thinks they are the Soho of Somerville. Not so. They suck!

[Artists?]

I have artist friends who feel that the city should not be providing housing for artists. Go figure. We already have the Brickbottom Building, a huge building, devoted entirely to artist living and working spaces. Why do we need more? How about providing living spaces for underpaid gardeners, or custodians, or handymen, or even teachers?

[YankeeH8ter]

If we give more money for 'artists' we will be basking in the glory of their great talent. Remember when the Somerville Arts Council put up reflective tape on the Union Square buildings? That was such a profound artistic statement! I would have loved to be at the meeting. Moonbat #1 "So we put tape on the buildings to symbolize the heeling fabric of Somerville". Moonbat #2 "Dude, how about REFLECTIVE tape. That would be like a reflection on the soul. Don't bogie the bong man, pass it here.".

So why don't gardeners, custodians, teachers get special housing? Oh that's right they are EMPLOYABLE! They can actually relate to the world around them and have an actual skill or ability. They aren't spending the entire day sitting alone creating 'art' from their latest dumpster diving trip. They don't have time on their hands. Just because a hippie can't hold down a real job doesn't mean they should be subsidized. That holds for 95% of the alleged 'artists' out there. The other 5% while may not be your thing does show talent and mad props to them. The problem is 100% of the 'artists' falsely perceive their own talent.