Editorial: Saluting Dot Bay EDC as it begins its 40th year

Last week, members of the Dorchester Bay EDC gathered at the Franklin Park Zoo in celebration of its founding in 1979. Organizations like Dorchester Bay and the many other grassroots community groups that were born in those years spurred the rejuvenation of neighborhoods across the community and produced a true Dorchester Renaissance.

The non-profit Dot Bay EDC was set up to help people in the neighborhood by promoting an increased involvement in the community. Its slogan is “Strong people build strong neighborhoods,” and it works collaboratively with residents, businesses, and public and private partners to bring about long-hoped-for lasting positive change.

The EDC utilized a multi-pronged approach: real estate development, community organizing, and economic development to help advance its mission “to build stronger neighborhoods, empower individuals, and foster economic justice and opportunity.”

Last week’s 39th annual fundraiser, entitled “Dorchester: Then and Now,” raised more than $200,000, and it was a great privilege for me to join with Jim Brett as the group’s honorees this year. The event moved me to recall some of the issues that faced us in those days.

In 1977 a BRA study of Uphams Corner reported that “the problems of residential disinvestment and decline of housing quality are serious, brought on by changing transportation systems and residential patterns, racial tension, bank and insurance company redlining, and the age and repair of area houses. … “About 356 of the houses in Jones Hill/Uphams Corner are abandoned or publicly owned… two lots are owned by HUD and one by the city. Until recently, banks have played a very minor role in Jones Hill. As late as 1975, banks granted a total of only 23 mortgages in an area comprising about two thirds of Jones Hill as well as other neighborhoods.”

It was in those years that I joined the staff of a Dorchester bank, where I was tasked with connecting the community to the bank and its resources.
Property in Dorchester in those years was very affordable – three-deckers were priced in the teens and low 20’s; a neighbor bought my mother’s two- family off Gallivan Blvd. for $23,000. So we announced a mortgage plan, “First Fund for Dorchester’s Future,” pledging to lend to our hometown neighbors.

I wrote an ad that said: “If you live in Dorchester and want to fix up your home, or if you want to purchase a one- to four-family home in Dorchester and live in it, you can borrow money from the bank. No person will be denied that right to apply for and receive, if creditworthy under standard criteria, a home mortgage or improvement loan without regard to ethnic or racial considerations.

“We have set aside $3 million,” the ad continued. “It is there to help you – the Dorchester homeowner or prospective home buyer – to finance the repair, improvement, or modernization of your home, or to provide the mortgage financing necessary for you to purchase the home in Dorchester in which you plan to live. 

In my role with the bank, I was invited to join the EDC’s initial board, along with some true neighborhood heroes – Patrick Ryan, Bob Haas, Joe Finnigan, Tom Casey, John Madden, Tom Kelly, Holly Walsh, Juan Everetze, Mordecai Wilson, and John and Mary Longo. We elected Don Walsh from Savin Hill Avenue as the first president and the EDC was endorsed by the Columbia Savin Hill Neighborhood Housing Services.

Our community’s great strength has always been its people, and the many active civic associations that keep watch on their own neighborhoods. The Dorchester Bay EDC is a wonderful example of community support and concern.

– Ed Forry


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