Making room for new faces, old ways
It's a gritty corner of South Boston where gentrification pushes things a couple of steps forward, and the area's bleaker past pulls things back a few paces.
West Broadway and Dorchester Avenue by the Broadway MBTA stop was, until recently, a largely industrial section of South Boston that included rail yards, the city's tow lot, the
The neighborhood's old reputation was reinforced last month, when a man was fatally stabbed during a bar fight at the Six House on West Broadway. The new look of South Boston can be seen at four luxury condominium projects touting "loft living" and "green building" techniques.
Allele Boston, the Lofts at 36 A Street, and the Macallen Building are set to join the Court Square Press building, which opened in 2003, in welcoming residents within a block of West Broadway. Tenants of Macallen and 36A have been moving in over the last few weeks. Allele is still under construction.
"People say, 'The yuppies are coming in and making critical changes there," said Carolyn Brzezinski, president of the West Broadway Neighborhood Association, which was formed by some of the area's newest residents in the last year. The group's goals include getting the city to pay attention to such concerns as parking, trash, pedestrian safety, and street landscaping.
The association met with state Representative Brian Wallace, police, and an aide to new City Councilor William Linehan late last month and discussed the growing homeless population across the street from the Court Square Press condos.
Neighbors have grown alarmed since last summer, when homeless people began gathering on a wooden platform at the base of the James Kelly/Broadway Bridge and in a small wooded park near Gillette, said Brzezinski.
They set up chairs, couches, coolers, and even a grill, using furniture taken from the back of a dump truck, she said. They use the park as a bathroom, and one man cut down a tree and used it to fire up his grill, said Brzezinski. Some even appeared to be living inside an abandoned MBTA ticket booth.
Others spread mattresses on the sidewalk of Foundry Street, often yelling at passersby or throwing rocks at parked cars. They quickly became a constant, menacing presence, said Brzezinski. "It really became an encampment," she said.
"We understand there's homeless people, and we feel bad," she said. "But we want to make sure people in the neighborhood, not just the new people, feel safe. People don't want to hear it, but it's not just 'because we're yuppies.' "
Linehan said he's seen the problem firsthand and is working with police to "aggressively address" the situation.
The association also asked for police help with a van that double-parks twice a day in front of the Court Square Press building. Residents say the van picks up and drops off addicts for a state-run methadone clinic, and that passengers loiter in the Court Square Press doorways and toss trash on the ground. "We're not asking to have the van removed, just asking it to park down the street," said Brzezinski.
Real estate brokers marketing some of the new buildings say they hope the widely publicized stabbing death at the Six House doesn't give prospective buyers the impression the area is especially dangerous. And if it does, they say, they believe the effect will be brief.
"Unfortunately for the person who died, I think it'll be soon forgotten," said Jay Rooney, a broker with GKR Residential, which is selling lofts at 36A for $500,000 to $700,000.
Guardians of old Southie say that many view the arrival of condo owners as a mixed blessing.
"Of course, there's underlying resentment to the overbuilding of the community," said Ed Oliver/Bohld, founder of the South Boston Pride Patrol, a tiny group of volunteers that picks up litter on Broadway between D Street and Dorchester Avenue.
As long as the new neighbors are willing to pitch in, Oliver/Bohld said, he's all for their moving in.
"I feel it's good for the community because it's bringing in -- hopefully -- a type of person who will take pride in the area," he said.
As for the homeless, Oliver/Bohld said they're not the nuisance the new neighbors claim.
"These people have to go somewhere," he said. "I'd rather have them congregate there, where they're out of sight and out of smell, so to speak, than set up in the parking lot" on West Broadway.
Christina Pazzanese can be reached at cpazzanese@globe.com 
