|
Archives
archived 6/4/2001 Q:
What is the racial breakdown in
the Allston/Brighton area. I know over time there has been large
influx swings, any idea why or how this has come to be? What is the
largest cultural group at the present? Thanks, Maureen Lee
But unlike other Boston neighborhoods with just one ethnic group, "turf" wasn't really a big issue here, and I feel that that fact, coupled with the more diverse housing stock, helped fuel the increased diversification that started occurring here from about 1970 onwards. The growth of the student population also clearly started changing the neighborhood, and one by one different ethnic groups were added to the mix, particularly in the last 20 years. We now have a large Asian population, both homeowner and renter, with one of the largest Chinese populations outside of Chinatown. Much of the Chinese homeowner population is concentrated in the southern parts of the district near Comm. Ave. In the 70's we had the largest concentration of Vietnamese refugees in the city, many living in the older apartment buildings near Oak Square; this population is more dispersed now, with Dorchester the location of the largest Vietnamese population. As you probably know, Brighton and Allston are also home to two other sizeable immigrant groups now - a large Brazilian community (particularly in Allston), and a large Russian Jewish population (especially along Comm. Ave.). There is also a diverse Hispanic community (Peruvian, Guatemalan, etc.) living throughout the neighborhood as well. Plus other groups have increased their size - when my parents moved here in 1956, we were one of the few Greek-American families in the area; now there is a sizeable group in the Faneuil section. If there is one thing that categorizes this area, therefore, is its diversity, with no one group being an overwhelming majority. In my opinion, the largest of the many groups, however, would still probably be the Irish-American community. Even though some of the original population may have moved out to the suburbs, there have been a number of Irish immigrants who have moved here over the last 30 years, replenishing the size of the population.
|
In response to the rest
of your question, in my opinion there really haven't been influx
swings in different groups, just a steady diversification of what has
long been a fairly diverse area for Boston. As someone who has
spent all of my 42 years in this community, I can tell you that
through at least my childhood years, this neighborhood had three
ethnic groups, all white, predominate - the largest, by far,
were Irish-Americans, located throughout the neighborhood but
especially populating the Oak Square and Faneuil sections; followed by
Italian-Americans, many of whom lived in the Brighton Center area; and
a large Jewish community in the sections along Comm. Ave.,
particularly south of Washington Street. There was also a small black
community in North Allston near the railroad shops dating from the
turn of the century, many of whom were employed by the railroad.