Todd Jones

Todd Jones

The photo and map I chose go hand in hand regarding Southie. The photo was taken at 55 West Broadway, and is the backside of the converted Catholic church I mentioned in my essay. When I first saw it, I couldn't believe what I was seeing, but I later looked it up when I got back to campus and found that it was true. The picture, in my opinion, represents an important aspect of the city, which I mentioned in my essay repeatedly — its high proportion of rented living. We have a standard example of that, but achieved through the creative means of converting it from a church. I wonder for the future of Southie, when housing expansion seems to be so needed that these are the steps taken to make more housing available. It also makes me wonder whether urban renewal might be looming in the neighborhood's future. The map shows the proportion of residents in Southie living in rented space — and with the overall neighborhood metric between 50 and 60%, it actually wasn't as drastic as I had pictured at first, yet still points to potential change in a way that a significantly lower number would not.