An Analysis of Transit-Induced Gentrification Along Boston’s Orange and Green Lines
- Multiple
- Mar 19
- 20 min read
By: Alexandra Angelini, Halle-Marie Armstrong, Angelina Baicu, Brady Conner, Mara Crockett, Weiqi Ding, Monica Fumagalli, Micaela Henry, Massimo Marano, Bobby Sue Villani, Yihang Lex Xu, Ning Zhang
Introduction
Public transit investments have the potential to shape the social and economic environments of global cities. The rerouting of Boston’s Orange Line light rail system in the late 1980s and the expansion of its Green Line in 2022 illustrate the dual effects of transit infrastructure: mass transit can bridge neighborhoods and increase interregional mobility, but it can also displace residents, exacerbate housing inequality, and change the face of the communities it serves. This report explores whether these transit projects have contributed to transit-induced gentrification in Greater Boston.
Methods
This work combines historical investigation, geospatial analysis, and qualitative insights to examine the effects of the 1987 Orange Line rerouting and the 2022 Green Line Extension(GLX) on local communities. First, documents on MBTA planning, the history of the Orange and Green Line, and news coverage were consulted to frame the context of both
interventions. A brief literature review on transit-induced gentrification (TIG) provides the theoretical framework for interpreting the findings.
The core of the analysis is based on Census data processed into a GIS dataset. In line with previous research on TIG (Feinstein and Allen 2011), socioeconomic change was examined using three indicators: median household gross income, median gross rent, and share of white residents. For the Orange Line rerouting, decennial census tract data were collected for three benchmark years: 1980 (pre-rerouting), 1990 (immediately after), and 2000, to capture possible later effects. For the Green Line Extension, ACS-5-year estimates were used for both the period of interest (2019-2022) and the immediate precedent timeframe (2014-2019).
Tracts located within 0.5 miles of any current Orange and Green Line station were selected for each period. Values for all variables were classified into five quantiles (for cardinal values) or classes (for percentages) per year, allowing comparison across time despite inflation and changes in tract boundaries. These distributions were mapped and further analyzed by focusing on tracts within 0.5 miles of stations opened after 1987 for the Orange Line Southwest corridor and in 2022 for the Green Line North expansion, where change was expected to be most evident. Relative frequencies for the number of tracts falling into each quantile were calculated and reported in tables, allowing shifts over time to be observed despite changes in the total number of tracts.
Finally, to add a qualitative dimension, the case of Jamaica Plain (JP) - one of the areas most affected by the Orange Line rerouting - was explored through a short, non-structured interview conducted for a community needs assessment study as part of a Boston University Social Work class on communities and organizations. The interview aimed to connect quantitative trends with lived experience and local perceptions of gentrification and transit investment.
Due to the recency of the GLX’s completion, data may not fully represent the full extent of possible gentrification effects, in contrast to the Orange Line, which has multiple decades of demographic data to draw upon. Additionally, as a limitation of the GIS programs, income and rent figures were capped at 250.00 and 3.500, respectively, to facilitate more straightforward calculations. The absence of a demographically similar control group without a significant change in transit investment exposes the findings to maturation bias and other methodological constraints.
Background
History of the MBTA
Boston’s growing population and expanding geography after the War for Independence in the late eighteenth century led to the creation of the stagecoach, introduced in 1793, to provide land transport between Boston and Cambridge (Beaucher 2023). Eventually, as unregulated private company interests began to overpower riders' needs, all competing services were consolidated into the West End Street Railway Company. Electric engines were then installed on stagecoaches, which solved issues related to speed and operating costs but increased congestion in the city (Tomkavage 2025). To remedy this, city officials moved trolley cars underground, laying the groundwork for the modern subway system.
The routes that would later become the green and orange lines were brought into the Boston Elevated Railway (BERy), a privately owned mass transit provider at the time (Beaucher 2023). Although the BERy operated privately, its systems involved a mix of private and partially public infrastructure. For example, the city of Boston funded the construction of the Tremont Street subway in 1897, which the BERy then used (Beaucher 2023). However, private transit companies’ financial and infrastructural struggles eventually led to the creation of the Massachusetts Transit Authority, which brought the majority of transportation under public regulation and operation (Tomkavage 2025).
The growth of surrounding suburbs and the proliferation of automobiles prompted the creation of the Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority in 1964. The MBTA assigned two colors to different transit lines: the Green Line, which incorporated the Tremont Street subway, and the Orange Line, which still runs on some of the former Boston Elevated Railway lines (Beaucher 2023). Funds originally set aside for highway expansion, driven by this initial car-centric perspective, began to be redirected to further improve transit, setting the course for today’s infrastructure priorities.
The Green Line Extension
Given the broader historical context of Boston's public transit system, it is evident that transit-induced development has evolved in response to shifting economic priorities, political pressures, and ideas of urban growth. The GLX was initially proposed in 1990 but exceeded available fiscal funding at the time. The GLX was reexamined in 2007 and accepted in 2013; however, it went over budget again and proved infeasible (Strupp 2022). In 2016, plans for the GLX were redesigned to be more attainable, and a construction contract was awarded in November 2017. The GLX was a 2.3 billion dollar project designed to extend the D and E lines, creating accessible routes to Union Square in Somerville and Medford. Initially, the GLX was intended to be completed in 2021, but due to supply chain disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the completion date was pushed back to 2022 (DeCosta-Klipa 2021).
Before 2017, the Green Line had four routes that ran through downtown Boston and close-proximity neighborhoods such as Brookline or Fenway. The GLX relocated the Lechmere station in Cambridge and created six additional T stops: Union Square, East Somerville, Gilman Square, Magoun Square, Ball Square, and Medford/Tufts . With these new additions, nearly 80% of Somerville’s population is within walking distance of the station . The GLX plan also
highlighted its rider benefits, such as creating additional transportation routes in the Medford and Somerville neighborhoods, reducing the number of vehicles on local roads to improve traffic concerns, and supporting municipal plans for sustainability and urban redevelopment (MBTA n.d). However, these changes are not just the laying of new tracks and new and improved train carts; they reshape the everyday realities of the communities they serve. As the Green Line expands further into Somerville and Medford, it raises questions about who benefits from improved transit access and who may carry the direct and indirect consequences.
The Orange Line Extension
From the mid-1970s to the late 1980s, the Orange Line underwent the Haymarket North Extension. The Charlestown Elevated (The El), going north from downtown Boston through Charlestown to Everett, was closed in 1975 and replaced by a new tunnel under the Charles River and a rerouted alignment towards Malden, Oak Grove, and Wellington. The old El ran above Washington Street through Roxbury and JP, connecting these dense and racially diverse neighborhoods directly to downtown. The new rerouting was fully completed by 1987, providing a direct transportation option to downtown Boston and ultimately taking away the older elevated structure through Charlestown (MBTA, n.d.).
The subway rerouting created significant consequences within the neighborhood. In 1987, the opening of the Southwest Corridor station spurred intraurban population growth, stitching JP, Roxbury, and the South End together. Along the old Washington Street Elevated, Roxbury and parts of the South End were historically among Boston’s most significant Black communities. The community was made up of large Caribbean, African American, and later, Latino populations, and had a history of residential segregation (Bruggeman, 2019). The El’s removal and the Southwest Corridor rerouting of the Orange Line away from Washington Street meant that these communities, which were majority Black and Latino, lost direct rail access (Metropolitan Area Planning Council 2013).
Literature Review
Scholars define gentrification as a process in which formerly low-rent or low-income neighborhoods experience investment or renovation, leading to a rise in land values and rents, and often resulting in the displacement of original residents (Freeman and Schuetz 2017). Although evidence shows that gentrification and similar forms of urban restructuring have long appeared in cities across the world (Lees et al. 2022), the term was first coined as a phenomenon in 1964 by British sociologist Ruth Glass. By observing post–World War II working-class neighborhoods in London, Glass (1964) discovered that lower-income residents were gradually “invaded” and replaced by middle-class newcomers. At that time, Glass had already discussed the class-based nature of gentrification and the potential relocation of working-class residents as a significant social consequence (Glass 1964). In this context, relocation of original residents is conceptualized as “displacement” — a process of redevelopment and neighborhood transformation that replaces marginalized populations, either voluntarily or involuntarily, while taking no responsibility for their subsequent housing or social well-being (Zuk et al. 2018).
Transit-induced gentrification (TIG) refers to the process of social and spatial restructuring driven by improvements in transportation infrastructure, which enhance accessibility, increase an area’s attractiveness and development potential, raise housing prices and rents, and ultimately displace low-income residents (Chava and Renne 2022). Closely associated with this concept is transit-oriented development (TOD) — a planning and land-use strategy that emphasizes compact, mixed-use, and walkable communities centered around public transit (Chava and Renne 2022). The relationship between TOD and TIG is not a simple matter of cause and effect: the former is policy and development-oriented, while the latter describes the socioeconomic and cultural transformations that occur in areas affected by such investments. Although scholars continue to debate their conceptual boundaries, it is widely recognized that TIG is often an unintended consequence of TOD initiatives (Delmelle 2021). The placement of a transit amenity often triggers a “residential sorting of residents”, placing upward pressure on rents and property values in the surrounding area and influencing intraurban household decisions about location premiums (Delmelle et al. 2020). Building on this theory, scholarship on transit-induced gentrification associated with Boston’s Red Line in the 1980s demonstrates that transit investments increased neighborhood desirability, thereby producing and/or increasing gentrification and displacement pressures (Feinstein and Allen 2011).
Overall, instead of fulfilling their initial goals of enhancing accessibility, fostering mixed and inclusive communities, and improving residents’ quality of life, TOD projects often yield the opposite outcome, accelerating TIG, as low-income residents face rising living costs and increased displacement pressures.
Results
Orange Line
To assess transit-induced gentrification, scholars examine how household income, racial and ethnic composition, education levels, and economic indicators—such as rent and housing values—shift over time in neighborhoods surrounding transit stations. For neighborhoods near both transit reconstructions, Cambridge, Somerville, Medford, the South End, and JP, both financial (income and rent) and racial demographics shifted.
Below is a comparison of median household gross income in 1980, 1990, and 2000 along the Orange Line corridor, which reveals clear signs of income growth and early patterns of transit-induced socioeconomic change. Across several census tracts, median incomes generally shifted into higher quantiles each decade, reaching $98,906. There is a shift in the distribution of median household income from low to mid-range in the tracts adjacent to the rerouted Orange Line stations. There is also a change from high-income areas in Medford and Malden to more mid-range income levels. This pattern aligns with broader trends of transit-oriented development, where new infrastructure can accelerate rising housing costs, attract higher-income residents, and reshape the demographic and economic landscape of adjacent neighborhoods. These patterns also align with trends of higher-income households moving back into the city of Boston, from more suburban areas in Greater Boston.
INCOME (Relative) | 1980 (41 tracts) | % diff. | 1990 (42 tracts) | % diff. | 2000 (40 tracts) | Rate of change % |
1st quantile (lowest) | 0.341 | -2.35% | 0.333 | -2.40% | 0.325 | -4.70% |
2nd quantile | 0.268 | -11.19% | 0.238 | -5.46% | 0.225 | -16.04% |
3rd quantile | 0.122 | +55.74% | 0.190 | -7.89% | 0.175 | +43.44% |
4th quantile | 0.122 | -22.13% | 0.095 | -21.05% | 0.075 | -38.52% |
5th quantile (highest) | 0.146 | -2.05% | 0.143 | +39.86% | 0.200 | +36.99% |
RENT (Relative) | 1980 (41 tracts) | % diff. | 1990 (42 tracts) | % diff. | 2000 (40 tracts) | Rate of change % |
1st quantile (lowest) | 0.195 | +70.92% | 0.333 | -10.05% | 0.300 | +53.85% |
2nd quantile | 0.220 | -56.82% | 0.095 | +84.21% | 0.175 | -20.45% |
3rd quantile | 0.244 | -51.23% | 0.119 | +5.04% | 0.125 | -48.77% |
4th quantile | 0.122 | +94.90% | 0.238 | -16.03% | 0.200 | +63.93% |
5th quantile (highest) | 0.122 | +75.41% | 0.214 | -6.54% | 0.200 | +63.93% |
In addition to changes in gross income, rent also changed over the decades. The Orange Line’s rerouting into the Southwest Corridor in the late 1980s was correlated with polarizing changes in rents: both the number of high-rent areas and low-rent areas grew, while middle-rent areas contracted. From 1980 to 2000, the second (-20.45%) and third (-48.77%) quantiles declined, whereas the first (+53.85%), fourth (+63.93%), and fifth (+63.93%) quantiles increased. This pattern suggests that transit-oriented development may contribute to bifurcated rent outcomes, with simultaneous expansion of both low- and high-rent areas near key urban resources. For example, 211 Green Street, less than a ten-minute walk from the Orange Line’s Green Street station in southwest JP, describes itself as a boutique apartment complex boasting sleek layouts and proximity to public transit, as well as neighborhood amenities such as restaurants and schools. As noted by Delmelle (2017), transit-oriented developments marketed to middle-income residents seeking accessibility, urban vitality, and modern amenities create submarkets around transit stations, potentially encouraging heterogeneous urban intra-migration along rail lines. TOD projects create price premiums, as new residents highly value access to transit and the inner city, often raising neighborhood-wide property values and prompting a shift in residential sorting patterns. The growth of luxury housing developments around Orange Line stations, such as 221 Green Street, suggests a possible correlation between urban transit centers and the socioeconomic improvement of adjacent neighborhoods, as measured here by rents in Jamaica Plain. However, Delmelle also notes that, despite evidence of increased property values
and rents correlated with transit development, it is difficult to assess causality or a link to further displacement.
Additionally, while the Southwest Corridor includes many high-rent developments, the rerouted Orange Line stations remain adjacent to many low-income or public housing sites. Pondview Apartments, located on Center Street in Jamaica Plain and about a ten-minute walk from the Green Street Orange Line station, has remained an affordable mixed-income community since its creation in the early 2000s. The apartment complex is a HUD program apartment, allowing residents to pay 30% of their income (Pondview Apartments n.d.). The presence of income-assisted housing around the areas affected by the Orange Line rerouting complicates traditional narratives of transit-induced gentrification. This provides added nuance to Feinstein & Allen’s (2011) study of transit-induced gentrification stemming from the northwest Red Line expansion; rather than a uniform upward shift in rents and a decrease in housing affordability, we see a highly bifurcated rent distribution. Although transit development along the rerouted Orange Line was linked to the growth of high-rent housing, affordable housing communities have persisted.
RACE (Relative) | 1980 (41 tracts) | % diff. | 1990 (42 tracts) | % diff. | 2000 (40 tracts) | Rate of change % |
1st class (lowest) | 0.268 | -2.24% | 0.262 | -42.75% | 0.150 | -44.03% |
2nd class | 0.146 | -34.93% | 0.095 | +57.89% | 0.150 | +2.74% |
3rd class | 0.122 | +95.08% | 0.238 | +5.04% | 0.250 | +104.92% |
4th class | 0.293 | -18.77% | 0.238 | +36.55% | 0.325 | +10.92% |
5th class (highest) | 0.171 | -2.34% | 0.167 | -25.15% | 0.125 | -26.81% |
Over the timeframe considered, from 1980 to 2000, the race variable follows a pattern resembling a normal distribution: extreme quantiles declined, while mid quantiles grew. Overall, the third quantile saw a pronounced increase (+104.92%), with modest increases in the second (+2.74%) and fourth (+10.92%), while both the lowest (-44.03%) and highest (-26.81%) quantiles declined. It is also interesting to observe that in the northernmost tracts - where new stations opened during the 1977 route expansion toward Malden - the share of white residents overall decreased, as shown on the maps. This may indicate that TOD did not simply increase white presence; instead, areas with few white residents attracted more, while heavily white areas became slightly less so.
Over the timeframe considered, from 1980 to 2000, the race variable follows a pattern resembling a normal distribution: extreme quantiles declined, while mid quantiles grew. Overall, the third quantile saw a pronounced increase (+104.92%), with modest increases in the second (+2.74%) and fourth (+10.92%), while both the lowest (-44.03%) and highest (-26.81%) quantiles declined. It is also interesting to observe that in the northernmost tracts - where new stations opened during the 1977 route expansion toward Malden - the share of white residents overall decreased, as shown on the maps. This may indicate that TOD did not simply increase white presence; instead, areas with few white residents attracted more, while heavily white areas became slightly less so.
This change evokes discussion about how the Orange Line stopped servicing a certain demographic, in turn making their communities more difficult to access. Over time, residents have seen significant changes in their neighborhoods' populations. Tatiana Medina Barreto is a program director from Love Your Magic, a non-profit organization in Jamaica Plain, and has lived in Boston her whole life. Over time, she has noticed how her neighborhood, once segregated, was being gentrified. She describes how near the train station, Forest Hills, “people would consider that the ghetto,” while farther away, there would be more single-family homes, which is “typically where the white people live”. Contrastingly, Tatiana noticed that she had been seeing white people everywhere she grew up. Recently, she has heard her area of Jamaican Plain being called “Latin Quarter,” something she found extremely disrespectful. The areas around her are becoming more and more expensive along the Orange Line, as only people with “purchasing power”, typically white people in this area, can afford it, pushing Tatiana out to purchase a house in Brockton, farther away from the place she called home. Residents like Tatiana are noticing these changes, and some are being displaced by being priced out of their neighborhoods.
Green Line
INCOME (Relative) | 2019 (33 tracts) | 2023 (38 tracts) | Rate of change % |
1st quantile (lowest) | 0.030 | 0.053 | +73.67% |
2nd quantile | 0.273 | 0.079 | -70.95% |
3rd quantile | 0.273 | 0.395 | +44.69% |
4th quantile | 0.303 | 0.368 | +21.45% |
5th quantile (highest) | 0.121 | 0.132 | +8.60% |
The comparison of median household gross income in 2019 and 2023 along the Green Line Extension (GLX) corridor reveals clear signs of income growth and early patterns of transit-induced socioeconomic change. Across several census tracts—particularly those within a half-mile of the new GLX stations—median incomes generally shift into higher quantiles by 2023. Neighborhoods that previously fell into the lower- or middle-income ranges in 2019 show noticeable movement toward higher-income categories, indicating that wealthier households are increasingly concentrated near the newly expanded transit access. While parts of North Cambridge and Somerville already demonstrated higher household incomes before the expansion, the 2023 map suggests further intensification of affluence along the corridor, especially near Union Square, East Somerville, and the Medford-Tufts extension. This pattern aligns with broader trends of transit-oriented development, where new infrastructure can accelerate rising housing costs, attract higher-income residents, and reshape the demographic and economic landscape of adjacent neighborhoods.
Furthermore, rent affordability shifts vary within the separate quantiles. In the 1st quantile, rent groups decreased significantly, by 50.47% while the third, fourth, and fifth quantiles all increased. This shows a rise in higher income housing and a decrease in lower income housing. Across nearly all census tracts within a half-mile of the new stations, rents shift into higher quantities by 2023, signaling widespread rent inflation in areas most directly impacted by the transit expansion. Tracts around Union Square, East Somerville, and neighborhoods along the Medford–Tufts branch show some of the most pronounced increases, with many moving from mid-range rental categories in 2019 into the highest-cost quintiles by 2023. This spatial pattern suggests that improved transit accessibility has accelerated demand for housing near GLX stations, likely intensifying competition for rental units and contributing to displacement pressures for long-term renters. The broad deepening of red across the 2023 map points to a corridor-wide rise in rent burden, illustrating how transit investments can also catalyze rapid shifts in housing affordability when not paired with strong tenant protections or equitable development policies.
RENT (Relative) | 2019 (33 tracts) | 2023 (38 tracts) | Rate of change % |
1st quantile (lowest) | 0.212 | 0.105 | -50.47% |
2nd quantile | 0.212 | 0.211 | -0.75% |
3rd quartile | 0.182 | 0.211 | +15.78% |
4th quantile | 0.212 | 0.237 | +11.60% |
5th quantile (lowest) | 0.182 | 0.237 | +30.27% |
As for data surrounding the percentage of white residents in 2019 versus 2023, the share of tracts in the 3rd and 4th classes (areas with 40–80% white residents) increased between 2019 and 2023, with the 3rd class experiencing a particularly sharp rise of over 217%. This suggests that several tracts that previously had lower or more mixed racial compositions have shifted toward a higher proportion of white residents. The highest white-resident class (80–100%) also shows a dramatic 71% decline, meaning that far fewer tracts near new GLX stations fit the category of being overwhelmingly white by 2023. While many tracts along the corridor already had moderate-to-high proportions of white residents before the extension, the 2023 map shows clearer clustering in the mid-range (40–80%), indicating redistribution rather than uniform growth. These shifts point to demographic rebalancing rather than straightforward racial homogenization.
RACE (Relative) | 2019 (33 tracts) | 2023 (38 tracts) | Rate of change % |
1st class (lowest) | 0.00 | 0.00 | N/A |
2nd class | 0.00 | 0.00 | N/A |
3rd class | 0.091 | 0.289 | +217.78% |
4th class | 0.545 | 0.605 | +11.01% |
5th class (highest) | 0.364 | 0.105 | -71.15% |
Implications
In whole, the results from the Orange Line rerouting in the late 1980s and the GLX in the late 2010s suggest a nuanced, transit-induced gentrification pressure on the surrounding tracts. Shifts in rent, racial composition, and income suggest that new transit investments can aid and accelerate gentrification and displacement. However, evidence suggests not a uniform displacement pressure or socioeconomic uplift of surrounding neighborhoods, but rather a series of varied and uneven effects. Historical differences between the communities served by the Orange and Green lines, as well as the scale of implementing transit infrastructure changes, likely contribute to differences in the findings.
The Orange Line data demonstrates a slow, complex pattern of demographic transformation, possibly spurred by the rerouting in the late 1980s. Income levels rose gradually, as was typical of Boston during the period (US Bureau of Economic Analysis 2025). However, rent distributions became highly bifurcated, suggesting that transit investments have polarized the housing market, with new or revitalized high-end developments becoming more pervasive alongside the persistence of low-income and subsidized housing communities. The presence of a transit center is likely to have exacerbated existing housing affordability issues, displacing middle-income residents in favor of a highly economically stratified population. Racial data suggests a nearly opposite trend: areas with an exceedingly high or low share of White population declined in favor of middle-frequency areas. Qualitative interview data from the Jamaica Plain neighborhood support this account of racial redistribution as current residents perceive cultural change and subtle factors of displacement in their neighborhood.
The GLX corridor shows a more rapid, sharper version of these changes in demographic gentrification indicators. Since its completion in 2022, income has already increased in GLX-served areas such as Union Square and East Somerville, suggesting early signs of socioeconomic uplift associated with the introduction of mass transit. Quite similarly to the rerouted Orange Line tracts, the number of exceedingly White or non-White tracts decreased, with the highest white-residence class decreasing most dramatically. This points to a racial rebalancing and redistribution rather than a uniformly homogenizing shift.
In sum, these findings demonstrate that urban transit investments can have wide-ranging effects on the people in the neighborhoods in which they serve. Both projects improved transit accessibility in previously underserved neighborhoods, connecting areas of the Boston metropolitan region and improving mobility. However, large transit projects such as these can negatively impact the communities they’re meant to benefit. The Orange Line rerouting and GLX exacerbated existing affordability issues, potentially raising property values, displacing residents entirely, or preventing them from accessing housing in the first place. The heightened polarization of rental markets in the Orange Line corridor points to a significant decline in the middle-class population. However, data doesn’t point to uniformly negative demographic effects. Although mid-range white resident tracts increased in both cases, overly White and overly non-white resident tracts decreased overall, suggesting a possible positive impact on residential segregation. Additionally, the presence of low-income and public housing communities suggests that transit-induced gentrification in these areas doesn’t uniformly displace low-income residents. This evidence underscores the importance of preventing displacement and housing inequality in the face of transit infrastructure investments, ensuring that the MBTA protects and benefits its citizens.
Future Directions in Boston Transit
For more than a century, the MBTA has considered connecting the Red and Blue Line to alleviate chronic congestion at Park Street and Government Center, and concrete planning efforts suggest these ambitions may finally materialize. The Red-Blue Connector would close the final gap in Boston’s transit network by extending the Blue Line nearly half a mile below Cambridge Street to a newly constructed platform at Charles/MGH. As a result, riders would no longer need to make two transfers via the Green and Orange Lines. Though a considerably small extension, the project is slated to have regional impact. It is expected to improve access between transit-dependent communities in East Boston and Revere and major employment hubs in Cambridge. As a result, this would decrease congestion in overcrowded stations while also improving accessibility for riders by reducing travel time.
While the Red-Blue Connector is relatively modest in scale, it has the potential to lead to the same uneven socioeconomic dynamics observed after the Orange Line and GLX expansions. In both cases, incomes and rents tended to rise near new stations but not in a uniform fashion. Rather, changes reflected development pressures that were shaped by development pressures that were shaped by each neighborhood’s existing stock and demographics. Applying these patterns to the Red-Blue Connector could mean that improved access between East Boston, Revere and Cambridge may similarly increase demand and rent near stations. Therefore, prior MBTA expansions reveal the Connector may generate complex, neighborhood specific changes rather than a clear pattern of gentrification.
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