Boston Globe Sunday Edition: AS GREEN LINE COMES TO UNION SQUARE

 

As Green Line comes in, Union Square residents worry they'll be pushed out

For years, many people in Somerville have been watching their city gentrify around them. Homes selling for increasingly out-of-reach prices. Fancier cars parking on their block. Longtime neighbors disappearing. Now the long-awaited extension of the Green Line is set to open, and the changes are coming faster, the vise squeezing lower-income residents growing tighter. The blue-collar workers, immigrants, retirees, and middle-class families who contribute to this dense city’s vibrant culture are seeing their apartment buildings sold and landlords raising the rent. With the citywide eviction moratorium that protected residents during the pandemic expiring at the end of April, concerns about displacement are rising. Read the full story.