A Fifty Million Dollar Piece of Dirt: Somerville as a Case Study in Development

Abstract

In May, 2023, the City of Somerville achieved the highest S&P Global Ratings AAA credit rating. The accompanying report, citing one gentrifying neighborhood as a “notable contributor to increased market value,” signaled the city’s “attractiveness” to potential investors by promising low interest rates on local real estate development projects. But while the city increasingly appeared to be a sure bet for investors, life became more strenuous for residents, with steep and climbing rents, failing infrastructure, and fewer reasons to stay in a changing city that they no longer recognized. This is a case study of twenty years in Somerville real estate development, spanning 2004 to 2024. Through interviews with residents, activists, and senior city officials, I present a story of a city attempting to rectify its progressive values with the forces of neoliberalism, which it seems unable—and unwilling—to stop.