SOMERVILLE

GREG DERR/The Patriot Ledger

Formerly seedy but now trendy, a revitalized Davis Square has helped lead the transformation of Somerville.

Transfigured Davis Square led to rejuvenation of ‘Slumerville’

The city that used to be referred to as “Slumerville” is now one of the hottest communities in the Greater Boston area.
And Davis Square is at the center of its resurgence.

In the 1970s, Somerville’s most well-known commercial center was “tired, old, boarded up and pretty seedy,” recalled John Connolly, who has been an alderman for 20 years and whose ward includes Davis Square.

Today, Davis Square is home to CD stores, banks and coffee shops, and still houses long-time businesses like a barber shop, bowling alley and a popular theater. A cluster of bar and restaurants that offer everything from subs and pizza to Indian and Thai food provide lively nightlife options that keep the area buzzing well after midnight on Friday and Saturday nights.

Click above to view statistics about Somerville.

The major catalyst for change was the 1984 opening of an MBTA Red Line station in Davis Square. A 1994 referendum that eliminated rent control statewide, including in Cambridge, also sent young professionals in search of affordable housing careening into neighboring Somerville, further solidifying Davis Square’s growing cachet as The Place to Be.

That series of events was unique, so Quincy officials who might want to see their own city referred to with adjectives like “trendy” or “funky” can’t exactly follow the same path.

But the Davis Square renaissance nonetheless offers interesting lessons in how a community can shape its own future, from the types of businesses it attracts to the way buildings look.

For instance, Davis Square placed a 50-foot height restriction on buildings to help keep the neighborhood’s residential flavor and prevent overdevelopment.

Somerville officials didn’t just push for redevelopment and revitalization that was in keeping with residents’ and business owners’ visions for the square. In some cases, they acquired land and made it happen.

For example, a Chinese restaurant had a large parking lot that was never fully used. The city negotiated to buy it, and a local bank opened there, said Lee Auspitz, a founding member of the Davis Square Task Force, a group of residents, business owners and other stakeholders who assembled in the late ’70s.

In another case, the city designated a blighted area as a revitalization district and took several properties by eminent domain, including an auto body shop and a moving and storage company.

The site is now home to low-rise office building that houses a Harvard Vanguard Medical Associates office and an eye glass store. The ground floor features an Au Bon Pain with a sidewalk cafe.

“A citizen group helped to select the design and made important input,” Auspitz said.

Even when the city didn’t own land it was able to exert some influence. When a regional telephone office at one end of the square was up for sale officials helped shape what went into the site because the city controlled key parking around it, Auspitz said.

Many people in the neighborhood at the time wanted a supermarket. The city’s attempts to attract one failed because the lot proved too small, but officials were able to draw a drug store that agreed to include a small food section in its plans.

The future of those parcels and others that the city played a role in sent a message to developers about what was acceptable in Davis Square, and just as importantly, what was not, Auspitz said.

“It has not been a bonanza to holders of commercial real estate in the way it has been elsewhere,” Auspitz said. “The idea has been that the businesses should grow organically with the community surrounding them.”

- KAREN ESCHBACHER