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The City of Boston's Boston Redevelopment Authority maintains a web site with information about neighborhoods (http://www.cityofboston/bra/neighborhoods/). That site identifies 600 Albany Street (empty lot) in the South End as the location for Bioport I. It identifies the building area at 625-710 Albany Street as Bioport II and indicates that approval is pending. This end of Albany Street is at the border of North Dorchester and South Boston, near Route 3 (I93) south. John O'Brian is the BRA project manager (e-mail address: John.O'Brian.BRA@ci.boston.ma.us). A map of the area can be found at the Boston Redevelopment Authority site in PDF format (188KB): (http://www.cityofboston.gov/bra/pdf/maps/bostonmedical.pdf)
A key issue regarding the BU BSL4 laboratory is the vulnerability of local populations to a disease outbreak due to an aerosol emission or contagion from a biological weapons agent.
(Click thumbnails for larger images.)
BU Medical Center, 650 Albany Street end
BU Medical Center, Albany Street (from back, facing south)
A variety of 2000 census data maps show that the area near the proposed lab is densely populated. In addition, Boston communities south of the site are notable for the high numbers of economically disadvantaged minorities that reside there. The census maps indicate low levels of education and fluency in English that forecast difficulties no matter what the collective urban disaster might be, whether from excessive heat or hurricanes or from a terrorist attack. The maps also show high population density in fairly affluent areas north and northwest of the proposed site.
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* Proposed Location of the Boston University Medical Center BSL4 Laboratory |
Being a densely populated city, the area surrounding the proposed Boston Level 4 site is also well populated. In this map you can see a close up of the population density in a 4 square mile segment including those areas in immediate proximity to the proposed BSL4 site. This map shows some areas to the West and North of the proposed site that house up to 105,011 people per square mile. These areas are not however the only densely populated areas in the immediate proximity of the proposed lab location; the green shaded areas to the East of the site, representing areas of South Boston, house upwards of 25,000 people per square mile as also do areas of Roxbury and the South End to the West of the site. The area just South West of the proposed site (shaded in dark yellow) is relatively less dense than other areas of Boston however, population density is still above 13,000 people per square mile in this area.
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* Proposed Location of the Boston University Medical Center BSL4 Laboratory |
When zooming back the greater Boston area surrounding 12 square miles of the proposed Level 4 lab site appears even more densely populated. Areas to the North of the proposed site including areas of Downtown Boston, the Back Bay, Beacon Hill, the South End and Allston are shown on this map to be very densely populated as do further north areas of East Boston, Chelsea, Cambridge, and Charlestown. Just south of the site are more densely populated neighborhoods including Dorchester, Roxbury and to the immediate West is the densely populated city of Brookline.
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* Proposed Location of the Boston University Medical Center BSL4 Laboratory |
Considering the financial resources of the people living in the areas surrounding the proposed BSL4 site is important for a number of reasons, as previously mentioned, if an accident were to occur what resources would these communities be able to draw on for recovery efforts? Furthermore, there is an element of choice associated with resources, in this case people with resources could hypothetically choose to move out of the immediate proximity of the BSL4 site if they considered the area unsafe for their families, whereas people with few financial resources to draw on might find it difficult to move despite their concerns. Another consideration as to the financial resources of the nearby residents would involve the property values of the homes in the area, which are likely to fall if a BSL4 facility is built nearby, and could, raise opposition from nearby homeowners who have interest in protecting their property values.
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* Proposed Location of the Boston University Medical Center BSL4 Laboratory |
This map shows the percentage of people in Boston who self identified on the census on having limited English skills. People with limited English proficiency are typically less likely to raise objection to this type of project moving into their neighborhoods, not because they approve of the project, but more likely because information is not provided to them in their Native language so they remain unaware of the project before it goes in or because they are unable to obtain an interpreter (for both financial and other reasons) and may not feel comfortable speaking out in a language that they speak “less than very well”. Boston's Chinatown is located just North of the proposed BU BSL4 site.
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* Proposed Location of the Boston University Medical Center BSL4 Laboratory |
This map shows that the percentage of people with less than 9 years of education in the area immediately surrounding the proposed site location. In many of the areas in the direct vicinity the percent of residents who have not even attended high school is 10% or higher, the highest rate being in the area around Chinatown at 27-45%. People with lower levels of education are less likely to be made aware of this type of project to advocate for or against the project and they are less likely to be able to draw on social resources and connections (such as through universities) to raise awareness about the project.
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* Proposed Location of the Boston University Medical Center BSL4 Laboratory |
The percentage of children in the neighborhoods in proximity to the proposed BSL4 site show that a large percentage of children live to the East of the site in areas of South Boston, and high percentages of children live in the areas to the West and South of the proposed lab in neighborhoods of Roxbury and Dorchester. Children are often considered a more vulnerable population to some diseases. Awareness of the percentage of children living in these areas is thereby important.
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* Proposed Location of the Boston University Medical Center BSL4 Laboratory |
The final map shows the percentage of white people living in the city of Boston. By looking at the lighter shaded regions of this map one can see where People of Color (including all non-white racial categories) live in high concentration. Although there is a large concentration of white people living to the east of the proposed site in South Boston (a historically Irish district), most of the areas in the Western and Southern proximities house high concentrations of people of non-white racial identification. To the North of the site is Beacon Hill and the Back Bay as well as the various districts of downtown which with the exception of Chinatown are predominantly white.
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