ABSTRACT
Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative (DSNI) has grown to encompass over 3,000 residents, non-profit organisations, community development corporations, businesses and religious groups. Dudley's approach turned the long-abused power of eminent domain into a tool for development without displacement, explains Holly Sklar. DSNI set up Dudley Neighbors Inc, a community land trust (CLT) that would help to steer the housing development within the plan, ensuring high-quality construction, affordable housing, responsible economic development, open spaces and other amenities. Following an urban envisioning process in 1996, updating DSNI's original comprehensive plan from 1987, over 180 residents drafted the master plan guiding the revitalisation of the neighbourhood. The economic downturn in the late 1990s and the accompanying threat that the foreclosure crisis would put residents back a few decades, put real pressure on DSNI. DSNI focuses on three interrelated strategic areas: community economic development; leadership development and collaboration; and youth opportunities and development.
