WEST END | NEIGHBORHOOD WATCH

Born Again

Flattened 50 years ago in the name of urban renewal, the West End is once again in turmoil over its future.

The high-rises of Charles River Park in the West End - criticized by some as shoebox ugly on the outside - offer an oasis in the city. (Globe Staff Photo / Dina Rudick) Globe Staff Photo / Dina Rudick

PHOTO GALLERY: Scenes from the West End

By Monica Collins

August 7, 2005

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A HALF-CENTURY AGO, the city of Boston bulldozed nearly the entire West End neighborhood in an unforgiving urban renewal rampage. Government officials stopped collecting the garbage and allowed a neighborhood to rot. Modest homes were labeled slums. Buildings were destroyed and countless families displaced to make way for a high-rise complex of apartments few of them could afford. Earlier this ... (Full article: 2612 words)