OMB Audio: Documentary Featuring "Noises Over Norwell" Occupation In Dorchester

15 July 2014 - 11:20am | RadioView

Audio

by Dave Goodman (Staff)

BOSTON/Dorchester - Two years ago, a duplex house on Norwell Street in the Four Corners neighborhood of Dorchester was foreclosed upon. The owner, who ran a daycare facility there was forced to close down. Tenants continue to live next door, not knowing if or when a constable from Housing Court will show up with eviction papers.

The property is now owned by Fannie Mae, the federal government sponsored mortgage enterprise, which has refused offers from a local non-profit to buy and renovate the house as part of a pilot neighborhood stabilization project.

On Saturday June 7th, housing advocates from City Life/Vida Urbana and the Bank Tenants Association began a weekend long occupation of the vacant house at 193 Norwell Street. Two members of the Association, Renee and Paul Adamson, whose home also had been foreclosed, moved in with some of their belongings. With help from artist and filmmaker John Hulsey, and a crew of volunteers, they set up a pirate radio station they called "Noises Over Norwell."

Independent radio producer and longtime Open Media Boston contributor Dave Goodman spent several days on Norwell Street, speaking with and recording activists, tenants, and local housing experts. The result is this two-part audio documentary, "Thickly Settled: a declaration of Inter-dependence." Produced in cooperation with Open Media Boston and WMBR, Cambridge.

OMB Audio: Part 1 of "Thickly Settled: a declaration of Inter-dependence" (30:00)