When Nonprofits Are the New City Leaders

In September 2011, a public meeting was held at a public housing project in the Four Corners neighborhood in Boston’s Dorchester district. The topic: Should City Growers, a for-profit agricultural company, get permission to turn two adjacent lots on Glenway Street into an urban farm?

The session, which started promptly at 6 p.m., was moderated by the head of Four Corners United, a community organization. City officials sat in the first row. Also in attendance were the company’s representatives and about 30 African-American and Caribbean residents of the neighborhood. Charles Yancey, a 15-term city councilor, walked in around 6:45 p.m., and asked the first question when the question-and-answer round began. Jeremy Levine, a sociologist at the University of Michigan, was there, and he recounts what happened next in a recent blog post for LSE.