We tend to think of Dorchester as “inner city” — which indeed it is…or not, depending on one’s definition (see below). But most of us don’t think of urban gardens in connection with Dorchester. A useful antidote is Dorchester Community Gardens. Our local community garden is on Msgr. Lydon Way. Here are a few photos, which might surprise those whose image of Dorchester is formed solely by crime reports in The Globe:

Now, as for the definition of “inner city”: Wikipedia says that it’s “the central area of a major city or metropolis,” going on to explain as follows:

the term is often applied to the poorer parts of the city centre and is sometimes used as a euphemism with the connotation of being an area, perhaps a ghetto or slum, where residents are less educated and more impoverished and where there is more crime. 

Answers.com defines it like this:

The usually older, central part of a city, especially when characterized by crowded neighborhoods in which low-income, often minority groups predominate. 

Whichever definition you prefer, Dorchester is certainly in part inner-city. I do tell people that I live in the inner city, but we also have community gardens and other green space.

Categories: Dorchester/Boston