1. Jobs & Economic Opportunity
Adult Unemployment Rate
Median Household Income
Compared to other Metros, Boston has achieved great success in navigating the shift from a manufacturing to a knowledge-based economy – and weathering the recent great recession - thanks largely to the region’s strong education, science, technology and finance clusters. The average unemployment rate for Boston residents in 2011 was 7.1%, which was better than both the 8.9% national rate and 7.4% Massachusetts rate. The average wage for jobs in Boston in 2011 was $80,080. This is 67% and 34% above the U.S. and state averages, respectively ($48,043 and $59,671).
However, the benefits of this strong economy have been unevenly distributed and many adult and youth residents of low-income, inner-city neighborhoods remain vulnerable. Low-income areas of Boston experience high levels of unemployment and low rates of business growth despite a strong regional economy:
Specifically, unemployment rates in the low-income neighborhoods of Roxbury, Dorchester, Mattapan and Hyde Park, which are situated along a 9.2 mile commuter train line known as the Fairmount-Indigo Corridor, are almost 16% compared to a citywide rate of 9.3%.
These neighborhoods also record the lowest median household incomes in the City—typically less than $25,000.
While TBF’s earlier Economic Competitiveness strategy focused mainly on regional competitiveness, we have shifted to focus our efforts on low-income neighborhoods given that this reality and new research (by the Initiative for a Competitive Inner City) has countered working assumptions that regional prosperity generates inner-city prosperity.
This geographic focus also leverages TBF investments through alignment with public and private place-based and transit-oriented development efforts underway in these communities…NEXT SLIDE

2. The Regional Context: Fairmount Indigo Line Corridor
Hyde Park Center
Key Opportunity: Main Streets District/Riverside Theater, Existing stop
Blue Hill Ave/Mattapan
Key Opportunity: Main Streets District/New Community Health Center; Existing stops at Morton and River Streets , new T-stop 
Codman Square
Key Opportunity: Main Streets District/ New Talbot T stop/ Community Health Centers
Upham’s Corner
Key Opportunity:
Cultural Economic
Development / Main Streets District
South Station
JOBS – Innovation District
Newmarket Area
JOBS – Light Industrial, New T-stop 
Readville
Major Light Industrial jobs
Existing stop
Four Corners
Key Opportunity: Main Streets District/New T stop
The Fairmount Line is a 9.2 mile commuter line that cuts through Boston’s lowest income neighborhoods , with 120,000 people living within a ½ mile radius of the line.
This geography has the highest concentration of African American and Latino populations in the region,
AND
Social outcomes, on almost all indicators are among the lowest in the region … a key and telling example is the lowest share of adults with a college degree.
There are 4 existing stations at the two ends of the line ….The line bypasses most of the residential areas, and fares at the existing stations are more than twice the MBTA fares…in essence currently the line provides neither access nor service for community residents.
Revitalization of the line is adding 4 new stations and community advocacy is underway to increase service and reduce fares to MBTA levels. The 4 new transit stations are located at important points along the corridor…creating new connections to job centers, the downtown and the region.
…subsequent grants to CDCs for community planning resulted in a strong and powerful vision of creating urban villages along the corridor around each of the four new stations…as community stakeholders identified key opportunities…