Boston is changing

In these improved economic times, there is a renewed sense of faith in the city's future. That has brought a burst of urban planning, investment, and development. Roadways are being reworked; shorelines are being restructured; new skyscrapers are being designed.

But amid this surge of optimism, there should also be concern. The economic boom has sent the market skyward. On average, rents in Boston, according to the Massachusetts Tenants Organization, have increased 40 percent, from $800 in 1990 to $1100 in 1997. And the elimination of rent control in 1995 left thousands of residents in Boston, Cambridge, and Brookline even more vulnerable. Eviction rates have exploded; the hardest hit have been the elderly, the poor, and the working class. Efforts to stem further losses -- new affordable-housing projects, federal grants, tenant advocacy -- are falling far short.

Rent control was far from perfect. It unfairly penalized homeowners, froze new rental construction, and was too often exploited by those who didn't need its protection. But its elimination is undoubtedly changing the face of neighborhoods.

This week, the Phoenix looks beyond the boom to three elements of the housing struggle:

The trials of Boston tenants in one of the fastest-changing neighborhoods, Jamaica Plain.

In Cambridge activists are fighting, but they don't have a winning strategy.

Students, who push rents up everywhere, are targets of resentment.

It is a complex issue, but the stories make one thing clear: in the post-rent control era, nobody has yet articulated a housing solution that everyone can live with.