initiated a
project to improve the historic West End neighborhood. Extensive demolition was
met with vociferous public opposition. The BRA subsequently reevaluated its
approach to urban renewal in its future projects, including the construction of
Government Center. In 1965, the first Community Health Center in the United
States opened, the Columbia Point Health Center, in the Dorchester
neighborhood. It mostly served the massive Columbia Point public housing
complex adjoining it, which was built in 1953. The health center is still in
operation and was rededicated in 1990 as the Geiger-Gibson Community Health Center.
The Columbia Point complex itself was redeveloped and revitalized into a
mixed-income community called Harbor Point Apartments from 1984 to 1990. By the
1970s, the city's economy boomed after 30 years of economic downturn. A large
number of high rises were constructed in the Financial District and in Boston's
Back Bay during this time period. This boom continued into the mid-1980s and
later began again. Hospitals such as Massachusetts General Hospital, Beth
Israel Deaconess Medical Center, and Brigham and Women's Hospital lead the
nation in medical innovation and patient care. Schools such as Boston
University, the Harvard Medical School, Northeastern University, Wentworth
Institute of Technology, Berklee College of Music and Boston Conservatory attract
students to the area. Nevertheless, the city experienced conflict starting in
1974 over desegregation busing, which resulted in unrest and violence around
public schools throughout the mid-1970s.
Boston is an intellectual, technological,
and political center but has lost some important regional institutions,
including the acquisition of The Boston Globe by The New York Times, and the
loss to mergers and acquisitions of local financial institutions such as
FleetBoston Financial, which was acquired by Charlotte-based Bank of
