July 21, 2026
by Danny McDonald
A man with bald head, rimless glasses, dark skin and a blue denim shirt stands in the sun in front of a construction project
A large affordable housing project on the corner of Blue Hill Avenue and Culbert Street isn’t sitting well with Culbert Street residents, including Patricia Venter and her son, David. David was pictured on their balcony that overlooks the project. John Tlumacki/Globe Staff

Before the dynamite blasts, Culbert Street was quiet.

Here, on this small dead end in Mattapan, just off Blue Hill Avenue, is a slice of Boston’s middle class. There are seven houses on the street, which abuts an expansive, heavily used park. All the houses are Black-owned and have been in their respective families for decades.

It’s the type of street where everyone knows everyone. The kind of place, older residents say, where you want to raise a family. Where football games are played at the park, and there’s neighborhood trick-or-treating. When Patricia Venter moved here decades ago, she liked that it seemed “nice and quiet.”

But last year, the explosions started. Months of sporadic dynamite blasts, followed by excavators clawing dirt and rock, disturbing the neighborhood and remaking the empty lot at the end of Culbert Street into what will soon become an affordable housing complex of 41 apartments.

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Read the full story at The Boston Globe