Today, Charlesview is a mix of ethnicities and religions, languages and cultures, and represents a broad and diverse group of individuals and families –a true microcosm of the larger Allston-Brighton community.
Residents at Charlesview speak 12 languages. They grow up and grow old here. Over 45% of the households at Charlesview are elderly, and in fact, 21 households have been residents of Charlesview since the very beginning – 40 years ago. We are also home to a number of working families. There are 81 children ages 0-12 and 53 children ages 13-18. Our families attend theGardner school, participate in local youth sports leagues and work at area businesses.
…Charlesview bursts with personality. The residents of its 213 mostly affordable apartments include very old ladies and very young families. It’s home to Americans, Guatemalans, Burmese, and Russians. And even though they speak 12 different languages, they have managed to make a community that is as warm, tight, stable, and safe as those their grandparents might have enjoyed.
“It’s a neighborhood,” says Ken Casey, an athletic, pipe-smoking 71-year-old who has lived at the development since it was finished in 1971. He was sitting in Charlesview’s pretty new cafe on a recent morning.
“If a kid falls down, you’ve got four or five mothers out there. If some stranger is in here, you got telephones ringing all over.”
Why does the place work so well? The Rev. Samuel Johnson, chairman of the Charlesview board, thinks it’s partly because it’s stacked with immigrants, each of whom knows what it means to be new and in need of friends. “Or maybe, by chance, the residents who happen to come here, they’re good people,” he says. “And we just have to thank God for them.” *
*Abraham, Yvonne (2009, August 9). Community vs. Goliath U. The Boston Globe. Retrieved from http://www.boston.com
CHARLESVIEW RESIDENCES 