east boston

The protesters, who represented activist organizations like City Life/Vida Urbana, Dorchester Not for Sale and the Massachusetts Sierra Club, oppose the redevelopment proposal for Suffolk Downs by HYM Investment Group, saying the addition of luxury housing would price the neighborhood’s current residents — mainly working-class Latino immigrants —out of the area.

Suffolk Downs forces us to grapple with the central questions of gentrification: Who is this development for? What kind of city are we? Who belongs here?

Many longtime East Boston residents fear that new developments will instead bring displacement in the predominantly Latino and Italian neighborhood.

Suffolk Downs, a vast tract of vacant land in East Boston, could soon become Boston’s newest neighborhood, with 10,000 units of housing planned for an area more than four times the size of the Seaport District.

The Boston City Council’s Committee on Planning, Development and Transportation held a public hearing on a neighborhood zoning initiative and master plan Monday night in East Boston. Nearly 200 people attended the meeting at Mario Umana Academy, led by the hearing’s lead sponsor, Councilor Lydia Edwards.

Mayor Martin Walsh’s office, in partnership with the Boston Planning and Development Agency, announced last Wednesday that it will launch new planning initiatives this year in Mattapan, East Boston, Downtown and Newmarket.

District 1 City Councilor Lydia Edwards has focused on housing issues in the city of Boston since her election in November.