The Boston Globe: A housing model that can help middle class - July 29, 2014

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July 29, 2014
By Paul McMorrow  | GLOBE COLUMNIST   JULY 29, 2014
 
BOSTON DEVELOPERS are used to battling their way toward groundbreaking ceremonies. There are few real estate deals in town that don’t come loaded with some form of bloodsport, whether it’s the dust-ups over building heights downtown, the brutal parking conflagrations found on every block in South Boston, or something more amorphous, like the toxic identity politics that have dogged new housing construction in Jamaica Plain. These battles pop up frequently enough that they’ve taken on the feel of a ritual dance. The contours of the conflicts feel familiar, even as the address of the field of battle shifts.
 
At the end of the Red Line in Dorchester, Trinity Financial is staring at a far less familiar type of confrontation. Trinity’s bid to turn a scruffy Dorchester Avenue garage into a new mixed-income housing complex is loaded with guts and drama, but the battle isn’t about building permits. Trinity is picking a fight with the economics of Boston’s dysfunctional housing market.