By Kailen Santos
BU News Service
BOSTON – Not all neighborhoods are created equal when it comes to how the city responds to building violations.
According to data from the Boston Public Works Department, which is updated daily, nearly 2,000 building and property code violations remain open throughout the city. The majority of open violations exist in neighborhoods with lower median income and higher minority populations, such as Dorchester, Roxbury and East Boston.
Of the mapped violations, frequent occurrences include unsafe and dangerous structure notices, as well as extermination requests. The disparities in maintenance quality paint a picture of how different neighborhoods might be treated with varying urgency, resulting in some of the areas with higher amounts of open violations neglected for as much as five years.
This interactive heat map shows how many violations exist per neighborhood:
