Demographics
East Boston, often truncated to "Eastie" (like the better-known "Southie"), is now predominantly Hispanic, though the once-sizeable Italian population still resides in areas such as Orient Heights. Though East Boston has a spectacular view of the downtown skyline, the community's rents and property values have increased more slowly than the extraordinary growth seen in the rest of the metro-Boston region during the late 1990s and early 21st century. This slower growth can be attributed to factors such as: the isolated nature of the neighborhood, difficulties of real estate development along the waterfront and the negative attitude towards Logan Airport that local East Boston residents have perpetuated.
For many years, East Boston’s connections to Boston, which included the Sumner (westbound) and Callahan (eastbound) tunnels and the Tobin Bridge by way of Chelsea, were overcrowded. Persons driving to the Airport from the west or south would have to use one of these two access points, causing constant traffic jams. The building of the Ted Williams Tunnel, which extends the Massachusetts Turnpike ("Mass Pike"/I-90) to the airport, has alleviated much of this traffic problem. Boston has also supplied residents with special transponders that allow them to pay reduced tolls on the Sumner and Ted Williams tunnels. Local government has hindered private investment in the waterfront for many years. Recently this has changed and the Boston Redevelopment Authority has begun implementing the East Boston Municipal Harbor Plan. This development is created in order to reconnect East Boston with its waterfront through condominiums, restaurants and shops.
As of 2010, East Boston is 60% Hispanic, 18% White, 14% Black, 5% Asian, and 3% other. Unlike other Hispanic communities in the city, which on average are almost exclusively Puerto Rican or Dominican, East Boston has a very diverse Hispanic community, with immigrants from various Latin-American countries present in the neighborhood. East Boston is sometimes regarded as the heart of the city's Hispanic community, due to its having a higher concentration of Hispanics than any other neighborhood in the city.
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