Combat Zone, Boston

The "Combat Zone," in Boston, Massachusetts, was an area of downtown centered on Washington Street between Boylston Street and Kneeland Street, widely known for an abundance of prostitution, drug trafficking, public indecency, and adult book and video stores. The area reached its heyday in the late 1970s, and 1980s as a center of prostitution and smut.

The Combat Zone began to form in the early-1970s, when city officials razed the former red light district at Scollay Square, near Fanueil Hall, to build the Government Center, Boston, Massachusetts urban renewal project. Subsequently, adult entertainment busineses migrated southwestly, and the Combat Zone became Boston's crime-ridden, bawdy epicenter -- packed with nude dance clubs, adult theatres, bars, porn shops, and prostitutes. A short walk from the posh, Federal-era homes of Beacon Hill, the Combat Zone was a place many residents chose to avoid. "I remember being out together as a family and hoping we would not run into bottle-throwing fights," one former resident said.

Years of grassroots activism by neighboring Chinatown residents, aggressive police work and massive urban renewal projects instigated by the Boston Redevelopment Authority helped to stem crime and close most of the adult businesses. A new Emerson College dormitory, Suffolk University administrative offices, a relocated branch of the Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles, a new $300 million development which includes a Ritz Carlton Hotel and a Loews cinema, and a renovated Opera House theatre all opened in the area in the late 1990s and earlier 2000s. A new luxury condo and apartment tower is currently under construction at the corner of Washington and Beach streets.

All that remains of the former Combat Zone as of 2005 are two small strip clubs along LaGrange Street and a few adult book and video stores on Washington and Kneeland streets. Prostitution and drug sales are still issues in nearby Chinatown, the Theatre District, Bay Village and Park Square.

Reference: http://parole.aporee.org/work/print.php?words_id=176