Five things you need to know today, and Boston's New York Streets

The New York Streets: Boston’s first urban renewal

You’re probably familiar with the Albany Street exit of I-93, but you might not know that it was part of the New York Streets neighborhood, which got its street names from cities along the Erie Canal, in recognition of the railroad between Boston and Albany. Like the West End, the more popularly known “lost neighborhood” in Boston, the New York Streets was a largely immigrant working-class and working-poor community.

In the mid-1950s, the Boston city officials took over the northeast corner of the South End known as the New York Streets — a neighborhood of more than 12 city blocks — and demolished more than 321 buildings, displacing…