Barack
Obama, who lived in a basement apartment at 365 Broadway from 1987 to
1990, became the first black president as Democrats reversed decades of
Republican power in a nationwide political shift.

However thin
it may be, Obama – who was raised in states across the country and
whose worldview was shaped in New York City and Chicago – still brings
a piece of Winter Hill with him into history.

He lived in the
neighborhood made famous by Irish gang wars in the 1960s and an
infamous criminal syndicate in the 1970s and 80s while he attended
Harvard Law School. Besides accumulating $400 in parking tickets that
went unpaid until last year, Obama excelled at Harvard from his little
spot on Broadway.

In his last year of law school, Obama became
the first black president of the Harvard Law Review, one of the most
exalted clubs at that esteemed institution and, for the first time,
found himself in the media's crosshairs.

"A burst of publicity
followed that election, including several newspaper articles that
testified less to my modest accomplishments than to Harvard Law
School's peculiar place in the American mythology, as well as America's
hunger for any optimistic sign from the racial front-a morsel of proof
that, after all, some progress has been made," Obama wrote in his 1995
memoir.

Book deals were offered and, imagining he had something
to say that the world should hear, he accepted. In his last year of law
school Obama, likely at least in part from his Somerville apartment,
began to reflect on his life, craft its narrative and offer his voice
to a national discussion. Those reflections would become "Dreams from
My Father" his extraordinary first book.

Though Winter Hill may
have been the site for some of his growth as a leader, it is unlikely
Obama, as a Harvard law student, had any extended contact with the
Somerville community.

"I don't think Barack was hanging around
any of the bars on Broadway," said Ward 4 Alderman Walter Pero.
"Although he probably did shop at the Star Market."

Obama's win
should mean as much in Winter Hill – a working-class community that has
seen rapid change since he left in 1990 – as it does anywhere. And if
he keeps his campaign promise to bring change to this country, at some
point in the next four years it'll reach the 1,200 tenants who live in
the Mystic Avenue housing development near Interstate 93.

The
455-unit complex is a short walk from where Obama lived as a Harvard
student. It is unclear how much contact he may have had with the home's
tenants but their eyes are focused on him today. Especially the young
ones: on Saturday night a group of teenagers who live on Mystic Avenue
and participate in the project's Books of Hope writing program read
their work in Harvard Square and addressed Obama's rise.

The
four girls, Haitian-American teens, told The Somerville News, they
remain skeptical of his ability to deliver true change to neighborhoods
like theirs. "I don't trust any politician," said Jessica Massy, J-Mass
to her friends. "The color of someone's skin doesn't change that."

In addition, they're worried about his safety. "I don't think he'll be safe, racism isn't gone," said Keisha Jean-Louis.

The deep symbolism of Obama's win, however, still reached them. "Obama sparked a lot of dreams," said Maishka Antoine, 14.