The development of Boston’s South Bay is deeply intertwined with the city’s struggles with immigration and race. South Bay was once 138 acres covered with water. “Land reclamation” efforts – landfill – began in 1845 and continued well into the twentieth century, as the city scrambled to create attractive residential areas to keep middle-class Yankees in and new Irish immigrants out. But the underlying landscape betrayed its origins: by 1870, the area was filling with sewage draining in from surrounding neighborhoods and flooding during storms. Today, as immigrants face executive orders and the climate changes at an increasingly rapid pace, it becomes increasingly urgent for us to examine South Bay with an eye towards learning from projects past.