What do people mean when they say Boston is provincial? (Cambridge: for sale, crime)

[HowGoesIt]

Originally Posted by holden125

There is a connection. The attitude of the native populace is the reason why so many homes are not modernized every six months. In other areas people are much more focused on new.

By the way, some condos in the city may have modern interiors but a lot of apartments, condos and houses throughout the area don't. Sometimes they're gorgeous and timeless, sometimes they look worn. But a lot of New Englanders are used to worn, whereas people from other parts of the US would be (are) horrified by it.

I'm not going to lie, I'm all for the low-key worn out type of look if the piece of real estate is priced accordingly.

In my search a few years back, sellers would try to charge an exorbitant price for a property that hasn't been updated since the 1960's (think, pink bathrooms, linoleum floors in the kitchen) I had to roll my eyes. To me, that signifies that the seller wanted to maximize profit and do the smallest amount of work imaginable.

[tigers1011]

well, regarding Boston being provincial, i'm old enough to remember the debacle of busing students of color, and the worst cities were in Alabama and -- you guessed it -- Boston. As a young child I saw Boston mothers screaming obscenities at little children.
A friend went to Boston to start a business and left because he hired, among his staff, non-whites. he told me horror stories and eventually left the city for good. Time has passed, I understand it's much more integrated now, but I'm still very wary of Boston.

[TomDot]

Originally Posted by tigers1011

well, regarding Boston being provincial, i'm old enough to remember the debacle of busing students of color, and the worst cities were in Alabama and -- you guessed it -- Boston. As a young child I saw Boston mothers screaming obscenities at little children.
A friend went to Boston to start a business and left because he hired, among his staff, non-whites. he told me horror stories and eventually left the city for good. Time has passed, I understand it's much more integrated now, but I'm still very wary of Boston.

Why? How many people died during the busing crisis? How many people have been killed or injured in Boston in racial attacks over the last 40 years.

I can name 5 deadly racial attacks in NYC, off the top of my head, than I can by Googling a single deadly racial attack in Boston
In addition, I'd be willing to bet that more racial violence took place in LA during 4 days in 1992 then has taken place in Boston in 50 years.

When MLK was killed in April of '68 I'll give you one guess which city in America experienced no rioting whatsoever.

Yet somehow Boston is a city to be wary of.

What ignorance!

[HowGoesIt]

Originally Posted by tigers1011

well, regarding Boston being provincial, i'm old enough to remember the debacle of busing students of color, and the worst cities were in Alabama and -- you guessed it -- Boston. As a young child I saw Boston mothers screaming obscenities at little children.
A friend went to Boston to start a business and left because he hired, among his staff, non-whites. he told me horror stories and eventually left the city for good. Time has passed, I understand it's much more integrated now, but I'm still very wary of Boston.

No one should be wary of Boston. It's got to be the most yuppified city in the U.S. It's a safe (as far as big cities go) and there is a TON of stuff to do. It's one of my favorite big cities in the U.S.

As far as provincialism is concerned, I never really experienced it. I went to college in Boston and lived there up until my mid/late 20's. I made a lot of friends from school and other activities (gym, flag football, etc). I've heard the suburbs are very provincial, but I've never spent any real amount of time there, so I can't say.

[rranger]

Originally Posted by daugenstine

It means the people back there are snobby as hell because they think they're more sophisticated than everyone else. It also means they're so damn uptight that if you were to shove lumps of coal up their asses, two weeks later, they'd produce millions of diamonds. Every time I went back there, I couldn't get away fast enough. While I was in the U.S. Coast Guard, I met a lot of people from that locale. Almost every one of them was a total . Of all the ones I liked, I could probably count them on one hand. I liked the city and all its cultural amenities, but the people there were horrible. Nonetheless, I'll never ever live anywhere on the East Coast again for as long as I live.

It could also mean that it's populated by people who understand the value of things like health care coverage for most (if not all), of the importance of not moving every five years (and thus having a sense of community where people actually know each other), etc. But, you don't have any issues with stereotyping, now do you ... yikes !!! I feel like I'm reading a post from 1970, BTW.

[pahkthecah]

People who call Boston provincial, IMO are people who call Dallas redneck, Kansas City boring and midwestern, Miami superficial, etc.

In other words, they likely don't get along well with others, and blame it on the locale.

Boston tends to assimiliate the people who move there rather than be assimiliated by newcomers. Some people just can't abide not having everything their way.

[bradstengel]

I work in Faneuil Hall with alot of diffent people from out of this are, and as well and other countries and have no problem. Yeah, there are townie-types, but aren't they everywhere? I personally wanted to move to New York but recently began to appreciate all that the Boston Metro are has to offer...I'm open minded and not hostile, but I still LOVE the region, and all that it has to offer.

For example, a co-worker of mine is from Hawaii and is amazed at how secular and different all the neighborhoods are...it's not a bad thing...it's something to be appreciated that in such a small area, you can jump to completely different locales.

[readymade]

Born & raised in Boston. It's provincial.

In all fairness, so's Texas, where I lived for a year.

I've never seen such a hatred for other states as I've seen in both Texas & Massachusetts. It's kind of weird.

Originally Posted by pahkthecah

People who call Boston provincial, IMO are people who call Dallas redneck, Kansas City boring and midwestern, Miami superficial, etc.

In other words, they likely don't get along well with others, and blame it on the locale.

Boston tends to assimiliate the people who move there rather than be assimiliated by newcomers. Some people just can't abide not having everything their way.

[msantos1116]

People here think they are extremely "intelligent", but what they really are is rich enough to pay for a fancy piece of paper.

[notenureyet]

Old thread, but as someone who has lived all over the United States (including Hawaii), Boston is incredibly provincial for a city. My friend there (originally from London) used to say it's like a city full of hillbillies.

Many of the previous responses seem to misunderstand what the term provincial means. Boston proper has minorities and immigrants, sure, but the "locals" will let you know you don't belong. Every place has this attitude to some degree, but Boston has the greatest distrust of "outsiders" for a city that I've ever experienced. New York is a stark contrast to Boston's provincialism.

The suburbs of Boston are like the suburbs anywhere, mostly homogeneous and more conservative, yet actually I found people who live outside the city to be friendlier.

I'm not surprised by the recent events at Fenway, sadly.