Is Boston really part of the Northeast Corridor? (Lincoln, Merrimac: brokers, place to live)

[scorpio516]

Originally Posted by Mr. Joshua

Fun Fact: If the Bos-Wash Corridor were a nation, it would be the third richest nation on Earth

And the 30th most populous. More people live in the Northeast Corridor than in Spain And just less than Kenya.

[juppiter]

Don't be silly. Yes, BosWash is a thing.

[missionhill]

Originally Posted by pandas&presents

Baltimore has tons of culture. Honestly, much of it is devalued by whites because of the associations with blackness.

Baltimore known for its associations with whiteness-- Mencken's diatribes, Anne Tyler stories, the Peabody Conservatory, Barry Levinson movies, James Rouse and the Inner Harbor attractions. Now known for its Muslim communities thanks to Serial. The way things go in this society Baltimore is equally known for the Wire and other criminalized portraits of black Baltimore culture. If New england cities like Hartford, Lowell and Lawrence were celebrated for their cultural mixes they would not be as economically marginalized as they are. Instead the celebrated cities are the ones with affluent, white inner precincts like Boston and Cambridge, Providence, Portsmouth, Portland and Burlington, and the redevelopment of the Hartfords and Lawrences is seen as a project of putting an affluent white element back into the mix.

[raider21]

Originally Posted by pandas&presents

Boston is a very expensive place to live with relatively little to offer. .

you lost all credibility with that statement. Jesus

[btownboss4]

Originally Posted by missionhill

Baltimore known for its associations with whiteness-- Mencken's diatribes, Anne Tyler stories, the Peabody Conservatory, Barry Levinson movies, James Rouse and the Inner Harbor attractions. Now known for its Muslim communities thanks to Serial. The way things go in this society Baltimore is equally known for the Wire and other criminalized portraits of black Baltimore culture. If New england cities like Hartford, Lowell and Lawrence were celebrated for their cultural mixes they would not be as economically marginalized as they are. Instead the celebrated cities are the ones with affluent, white inner precincts like Boston and Cambridge, Providence, Portsmouth, Portland and Burlington, and the redevelopment of the Hartfords and Lawrences is seen as a project of putting an affluent white element back into the mix.

Have you been to Lowell? That City is on good shape and the City had a thriving Cambodian, Middle Eastern, Eastern, and Dominican community.. Lawrences biggest issue is it's leadership was awful for a long time. Lantigua was terrible and corrupt. Lowell had solid leadership for years, hopefully Mayor Riveria will turn things around.

[BostonBornMassMade]

Originally Posted by missionhill

Baltimore known for its associations with whiteness-- Mencken's diatribes, Anne Tyler stories, the Peabody Conservatory, Barry Levinson movies, James Rouse and the Inner Harbor attractions. Now known for its Muslim communities thanks to Serial. The way things go in this society Baltimore is equally known for the Wire and other criminalized portraits of black Baltimore culture. If New england cities like Hartford, Lowell and Lawrence were celebrated for their cultural mixes they would not be as economically marginalized as they are. Instead the celebrated cities are the ones with affluent, white inner precincts like Boston and Cambridge, Providence, Portsmouth, Portland and Burlington, and the redevelopment of the Hartfords and Lawrences is seen as a project of putting an affluent white element back into the mix.

Replace Lowell with Bridgeport/Brockton/Waterbury/Springfield

[scorpio516]

Originally Posted by btownboss4

Have you been to Lowell? That City is on good shape and the City had a thriving Cambodian, Middle Eastern, Eastern, and Dominican community.. Lawrences biggest issue is it's leadership was awful for a long time. Lantigua was terrible and corrupt. Lowell had solid leadership for years, hopefully Mayor Riveria will turn things around.

Doesn't Lowell have the largest Cambodian/Khmer community outside of Cambodia, or in the US?

OK, looks like Long Beach, CA and Paris are the only places outside of SE Asia with more Khmer people than Lowell. But Lowell has a higher concentration of Khmer than any place in the US - 12.5% of Lowell residents are from Cambodia.
Lowell has less than 50% of it's population non-Hispanic white.

[MassVt]

Originally Posted by pandas&presents

Baltimore has tons of culture. Honestly, much of it is devalued by whites because of the associations with blackness.

MD has generally been pretty clear for me on weekends. Again, their roads can handle more traffic than I-95 in New England can. The rough traffic spots there are tied to the cities - B'more and College Park IME.

Boston has colleges, yes, agreed. That is the only reason I remain here, to finish a degree, but school is not totally IRL. Also, vacationing is different from everyday life too, obviously. I agree that New England is a "take a few pictures, buy a few postcards, and go home" kind of place but that just lends to the argument that it is isolated.

If I want to take pictures of urban blight, Baltimore will be the first place to visit. After all, decaying rowhouses are just so picturesque.

[Ne999]

Originally Posted by pandas&presents

My vote would be that it is not.

I lived most of my life in the areas surrounding NYC/Philly/B'more/DC. Boston is incredibly isolated from that megalopolis. By car or rail, it takes much longer to travel from Boston to NYC than from NYC to DC. Amtrak (particularly Acela) can get someone between NYC and DC much more quickly than between NYC and Boston. The latter seemingly takes an eternity, especially if you're on a train making a number of local stops. Driving between NYC and Boston can be at a snail's pace, particularly if involving I-95. The DC and NYC areas have their traffic problems but they are generally isolated to the areas immediately around the big cities and they also have the lane capacity on some of their major roads to better handle it. Traffic on I-95 in rural Connecticut is often at a standstill on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon.

Worse, there is a relative cultural dearth (yup, I said it) in the areas between NYC and Boston. Nothing particularly avant-garde in New England, except perhaps in the Boston area's tech industry, which is significant but Boston's not Silicon Valley or NYC and I'm talking more so about arts here. The creative stuff that should be fueling people's imaginations and keeping them entertained. This adds to the feeling of "nothingness" and a disconnect between, say, New Haven and Boston.

Many people here are in the real estate field and have vested interests in making the Boston area seem like something it's not IMO. Boston is a very expensive place to live with relatively little to offer. The disconnect from the east coast megalopolis should be apparent.

Boston has little to offer? Ignorance at its best. It offers a vibrant, urban lifestyle. It is top tier in the USA for not just colleges. It is also top tier for biotech research and development, hospitals and medicine, other tech fields. The economy is booming and the state is in good shape financially. These are reasons that General Electric just moved their headquarters here and many tech companies such as amazon or expanding their presence. An hour to the south Providence offers arts culture with RISD and a pretty good food scene with local chefs coming from Johnson and wales. I might actually prefer providence to Baltimore. The time from Boston to NYC vs D.C. To NYC is very comparable. I'm willing to say NYC offers more sure. But use your brain. Boston doesn't have little to offer.

[chicagoliz]

Many people here are in the real estate field and have vested interests in making the Boston area seem like something it's not IMO. Boston is a very expensive place to live with relatively little to offer. The disconnect from the east coast megalopolis should be apparent.

This is just a silly statement. I've seen the accusation a few times here on C-D that it is full of realtors whose only goal is to sell the Boston area as a great place to live when it it really isn't and they do this by somehow tricking and deluding unsuspecting people who otherwise have no idea what Boston offers. This idea is just ludicrous.

Boston is, indeed, an expensive place to live. "Relatively little to offer?" Well, okay, maybe for some people. And if that is true, then Boston is not for them. Although there are a very limited number of places that would have more to offer. And even if this were true, the alleged "disconnect" from the rest of the corridor is not at all apparent. Even if you don't like it, Boston is inextricably connected to the rest of the northeast corridor. You don't see the same kind of interconnectedness in other regions (like the South - it's kind of limited to Atlanta, and arguably you could add in Charlotte and the Triangle area of NC. The midwest potentially *could* be, but lots of those cities have suffered some major blows, and haven't become the economic powerhouses they might become if lots of things came into place. The midwest is dominated by Chicago. The Twin Cities are doing well. But, St. Louis, KC, Indianapolis, Cincinnati, Detroit, Cleveland -- they're not there, and have fallen from better times. One day, theoretically, these cities could comprise a similar midwest corridor, but that would require some major efforts (not the least of which would be reliable high speed rail).

Cities further west are too spread out or are extremely different. (L.A. is not very far from Las Vegas, but the two are quite different.) Seattle-Portland-SF-L.A. covers a much greater distance than Bos-Wash.