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First time I saw it (as a single person), I thought it was a nice college town with a walkable downtown (which I love). The second time I saw it (as a mom with 3 children) was for a potential move, and I realized that the walkable downtown was full of college kids, which is not my ideal for a young family. And it's pretty rural in its surroundings. People rave about this town. I've lived here for over 6 years now, and I just don't get it.
I thought it was a beautiful school but I went someplace else. I still wish I had got in tbh
While Boston is cool, I like it less every time I visit.
It's still beautiful, but the T sucks, the people are rude, snobby or both. With gentrification the city is becoming a Disneyland version of itself where the grit is fake.
And you're from Boston? Wow. I am shocked someone is level headed from there.
Unlike 99% of people “from Boston” actually from Boston and because I’m black I can see it for more of what r actually is-a nice city with serious overlooked issues and A blatant disregard for its lower middle class long time, mostly minority, city residents.
For such an old city (by NA standards), it's ridiculously ostentatious.
Every other old city isn't as polished (or extremely small by city limits) as Boston. Paris, London, Rome, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Montreal, New York, New Orleans, etc. all have grit and grime.
For such an old city (by NA standards), it's ridiculously ostentatious.
Every other old city isn't as polished (or extremely small by city limits) as Boston. Paris, London, Rome, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Montreal, New York, New Orleans, etc. all have grit and grime.
I would say Boston's grit and crime, at the very least, is on par with Paris, London, and NYC at this point. I'm sure stats would back that up.
I do understand what you're saying though. Boston is almost too polished. I do miss the idea of the old grit.. The old Boston Garden, Charlestown in the 70s, the old Southie. It was very real, yet very theatrical. It had an undeniably thick, authentic look and feel. Growing up in Chicago, I always had this idea of the Boston Garden- People hacking down cigarettes, swearing at eachother, noise pollution going in all directions. Now, for every one "old school" Bostonian, you have three pink hat fans with Patagonia and a bit too much gel in their hair.
I think Boston and DC and NYC are comparable in that way. DC is just as scrubbed down. At least in Boston, it's maintained the old world charm where it applies- Far less tear downs, more remodels. New builds really only arise where there was empty space. That's why Seaport is in Seaport, not on the waterfront in the North End. Kendall was the same way- It was a baron wasteland before being purposed for tech and R&D. Boston cares deeply about maintaining it's history, so much so that shadow laws will not allow highrises. That, even to you, can't be argued. DC, especially around the core, is just new, shiny and sterile.
EDIT: There is factually more diversity in the city than ever before. The majority of which can be found south of the pike as a previous posted pointed out. Just because the Boston that 95% of us see is "almost too polished" doesn't mean there aren't areas of "real" Boston that exist.
I've said this before, maybe about 80 names ago, but I'm way more interested in areas like Southie than anywhere else in Boston. That traditional stereotype of a blue collar Bostonian has been replaced by yuppies. It's a bit of an identity crisis because Boston tries to embrace both, which doesn't really work.
Boston should have way more character than it actually does. Maybe thats a side effect of gentrification.
Bust my balls about the names as much as you want, but I'm gonna be real with you. I want to like Boston, and I actually do, but there are aspects of it that turn me off moreso than most other places. A lot of it is the arrogance. It needs to be itself, but I find a lot of it's characteristics to be very overstated. Modesty is not a word that goes with Boston, and I really wish it did.
What came first, the chicken or the egg? You rag on it like it's Cleveland's cousin, so people are exceedingly defensive against your rhetoric. Part of what you say is true, but a lot of it is vastly overstated. And it's clear to me you feel the same way about people from Boston. I think people, in real life, are very realistic about what Boston is and is not. Maybe not as much on CD? E.g. freinds who have never been to Chicago go and visit, and they talk about how much they love it, how they wish Boston would do X and Y more like Chicago. It's never the case that someone comes back and says "yeah, Chicago is a nice town, but compared to Boston...". New York and Chicago, in my experience, is far more the latter. I genuinely don't think folks from Boston think it's the end-all-be-all. They tend to pride themselves on what Boston has done well- Economy and education, and that's about it from my view point.
In any case, the bolded in your above statement is so true. But don't you think media/popular characters from the city are the cause? And not necessarily the people from the city? The medi either force feeds the country that Boston is high brow, politically active, very intelligent, or rough, hard nosed, blue collar, Irish/Italian blooded. It's very rare that a take on Boston is impartial to one of those two views, you know what I mean?
No one goes from Chicago to Boston and wishes Chicagodid any thing not elike Boston-that’s 1000% accurate. Anyone coming from almost anywhere is always surprised at how boring downtown Boston is at night. Only Chinatown and a slice of Downtown Crossing has the normal vitality you’d expect from a city like Boston. Policy wise Boston is pretty innovative but in the actual amenities and offerings Boston is a dinosaur. That’s why people from Boston are always blown away when they visit damn near any other city. Boston is really built for service worker families and collegiate types and newer now-the very young wealthy elite it’s hard to stress how community and youth driven some of the southern and inner city neighborhoods are. It’s a pretty solid city for the lower middle class-or at least it was..
As posters said, Boston is more diverse than it has ever been. Amongst people living in neighborhoods south of the Pike I’d bet
37.5% were white (compared to 43.9% citywide)
27.5% were black (compared to 23% citywide)
22.5% Hispanic (20 percent citywide)
7.5% Asian (compared to 10% city wide)
5% mixed (compared you 3% citywide)
Compared to Boston of even 2000 it’s mroe diverse with higher incomes and lower crime than ever. The city is heavily gentrified in the most desirable areas closest to downtown (save Roxbury). There is a little in the way of tear downs in any residential Boston neighborhood and little in the way of yoga studios, Starbucks, families with strollers, and young yuppies walking dogs or whole food. Most of what you see in Boston are simply revitalized and beautified neighborhoods when compared to say pre 1995. Same core fabric, but with less biolence and blight-they not seismic shifts of groups 90% of the time.
The typical markers of gentrification have largely played out informer white enclaves like Southie, Far Northern Dorchester, and East Boston (the south end would be an exception as it was a heavily integrated neighborhood as early as the 60s). Although there has been a pricing out of some poor and minority residence the businesses and other operations remain targeted at a lower middle class clientele.
The city isn’t into trendy and doesn’t have rapid transit in much of the southern portion of the city. It’s also much harder to get to universities (save for northeastern) south of the Pike. This has made it a pretty culturally vibrant city with many of the whites who live south of the pike being still Irish and Italian but much less Whitey Bulgeresque than in the 80s-partially because they are the minority now.
The part of Boston 95% of people considered to be the city is ultra gentrified and ultra bland it reflects neither old mobster Boston nor present day diverse Boston not even 1990s transitional Boston. The actual diversity of Boston is lost on the Taurus but Boston is a city where the DA the sheriff and the police commissioner are black majority of the city Council is POC it’s represented in Congress by a black woman and blacks are the largest ethnic group in the public schools. Most of the Mayoral Candiates the past wo election cycles we’re people of color.
Last edited by BostonBornMassMade; 11-07-2018 at 01:19 PM..
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