Quincy's reputation? (Boston, Cambridge, Somerville: middle-class, apartment, condos)

[pandas&presents]

I've been in North Quincy for nearly a year. Went to a concert at Symphony Hall recently and happened to be sitting next to an adjunct who lives in Cambridge. We chatted and when I said I live in Quincy, she put her hand over her chest and took a breath. She proceeded to tell me that Quincy is not a nice place to live. "...the kind of place where you get into an argument with someone and they leave a key scratch on your car." She told me that I need to move to Porter Square or similar.

So, if you had to use a few words or sentences to describe Quincy, what would they be? (FTR it's an area in which my lifestyle is more affordable and I love my apartment, so I'm unsure that I really care what snotty people think of the area. I had just never heard anything derogatory about Quincy before and am curious.)

[MassNative2891]

Originally Posted by pandas&presents

I've been in North Quincy for nearly a year. Went to a concert at Symphony Hall recently and happened to be sitting next to an adjunct who lives in Cambridge. We chatted and when I said I live in Quincy, she put her hand over her chest and took a breath. She proceeded to tell me that Quincy is not a nice place to live. "...the kind of place where you get into an argument with someone and they leave a key scratch on your car." She told me that I need to move to Porter Square or similar.

So, if you had to use a few words or sentences to describe Quincy, what would they be? (FTR it's an area in which my lifestyle is more affordable and I love my apartment, so I'm unsure that I really care what snotty people think of the area. I had just never heard anything derogatory about Quincy before and am curious.)

People in Eastern Mass tend to be classist. Her statement reeks of a "Those darn townies" sentiment.

Quincy really isn't that bad. To be honest, I wouldn't be surprised if you got your car keyed around Porter. Quincy and Somerville aren't all that dissimilar.

[pennyone]

Originally Posted by pandas&presents

I've been in North Quincy for nearly a year. Went to a concert at Symphony Hall recently and happened to be sitting next to an adjunct who lives in Cambridge. We chatted and when I said I live in Quincy, she put her hand over her chest and took a breath. She proceeded to tell me that Quincy is not a nice place to live. "...the kind of place where you get into an argument with someone and they leave a key scratch on your car." She told me that I need to move to Porter Square or similar.

So, if you had to use a few words or sentences to describe Quincy, what would they be? (FTR it's an area in which my lifestyle is more affordable and I love my apartment, so I'm unsure that I really care what snotty people think of the area. I had just never heard anything derogatory about Quincy before and am curious.)

Hahahahaha....are you serious about this woman with her hand over her chest? Sounds like someone in a comic book or a child's coloring book.

We've lived in Quincy for many years now, and we have never ever encountered anything remotely like what this woman describes. It's hilarious. Porter Square? I don't think so.

[goyguy]

Cambridge has more than its share of people who make "the rest of us" look bad.
Right off the bat I knew that concertgoer had to be of a certain age. (Not only because most concertgoers are.) Quincy has always been a salt-of-the-earth type of place. Though there are sections like Merrymount which are very much on the upscale side, by and large it's solidly blue-collar to middle-class. In the heyday of shipbuilding the Fore River yards buzzed with activity around the clock. Howard Johnson's ice cream, sold in once ubiquitous but now nearly extinct stores all over the East Coast, was once manufactured in a complex (now condos, what a surprise) along the Red Line tracks. Suffice it to say that Quincy for most of its life has been a working person's city. With that typically comes narrow-mindedness and prejudice - instead of venturing into the larger world and perhaps further education, often due to there being no choice, kids graduated directly from high school to the factory. Being provincial means taking care of your own and fearing as well as hating people whose only crime is a different address, let alone being of a different religion or skin tone.

Due to its nature as well as its proximity to Boston, Quincy was inundated during the 1970's with newcomers fleeing the disastrous citywide school busing experiment in South Boston and Dorchester. If it hadn't been a sundown town before, by 1975 it certainly was. Black people looking to shop at the now-long-gone but once tremendously popular Quincy Bargain Center, or hunt for deals on meat at Roxie's, NEVER went there at night or alone. They didn't dare. You'd feel bad for a "person of color" who fell asleep on the Red Line because you couldn't help but assume they didn't mean to be on the Quincy Center (now Braintree) train. When I lived there for a year which couldn't have been over soon enough, in the late '80s, most of the people I ran across were dyed-in-the-wool bigots and proud of it. It's where I first heard the expression "That's mighty white o' ya" after holding open a door for someone or a similar small favor.

Things have markedly changed in more recent times. I had a Black co-worker in the early aughts, who upon seeing the raised eyebrows after telling people where she lived said "We moved to Quincy two years ago, and it's wonderful! Our street's so peaceful and all the neighbors are so nice. It's getting a lot more diverse now, you know." Sections on the north side of town are famously, and predominantly, populated by Southeast Asians. "Persons of color" are running for citywide office, and winning. At one of my go-to places for crappy Chinese takeout - Cathay Pacific on Newport Ave - there are many AA customers in the crowd of people waiting for their orders to be ready. (The place is famous for suddenly realizing you phoned ahead twenty minutes before, as you stroll through the door. hahaha) Everybody just "chillaxes" and cordially chats away. Memories are long, though, for individuals as well as collective groups. The Cantabrigian concertgoer probably persists in holding the image of Quincy that was accurate 30-40 years ago but is now rapidly fading.

[Whatsnext75]

Yeah i guess Quincy still has a blue collar feel which so many snobby people in this state/city seem to look down upon. It's like, oh if you don't have a PhD in anthropology then how are you surviving in life? I work in Cambridge and I am weary of the people around here and Somerville. Green hair, crazy arm sleeve tattoos, piercings God knows where and they want to be rude about where someone lives? Give me a break.

[MocDoc]

I lived in Quincy for many years and with many friends and family members in the area, I visit often. Quincy is a city and with it comes some city problems. It also has lots of great people along with stunning ocean views in a very convenient and livable location. I have never once felt unsafe in Quincy. It does have a bit of a tough, don't mess with me mentality but most people are decent, hardworking, down to earth people who are generally polite.

I now live near Cambridge, which is also a city with its share of city problems. Whenever I go to Cambridge, I regret it. In my experience, the people I encounter tend to be condescending, self-righteous, and often downright rude. They want to make the world a better place by riding their bikes and bringing their own shopping bags. God-forbid they perform an actual act of kindness like holding the door for someone pushing a stroller or an letting someone with one item ahead of them in line but they will run you down to get a parking space at Whole Foods for their Prius with a world peace bummer sticker. I'll take the less entitled Quincy folks any day.

[mdovell]

Quincy isn't bad. If they play their cards right it could be the next Cambridge. I think they do have to eventually fix the quincy center t parking lot but that could take some time.

You have the advantage of being pretty close to Boston, access to the shoreline and access to suburbs. You have rail, bus and roads. Might not have bike lines yet but that's a process. The good health food store is great. I'm mostly been in the quincy center area.

My issue with cambridge isn't so much the people but frankly you can't drive more then 15 feet without hitting at least one crosswalk. It is to the point where they might as well just ban cars from the city

[495neighbor]

You like living there, so that's all that counts, right?

[pennyone]

Originally Posted by pandas&presents

I've been in North Quincy for nearly a year. Went to a concert at Symphony Hall recently and happened to be sitting next to an adjunct who lives in Cambridge. We chatted and when I said I live in Quincy, she put her hand over her chest and took a breath. She proceeded to tell me that Quincy is not a nice place to live. "...the kind of place where you get into an argument with someone and they leave a key scratch on your car." She told me that I need to move to Porter Square or similar.

So, if you had to use a few words or sentences to describe Quincy, what would they be? (FTR it's an area in which my lifestyle is more affordable and I love my apartment, so I'm unsure that I really care what snotty people think of the area. I had just never heard anything derogatory about Quincy before and am curious.)

And what's funny with this adjunct professor is that she isn't making all that much money for all of her educated elitism. Adjuncts usually mean part time teaching with very little to no benefits from the teaching institution. Essentially she is in a lowly teaching fellow-ish position hired to do the grunt work of babysitting undergrads. The two of us both have Masters, and our two incomes easily surpasses and in some cases double the family mean of many affluent towns around Boston. We are also not alone in Quincy. Yet we are very happy being "working class" folks living in Quincy (because we do go to work everyday!), and we don't go around holding our breaths talking about other people! Grimace a little maybe, but never holding our breaths...

[massnative71]

Originally Posted by Whatsnext75

Yeah i guess Quincy still has a blue collar feel which so many snobby people in this state/city seem to look down upon. It's like, oh if you don't have a PhD in anthropology then how are you surviving in life? I work in Cambridge and I am weary of the people around here and Somerville. Green hair, crazy arm sleeve tattoos, piercings God knows where and they want to be rude about where someone lives? Give me a break.

Good point, on the rare occasion I ride the Red Line through Cambridge I sometimes feel like I'm in outer space (especially during off-peak times).