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Location: Earth, a nice neighborhood in the Milky Way
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Great post.
Quote:
Originally Posted by neguy99
I've heard stories about what Davis used to be like; I mostly know it from the 1990s, before it was "hot" but after it was on its way up. The arrival of the Red Line in 1985 must have been a key catalyst. One of my dad's coworkers went to Harvard b-school in the 70s and was Ahorrified to hear I was living in Somerville -- "Davis Sq? Do you want to get stabbed?!?".
Well of course you are quite right, the T was certainly a huge factor. Another was the end of rent control in Cambridge in 1994, which drove students and others up the red line. It was a one-two punch. The second wouldn't have happened without the first, at least not as rapidly. Without the red line, the migration into Somerville would have been more diffuse.
Quote:
Originally Posted by neguy99
the new young professionals tend not to obsess about putting-green grass, many have even replaced the small lawns with drought-tolerant native shrubs or wildflowers or even herb gardens, all of which my dad characterized as "overgrown with weeds". "I don't care what any listings say, NO ONE will pay $750,000 for a house without a green lawn!"
Tee-hee. One man's meat is another man's poison.
Quote:
Originally Posted by neguy99
Very true. Don't discount environmental laws and de-industrialization too. Air quality in the sense of unpleasant stuff like smoke, foul odors, and eye-watering ozone were still a problem in many inner neighborhoods even into the 70s. Also much more noise, more littering, etc. It's just much more pleasant in the middle of cities than it was 40 years ago. (though PVD is pathetically far behind the west coast on people picking up a 'littering is bad' attitude)
No discount here! Agree 100% about the litter. I wonder if it again comes back to long term stigma perpetuated by the obstreperous malcontents. Tell people they live in a dumping ground often enough, and some of them willl begin to believe it in spite of the architectural splendor, be it west side, downtown, etc. One thing Cianci takes credit for is rebuilding pride in Providence. I don't know how true that is, but if it is true I am grateful to him for it. More needs to be done on that front.
At one point I was looking at housing on the East Side, in Summit, and Mt. Hope. In the process I conferred with acquaintances who are old Rhode Islanders. When discussing the east side, they made a point to question which side of Hope, complete with stories of how it used to be, because the way it was in 1983 has long since crystallized in their minds.
It's 2018 and which side of Hope still very much matters.
Location: Earth, a nice neighborhood in the Milky Way
3,793 posts, read 2,696,474 times
Reputation: 1609
Quote:
Originally Posted by redplum33
Uhhh you posted a link to this 2015 thread today. You revived it.
Quote:
Originally Posted by AlfieBoy
^ Wisdom, like taste, cannot be bought like a cheap tract house in some anonymous architectural "development" or "subdivision" that surely are the new slums and ghettos of America. To spend a career peddling cheap trinkets like a Mexican pauper on a dusty border town road seems like a rather unfulfilling (and probably not particularly profitable) way to waste one's life.
No one of note desires to live like that -- unless, of course, they want to be among their "own kind." That's the "good news" side of the penny for the rest of us.
I quoted Alfie from this dredged up thread because his post somehow seems appropriate now. Alfie, though occasionally mercurial, was a tremendous asset to this forum and is missed. Like him or loathe him, he added something and made the forum an interesting read.
I didn't revive this thread, plum; you did. I posted a link to it because it had to be the one massnative71 was referencing in that other thread. But I didn't dredge it back to the top of the forum.
Here's a tip for you. If you're going to post something, have a point. Or at least be witty. Add something of substance, preferably backed by verifiable facts. That's especially important when reviving an old thread. It makes it so much more useful for the reader. And that's what this forum is really all about. Capisce?
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