Help me with setting for a story prompt for college? (Boston: crime, homes)

[JeffSanDimas]

I'm in college in CA, I'm taking an elective creating writing class. The prompt I have to write about is "crime and punishment", I don't want to go into details but I am writing a short story about a poor guy with a child on the way who lost his job and becomes so desperate he robs a bank. All of my other stories have been set here in CA but since it's a crime story, there is something about the urban, dirty, northeastern cities that makes it a good atmosphere for this kind of story. I didn't want to write about NYC because it's over done. Also I am setting it in the north east because my character is poor and white and here CA poor white people live in trailers in the desert, not city neighborhoods.

Where would my main character live in the Boston area?

He is poor and he comes from a poor family of drunks and addicts
His area has a reputation for being "white trash" (I don't like this term but it's the best way to describe it)
He is white (haven't decided his ethnicity, please tell me if the area you suggest is associated with with Irish, Italian, Polish etc)
He lives close enough to Boston that he has a strong accent
It is set in modern day (if it was set 20 years ago I could've just said Southie)


I want it to be as realistic as possible! Please help!

It doesn't have to be a neighborhood in the city proper, anywhere in the area close enough to be called Boston/have the accent is fine (the same way someone from El Segundo says they're from LA, or someone from Evanston says Chicago etc)


I don't want to offend anyone so I am sorry if I did, it's just fiction that I'm writing but my professor happens to be a new englander and I want to make it seem real!!

[just_because]

For all intents and purposes (Boston accents) extend very far out from Boston.

Ideas:
A depressed Boston area commercial fishing city that has seen much better days and is now besieged with social problems. Story - guy who did some commercial fishing but is now a 'marked man' in the tight fishing community - ostracized and/or under threat wherever he goes. Perhaps he stole something from a fellow crewman while at sea (less personal and now more ostracized than threatened) or he had sex with a fisherman's wife or girlfriend while her husband was at sea (very personal and a marked man for violence). Now nobody will hire him on a boat and he feels desperate and tormented. New Bedford and Gloucester would be good places to base such a story. Both are gritty and well known - Gloucester for being the base for the Perfect Storm tragedy and book/film. NB for dark and disturbing crime of all sorts including the 'Big Dan's' case which was made into a film.

If you want a less well known place and one that's more of a blank canvas and nondescript (i.e. without such as strong connection like Gloucester has to commercial fishing - most readers will associate Gloucester with commercial fishing) then there are plenty of choices in and around Boston -e.g. Chelsea, East Boston, Charlestown (somewhat gentrified but still kind of known for the social problems/scene that you are talking about and perhaps the best known for it).

All areas mentioned have a reputation as having large white underclasses with drug, alcohol, violence, unemployment and other problems. They are gritty and part of their reputation relates to crime where nobody talks - witnesses are afraid to come forward. Communities are tight and snitches don't last long. Crime is often organized/mob based to various degrees. Some may say that this is exaggerated reality today but the reputation of these places certainly allows you to develop the theme of gritty, violent, seedy underbelly.

As for the enthicity - Irish would obviously work, italian, or portuguese (New Bedford has a large Portuguese pop).

[CaseyB]

New Bedford would work, minus maybe the accent.

[JeffSanDimas]

Thanks guys! I was thinking more of an inner urban place, like what Southie was like.

Dorchester?

Are there still Irish Americans in Boston public housing? I could set it there?

[CaseyB]

Originally Posted by JeffSanDimas

Thanks guys! I was thinking more of an inner urban place, like what Southie was like.

Dorchester?

Are there still Irish Americans in Boston public housing? I could set it there?

Parts of Dorchester, yes.

Of course there are still some, but that's been done many times before.

[just_because]

Originally Posted by JeffSanDimas

Thanks guys! I was thinking more of an inner urban place, like what Southie was like.

Dorchester?

Are there still Irish Americans in Boston public housing? I could set it there?

Despite gentrification, Charlestown has not really shed its reputation for white criminal gangs, underclass criminals and public housing. Well known for 'no snitch'. This is Bunker Hill land so rather iconic in Boston.

Dorchester does not have the same reputation as 'what Southie was like'. People more think of a black neighborhood when they think of Dorchester. I know that this is far from entirely the case but you will need to deal with readers' perceptions rather than be completely grounded in reality. For anyone who knows Boston, Charlestown still will immediately paint the picture you are trying to paint. Read about 'townies' and the notorious gangland background. While the area has changed immensely, it still has the connotations from the past and the underclass/criminality persists in reality.

While both Somerville and Charlestown have gentrified away from their rather dodgy history, Somerville has less clear image in my opinion = artsy, spillover from intellectual Cambridge, along with any lingering reputation for crime.

[JeffSanDimas]

Nice! Thank you!

[495neighbor]

Originally Posted by JeffSanDimas

I didn't want to write about NYC because it's over done. Also I am setting it in the north east because my character is poor and white and here CA poor white people live in trailers in the desert, not city neighborhoods.

The Boston Irish gangster theme has also been overdone.

For something completely realistic, you should set your story in some Massachusetts gateway city where the manufacturing jobs or jobs at a nuclear power plant have disappeared due to closings or shutdowns. Maybe Gardner or Athol or Orange for the backdrop. For something more urban Worcester or Springfield could work. This would pose the big question of what is more important long term environmental survival or day-to-day human economic survival.

[charolastra00]

Originally Posted by 495neighbor

The Boston Irish gangster theme has also been overdone.

For something completely realistic, you should set your story in some Massachusetts gateway city where the manufacturing jobs or jobs at a nuclear power plant have disappeared due to closings or shutdowns. Maybe Gardner or Athol or Orange for the backdrop. For something more urban Worcester or Springfield could work. This would pose the big question of what is more important long term environmental survival or day-to-day human economic survival.

I like this idea.

I'd also suggest Haverhill as a backdrop. It fell victim to the decline in manufacturing and urban renewal, but it was once a great manufacturing city and still has reminders of its grand past (like streets filled with gorgeous Victorian homes - including the one my mom grew up in). Unfortunately, when the shoe factories closed up shop, the city never regained its economic power. City planners bulldozed a huge chunk of downtown with all its history and density to put in a huge shopping center (Market Basket and strip mall) in the 1960s. It's hideous and a scar across the city. There is a serious brain drain and despite being on the end of the commuter rail, it never seemed to gain much popularity with commuters who aren't from the area. There's also a huge heroin problem.

In my family, either you got out of Haverhill or you had a 50/50 chance of becoming an addict. That's as true on my dad's working class, single mother family side as it is on my mom's upper middle class side. From a young age, I could tell when my uncles were using based on their weight when we came to visit. People who would have been able to support themselves with a below average IQ and high school diploma 50 years ago weren't able to adapt quickly enough to deal with the change in the local economy. You see them downtown - they walk around like skeletons.

While I do know people who live in Haverhill and commute elsewhere, many are scared off by the criminal underbelly. It's by no means the worst city in Massachusetts, but it struggles to gain appeal among more educated, middle to upper class families. There are some exciting developments happening, and I'm hopeful that it could one day turn a corner, but with the heroin addiction issues the corner is far off.

You could also do a big range of ethnicities because Haverhill is so mixed. There is still an active synagogue and there was a big wave of Jewish migration in the early 1900s, there's a large Greek population, Irish, Italian, and even Armenian.