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agree..Although where I would give philly the nightlife and food scene edge I would give Boston the biotech/healthcare/research edge an edge it would have over any us city
Agreed with you there too.
The rankings I've seen for NIH-funded research place New York first, Boston a close second, and Philadelphia a distant third. But I'd still consider top 3 a "leading position," so I didn't qualify that statement. Had the statement used the definite article rather than an indefinite one, however, I would have.
Last edited by MarketStEl; 07-11-2020 at 01:40 PM..
The rankings I've seen for NIH-funded research place New York first, Boston a close second, and Philadelphia a distant third. But I'd still consider top 3 a "leading position," so I didn't qualify that statement.
That may well be your experience, but your post can easily be interpreted as a statement of fact and not an anecdote or opinion since you originally omitted that your comment was based on (the relatively few) people you've interacted with personally.
My post literally started with “in my experience”.
By state MA is ahead of PA and NY and I can’t inagine more NIH funding goes to Springfield and Worcester than Pittsburgh or Buffalo/Syracuse/Rochester
Well, I need to correct myself at the metro level anyway.
This site, which shows total and per capita NIH funding by metro area in 2018 plus cumulative funding over the five years from 2014-18 and change over time, puts Boston first in total funding, New York second, Durham-Chapel Hill third (Raleigh is ranked separately), San Francisco fourth, Los Angeles fifth and Philadelphia sixth.
These were also the six metropolitan areas whose medical research institutions received $1 billion or more total in NIH funding.
But it was Vocal Banned's claim that Boston has an inferiority complex that led to the side bar conversation you describe. Why have that whole side bar conversation if you weren't trying to figure out what he meant by "inferiority complex?"
We will just agree to disagree here.
Having a superiority complex doesn't mean you have something to compensate for (you're confusing that with an inferiority complex). Rather, it means you have an exaggerated sense of self-worth (pretentiousness and arrogance). And frankly, some of the responses in this thread from Bostonites doesn't help to dispel that opinion some may have about the city having a superiority complex.
Going back to Boston recently with significant disposable money and a year removed...
Yea that city is pretty amazing I can’t lie. With more separation I can see why people like it so much. There’s a ton to do and it’s well run. And yea-it’s a pretty worldly place it’s more so just friend groups that are insular. Peoples worldview and general ideology is pretty damn expansive.. but there is a sense that if Boston didn’t make, create or shepherd something-and another state did-it’s not as good.
But overall it’s a much better city than Baltimore and maybe a little better than Philly. Although I love phillys size and culture.
Agreed about Boston. Horribly overrated. Just a larger Providence. I feel like it so desperately wants to be at the big kids’ table that it has convinced itself it belongs, but deep down, it has an inferiority complex and is not self-assured that it’s a marquee city. People from Boston act like the city is so cultured, educated, urban, and world-class, and it’s just so not. Its got absolutely nothing on NYC, Chicago, and Philly, but Boston residents actually think it can compete on the world stage.
Boston is a larger Providence.
But it also has better and more museums, better and more jobs, cleaner, better landscapes streets, more nice neighborhoods with ornate architecture, better and more waterfront access, better and more public transit, better and more shopping.
It’s not just bigger- it’s head and shoulders better than Providence in terms of what it offers.
For a regular, broke, person living there just getting by Providence and Boston are virtually the same on a day to day. That I agree with.
I always thought Boston was overrated just because the vibe there is overly serious. Like it takes itself too seriously. The nightlife isn't that good, the sports scene is overrated (looking at you TD Garden attendance figures), the food is okay, and the weather is pretty miserable.
You're paying New York and San Francisco prices for that?
I agree with Guineas how it's often very over-romanticized by outsiders for some reason, like the "fall in Boston" stuff. As if fall doesn't happen in New York or Philadelphia or something.
Boston is mostly tripledeckers and single family homes. Somerville and Cambridge are some of the most bland middle American neighborhoods from a visual aesthetic. Brookline has more appealing architecture than both. But like BostonBornMassMade has said repeatedly in the past, people always wanna add places like that to Boston's city limits but not eyesores like Everett, Revere, Lynn, Malden, Melrose, etc.
I forgot to mention it's racist history. Boston altogether is just a very exclusive and unfriendly place to visitors.
Honestly, it would be a lot nicer if it weren't for the people. I think that's probably half of it for me. The arrogance factor. For whatever reason. Your elite universities are housed by a lot of non-natives and foreigners, not locals. It's not as if native Bostonians are born and wake up with an IQ of 200.
Funnily enough, an old friend of mine met a guy from Southie, married him, had a kid and moved there. He's a huge Trump supporter. Lol.
The one thing I like most about Boston is the history, but that's a characteristic that it shares with Philadelphia. So it's not as if it's just a Boston thing.
Boston and the environs are large enough, diverse enough and segregated/cordoned off enough that you get lots of different vibes you can immerse yourself in. Eve wee Beach is a wonderfully diverse beach demographically and it’s a great location and full of locals and some mom and pop food places/ subsidized apartment blocs, luxury condos, public transit...Malden is awesome, Cambridge is awesome, Dorchester I awesome....I think it’s more so overpriced not overrated really.
You are right about tossing in the advantageous locales and not the bad ones.
And ‘Boston in the fall’ has never made sense to me-I see the same fall around NYC and Philly. Weathers nice in Boston at that time though IMO.
Racism and the exclusive nature make it so that it requires too much being in “the know/loop” to experience the whole of the city. That’s a major drawback.
You may not be wrong about Providence, but outside of New England, I'm not sure anyone considers it a city of relevance.
So I'd say it's rated just right.
Providence doesn't feel grim like Hartford but not as bright and cheery at Boston. But per capita it provides noticeably better food, nightlife, and arguably art/artistic scene and is more of a true progressive/freewheeling type of vibe overall. The affordability also helps.
It’s got bad infrastructure but so does Boston (bottom 5 in the country). It’s got corrupt politics but so does Boston (the mafia still exists in Boston, and just look at Marty Walsh and his federal probes-2, John Lynch, Diane Wilkerson, et al). People are just more willing to give Boston a pass.
First of all, it was an assumption not backed by any raw statistics.
Second, while it may very well be true that Boston residents are more "worldly" (which I don't know for certain, but I wouldn't dispute if someone provided the raw statistics to prove it), it's such a pompous thing to say to someone who is being critical of the city as you're essentially dismissing their opinion since they're not as "well-traveled."
Not an assumption-an observation. Boston is 29% foreign born I think the only other major cities that compare are NYC LA Miami and maybe Houston? I think it’s the 3rd most educated major city with over half of adults having a college degree. It also has cheap and frequent flight to Europe due to proximity and some very unique immigrant groups (Cape Verdeans, small West Indian nations). And tons of international students. It’s wordly. More so than most places I’ve been.
I get what your saying about pretentious and I agree I just don’t think worldliness is the best way to exemplify that...
The liquor licenses, how they deal with legal marijuana, the nickname the Hub, the sports fans, the glacial pace of political change, and general expense would be just a few of the better starting points.
The comment that got under your skin was a direct response to this passage I wrote in a post that was not critical of Boston in the way you've been but rather an attempt to clarify the Boston attitude as I saw it:
The respondent was somewhat taken aback by the phrase "Why should I travel when I'm already here?" I've since provided evidence that this phrase is, or maybe was now, a Bostonism.
It's no knock on a city IMO to point out areas where it is insular. Shoot, New Yorkers can even behave in a way that outsiders might consider insular, or at least very self-centered (consider that famous Saul Steinberg New Yorker cover, for instance. And it's a "Kansas City strip," thankyouverymuch).
Actually, to add another data point on Bostonian insularity, I remember hearing a song that was sung in a particular Boston neighborhood I made a point of avoiding when I lived there:
"Well, I was born down on A Street
Raised up on B Street
Well, Southie is my home town..."
Anyone familiar with both my race and Boston's racial history should be able to figure out why I avoided that neighborhood.
Philadelphia's analogue is Fishtown, by the way.
Both have undergone transformations that have rendered them safe for me to visit. South Boston's is the more dramatic of the two.
No offense but you went to Boston in the early 1980s..as a black man...and you were really in Cambridge at Harvard...
I appreciate your like for the city but it’s been a while since you’ve spent significant time there no? Especially in the neighborhoods...
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