Boston in Art

The Pike was built through Newton.
The Pike was squeezed in pretty tightly alongside an existing rail corridor. What was planned for Roxbury was quite a bit larger; two new 8-lane expressways and a massive interchange between the two.
 
The Pike was also built through the poorest (and immigrant-heavy) areas of Newton:
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(1938 "residential security" map, widely used for redlining.) Looking at the two halves of the map, it's easy to see exactly why the area's highway system (including the unbuilt highways) was designed as it was.

Incidentally, Fred Salvucci has talked about his immigrant grandmother was displaced - rudely, and underpaid for her house - for the construction of the Pike through Brighton. That led him to question what he was being told to do with the Inner Belt, which resulted in him joining the coalition to oppose it.
 
The Pike was squeezed in pretty tightly alongside an existing rail corridor. What was planned for Roxbury was quite a bit larger; two new 8-lane expressways and a massive interchange between the two.
In Roxbury it was planned next to a rail line and 695 was planned through Cambridge.
 
In Roxbury it was planned next to a rail line and 695 was planned through Cambridge.
The SW X-way (I-95) was planned next to a rail line. But the Inner Belt (I-695 and I-95) would have slashed across Roxbury about where Melnea Cass Blvd is now, except it would have been 8 lanes wide plus breakdown lanes, on/off ramps, and frontage roads. Then there would be the massive interchange at the two expressways' intersection, with parts of the interchange elevated practically on top of a major public housing project. If there ever was a case of outright oppression and brutalization of a low-income area by highway planning and routing, this is a classic case. Cambridge and Somerville would have been similarly steam-rollered over by this project,
 
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^Doing some digging it looks like that puzzle has had several different releases so I wouldn't be surprised if it originated before they won recently and then they just updated it to say "2013 Champions".

That guy apparently makes a living doing folk-arty paintings of popular attractions. Here's a "Best of Massachusetts" puzzle that basically boils the state down to Gloucester and Fenway.

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