Boston in the Seventies

tocoto said:
I lived in Santa Fe for 15 years. It's a great pace to walk and to live for that matter, but you really could not live there without a car. It really is very small and isolated (60 miles from Albuquerque which isn't much of a city, and 400 from Denver). At 121,593 sq mi, New Mexico is the fifth biggest state in the US. It only has 2 million inhabitants making wilderness and natural beauty among the strongest draws in the Santa Fe area and State in general.

Of the large cities, your list is probably pretty accurate IMO.
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Your description of Santa Fe reminds me of Portland, Maine where I've spent 4 years. Nice, small, quaint, surrounded by natural beauty (albeit, a vastly different type), and certainly isolated (around 100 mi from Boston). A car is absolutely necessary here unless you don't plan on leaving your block.

On topic- I agree with most of j6p's assessment of what makes a city a great place. While I won't pretend to have ever been part of "gritty" Boston, I've experienced what gritty and tough neighborhoods (slums) have to offer elsewhere and in my experience, Boston has a good balance of refinery and grit, though it does tend to lean to the former.
 
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Grit: what exactly is it? Can it be defined? Or is it a case of "I know it when I see it"?
 
"Norwegian law student/stripper ... sheesh!"

Oh it gets even more entertaining.....

Ms.Tall tan & lovely is a lipstick lesbian with a penchant for feminist issues in law. Feminist issues in law caused her to be part of the same activist clubs my wife was, hence the connection. She made a fortune off cracking open corporate 'boys clubs', sexual harassment, discrimination, and unequal pay suits.

The stripper and cabaret work was not only to pay for school, but a power trip over men in general. She dated Taiwanese RN from NEMC for years and they shared a place in Bay Village. When Vermont started offering civil unions, they both moved to Burlington.
 
^I can't easily define it. Someone else here may, and definitions probably vary depending on the individual.

I would say a good "gritty" area is someplace you wouldn't initially be attracted to yet it actually has much to offer like Jane Jacob's North End or Federal Hill in the 70s and 80s. They could be defined by many as "ghettos" or "slums" but they're really multi-cultural neighborhoods teeming with life. Best example I can give right now (as a result of familiarity) is New Bedford's N. End. It's home to a variety of ethnic stores, some fantastic restaurants (Antonio's Portuguese has been a staple for years and is still among the best when it comes to Portuguese food), streets filled with activity and mixed use and the BEST outdoor summer festival in the area ( http://www.portuguesefeast.com/ ). It's everything we define as what a neighborhood should have, yet the residents are mostly of the poorer sort. As a result, the restaurants are cheaper, the stores are inexpensive and non-chain, and the area has a bad name. That neighborhood is an example of GOOD grit.

Bad Grit is obvious blighted neighborhoods with lots of vacancies, high crime (NB's N. End has crime, but not NEARLY to the extent other areas do), very little variety in businesses and uses, etc. Dirty. You would steer clear at all costs. Fall River's Flint Village would be a good example of this and so would parts of South Providence(sorry for not using familiar neighborhoods, but the majority of my experience lies within the cities of the south coast). They offer little of value except cheap residence for those looking for it.

*Edit* Lurker, your story made me chuckle a little as I have a stripper friend (though completely American) who uses her job to gain a power trip over men. Too often we paint a picture of stripping as degrading and demeaning to women, but in many cases it's the opposite. They can lure men (I'm not excluded from this) into these dark dingy places, show a little ass and pull in more money in an hour than many people who have reached the highest tiers of education and studying. I know, a little off topic, but I enjoyed your story very much.
 
East Somerville and northern Jamaica Plain (Jackson to Hyde squares) are current local examples of "good grit". Perhaps also Somerville's Union Square, and the section of Cambridge from Inman Square east to Lechmere.
 
Whereas Dudley Square and Uphams Corner seem to perpetually teeter on the edge between 'good grit' and 'bad'.
 
East Boston is another example of "good grit". There's an amazing mix of ethnicities and economic classes over there across the harbor.
 
I'd say so. That is "Mystic River", "The Departed", and "Gone Baby Gone" grit. The one thing I regret most of living in Boston is I never got over to Eastie that much.
 
CDubs said:
East Boston is another example of "good grit". There's an amazing mix of elasticities and economic classes over there across the harbor.
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True that -- I grew up with that very grit under my nails.

Better development (mixed income, mixed use, better materials) will improve things. Problem is, pockets of the neighborhood are blighted by airport and petrochemical activities (essentially malignant land use policy) and our elected officials are ill-suited to the task of making the requisite changes. A casino at Suffolk Downs will tip things in the wrong direction. East Boston could be Boston's answer to Wicker Park or Astoria.
 
I have many friends who live in Astoria and I would totally make that comparison (it even has an airport nearby!)
 
Ron Newman said:
East Somerville and northern Jamaica Plain (Jackson to Hyde squares) are current local examples of "good grit". Perhaps also Somerville's Union Square, and the section of Cambridge from Inman Square east to Lechmere.
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Jackson Square? I would visit friends in the neighborhood, which necessitated a walk past Bromley-Heath from the T. I don't think housing projects can ever provide the "good grit" we're talking about.
 
Jackson Square itself is underdeveloped (we have another thread about a proposal to fix that), but the blocks west from there to Hyde Square are mostly three-deckers and small bodegas and ethnic restaurants. I've always found it a pleasant walk.
 
So, could this be a definition of good grit: "a somewhat shabby but safe and vital working-class area"?
 
^^ Downtown Crossing?

"somewhat shabby" -check

"vital" -check

"working-class" -check ("Marshalls, Macy's, Tellos, TJ Maxx. It don't get much more 'working class' than that)

"safe" -well, I've never felt unsafe there, but others seem to have differing opinions

(sorry for the late edit)
 
Some folks would call Central Square in Cambridge another example of 'good grit', although I find the aggressive panhandling there to be off-putting.
 
^^I haven't spent a lot of time there late at night (no real reason to yet) just passing thru on the way to the T. It does feel sketchy.

Hopefully with all the new residential being built that will change.

(Edit) Was the Combat Zone really that safe?
 
It probably is, but to some, it doesn't feel (or look) safe.

At 80, my grandmother frequented Downtown Crossing (ca. 1985); at 75, my mom won't go there alone, day or night.
 
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