kennedy
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From Today's Globe
Debunking 5 myths about Boston
We're not this. We're too that. You've heard all the chatter about our city. But what's out there isn't all true.
The new year has arrived. The celebratory balloons have all been popped. Now's a good time to puncture some fables about our city that have lingered through the ages.
Myth 1: Funky driving
We have the world's worst drivers? Oh. This means residents of the Athens of America would have to swallow the dubious notion that we are born and bred to be reckless and rude on the roadways.
So, really, where (and who) are the most awful drivers in the universe? According to sundry surveys, that would be a) Miami (AutoVantage); b) New York (GMAC Insurance); c) teenage Asian girls (National Transportation Safety Board); or d) Women and gay men (University of London).
That means anywhere you happen to be cut off by a Zamboni masquerading as an SUV would cause you to label that place the worst driving spot on the planet. In other words, it may be all in your head, according to University of Hawaii psychology professor Leon James, who specializes in motorist madness.
And that may be a more dangerous place than the breakdown lane of the Southeast Expressway.
When drivers see what's unfolding around them as being more heinous than in other venues, says James, it lets them hold a pity party for one. And it gives them the OK - from within - to do bad things behind the wheel, just like everybody else. And it ups the ante as they plot revenge - real or imagined.
"Road rage is the inability to let go of that feeling of retaliation," says James, co-author of "Road Rage and Aggressive Driving: Steering Clear of Highway Warfare."
The true elixir for rush-hour stress syndrome, he says, is to view driving as a cooperative activity, not a cutthroat and competitive one.
Myth 2: Walkie, talkie
Riddle us this: How can we have the world's worst drivers and be the most walkable town around?
Depends on whom you ask. Mayor Tom Menino likes to hype us as the hoofer's paradise. Others disagree.
For the folks at walkscore.com, San Francisco holds that honor. The brainiacs at the Brookings Institution measured the per-capita number of "walkable urban places" in major metropolises and declared Washington, D.C., the winner.
It's true that Boston is a compact city, easy to get from A to B.
Yet the city seems to be in a constant state of overhaul, whether from the years of the Big Dig or the various little digs that have ensued. So, it's safe to say that Boston is the most walkable city in the country - if accompanied by an armored tank.
Take one of the current construction hot spots, at the corner of Stuart and Washington streets in Chinatown. Every day the masses traverse the intersection by foot, in wheelchairs, or aided by walkers. With the sidewalk shut down, they must travel on the road and in the path of cars, trucks, and buses.
Pedestrians say they hold their breath. They pray. As she'd walk to the subway at night with vehicles bearing down behind her, Lydia Lowe, executive director of the Chinese Progressive Association, would think: "I hope these cars are paying attention."
Even Menino seems to be sending out a subtle message about trying different transportation modes in the city. One of the latest images of the mayor is of him aboard his trusty bicycle - minus the Spandex shorts, of course.
Myth 3: Style craven
OK, so the mayor is not exactly a Newbury Street fashionista. And the Pilgrims were awfully frumpy dressers. And we're not New York, where every week is fashion week. But we're not the nation's capital, either, where the daring style question of the day for men and women is whether to wear a power suit in black or gray.
Others view us as a fashion backwater and see a boring blur of hospital scrubs and sweatpants with college names or cute sayings on the rear, tucked into Ugg boots, and the postmodern Brahmin unisex combo of blue blazer, man-tailored shirt, and khaki pants.
Gina DeWolfe, a 19-year-old student at the School of Fashion Design on Newbury Street, a model, and a professional designer in her own right, sees a daring cast of characters who use the sidewalks as their style runways.
"Boston is very youthful, with a great sense of exploration and energy," says DeWolfe.
There's less a dominant "Boston Look" to put a label on than a kaleidoscope of cultural clothing cliques. "Location to location, it changes a lot," says DeWolfe.
In the Back Bay, she says, there are the more staid professional women in their jeans and brown riding boots, long black double-breasted wool coats, and colorful scarves.
In Harvard Square, there are the hipster guys and girls shoehorned into pencil-thin jeans, wrapped in red-and-black flannel lumberjack shirts, carrying solid-colored backpacks with neon zippers, their feet attired in Vans Authentic sneakers.
In the vintage garment houses, she says, there are the thrift-shop hoppers who evoke the area's parsimonious Puritan ethos as they look to pair throwback high-waisted dresses with sparkly belts, gaudy costume jewelry, and pointy pumps.
Not to mention, says DeWolfe, the Berklee College kids with their colorful mohawks or messenger caps. And the renegade skateboarders in their skinny jeans and plain white T-shirts and Lakai skate shoes.
It's that kind of basic Boston 'boarder getup, locals say, that gets no national buzz - until some designers come along to emulate it in their studiously carefree mainstream fashion lines.
Myth 4: Sportstown, USA
Not to belittle the recent championships of the city's Big Three - Red Sox, Patriots, Celtics. But there's more to the title of "greatest sports town, evah!" than shiny trophies.
There's the tiny matter of the folks filling up the local stadiums and arenas. In the fan department, Boston has plenty of competition.
"I chuckle about the debate," says Dan Wann, a professor of psychology at Murray State University who has studied the psyche of sports fans. "Every town thinks they have the best sports fans."
What about Green Bay Packers fans? While Red Sox fans act like they own the team, Packers fans actually do. Chicago Cubs fans? One hundred years and counting since their last world championship. Even Kansas City Royals fans get a vote, Wann says, for standing by their bedraggled team.
It's also true that since the advent of free agency, with players moving around like highly paid migrant workers, fans in most cities root for the team over the individual.
In Boston, though, they've transformed this urge into a personal passion play, turning on defecting players faster than Brady turned on Bridget.
Johnny Damon? He went from deity to demon the minute he signed with the Yankees. Mark Teixeira? He was deemed a prime beef player when he thought about signing with the Red Sox. Now he's considered chopped liver after he spurned the Bosox for, again, the dreaded Yankees.
With its fans boasting big hearts but small minds - reveling when even local youth league players don't want to wear Yankees on their uniforms - can Beantown really claim to be the "best sports town, evah!" over other burgs like, say, the Big Apple?
Myth 5: A hill of beans
Speaking of Beantown, for all its relevance as a nickname to the modern Boston, we might as well be called Maine-Lobster-Bisque-Sicilian-Style-Tuna-Roast-Rack-of-Colorado-Lamb-Land.
It's been some time since Boston baked beans became a fixture on area tables - since Colonial dress here was a reality, not a relic. Back in the day, beans were plentiful, and the sugar and molasses add-ins were byproducts of the shipping trade.
Today, baked beans are no longer considered a local staple, but can be found on menus of restaurants that appeal to tourists, such as Durgin-Park.
Meanwhile, other cities have established iconic dishes that are not only known nationwide but are still widely eaten by the natives. Think cheesesteak in Philadelphia, cheesecake in New York, and crab cake in Baltimore.
Here? We've got Boston cream pie. But it's too hard to find in restaurants. Lobsters and clam chowder? Too regional to be considered Boston essentials.
A signature dish can add more than good taste to a city's charms.
"It gives a sense of culture, a sense of history, a sense of community," says Marlo Fogelman, owner of marlo marketing/communications.
But even without a marquee foodstuff, Boston boosters like Fogelman say our city has plenty of culture, history, and community to go around.
Ric Kahn can be reached at rkahn@globe.com.
