Photo of the Day, Boston Style - Part Deux

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That doesn't necessarily contradict my assertions, Ron. But while you mention it, those places deserve to be criticized too. Namely - I know many people look at these neighborhoods as home and appreciate their village-like quality. But in a city that's become unattractive to new residents because of the absurdity of housing costs, and which has an exploding immigrant population, how much of the vast majority of urban Boston remain in the same quaint streetcar suburban mold as it was in 1930? These places don't go on the postcards for a reason - only people with local memories really care much about the 1-story taxpayer buildings and three deckers that surround them. This whole region should be aggressively commercialized and urbanized (with some exceptions for historic districts) in the same manner as the former streetcar suburbs of western Queens.

Hey, I'm much less harsh than Jane Jacobs. She dismissed all of Boston outside the North End as a "vast grey area".
 
Look, I criticize because I want this city to be better.
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I agree that we must be able to criticize Boston if we want it to improve. But not recognizing that your city is one of the most unique in the country is, at least in my book, just as bad as failing to see its faults. Civic pride is absolutely esssential to a healthy city.
 
The interesting, visual mess that one is presented with walking down Corey Road which just about straddles the Allston-Brookline border:

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I could not agree less that more often than not the city is covered in parking lots than urbanity. Southie, Dorchester, JP, Roxbury, Allston/Brighton, etc. are very urban and rarely deserve criticism in their layouts. Its pointless to go into all the reasons why touching most of the villagey area's you describe is a massive mistake, but COME ON. Downtown and the emerging seaport need work in some places, and new developments have been lackluster throughout the area, but most of your comments are just faulse.
 
The reason I don't invoke civic pride around here is because it's given. I think we all know what makes Boston special/unique, for the most part. Feel free to celebrate, but I prefer to move on emphasize the city's potential rather than its extant achievements.

Speaking of moving on...Joe Gallows' shot is fascinating. I love the telephoto's mashing of the cityscape from Allston to Central Square to the Mystic River: a perspective we rarely see.
 
Ok why are people argueing about unique Boston is. Boston is unique in its own way but it's obvious that Boston is a city, and like many other major city, it will have many things in common and it will be possible that a lot of the city will be indistinguishable from other cities.
 
Here you go cz:

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I mostly agree with your assessment of outer Boston, but I wouldn't go so far as to dismiss the entire city beyond the Shawmut Peninsula.
 
czsz said:
I love the telephoto's mashing of the cityscape from Allston to Central Square to the Mystic River: a perspective we rarely see.
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If you liked that, I have one from the Corey Hill outlook that user underground mentioned in the BU tower thread. Admittedly, the shot itself is poor. It's hard to hand-hold a shot with a lens out to 420mm (2x more zoom than the last shot) on a cloudy day. Also, I almost completely blew the developing job on the film too, but here it is all the same.

The zoom has mashed the view so much, it makes the Harvard Business School look like its literally right around the corner from that tower on Kirkland Street across the river.

(best viewed larger... sorta)
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Business School: lower left, Memorial Hall: dead center, St. Paul's church tower, middle-far-right (very dark)
 
Maybe I'm missing the drift to this debate...but Briv's pictures, I liked them. That's Boston. (But so is the Back Bay.) Maybe I'm prejudiced...
 
that kid standing in the shadows with the hoodie... that's Boston... wait thats Southie
 
czsz said:
The reason I don't invoke civic pride around here is because it's given. I think we all know what makes Boston special/unique, for the most part. Feel free to celebrate, but I prefer to move on emphasize the city's potential rather than its extant achievements.

Speaking of moving on...Joe Gallows' shot is fascinating. I love the telephoto's mashing of the cityscape from Allston to Central Square to the Mystic River: a perspective we rarely see.
Click to expand...

That doesn't mean complain and bitch about Boston endlessly. There are many reasons to be pessimistic about the future of Boston, but not the past development patterns. Boston is a very dense and diverse city with very few surface parking lots, even the outer neighborhoods are a mix of single family, 3-deckers, and brick row houses a la South End. I don't think you can distinguish outer San Francisco from Dorchester or Roxbury besides the brick, face it, American cities mostly developed the same, and to bitch about that is disingeneous. Boston is one of the most unique cities in the US and almost all of its neighborhoods are dense, unique communities. Boston is a huge mass of density that is very different then Dallas or Houston, ok maybe their skylines and highways look the same, but that's because they're in the SAME COUNTRY. All big american cities have expressways in their downtowns, and Boston handled it the best way they could with the Big Dig (besides the cost). Boston and Dallas are way different on street level, and that's what matters. Comparing Boston to NY, you can compare Brooklyn to JP, Staten Island to Hyde Park, Manhattan, Queens, and the Bronx are unique though, but not in a good way IMO (except for Manhattan in parts). Just because the city's big, brick, and gritty, you assume NYC, even though if Boston developed just a little more, it would have looked just like that. Stop having this inferiority complex towards NYC, they're two different cities with one having 15x the other's population. They're not in the same league, and big usually = unique.
 
briv - nice shots. You're right, of course - I always forget East and South Boston (not to mention tiny Charlestown).

Apropos to Barbaric's comments - Southie is extraordinarily like San Francisco.

And I love how the McAllen (?) building looks like a snowcapped mountain looming in the background.
 
Wow, Southie looks shockingly like San Francisco in those pics...well, the more photogenic parts of San Francisco. Reminds me of Noe Valley, e.g., without the hills. The outskirts of San Francisco, while structurally quite dense, are mostly lined with lame 2 story (1st story garage) stucco houses.

Anyway...it doesn't matter. Shouldn't Bostonians welcome comparisons to San Francisco? And we're talking about the much maligned Southie here, not Back Bay.
 
czsz said:
The thing is - there's a lot more of Manhattan and Brooklyn (and they're a far greater percentage of New York) than there is of recognizeable Boston.
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True enough.

Look, I criticize because I want this city to be better.
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Fair enough.

You don't provide incentives to improve something with...

Selective photography and blind boosterism
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Ron Newman said:
I'd say most of Boston looks more like Uphams Corner, or Roslindale Square, or JP's Centre Street, or East Broadway in Southie, ...
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...all of which could use a stiff dose of improvement.
 
blade_bltz said:
Wow, Southie looks shockingly like San Francisco in those pics...well, the more photogenic parts of San Francisco. Reminds me of Noe Valley, e.g., without the hills. The outskirts of San Francisco, while structurally quite dense, are mostly lined with lame 2 story (1st story garage) stucco houses.

Anyway...it doesn't matter. Shouldn't Bostonians welcome comparisons to San Francisco? And we're talking about the much maligned Southie here, not Back Bay.
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Looking at old pictures of the buidings in South Boston there use to be a lot more trim and i would imagine a varied paint sheme.
 
Apropos to Barbaric's comments - Southie is extraordinarily like San Francisco.


Maybe the San Francisco I visited many times over the past many years is different from the one you guys have visited! LOL No way, no where, no how...have I ever thought of similarities between San Francisco and South Boston or even Boston never mind any of SF's neighborhoods and South Boston.
 
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