Photo of the Day, Boston Style: Part IX (2016)

steel wool at the skate park

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https://www.flickr.com/photos/gmack24/26154013440/in/dateposted/
 
There was some crazy fog the other day. I thought something was on fire!





 
Digitizing some old film rolls I took. Here's a blast from the past. . .


Dirty Old Kenmore, March 1997
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There's something to be said for urban grit. A lot of it in Boston has disappeared.
 
We used to have some really cool discussions about Boston's grit. Good grit vs bad grit, is any grit really good?, etc.

Good stuff.
 
statler said:
We used to have some really cool discussions about Boston's grit. Good grit vs bad grit, is any grit really good?, etc.

Good stuff.
Click to expand...


^ I definitely think there's such a thing as good grit. If a city is too pristine everywhere, it is inevitably very expensive and thus exclusionary...It's harder for the independent shops to afford rent, and then you end up with 100% of coffee shops being a Starbucks, etc. Some of my favorite urban neighborhoods in the U.S. are the ones that have great bones but just the right amount of grit...like parts of Deep Ellum in Dallas or Pioneer Sq. in Seattle (yea, parts can border on too gritty), but there's a sweetspot where the city is clean+safe enough, yet wonderfully inclusionary, affordable, creative...and you just never know what you're going to stumble upon. When cities become too predictable (oh look, another starbucks!), there's a lost element of curiosity in urban life...
 
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bigpicture7 said:
^ I definitely think there's such a thing as good grit. If a city is too pristine everywhere, it is inevitably very expensive and thus exclusionary...It's harder for the independent shops to afford rent, and then you end up with 100% of coffee shops being a Starbucks, etc. Some of my favorite urban neighborhoods in the U.S. are the ones that have great bones but just the right amount of grit...like parts of Deep Ellum in Dallas or Pioneer Sq. in Seattle (yea, parts can border on too gritty), but there's a sweetspot where the city is clean+safe enough, yet wonderfully inclusionary, affordable, creative...and you just never know what you're going to stumble upon. When cities become too predictable (oh look, another starbucks!), there's a lost element of curiosity in urban life...
Click to expand...

I feel the same.
 
F-Line to Dudley said:
Digitizing some old film rolls I took. Here's a blast from the past. . .


Dirty Old Kenmore, March 1997
29vi44k.jpg
Click to expand...

I miss the old Kenmore Sq.... Another area that dramatically changed and lost its grit is causeway st. Hopefully the new projects under construction in the footprint of the old garden will bring back some of the "urban feeling"
 
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