What I hate about Boston

GW2500 said:
I hate how college kids come here, stick to their campus, Back Bay, Fanuel hall, Allston/Brighton, and Harvard Sq. and act like they have seen all of
Boston. Especially assuming that Boston dosn't have real neighborhoods, and real streets. That Boston is fully of pussies. Try walking through Roxbury, or parts of Dorchester, Southie, East Boston, East Cambridge, Charlsetown, shit go to Malden. It's got it's real side too. Boston, demographically and sociol economiclly, is pretty close to NY, just on a minuture scale. Boston actaully has a far higher murder rate than NY (and homicides are terrible). But my point is NY is allways viewed as that tough crazy place where only the strong survive (and I do admit after going through all the burroughs that NY is crazier) and Boston is this preppy town with only colleges. NY is hip hop and were just white boys listening to Irish folk music or Dave Mathews Band (I do like DMB) and its more like were (demographically) pretty much the same just on a smaller scale.
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That's just terrible.
 
This is from the late 90's. This would have been "Boylston Square," corner of Mass Ave and Boylston Street, on the air rights over the Pike. CBT was the architect (likely the best thing they've ever done). Initially 59 stories, trimmed to 49, and then killed. Condos, retail and 12 movie theatres.

A shame.
 
^ Worst NIMBY martyrdom in Boston history? A close second might be the Renzo Piano Charles River museum.
 
Originally Posted by GW2500
I hate how college kids come here, stick to their campus, Back Bay, Fanuel hall, Allston/Brighton, and Harvard Sq. and act like they have seen all of
Boston. Especially assuming that Boston dosn't have real neighborhoods, and real streets. That Boston is fully of pussies. Try walking through Roxbury, or parts of Dorchester, Southie, East Boston, East Cambridge, Charlsetown, shit go to Malden. It's got it's real side too. Boston, demographically and sociol economiclly, is pretty close to NY, just on a minuture scale. Boston actaully has a far higher murder rate than NY (and homicides are terrible). But my point is NY is allways viewed as that tough crazy place where only the strong survive (and I do admit after going through all the burroughs that NY is crazier) and Boston is this preppy town with only colleges. NY is hip hop and were just white boys listening to Irish folk music or Dave Mathews Band (I do like DMB) and its more like were (demographically) pretty much the same just on a smaller scale.


I strongly agree with GW2500. The people I talk to down south thinks that boston doesn't have a ghetto and that its white people only here. They don't know the REAL Boston. All they know is what they see on tv and what people tell them. And Im sick and tired of the maps of the city stopping its boundries at the south end and back bay like parts south aren't part of the city. That makes me mad as HELL
 
What maps do you mean? The ones tourists use? If so, then yeah, I agree, it's terrible the Freedom Trail doesn't lead straight to Bowdoin-Geneva.
 
All they know is what they see on tv and what people tell them.
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I'm not sure about that. The vast majority of good movies set in Boston showcase the city's rougher parts. Think The Departed, Boondock Saints, Mystic River, Gone Baby Gone, etc.
 
I will admit it was a bit ranting and not put together. Let me further my point. And I guess it's not soo much that I hate Boston for this, but just how its viewed. Most people view Boston as a rich white bread town with no diversity. Now that scene does exist, on par with New York really. But Boston does have diversity, and real neighborhoods. I suppose those movies mentioned above show Boston's working class neighborhoods, but I think Gone Baby Gone is the only one that has Black people in it. And I think this city's diversity is something to be proud of. And maybe this is just me but I'm also proud to live in a city where if your a punk, you will get your ass kicked. The homicides are trajic and I hope they will stop, but sadly in all reality they can only be minimized not eliminated.
 
Me too. What exactly does GW2500 have against fans of the Ramones and Sex Pistols?
 
I think he means in the non-musical sense.

Like the goons on my street used to say, "If you don't want none, there won't be none."
 
GW2500 said:
I will admit it was a bit ranting and not put together. Let me further my point. And I guess it's not soo much that I hate Boston for this, but just how its viewed. Most people view Boston as a rich white bread town with no diversity. Now that scene does exist, on par with New York really. But Boston does have diversity, and real neighborhoods. I suppose those movies mentioned above show Boston's working class neighborhoods, but I think Gone Baby Gone is the only one that has Black people in it. And I think this city's diversity is something to be proud of. And maybe this is just me but I'm also proud to live in a city where if your a punk, you will get your ass kicked. The homicides are trajic and I hope they will stop, but sadly in all reality they can only be minimized not eliminated.
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Inexcusably, Affleck almost entirely neglected to represent the significant Vietnamese population in Dorchester. GBG wasn't set in Mattapan, after all.

Still, the Cape Verdean reference was cool...and I'm sure no one outside of Boston managed to catch it at all.
 
Blade, Cape Verdeans are well represented on the South Coast and in Rhode Island as well. In fact, Waterplace in Providence has Cape Verdean night every Saturday night. Unfortunately people outside southern New England (specifically Eastern Mass and Northern RI) don't know anything about the Cape Verdean culture. My girlfriend (from Maine) and I accidentally stumbled upon the Cape Verdean night at Waterplace once in Providence and when the bouncer said, "Just so you know, It's Cape Verdean night," my girlfriend responded with a humiliating, "Cape Verdeeeen? What the heck is that?" We were in front of a large group of them smoking cigarettes outside and promptly left. I was mortified.

So, no question that the reference was neat, but they do extend outside of Boston. I personally felt that Affleck depicted DOT as predominantly white trash. I know there's a fair share, but there's more to it than that. Gone, Baby, Gone was enjoyable no less, but there was certainly more room for improvement.
 
Yea them movies show the white people ghettos, no offense. They barely show the black population. I want to see a big budget movie shot in Roxbury or Mattapan where there is a large black population. And where I used to live down south they have no culture at all!!! They dont know what Cape Verdians are neither Dominicans. They never even heard of these things. They barely even know what reggae music is and thats sickening
 
rayray07 said:
Yea them movies show the white people ghettos, no offense. They barely show the black population. I want to see a big budget movie shot in Roxbury or Mattapan where there is a large black population.
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Could part of the reason why movies seem to focus on working class white ethic neighborhood in Boston is because they are relatively unique in the country? The white ethnic neighborhood of Boston may have some parallels in Chicago and NYC, but its relatively unique IMO.

Just a thought, but I'm not sure that Boston's black neighborhoods are perceived as offering anything unique compared to other US cities. If a movie is going to be set in a black neighborhood, they would likely gravitate to NYC, Detroit, Baltimore, Chicago or LA etc. Further, although we have a significant amount of foreign born blacks, including but not limited to Hatians, there are larger communities in NYC and Miami. Boston and New England may have the largest concentration of Cape Verdians in the US, but their impact is so minor on nationwide scale. Every major city in the U.S. seems to have some large minority or ethnic population that is relatively unique to that particular area - whether the community is from the middle east, Africa or S.E. Asia. Also, its my understanding that many Cape Verdians (and Brazilians and Carribean populations for that matter) do not self identify themselves as black or even hispanic.
 
I hate what has happened to the Boston Globe. Nothing to do with the paper's politics, which are unchanged. It is the quality that has cheapened.
As late as the 70's, the Globe was a nationally regarded publication of record. The top tier was (and always been) the N.Y. Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal. The Globe used to slot into the A minus tier with the L.A. Times. Since that time, the Globe slowly bled to death from a thousand cost cuts.
Bureau eliminations, layoffs, over reliance on wire services, an editorial panel that writes with the sophistication of a college newspaper staff... today's Globe is very much the Double A team to the Times major league franchise. It appears that the Times bought the Globe only for its considerable production facilities, not as a patron of newscraft. But it isn't all the Times fault; the damsel was in distress long before the "Fit to Print" gang abjured the role of white knight.
They ought to finish the job. Prune the Globe of all national and international news, and insert it into the New England edition of the Times as the local supplement. As things now stand, the Globe is on a par with the Newark Star-Ledger, a very nice local paper that one reads only when there is enough time left after reading the grown up papers.
 
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