I wince when Mayor Mumbles calls Boston a 'world class city'. We really are not. For starters try to get something to eat after midnight in this town. IHOP's in Harvard Sq and elsewhere don't cut it.
Yes Boston is unique because of our institutes of higher learning. Harvard, MIT bring us the best of the best to learn here and BC,BU, Tufts and the other fine schools help the city stay recession proof. We are also arguably the best city in the world to get sick in. But we are not in the same league as cities like London, Paris, New York or even Chicago. For starters in those cities you can get public transportation at 2 in the morning.
There are a handful of great cities in the US and Canada. New York and Los Angeles for better or worse stand alone in what they offer. Chicago despite dealing with awful weather in the winter follows right behind. So where does Boston fit in?
I would put us at the same level as Seattle, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Washington, Toronto, Montreal and Atlanta.
Seattle and San Francisco feel very comfortable to a Bostonian. They are both beautiful cities physically with the mixture of hills and water. Certainly their weather is less severe than here and that has helped them attract companies and workers in this internet age. Boston is simply a harder sell now to attract companies.
We used to have a world class newspaper but the NY Times has all but destroyed the Boston Globe. The Herald is like a cat but I fear it is on life number 8.
We are proud of our sports teams and even with the Patriots debacle in the Super Bowl it has been a good year. However our city is now hated by sportsfans nationwide, not because of the teams but the fanbase. Sadly we have become more obnoxious than New York fans. Millions of fans rooted for the Giants in the Super Bowl just because they were playing a team from Boston.
Still we offer more than most cities. We are a gateway to the Cape, Maine, New Hampshire and the rest of New England. New York is 4 hours away or less by plane, train or the immortal Fung Wah. Montreal is only 5 hours away as well.
The city is also cosmopolitan as it is a magnet for visitors from Europe. They come here to shop and avoid the hassles of Manhattan ( and who can blame them ) Boston may seem expensive to us but it is very cheap for them.
We pay through the nose for the right to live here but it is home.
But World Class? No.....
The reality is the city is not a small New York but a big Providence.....not that there is anything wrong with that.!!!
6 comments:
So...your idea of world class is that you can get on a bus at 2:00 in the morning and go get something to eat? Otherwise, we're ok? Okey-Dokey!
Sorry Bud, I have to disagree with you. I would defintely call it world class. You said something about being the weather being too severe hear? Well it seems to me millions of people come each year just to see, hear and feel the historic New England living. I do agree that we are very similar to San Fransisco and Seattle, that was a great point, and those too are great cities. But this article was a little disappointing, take some pride in your city! It has history that no other can match maybe except for Philadelphia, amazing people (which is rare up north), and an amazing standard of living that most cities dream about.
Yeah, let me tell you something. Two things... One: I get sick of people--including Bostonians--who keep putting Boston down as being less-than-world-class. I don't know what they think it would need to BE world class... more unemployment and racial strife? rents to become even more unaffordable? the Yankees? Screw 'em.
TWO: if you want to try living in a shit-ass poser, a (probably) formerly world-class city that has fallen from glory, come to Chicago. (Or, as I call it having moved here from Boston, never having wanted to leave in the first place, and now trying to move back home in this economy, Shitcago.) Huge, sad buildings looming over a world of lugubrious bleakness. Busses and trains that (largely) go all night, yes, but have nowhere to take you that isn't overrun with bums and drunks and addicts and surly night-shift workers--what good is an all-night train when there's nowhere to go? Oh--the bums and drunks--everyone wants to shake your hand or HUG you here. Everything's taxed through the roof (13.25% on a friggin' bottle of water or Snapple), yet the city's been broke since the LAST Daley ran it. No one recycles here: The city's motto is "Bag it all and let God sort it out." AND not a decent chowda anywhere.
In Boston I could get on a MBTA Commuter Rail train or Amtrak or a bus or even in a car and in a couple of hours be somewhere ELSE good but also a lot less stressed (Portland or Gloucester were my favorites). In Shitcago--I get on the Metra, transfer to a subway or EL, get on a bus, get on another Metra line, ride for two or three hours, and I'm in another part of Shitcago. Too big for its own good. Like Angkor before it sprawls itself to death. Good riddance to it when it finally does.
Chicago > Boston
Deal with it, man.
Being raised near Boston all my life, I understand what you're saying here. Yes, basically every tower in old, practically nothing is modern looking on the outside. Harldy any new buildings ever get built. Its crazy to drive in, and you have to sprint across the streets to avoid being ran over.
I went to New York City for the first time ever recently, and it blew my mind. The towers were HUGE and all very modern looking. I also liked how theres no run-down smelly bricks roads anywhere. I loved how you can catch a cab anywhere you go, which is especially good for NYC considering its size.
I was in Boston two days ago, and looking around, I had a certain respect for it. Its open and spread out. Don't get me wrong, I loved NYC with all the tall buildings practically right next to each other, it had a very futuristic feel. But Boston feels unique. I mean, where else will you find a city like it?
The people who posted here claiming that because you don't consider Boston to be a world class city, you're suddenly sh*tting all over Boston really just don't get the point. It is THEY who need to take some more pride in their city if they think its be-all-end-all is to be named "world class" by anyone at all, let alone a random blogger.
To address some of the remarks about the endearingly-named Shitcago, when I picture a city, I don't even begin thinking "world-class" until I do see bums and addicts in the station at 2am and 10s or 20s or 100s of square miles of skyscrapers. The fact that Chicago drove this person out merely proves the nature of the roaring, often bloodthirsty beast that is a true world-class city (unlike Boston). It ain't all pretty, sweetheart.
This blog has 83,000 views. Wouldn't call it a world-class blog. But it could still be someone's favorite blog.
Oh, that reminds me, Boston has 90 square miles. Wouldn't call it a world-class city. But it could still be your favorite city.
In conclusion, Bostonians flying off the handle over one silly little article is exactly why Boston is NOT a world-class city, albeit one of my favorites. You don't see too many New Yorkers getting aggressive, bombastic, and "in your face" because someone called Manhattan passé....
Boston is to NYC what Glasgow is to London. Any way you look at it, there's just no fu*king comparison.
--Boston lover
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