Metro Boston aint Boston... you dont get it
in 21 years living, working, playing, worshipping, and socializing in the Metro Boston area, I perhaps visited Boston City proper about 25-30 times
and half of them were for RedSox games
half the remainder were for Hospital stays for my knee
add in several trips to the Museum of Science, Omni Theatre, and Museum of Fine Arts
and one interview for Harvard School of Pubic Health
OUTSIDE THAT, I NEVER WENT TO BOSTON
hear this and hear this clearly, please
the Metro Boston is an entire world of 5 million people
that is where I lived
it is a vast collection of 96 towns
almost every single one of them has a town green, with little churches sporting steeples, with tremendous schools, beautiful town ponds, lovely pine forests, and several working centers that serve as commercial office areas
you keep saying the same thing, despite my public and private protestations
I have disliked Pittsburgh ever since my early graduate school days at Carnegie Mellon
when at CMU, I noticed that over 90% of the graduates left town for work on the coasts
I hated the soot, the ghettos, the rundown peripheral areas to the city
sure, South Hills, North Hills, Penn Hills are decent communities
and Fox Chapel, Churchill are very nice areas
but the dead surrounding milltowns like Homestead, Pitcairn, Coraopolis, New Kensington, Ambridge, McKees Rocks, Harmarville, Sharpsburg
these are all surrounding shitholes that need to be plowed under
this city has rivers which are mostly not swimmable
this city has zero ponds
in winter the city is stripped clear, no pine forests
I hate this city
it is a dead blue-collar city trying desperately to create a professional class
the university area of Oakland is slowly becoming a ghetto
the campuses are both quite unattractive, sooty, gray, drab
I have disliked this city since 1977
Boston, the city, has many problems
I dont give two shits about the inner city of Boston
I rarely ever traveled in its shitholes of Mattapan, Roxbury, JamaicaPlain, Huntington
but the Boston ghettos are contained
Cambridge is one hell of a cool place always (Harvard)
Pittsburgh sucks
the contrast when I returned (wounded) in 2000 was stark
I kept commenting to my friends and family
"this place has so much ghetto and rundown areas"
I dont need to criticize Pitt in order to feel better about Boston
after the daze ended in early 2001, I missed my Boston Metro area
I missed all its advantages, hardly any of which are here
the contrast was like a slam in the face with a brick
where is the beach?
how many 100's of miles to any resort areas?
where are the skiing mountains?
Boston is the Hub of the Universe
I cannot wait to get back
it can almost be said that Boston's worst ghetto is better than Pittsburgh's best ghetto
I have been to both
I will take Roxbury over Homewood anyday
/ jim |
