Most people of Italian descent lived in the North End, West End, and East Boston then - all on the northern side of the city and for the most part, they moved to the North Shore. Likewise out-migration by ethic groups post-WWII. People from the North Shore never go south of there unless it's to the Cape people from the South Shore think there's nothing north of there until you get to New Hampshire. R63 is right: there is some kind of magical divide in Boston's North End. It's even safer now because it's all luxury high-rises. There were more cops per square foot in the Zone than anywhere else in the city. For example, it's not the "Red Light District," it's the Combat Zone and it was one of the safest places in the city.
Some of these comments are hilarious, both with posters bringing us up to date on what the city was like in 1978 - because it's so relevant today - and for the sweeping generalizations and mis-identifications. I never thought it was possible, but Boston is even more gentrified today than ever, and that goes for Jamaica Plain, which in my childhood was a lower middle-class ghetto. Just like the Tenderloin in San Francisco: nowhere you wanted to walk alone. Except for the so-called Red Light District. Boston by then had cleaned up its act and it was a safer and saner place to walk around. Later, I was at Harvard and a ride on the Red Line into Boston cost just a quarter. It seemed to me there was always trash in the streets and there were neighborhoods considered unsafe to visit if you were white. So traffic, even back then, was a nightmare. The layout of city streets makes no sense because they are paved-over cowpaths from the Massachusetts Bay Colony's earliest days. Boston, in my family, wasn't someplace you wanted to visit unless you had to. Gloucester, Rockport and Essex offer all the authentic New England culture and cuisine you would want. The North Shore boasts the best beaches in my opinion and lots of historic towns and villages. The rich, of course, summered on Nantucket or Martha's Vineyard. The Cape (no one there calls it Cape Cod) was always a playground for the South Shore. Even back then (the 60s), folks from north of Boston never ventured south and vice versa. I was born in a city on Boston's North Shore. But Boston never seemed like a great town for sex. I also recall a couple of not too exciting visits to a very short-lived sex club called Safari, I think. My friends there were obsessed with this Greek restaurant called Demos (?) in Allston or Brighton. But then along would come the “Not E.” Well, I never knew what to call it. Something weird I never understood about the T (and still don’t): You would wait, for example, at Kenmore for a train. Fell in love with a guy who tended a little garden plot there. Spent a lot of time walking around the Fens. Loved dancing at the 1270 but also roaming the different floors for other fun. I think it’s one of the best walking cities in the US. I’m not Olivia deH), and loved it but agree that the city is not always kind to outsiders. Spent a ton of time in Boston when I was young, especially in the 80s (the 1980s. We can be gay pretty much anywhere in the city, and it’s NBD. True, there’s not a gay scene here like SF, NYC, or WeHo, but Boston is a great city to live with excitement, culture and comforts that also doesn’t make you feel the need for a gay scene. Unless you’re thinking of Rise, which was the druggie/after hours “Members Only” bar that was open until 4a I think.įriends of mine that were here long before I arrived talk of pretty epic bars with themes, backrooms, dancers, whatever. upstairs area with a dance floor that you could feel buckle beneath as the night went on, the crowd grew, and the beats got intense. Maybe that is the dickhead Boston vibe others are discussing here.īuzz Bar on Stuart/Kneeland was freaky. On two different occasions with two different girlfriends of mine (platonic, I’m gay) they were told they couldn’t come in, only AFTER we all paid cover and they refused to refund it. After that the owners went on a tirade against the bachelorette invasions and started enforcing coat checks and no high heel rules in order to keep all women out. Great music, great DJs, dancers were a bit squicky but I always had fun there until 2010 or so.