by Nick Candee ‘70
America’s Walking City Boston is beloved by Europeans as a great walking city, since downtown is fairly small, and the randomly winding streets are interesting. Almost any large, interesting city offers a choice of city tours, and Boston is no exception. The payoff from riding a sightseeing trolley or bus can be huge, in terms of understanding the flow of the city, various different neighborhoods, and also something of the evolution of the urban landscape. In Boston, with its congested traffic and “cow-path school of design” streets, it is far better to leave the driving to some one else. (Limos or a car from Boston Coach are another choice…) There is a Duck tour for those who miss the Wisconsin Dells; these relics take a splash in the Charles River basin for a sense of riverfront, with the Boston Pops site on the Esplanade on one side and MIT on the other. My suggestion: one of the trolley tours where you can climb off and back on, taking in Paul Revere’s house in the North End, the USS Constitution in Charlestown, etc.
Boston is beloved by Europeans as a great walking city, since downtown is fairly small, and the randomly winding streets are interesting. Buy a map or a couple of maps by the way. In Chicago or Minneapolis you can usually just “go around the block” if you are driving; given where those cows walked a few centuries ago and the one-way streets, you quickly learn to not count on going around the block — and in fact you learn to park your car and not drive if you are in a hurry. Taxis can be useful. Parking at $24 to $30 a day can eclipse a couple of taxi rides if you stick to your car (rates do plummet after 5:00PM). The Maine phrase “you can’t get there from here” applies a bit less to Boston, now that the elevated roadway that was I-93 as the Central Artery went underground, and one has a clear line of sight, and walk, from financial or theatre district to the harbor front.
The T or MBTA or subway is OK, some people even find it fabulous. Go ahead, hum the Kingston Trio song “Charlie on the MTA” as that is the name of the new fee card. If you are landing at Logan, there are two great ways to get to CERTAIN parts of downtown other than taxi (or limo): the airport blue bus will shuttle you to the water taxi, or take the Silver Line bus which runs via tunnel under the harbor, to the new convention center area, in the new Seaport frontier, and then on to South Station for AMTRAK or The Red Line. The Red Line runs westerly to Cambridge where it terminates near the Belmont / Arlington line, or southerly to Braintree, and also intersects other T lines.
Boston’s Logan International Airport also offers the Logan Express bus to a few outer suburbs. If you are going to a wedding or conference in some outlying areas, enjoy navigating your rental car or plan to help putting a cabbie’s kid through college.
Buy a good guide book and map, or several; get the free tourist map at the airport or hotel — this is a great tourist destination.
Here are just a few of our faves, warmed up recently when we hosted family from Arizona and a Lawrence classmate from Oregon:
The best garage is at The Charles Hotel; parking under Holyoke Center is cramped; that is also Harvard infimary, and site of president’s office. Good luck on the street. Or park out at the Alewife Station and take Red Line in.
Boston is a dark colors city — save your pastels for Miami and L.A. if you want to blend in — or don’t.
Blue Laws, Brahmins and Break Down Lanes by Karen Taylor was a 1989 book to help newcomers understand some strange laws, and customs such as driving in the break down lanes at rush hour in designated areas. Find a copy on eBay or Amazon and enjoy.
Despite the aura of the Boston brahmin and the quips from THE PROPER BOSTONIAN (“Oh, you are from Iowa? We pronounce that Ohio, here”), this is a city rich in diversity with a lot of newcomers. Two features that attract newcomers:
First, think “equitime” not “equidistant” if comparing locations for your new job or grad school: traffic can be dreadful. Resident housing for grad students is a good deal.
After that you are on your own — good luck. Just remember the whole town moves either on Memorial Day weekend or on Labor Day weekend and do not plan to reserve a truck the day before you move. And remember equi-time, not equi-distant, for your commute.
10 Park Plaza, Suite 4510, Boston, MA 02116, USA Tel: (617) 973 8500 or (800) 227 6277 (toll-free). Website: www.massvacation.com
Business Week Magazine has a City Guide website:City overview:
Grand claims have been made of Massachusetts’ capital of Boston throughout its history. They are reflected in several of its nicknames: ‘Cradle of Modern America,’ ‘Hub of the Solar System’ and ‘Athens of America.’ However, in the beginning, when the settlement took root in 1624, it was simply called ‘Trimountain’, given its location beside three hills on the mouth of the Charles River. This was before being named after the small English town in Lincolnshire, the original home of several founding Puritan families.
The ‘Cradle of Modern America’ sums up its relationship to the country as a whole. As the capital of the original Massachusetts Bay Colony founded in 1630, it is the place where, with the incident of the Boston Tea Party in 1773, the Revolutionary War against British Colonial rule was ignited.
In the Cambridge district over the river, Harvard College was founded in 1638. Oliver Wendell Holmes (1809-1894), physician and writer born there, regarded Boston as the ‘Hub of the Solar System.’ At the same time and during its literary and cultural flourishing of the 1850s, others were calling it the ‘Athens of America.’ Today one out of every 10 Bostonian residents is a student at one of the city’s 57 university, college and research establishments. Such prestigious institutions as Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have attracted leading industries in electronics, engineering, finance and biotechnology – and given the city a strong future.
Of Boston’s many famous sons, the statesman, scientist and inventor Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) stands in the highest regard. His Boston can be rediscovered on foot – and, indeed, despite being in the acclaimed land of the auto, Boston today refers to itself as the ‘Walking City’. The Freedom Trail is a physical manifestation of the birth of the modern American Republic – around four kilometres (2.5 miles) of the city’s streets and sights. Also, Boston’s place in black American history can be discovered by following the 2.5km (1.6-mile) Black Heritage Trail – as the city was a goal of black slaves escaping the oppressive South on the ‘Underground Railway’.
Boston’s sharp Puritan roots have been softened over the centuries, yet it retains an ethic of commitment to life as a whole, be that sports, pastimes, work, cafés, bars or culture. But, after all, the city that imported an English pub (which later became the model for TV’s hugely successful Cheers), hosts the Boston Pops concerts and gave the rock music world Aerosmith is hardly going to let the weather dominate it.
Modern Boston is very much a microcosm of New England. It has the typical East Coast climate of hot, humid summers and freezing winters. In autumn, the white church steeples of the suburbs create a stunning contrast to the turning colours of the surrounding trees. The thousands of students returning to begin their new academic year add a human vibrancy to this striking setting. Perhaps, after all, the city deserves to be called the ‘Rome of Massachusetts’, since all New England roads, physical, cultural and historical, lead to it.