Boston is an historic city of contrasts. Ancient red-brick sidewalks twist
past handsome Federalist houses on the way to soaring glass towers
housing state-of-the-art technology. The sports teams are the best loved
and the most hated at one and the same time. Residents are fiercely
protective of their neighborhoods and fiercely critical of the MBTA, the
government and the weather. In the harbors of Boston lie both the
majestic U.S.S. Constitution, still commissioned to fight America's battles, and scores
of sleek white fiberglass pleasure boats. There are tiny restaurants
tucked into rosy brick town houses on Beacon Hill and huge restaurants
on the dizzying tops of skyscrapers in the downtown. Food ranges from
the most radical of nouvelle chic to downhome Cajun.
Boston is a diverse modern city of neighborhoods. From the North End to
Bay Village, Back Bay to the South End, Jamaica Plain to Charlestown,
the city shows its diversity of populations, of languages, of foods and
philosophies. Immigrants from every corner of the globe have been
welcomed by the city and re-shaped into Americans whose memories and
customs enrich the community.
Boston is a city where politics is everyone's hobby but sports are taken
very seriously; where you can hear six different languages in Filene's
Basement in one morning; where the world's largest record store and the
stately dome of the Mother Church of Christian Science are in the same
neighborhood, and where gilded stone lions and a towering 60-story wedge
of glass comfortably rub shoulders.
Eastern Massachusetts, bordered by the Atlantic Ocean on the east;
Cambridge, Somerville, Everett, Chelsea, Watertown, and Revere on the
north; Brookline, Newton, and Needham on the west; Dedham on the
southwest; and Canton, Milton, and Quincy on the south. Boston is 106
miles south of Portland, Maine; 44 miles northeast of Providence, Rhode
Island; 93 miles northeast of Hartford, Connecticut; and 218 miles
northeast of New York City.
This narrative compiled by the Massachusetts Department of Housing and
Community Development (DHCD).
