According to the Massachusetts Foundation for the Humanities on this day in 1630, “the Massachusetts Bay Colony proprietors chose a site along the northern bank of the Charles River for their capital. They named it Newtowne, and laid out an orderly grid of streets fortified by a wooden palisade. It was the first planned town in English North America. Six years later, the colony’s first college was established in Newtowne. In honor of the English university town, Newtowne was renamed Cambridge. Contemporary William Wood noted “this is one of the neatest . . . towns in New England, having many fair structures with many handsome . . . seats.” Despite its well-ordered appearance, Cambridge did not remain the colony’s capital. In 1638 the General Court settled five miles downstream, in the neighboring town of Boston.” And it’s been downhill ever since.
When, as in Massachusetts, the political and financial capitols are the same city, it is too cozy. Too easy. Imagine, just for a moment, if the State House was in Worcester – but the financial district in Boston. It would no longer be cozy and invisible for lobbyists and legislators to dine together. Just a thought.
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But then, I come from Michigan. In Michigan, the financial and business capitol is Detroit – but the legislature and most of state government are in Lansing.
Hasn’t worked out all that well for Detroit. Nor has, for example, Albany, NY or Sacramento, CA turned into exactly a paradise — there are much more interesting places to live and work in those states than the state capitals. (Lansing’s not so hot either — but I’m biased, since I went to school in Ann Arbor!)