The Globe ran an interesting article today about Boston residents who fudge the names of their neighborhoods–folks from Dorchester who say they live in Milton or “Dorchester-Milton”; folks from Fort Hill who don’t like to say they’re from Roxbury, and so forth.
I’ve noticed this in my own neighborhood. I live in Roslindale right off of the West Roxbury Parkway, which is the border between my neighborhood and the more well-heeled West Roxbury. The old-timers who lived on my street when I moved here all claimed to live in West Roxbury, and in fact the deed to my property says West Roxbury instead of Roslindale. A nearby section of Roslindale recently persuaded the City and the Post Office to reclassify them as part of West Roxbury. But as my street has turned over in the last several years and young families have moved in, no one claims to be in West Roxbury anymore.
The irony is that even though I’m proud to live in Roslindale, we think of Centre Street in West Roxbury rather than Roslindale Square as our “downtown” area; we use the West Roxbury library and post office (except when we get a package and have to schlep down to Roslindale Square to pick it up); we pay more for auto insurance than we would if we lived across the street in West Roxbury, even though our section of Roslindale, unlike most of the neighborhood, is zoned for single-family homes and is essentially indistinguishable from the sections of West Roxbury just across the Parkway. So the stigma of living in Roslindale is gone, but some of the disadvantages–the auto insurance penalty in particular–remain.
Anyone else have similar stories?
TedF
Didn’t many of the areas of Boston used to be separately incorporated towns?
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p>My big pet peeve is people as far out as 495 saying they live “in Boston”. I understand it’s a convenient reference point when talking to a non-Bay Stater, but can’t they at least say “outside of Boston” or “near Boston”?
Yes, parts of Boston did used to be separate towns. Roxbury was once a separate town, but at that time it encompassed JP, Roslindale, West Roxbury, the South End and much of Back Bay. Of course, that was before the massive landfill projects that created much of the land of the Back Bay and the South End. Later, West Roxbury became a separate town including JP and Roslindale. I believe the current Curtis Hall Community Center in JP was the town hall for West Roxbury. JP and Roslindale were never towns in their own right.
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p>So, yes Boston did absorb neighboring towns, but the neighborhood boundaries don’t for the most part honor the historic town boundaries.
homes for sale along the north shore were labeled “near Swampscott”, that was Lynn; or “near Marblehead”, that was Swampscott.
“North Andover.” Houses for sale in that town were always listed as being in “Andover North,” a completely fictitious neighborhood. Probably had something to do with No. Andover being the dumping ground for any facility the other towns desired, but didn’t want within their borders – the wastewater treatment plant, the airport, the incinerator, the other incinerator …
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p>When it came to rental property, neither Andover landlords nor North Andover landlords would place ads in the Lawrence Eagle-Tribune. Too many people from Lawrence would see the ads, and next thing you knew, you’d be making up excuses why they couldn’t look at the apartment.
I don’t hesitate to tell people I live here, unless I am talking to an out-of-towner and don’t want to have to explain that I also live in the City of Boston. Roslindale is one of those neighborhoods that doesn’t really have much of a reputation good or bad beyond its borders. Roxbury and Dorchester, on the other hand, have acquired an undeserved bad reputation, which can even affect people from West Roxbury since there are many who are not aware that West Roxbury is any different from Roxbury.
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p>I don’t know how insurance rates are set, but there is no question that accident and crime prone areas don’t stick to neighborhood or zip-code boundaries, so no doubt there is a lot of inequity there. I always thought it ridiculous that I have to pay higher insurance to keep my car in a garage in Roslindale than someone who commutes in from the suburbs and parks his car on the street.
and we would jeer and mock people who would say they lived in Boston instead of Dorchester. They would even use Boston, MA 02125 as their mailing address rather than Dorchester. I also lived in Savin Hill but we would always refer to which side of the bridge (over the expressway) you lived. The last thing I notice is people get very specific telling you they live in “North” “your town name” implying it’s much better than the rest of your town. So none of these are fudging or lying but they are doing a very similar thing.
No kidding – I somehow missed the million times you’ve mentioned that!:)
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p>I know from experience that using Boston rather than Dorchester can get you in trouble when using a program like Mapquest. The Boston Teachers Union hall on Mt. Vernon Street is in Dorchester, but I once entered Mt. Vernon Street in Boston and ended up on a street barely wider than an alley just off of Beacon Hill.
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p>As for “North” that is often a legitimate distinction. North Reading and North Andover are separately incorporated towns. North Chelmsford is a separate zip code from its namesake and occasionally there are whispers of outright secession.
For example, looking up my zipcode shows I live in East Cambridge, not Cambridge. Which is as it should be. đŸ˜‰
was in response to my remarks on North Andover, that’s exactly my point. It’s a separate town, but realtors wanted potential home buyers to think it was part of Andover.
…it was more to JohnD’s reference to “North…” and I was just pointing out that there are at least some cases where that is the correct term.
which are two separate towns. It also really wasn’t regarding “north” being a different post office (as mine is now). It was about referring to your section of town to distinguish it from other sections purely for pompous reasons (however correct)… as in “I live in Duxbury but not on the other side of route 3 near Pembroke”.
As a former Brightonian, I remember the real estate ads that said “near Brookline” or “Chestnut Hill line”, still true today, no doubt. You can also tell when those of us lived in the “projects” by whether we call it Fidelis Way Housing Development or Commonwealth.
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p>As a former Mattapan resident, half of Wildwood Street was in Dorchester, half in Mattapan. I was proud to be on the Mattapan side, though when playing stickball at the old Roger Wolcott (now Walgreens), we reveled in hitting the ball across Morton Street and into Dorchester.
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p>As a current resident of the Jamaica Hills section of Jamaica Plain, I constantly have to tell people that the “other” side of the Jamaicaway is still JP, although we are severed from the bulk of the community that is in Mike Capuano’s district (I’d like to think he’s running for Senate to finally represent us, LOL)