Back in that provincial closeminded backwater known as the Middle West, where I have lived my previous thirty-four years, the word "square" was reserved for shapes that have four sides of equal length and connect at four right angles. The beloved Midwestern burgh where I am a professor (Madison, WI) and the hearty Midwestern hamlet where I went to graduate school (Bloomington, IN) both had a single place referred to as The Square, which consisted of four segments of street of basically equal length and that intersected at right angles.
Meanwhile, if you go jogging in the Cambridge/Somerville/East Cambridge areas, every 10-12 blocks you will pass a sign designating yourself as in or near a Square (I'm not just talking about the major ones--Harvard, Porter, Davis, Inman, Central, Kendall--but all kinds of ones with names of men who sound like either hearty old city officials or celebrated local quarterbacks, including nicknames like "Ram" and "Gus" being part of the square's official name.)*) I've spent time craning my neck about at each of these squares, and every time, not to get all Gertrude Steinish on y'all, there is no square there. At times, what gets called a "square" here out east is just something we would call a "funny intersection" back in Middle America.
* I think it was Gus. There's definitely a R_(firstname)_ "Ram" R_(lastname)_ Square somewhere along one of the routes I've run.
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16 comments:
I thought it was kind of near that Cambridge has all those squares. How do you feel about all the circles in D.C.?
Some of those little signs with guys' names are in the neighborhoods of men killed in wars. A poignant, personal remembrance of people we grew up with.
Run down Concord Ave. toward Fresh Pond and you'll pass a little sign for Joyce Chen. She was a marvelous chef who ran a renown restaurant here. Through her efforts, laws were passed that enabled excellent Chinese chefs to finally enter the USA and thus the appearance of all the gourmet Chinese restaurants we now have (before her, Chinese restaurants here meant chop suey!).
Tonya: I've been living on the East Coast less than two weeks and you are expecting me to have opinions *about other cities*???
Anons: These are much better stories about the naming of places and squares than I was expecting. I'm used to seeing something named after someone and just assuming (perhaps wrongly) they were a longtime state senator or city councilperson.
bostonians are very tribal
... and cantabrigians are not [tribal]. Adding to Anon's info:
many of the families of the 'names' you see can't live in Cambridge anymore. There was rent control that once made it possible for them to continue living here, but when that was voted out they couldn't afford the astronomical soaring rents (YOU know about them). So the wonderful mix of low income/high income that made up our neighborhoods has given way to what you see — and are part of today. High income, professional and transients.
try southie, dorchester, or the north end
Anon 1;23PM writes about families who in many cases have lived here for generations. Of course they can move to other places and have done so.
The point is, they had to.
By the way, this anon is low income and hasn't yet had to move; born here. Cambridge is my hometown. Southie, Dorchester, North End are changing,too — but not where I'll go. They are nice places, but nothing like Cambridge.
Yes. And Anon 1:30 mentions places popular with people who can't afford to move INTO Cambridge. Not the same thing as lower income families having to move away from their homes and apartments in Cambridge..
i think anan 1:30 meant try southie, dot, etc. if you want to find vestiges of tribalism, longer-term ethnic enclaves, etc. these places, while changing, have not been gentrified as much as, say, cambridge.
The professor is looking for tribal? [vs quirky]. By the way, is sociology all charts, graphs and theory these days or do people figure in?
Sociology is more than charts, graphs, and theory. For instance, there are also lots of tables and feel-good moral/political posturing.
heh heh heh
and some might argue, an inverse relationship between the presence of tables and moral/political posturing
Jeremy, if you don't yet have opinions *about other cities* then we will have to take steps to address that problem. Hey, let's go to NYC! How about next weekend?
Tonya: Sure, NYC next weekend sounds great. I would follow you to the ends of the Earth, of course, or at least certainly to the end of the Eastern Seaboard. E-mail the details.
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