I’m recently returned home after spending the weekend in Boston. (My first time)
New to the city, I jumped on one of those tourist trolleys that takes you around the city with a live narrator, filling you in on the history as you take in the sites. Here’s the biggest thing I took from the experience:
Boston is a tiny, water locked city. Barely 2 miles across at it’s widest point, this city has grown and developed over the last 250 years, while maintaining the culture and atmosphere that makes it so unique. You would think that a couple high rises would make sense in a city with such a small foot print. And yet, the city has very strict guidelines about the height and aesthetic of every structure that goes up. Or down, for that matter. The city recently spent 15 Billion dollars turning a bridged highway into a tunnel. And what did they do with the newly claimed land? Turned it into a public park.
Sure, Boston could have thrown a few condos on that land, but that would erode what makes the city so unique. Boston knows what it stands for, and is unwilling to deviate from that vision for the sake of a couple extra bucks. History’s not all we can learn in Boston.
