Boston is in many ways just a very large small town, with all the intrigue and gossip that abounds in such areas – though it does tend to lack the fences that make for both good neighbors and good conversations.
The city’s streets are a good metaphor for the way Boston operates. Tangled and organic, they run into and over each other without much more than a passing nod to city planning; dark alleys open to unexpected gardens and main roads end where they began. Tunnels go nowhere and bridges are inaccessible, but if you’re paying close enough attention you can usually get where you’re going. And if you take a different path once in a while, you’ll find much more than a faster route.
Too many of the city’s inhabitants never look beyond their immediate paths. Every day we get up and get in the metal tubes or boxes on wheels that will take us to our destinations. We work all day in a big glass tower and never look out the windows. We get back in our tubes and boxes and go home, just to do it all again tomorrow.
Even though it’s not always a very pedestrian- or bicyclist-friendly place, the city is best experienced on foot (as long you’re looking at what is in front of and around you, not at your smartphone). Walking through the city streets gives an excellent perspective on Boston’s great and grand history, on the changes it has experienced and the future it is building.
Everywhere there are cranes and crews putting up new buildings or rehabbing the ones that have been neglected. The recent Wall Street Journal article noting that Boston is about to experience a building boom slightly missed the mark – we’re already in the middle of it, and there’s something new to see in every neighborhood.
Bankers, builders, brokers and buyers are all coming together to create the future of Boston and beyond. And as GE’s recent move and Aetna’s newly announced potential move illustrate, there is broad support for the area’s forward-looking vision.
Job creation, skyscraper construction and affordable housing are all integral parts of the pursuit of that vision. What must not be lost as we charge towards the future, however, is the humanity that makes it all possible.
Boston’s workers and residents are the beautiful, multicolored, multicultural tapestry upon which the city rests. Without them there would be no thriving beer garden on the Greenway, no civic support for arts and entertainment, no innovation or challenge or change. We the people are the heart of this city, and what we build between us is just as vital as the buildings we raise in the Seaport.
The personal and professional relationships we form in this big small town are like the city’s streets – overlapping, intertwined, interconnected in ways that aren’t immediately apparent. So in the immortal words of Abraham Lincoln, “be excellent to each other.” One ripple in our little pond can make all the difference.
