PigBoy

I'd probably try to divide it into geographic regions. This is a weak list, but... -Chili parlor in Cincinnati (Camp Washington?) -OSU-Michigan game as already suggested -Hocking Hills or somesuch in the SE section of the state -Something in Cleveland. I just don't know the city enough to say what! -Lake Erie diversions. Loretto's itinerary there is a good one.

It must suck to live in Akron, what with all the affordable groceries. Anecdotally I find that the retention of college graduates can be strongly tied to the universities themselves. The last two places I have lived—Cambridge, Mass. (along with more of the Boston area) and Madison, Wisc.—both seem to hold on to a lot of graduates. In both places there is something of hip vibe that has developed around the colleges, making them attractive to young graduates. In Madison it's really a whole culture growing out of and beyond the university. And in both cases a decent number of jobs are coming to graduates, who can stay put. There are tons of private companies that have developed around UW in Madison and MIT in Cambridge, many of them ventures started by graduates from those schools. (In fact, I'm a partner in one of those companies, although we don't count because we have no actual location.) Besides collaboration with the universities, I think the "cool" factor helps keep these enterprises local. Ohio may not have an MIT, but it has good large schools in its cities. What's missing to make these places as attractive as, say, Madison is to businesses and graduates?

Thanks so much for the tour! Don't know that I've ever seen this part of town before.

I'd expect the nighttime "vibrancy" of a downtown to be in line with its resident population, and as such there's nothing wrong with the activity being concentrated in certain spots, just like in any other neighborhood. And by most of these measures no Ohio city has a very large downtown population, so they're doing as well as they can. I'm sure there is some critical mass of downtown residents, nearby residents, and transit service where afterhours downtown becomes more than just its own neighborhood, but I'm guessing no Ohio city has (re)approached that point yet. The daytime is a different story, because that's when the downtown population swells with outsiders. A quiet downtown during the day is more upsetting than a mostly quiet downtown in the evening.

The Freedom Trail is good in spite of the touristiness. It takes you through enough of downtown, the North End, and Charlestown (if you have enough energy to continue to Bunker Hill) to give you a good taste of those areas. While you're in the North End, besides the pizza the usual obligatory stop is Mike's Pastry for cannoli. Raw bars aren't my bag so I can't say much there, but the Union Oyster House is right in the thick of touristland near Fanueil Hall and all that, and it's famous as the oldest extant restaurant in the country. It must be decent to have lasted so long, right? I'm not much good for food recommendations as I don't eat out much, but could probably name a few places if pressed. CDM mentioned good neighborhoods to check out. It's easy to hit Beacon Hill and the Back Bay by making your way from the Common to Copley Square. Beacon Hill first is adjacent to the Common and Public Garden on the north—it's ridiculously charming, if intimidatingly wealthy. Depending on your company the swan boat ride in the Public Garden is a quaint and cheap little diversion; I think they've been doing that for about as long as the park has existed, 150 years or so. Then walk down Comm Ave, or Newbury Street if anybody's into shopping. The Boston Public Library at Copley Square is pretty much my favorite place lately. No need to devote a ton of time to it, but it's just damn nice. Make sure to check out the reading room on the second floor (Bates Hall I think it's called) and the courtyard. Agree on the Mass Ave bridge... if you have the energy it can be nice to walk from the Back Bay to Cambridge. Just over the bridge is MIT, and if you press on for a bit you'll get to Central Square, which is more "authentic" Cambridge than something like Harvard Square (which itself is farther down Mass Ave). Aaaanyway, besides all that I could probably come up with other suggestions depending on your length of stay and particular whereabouts. Not sure if I'll be around in early September, but if you are interested in meeting for a drink or even a bumbling tour guide, by all means PM me or something. I live in the Harvard-ish area of Cambridge and am generally bored and unoccupied. And I'll be glad to try to provide more recommendations. There are plenty of other good places to just wander around if you want to explore the city.

^ Good point. Time will make a difference. Not sure about some of those front lawns, though!

It's been almost a year since I posted any Boston photos here (apart from a single shot now and again), so here's something of a miscellaneous photo dump hitting a number of different neighborhoods around town. This is kind of long but even so I left out a bunch. If you are interested enough, it's all on Flickr. First up, Chinatown Various downtown-ish locations Boston Common The haze in the above image was from forest fires in Quebec. There is a slight haze in this image too. If you examine the banner in the background you can guess what caused it. Public Garden Copley Square Elsewhere in the Back Bay Dorechester Heights Monument, South Boston Commonwealth Avenue From a roof on said avenue Farther down Comm Ave, Kenmore Square Pressing on, Comm Ave in the Boston University area. The B branch of the Green Line light rail runs down the middle of Comm Ave west of Kenmore Square Farther still on the same street. Welcome to Allston, a delightfully unpleasant student ghetto. And into similar-but-somewhat-less-nasty Brighton. (Allston-Brighton is technically a single neighborhood and often is popularly thought of that way too.) More Allston-Brighton Cleveland Circle (Brighton) From Cleveland Circle the Green Line C branch runs along Beacon Street through Brookline (a separate town nearly surrounded by Boston), meeting the B and D branches underground at Kenmore Square. The most happenin' part of Brookline is Coolidge Corner We re-enter the Boston city limits at Audubon Circle That was a fun streetcar line tour. Now let's jump to the South End. Orange Line station at Massachusetts Avenue, kindasorta in the South End. Were you to head back to Kenmore Square from here, you'd cross Huntington Avenue near Northeastern University, and see the Green Line's E branch, the only one that (farther from here) operates in mixed traffic. And then you'd pass through some of the Fenway neighborhood. Now skip to the other End, the North End. (There's a West End too, but anything neighborhood-like about it was razed in urban renewal days.) Across a bridge to Charlestown Maybe a quick drop-in on Beacon Hill And a skyline or three The one elevated Red Line station Back underground Good night! And can we just accept as a given that everybody in Boston is a racist, arrogant douche instead of rehashing all that again?

Very nicely done, as in the other threads! City West... parts of that look like they belong in the suburbs, and there's just something off about the more urban-looking sections too. But design aside, has City West been reasonably successful, Cincy folks? Is it finally complete? Been a while since I last read up on it.

Wow, thanks for the bump. Characteristically excellent work here. It's always a great pleasure to see a city through your eyes and lens! Especially a place like Youngstown.

Fantastic series! It's great that you were able to see all these different parts of the city on just one visit.

Great stuff! Makes me smile too.

Apparently I was near St. Louis somewhere in the blur that is the last two weeks.

I have only ever heard one person in my entire life actually pronounce the T in Dayton, instead of the glottal stop. And it sounded weird. I'll vote Day-'in, but it's more like Day'n.

Fantastic!

All these snowy shots are great! Here's a dry cold from the other day: Cape Neddick Light, Maine.

Good stuff! The landscape of that area, even the flat and empty parts, is fascinating. Phoenix is kind of bleh, but I always did enjoy that South Mountain Park. They claim it's the largest city park in the country or some such, right?

I feel very cold looking at that picture.

Jersey Shore

Glad this got bumped! Great tour here; I've driven by a number of times but have never really slowed down to see and learn the details a shown in these photos. So, three years late, thanks!

How true. The people I see that are most interested in Facebook are at least 20 years older than me. But I think it's that generation that on the whole gets Facebook and so-called social networking. They're excited because it's actually augmenting, not replacing, their social lives. They regain contact with long lost friends and keep up with other friends a lot better than they were before. College kids are the ones using Facebook to post drivel and avoid real interaction with people they could easily see every day. Young people aren't going to realize Facebook is stupid and abandon it; young people are going to grow up and put it to better use. Sure enough, now that I am several years out of school, I enjoy Facebook much more than when I was in school (granted, it only came into being while I was in school). Probably no more than ten of my Facebook friends live anywhere near me. What am I supposed to do, call up 50 people (to estimate a number of people I actually care much about) every week and ask what they're up to? Spend hundreds of dollars to meet them frequently? I'm very glad to be able to keep up with distant friends so easily. As for Twitter, it's actually a fantastic information-sharing system. Interesting links abound. On the social aspect, well, you need to have true friends (i.e., people whose random thoughts you really do care about) on there for it to be worthwhile.

Mount Auburn Cemetery, in Watertown and Cambridge, Massachusetts, is well known as "America's first garden cemetery" and is part of the inspiration for many other places, such as Spring Grove Cemetery in Cincinnati. Founded in 1831, it is designated a National Historic Landmark. Some people here are probably familiar with it, and probably more so than I am. Otherwise, check out the Wikipedia article. It is a beautiful place for an autumn stroll. Here are a few photos from one day back in October. (I'll have to work up the energy to visit on some day after a nice snowfall, too.) This lookout tower on a hill in the middle of the cemetery affords excellent views of Boston and the surrounding area. To close, a panoramic view from the tower. Click to enlarge.

Another 'burb to city vote here. Born and mostly raised in Beavercreek. Couple of other 'burbs in the middle, although technically in a civic sense one of them was "city" because it was on the island of Oahu, all of which is part of the city and county of Honolulu. Then small town (sadly being transformed into exurb) Delaware, Ohio for college; then on to Madison, Wisconsin (city); and now Cambridge, Mass. I have a hard time defining a city/suburb relationship for Boston and Cambridge, but functionally most of Cambridge is basically part of the central city if you ignore municipal boundaries. And if it's not that, it's more of its own (smaller) city than a suburb. So, "city" it is.

The Harry Reid thing has raised a tangential question in my mind. Is there any non-racist way to label the "Negro dialect" that he was referring to? Forgetting his particular statements for a moment, there is a very real dialect out there, yet I'm having trouble coming up with a casual (i.e., non-linguist's) term for it that doesn't sound racist!

I have to confess to never having had the pleasure of tasting anything Christian Moerlein (really wasn't a drinker until sometime after leaving Ohio, though I've definitely been making up for lost time in the past few years). Anyway, can't say I've ever really looked for delicious Cincinnati products here in the Boston area, but it seems pretty likely I'd strike out if you can't even get anything in New York. And yeah, some Bell's would be great too. At least there's the satisfaction that a lot of Sam Adams beer actually comes from Cincinnati! Suck on that, Boston!

Send me some of your survival kit; I've run out of my own! Enjoyed the photos!