Of all the maps on the cartography website, I chose to write about the
map depicting the income of the inhabitants of the greater Boston Area (Greater
Boston Income).
When I think of Boston, I automatically think of Harvard University, my
eighth grade United States History textbook, the revolutionaries dumping tea
into the Boston Harbor and this rumor I heard that there are pubs on every other
corner. One thing I have also associated
with Boston was the idea that it is a city of people who are very well off. In
television shows, movies and books, there tends to be a focus on the more well
to do neighborhoods in Boston which conveys the image that Boston is a city
filled with rich people when in reality a lot of areas in Boston are improvised
or lower middle class as portrayed in
the map below:
Though the graph is a little hard to read since the writing is very
small, less than 2% of the inhabitants of the greater Boston area have an
income greater than $80,000 which is less than the $250,000 which is the border
between middle class and upper class. If we look at the map, we see a greater
incidence of grey and near-white coloration on the graph, indicating lower
income areas. There is a much smaller incidence of dark beiges and browns which
are indicative of higher income areas. The location of these different income
brackets should also be noted; the higher income areas are located farther from
the actual city than the lower income areas.
One might wonder why Boston and the Boston area as a whole are so often
characterized as being a place of ritzy houses, nice cars and one of the best
education systems the country can offer when in actuality most of the Boston
area is not well off at all with only small areas where the inhabitants are
exceptionally well off. I think that
perhaps the strength of this characterization has to do with the fact that many
people are not educated about the city of Boston. In the media we see pictures
of prestigious schools such as Harvard and MIT, images of multimillion dollar
houses and exclusive and high priced boutiques. No one ever shows the improvised
schools or the dilapidated houses. No one mention that a fifth of Boston’s
population is living below the poverty line. We believe what see and since Harvard and MIT
is all we see, that’s what we believe.
Onyinyechi Ogumbadiugha
I completely agree with this post. The reason that we tend to have that view of Boston is because that is how it is portrayed and we do not see much of the low class of Boston. What we see and hear about is what we remember and believe whether it be true or not. I think it is sad that we only see the well off places and hear about the good schools because I think the less priveledged is just as important. All areas should be truly displayed instead of just showing the good parts. Also, this bothers me about tourist vacations as well. Whenever going to another country, there are the "tourist areas" and places to see that obviously people do want to see, but they are only the nice and good looking places. Obviously people do go to these countries to see these nice things, but that is typically not all that the country exists of. I think it is also important to see the sad parts as well in order to get a view of the whole rather than just what they want you to think of their country.
ReplyDeleteThis is such an interesting point. It's true that even when I've visited Boston in the past, I've spent ample time visiting the prominent universities in Cambridge, touring the rich history in the city, and observing the new growth in the business district. Even when submersing ourselves in various places, we tend to create mental borders by visiting only the areas that we want to see. In doing this, we put our money into the already stimulated areas, and leave the poorer neighborhoods to struggle on. I would be interested to see a map like the one you've discussed superimposed with traffic through the various neighborhoods by both natives and tourists.
ReplyDeleteThis post also relates to the Chicago distribution post of both race and income. It appears that a common border in America's cities is one of race and income. These artificial, arbitrarily assigned borders create a type of fractioned city atmosphere. This division creates the racism of the city which then snowballs into the thought of how people think they can't travel to certain areas of the city because of how that particular neighborhood has been deemed "unsafe", "impoverished" or "strange". Of course, deep down I believe we all know that this is not the case but the media and longstanding viewpoints contribute to this border separation that is in our cities. It just downs not happen in Boston and Chicago but in every major city around the nation.
ReplyDeleteI find this cartography map to be very surprising. I also would predict that Boston as a whole would be quite wealthy because of how movies usually portray the Boston area. On one hand, in many films, Boston is shown with nice neighborhoods and wealthy looking people. On the other hand, there's only one movie I can think of that portrays Boston as a generally poor area and the movie is called The Town. In the film, Ben Affleck and his friends rob banks in a poor area of the city.You wouldn't think one of the oldest cities in America would get this bad. One observation from the map shows that a small percentage of the population are getting richer, while the majority of everyone else are getting more poor.
ReplyDeleteI really liked reading this post because it gives insight to one of my favorite cities in America. My family is from Boston so I spend a good amount of time there each year. Each section of Boston is very distinct with its own culture and feel. The majority of Boston is upper middle class with downtown Boston being the wealthiest area, I would say that the wealthiest part is the part around Harvard and Boston University,but many parts outside of it are not as wealthy. As Matt stated above, Ben Affleck movies often portray the less wealthy parts of Boston. South Boston is known for being high in crime and poverty-- as shown in "The Town." It is clear that some of American's wealthiest and most educated people live only a few blocks from such a poor struggling area.
ReplyDelete