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March 25, 2009
Life : Phrase of the week: "Used To"
So as I noted in last Friday's post, Anne and I spent a large part of last week visiting Boston where we both lived 19 years ago. Before that I lived in the Boston area for a bit more than 12 years, Anne for about 5.
So as we wandered around our old home towns, the phrase which most often passed our lips was "used to" as in "Didn’t that used to be a book store?" or "Isn't that were we used to eat pizza?" The number of places we used to frequent that still exist are in a distinct minority. In fact, I had wanted for us to eat our anniversary meal at some restaurant (any restaurant) we used to go to when we were dating, and had to settle on Bartley's Burger Cottage near Harvard Square. Definitely a place we have always enjoyed eating at (and did again); but not exactly the romantic anniversary meal I had hoped for. We enjoyed ourselves regardless.
One thing I did find interesting is that for all the changeovers in individual businesses, the overall feel of the city was largely unchanged. On Newbury Street (a high-end shopping area that we always enjoyed window shopping on), most of the businesses have changed; but they were replaced with the same kind of businesses, so Newbury Street still feels like Newbury Street. Same with Harvard Square – lots of stores and restaurants have come and gone; but the kinds of establishments remained unchanged and so it still feels like the Harvard Square we remember (the only real change to the feel of Harvard Square being that there are fewer book stores). Same was true almost everywhere, although Downtown Crossing felt different – more run down. It is not the central shopping district that it once was. I think that has moved to the two urban malls that have opened up in Boston and Cambridge.
This whole "things have changed but remained the same" is worth noting as it contrasts with our experience in Silicon Valley over the last two decades. In our time here, we have seen a major tech boom followed by a major tech bust, followed by a smaller building boom and building bust. The net result is that beyond grocery stores and movie theatres (which seem to be fairly stable, although there have been some changes to those), it is hard to think of someplace we frequented when we first came here that still exists – that either hasn't been replaced with something "bigger and better" or gone out of business in one of the downturns.
But what's more, many of these changes were part of larger changes to the "look and feel" of the valley. Orchards plowed under to build shopping plazas. Shopping Plazas torn down to build malls. Malls torn down to build apartment complexes. Anything and everything torn down to build office buildings. Many of the places we used to go to not only no longer exist; but are now completely different kinds of buildings than they used to be. Places we used to go for walks are either no longer walkable or are at least less interesting to visit. Even the neighborhood where we live now in San Francisco was mostly warehouses as recently as 10 years ago.
So for all its changes, it was nice for us to see that Boston has managed to maintain its identity over the years. That's not something that can easily be said of Silicon Valley. Perhaps one of the reasons we found ourselves drawn to San Francisco is that many of its neighborhoods have managed to stay true to themselves over the years.
Posted by Steven at March 25, 2009 05:00 AM
