South Shore (Massachusetts)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The South Shore of Massachusetts is a geographic region stretching south and east from Boston along the shore of Massachusetts Bay toward Cape Cod. It includes cities and towns in Norfolk and Plymouth counties.
Depending its geographical definition, which is the subject of some debate in the region,[citation needed] the South Shore is composed of a mix of suburban towns, mid-sized industrial cities and (formerly) rural towns. Today, Massachusetts' heaviest concentration of residents descended from ancestors from Ireland is on the South Shore,[1] and six of the United States' ten most Irish towns are located on the South Shore.[2]
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[edit] Geography
By its most literal definition, the South Shore only includes cities and towns between Boston and Cape Cod that physically border the Atlantic Ocean, thereby limiting the South Shore to the following:
The Massachusetts Office of Coastal Zone Management limits its definition of the South Shore to the municipalities between Boston Harbor and Cape Cod which include Atlantic coastal and coastal watershed areas "from the three-mile limit of the state territorial sea to 100 feet beyond the first major land transportation route encountered (a road, highway, rail line, etc.)."[3] This definition eliminates Quincy and Weymouth, which border Boston Harbor, but adds the towns of Hanover, Norwell and Pembroke.[4]
In the official sense of the South Shore, however, some of these coastal communities are either members of the Boston-centered Inner Core Committee of the Metropolitan Area Planning Council (MAPC)[5] or not part of the metropolitan area at all, while the South Shore Coalition of the MAPC comprises representatives from 13 coastal and inland communities[6] and includes the following cities and towns:
Other inland towns and cities that are sometimes included in definitions of the South Shore include:
[edit] Education
Institutions of higher learning which serve South Shore communities include:
- Curry College, a private liberal arts college in Milton
- Eastern Nazarene College, a private college of the liberal arts and sciences in Quincy
- Massasoit Community College, a public two-year community college with campuses in Brockton and Canton
- Quincy College, a two-year city-operated community college in Quincy
[edit] See also
[edit] Footnotes
- ^ Schworm, Peter. "Digging Their Celtic Roots." The Boston Globe, June 19, 2005
- ^ ePodunk Irish Index
- ^ "The Coastal Zone". Massachusetts Office of Coastal Zone Management. http://www.mass.gov/czm/zone.htm. Retrieved 2009-09-05.
- ^ "CZM's Regional Offices". Massachusetts Office of Coastal Zone Management. http://www.mass.gov/czm/regions.htm. Retrieved 2009-09-05.
- ^ "MAPC - Inner Core Committee:". Metropolitan Area Planning Council. http://www.mapc.org/metro_area/innercore.html. Retrieved 2009-05-17.
- ^ "MAPC - South Shore Coalition". Metropolitan Area Planning Council. http://www.mapc.org/metro_area/ssc.html. Retrieved 2009-05-17.
