Boston

Boston, Massachusetts
Flag Seal
Nickname(s):  City on the Hill, Beantown, Athens of America, The Hub (of the Universe)1
Location in Massachusetts, USA
Country	United States
State	Massachusetts
County	Suffolk County
Government
• Mayor	Thomas M. Menino (D)
Elevation	141 ft (43 m)
Population  (2005)
• City	596,638
• Urban	4,313,000
• Metro	4,411,835
Time zone	UTC-5 (Eastern)
• Summer (DST)	UTC-4 (Eastern)
Website	www.cityofboston.gov
1 The State House, according to Oliver Wendell Holmes, is the hub of the Solar System

"Boston" redirects here. For other uses, see Boston (disambiguation).

Boston is the capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Founded in 1630, it is the largest city in New England. It has expanded throughout and beyond the Shawmut peninsula, and has become one of the oldest and most culturally significant cities in the United States. It is recognized as a global or world city. Boston was the location of several major events during the American Revolution, and was a major shipping port and manufacturing center. Today, the city is a center of higher education and health care. Its economy is also based on research, finance, and technology—principally biotechnology.

Boston, with a city proper estimated population of 596,638 in 2005, lies at the center of America's eleventh largest metropolitan area known as Greater Boston, which is home to 4.4 million. Residents of the city are called Bostonians.

History

Main article: History of Boston, Massachusetts

File:Boston 1772.gif

Boston in 1772 and 1880.

In the political events which have affected the history of the entire country, and in shaping the thought of a people who have come to be a great nation, Boston has played a leading part.

— Henry Cabot Lodge, Boston

Boston was founded on September 17, 1630, by Puritan colonists from England. The Puritans of the Massachusetts Bay Colony are sometimes confused with the Pilgrims who founded Plymouth Colony ten years earlier on November 21, 1620, in what is today Bristol County, Plymouth County, and Barnstable County, Massachusetts. The two groups are historically distinct and differed in religious practice. The separate colonies were not united until 1691 with the formation of the Province of Massachusetts Bay.

Boston was established on a peninsula called Shawmut by its original Native American inhabitants. The peninsula was connected to the mainland by a narrow isthmus, and surrounded by the waters of Massachusetts Bay and the Back Bay, an estuary of the Charles River. Boston's early European settlers first called the area Trimountaine; but later renamed the town after Boston, Lincolnshire, England, from which several prominent colonists emigrated. A majority of Boston's early citizens were Puritans. Massachusetts Bay Colony's original governor, John Winthrop, gave a famous sermon entitled "A Model of Christian Charity," which captured the idea that Boston had a special covenant with God. (Winthrop also led the signing of the Cambridge Agreement, which is regarded as a key founding document of the city.) Puritan ethics molded an extremely stable and well-structured society in Boston. For example, shortly after Boston's settlement, Puritans founded America's first public school, Boston Latin School (1635), and America's first college, Harvard College (1636). Hard work, moral uprightness, and an emphasis on education remain part of Boston's culture.

During the early 1770s, British attempts to exert control on the thirteen colonies, primarily via taxation, prompted Bostonians to initiate the American Revolution. The Boston Massacre, the Boston Tea Party, and several early battles occurred in or near the city, including the Battle of Lexington and Concord, Battle of Bunker Hill, and the Siege of Boston. During this period, Paul Revere made his famous midnight ride.

After the Revolution, Boston quickly became one of the world's wealthiest international trading ports because it was the closest major American port to Europe — exports included rum, fish, salt, and tobacco. During this era, descendants of old Boston families became regarded as the nation's social and cultural elites; they were later dubbed the Boston Brahmins. In 1822, Boston was chartered as a city. By the mid-1800s, the city's industrial manufacturing overtook international trade in economic importance. Until the early 1900s, Boston remained one of the nation's largest manufacturing centers, and was notable for its garment production, leather goods, and machinery industries. A network of small rivers bordering the city and connecting it to the surrounding region made for easy shipment of goods and allowed for a proliferation of mills and factories. Later, a dense network of railroads facilitated the region's industry and commerce. From the mid-to-late-nineteenth century, Boston flourished culturally — it became renowned for its rarefied literary culture and lavish artistic patronage. It also became a center of the abolitionist movement.

Scollay Square in the 1880s

In the 1820s, Boston's ethnic composition began to change dramatically with the first wave of European immigrants. Groups such as the Irish and Italians moved into the city and brought with them Roman Catholicism. Currently, Catholics make up Boston's largest religious community and since the early 20th century the Irish have played a major role in Boston politics — prominent figures include the Kennedys, Tip O'Neill and John F. Fitzgerald.

Between 1630 and 1890, the city tripled its physical size by land reclamation, specifically by filling in marshes, mud flats, and gaps between wharves along the waterfront, a process Walter Muir Whitehill called "cutting down the hills to fill the coves." The largest reclamation efforts took place during the 1800s. Beginning in 1807, the crown of Beacon Hill was used to fill in a 50-acre (20 ha) mill pond that later became Haymarket Square. The present-day State House sits atop this shortened Beacon Hill. Reclamation projects in the middle of the century created significant parts of the South End, West End, the Financial District, and Chinatown. After The Great Boston Fire of 1872, workers used building rubble as landfill along the downtown waterfront. During the mid-to-late 19th century, workers filled almost 600 acres (2.4 km²) of brackish Charles River marshlands west of the Boston Common with soil brought by rail from the hills of Needham Heights. In addition, the city annexed the adjacent towns of Roxbury (1868), Dorchester (1870), Brighton, West Roxbury, and Charlestown. The last three towns were annexed in 1874.

Downtown Boston today.

By the early and mid-20th century, the city was in decline as factories became old and obsolete, and businesses moved out of the region for cheaper labor elsewhere. Boston responded by initiating various urban renewal projects, including the demolition of the old West End neighborhood and the construction of Government Center. By the 1970s, the city's economy boomed after thirty years of economic downturn. Hospitals such as Massachusetts General Hospital, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, and Brigham and Women's Hospital led the nation in medical innovation and patient care. Schools such as Harvard University, MIT, Boston College, and Boston University attracted students to the Boston area. Nevertheless, the city experienced conflict starting in 1974 over desegregation busing, which resulted in unrest and violence around public schools throughout the mid-1970s. The unrest served to highlight racial tensions in the city.

In the early 21st century, Boston has become a center of intellectual, technological, and political ideas. However, Boston has experienced a loss of regional institutions, which included the acquisition of the Boston Globe by The New York Times, and the loss to mergers and acquisitions of local financial institutions such FleetBoston Financial, which was acquired by Charlotte-based Bank of America in 2004. The city also had to tackle gentrification issues and rising living expenses, with housing prices' increasing sharply since the 1990s. In 2004, the Boston metropolitan area had the highest cost of living of any in the country, and Massachusetts was the only state to lose population.

Geography

File:Boston Landsat.jpg

A simulated-color satellite image of the Boston area taken on NASA's Landsat 3

Owing to its early founding, Boston is very compact. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 89.6  square miles (232.1 km²)— 48.4 square miles (125.4 km²) of it is land and 41.2 square miles (106.7 km²) (46.0%) of it is water. This compares with cities of comparable population such as Denver at 154.9 square miles and Charlotte, North Carolina at 280.5. Of United States cities over 500,000, only San Francisco and Washington, D.C. were smaller in size. Boston's official elevation, as measured at Logan International Airport, is 19 feet (5.8 m) above sea level. The highest point in Boston is Bellevue Hill at 330 feet (101m) above sea level, while the lowest point is at sea level. Boston is bordered by the cities and towns of Winthrop, Revere, Chelsea, Everett, Somerville, Cambridge, Watertown, Newton, Brookline, Needham, Dedham, Canton, Milton, and Quincy—often known as, and considered a part of, Greater Boston.

Much of the Back Bay and South End are built on reclaimed land — two and a half of Boston's three original hills were used as a source of material for landfill. Only Beacon Hill, the smallest of the three original hills, remains partially intact. The downtown area and immediate surroundings consist mostly of low-rise brick or stone buildings, with many older buildings in the Federal style. Several of these buildings mix in with modern high-rises, notably in the Financial District, Government Center, the South Boston waterfront, and Back Bay, which includes many prominent landmarks such as the Boston Public Library, Christian Science Center, Copley Square, Newbury Street, and New England's two tallest buildings: the John Hancock Tower and the Prudential Center . Near the John Hancock Tower is the old John Hancock Building with its prominent weather forecast beacon. Smaller commercial areas are interspersed amongst single-family homes and wooden/brick multi-family row houses. Currently, the South End Historic District remains the largest surviving contiguous Victorian-era neighborhood in the U.S.

Boston Common, located near the Financial District and Beacon Hill, is the oldest public park in the U.S. Along with the adjacent Boston Public Garden, it is part of the Emerald Necklace, a string of parks designed by Frederick Law Olmsted to encircle the city. Another major park is the Esplanade located along the banks of the Charles River. Other parks are scattered throughout the city, with the major parks and beaches located near Castle Island, in Charlestown and along the Dorchester, South Boston, and East Boston shorelines. The largest parks in the city are Franklin Park, which houses a zoo, the nearby Arnold Arboretum, and Stony Brook State Reservation.

The Charles River separates Boston proper from Cambridge, Watertown, and the neighborhood of Charlestown. To the east lies Boston Harbor and the Boston Harbor Islands National Recreation Area. The Neponset River forms the boundary between Boston's southern neighborhoods and the cities of Quincy and Milton. The Mystic River separates Charlestown from Chelsea and Everett, while Chelsea Creek and Boston Harbor separate East Boston from Boston proper.

See also: Neighborhoods in Boston, Massachusetts

Climate

File:Beacon Hill Winter Boston MA USA.jpg

Beacon Hill in the winter.

Boston experiences a continental climate that is very common in New England, but with distinct maritime influences due to its position on the Atlantic Ocean. The weather in Boston changes rapidly. It is not uncommon for the city to experience temperature swings of 54 Fahrenheit degrees (30 Celsius degrees) or more over the course of a couple of days. Summers are typically hot and humid, while winters are cold, windy and snowy. It has been known to snow in May or October but these events are rare.

The earliest recorded 90 °F temperature in a year was in late March 1998, while February in Boston has seen 70 degrees only once in recorded history, on February 24, 1985. Spring in Boston can be hot, with temperatures in the 90s when winds are from offshore, though it is just as possible for a day in late May to remain in the 40s due to cool ocean waters. The hottest month is July, with an average high of 81.9 °F (27.7 °C) and a low of 65.1 °F (18.4 °C), conditions are usually humid. The coldest month is January, with an average high of 35.8 °F (2.1 °C) and a low of 21.6 °F (-5.6 °C). Periods exceeding 90 °F in summer and below 10 °F in winter are not uncommon, but rarely prolonged. The record high temperature is 104 °F (40 °C), recorded July 4, 1911. The record low temperature is -18 °F (-28 °C), recorded on February 9, 1934.

The city averages 42 in (1,080 mm) of rainfall a year. It also coincidentally averages 42 in (108 cm) of snowfall a year, although this increases dramatically as one goes inland away from the city. Massachusetts' geographic location's jutting out into the North Atlantic also make the city very prone to Nor'easter weather systems that can dump more than 20 in (50 cm) of snow on the region in one storm event. Fog is prevalent, particularly in spring and early summer and the occasional tropical storm or hurricane can threaten the region, especially in early autumn.

Climate data for Boston, Massachusetts
Month	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Year
Source: Weatherbase

Demographics

Historical population

Census	Pop.	Note	%±
1790	18,320		—
1800	24,937		36.1%
1810	33,787		35.5%
1820	43,298		28.1%
1830	61,392		41.8%
1840	93,383		52.1%
1850	136,881		46.6%
1860	177,840		29.9%
1870	250,526		40.9%
1880	362,839		44.8%
1890	448,477		23.6%
1900	560,892		25.1%
1910	670,585		19.6%
1920	748,060		11.6%
1930	781,188		4.4%
1940	770,816		−1.3%
1950	801,444		4.0%
1960	697,197		−13.0%
1970	641,071		−8.1%
1980	562,994		−12.2%
1990	574,283		2.0%
2000	589,141		2.6%

As of the censusTemplate:GR of 2000, there were around 589,141 people (the population estimate of 2006 was 596,638 people), 239,528 households, and 115,212 families residing in the city. The population density was 12,166 people per square mile (4,697/km²). There were 251,935 housing units at an average density of 5,203 per square mile (2,009/km²). However, the population of Boston can grow during the daytime to about 1.2 million. This fluctuation of people is caused by suburban residents traveling to the city for work, education, medical purposes, and special events. According to the census, the racial makeup of the city was 54.47% White, 25.33% Black, 0.40% Native American, 7.52% Asian American, 0.06% Pacific Islander, 7.83% from other races, and 4.39% from two or more races. 14.44% of the population was Hispanic or Latino who can be of any race. (These figures became less reliable when you take into account the large Brazilian population, estimated by some studies to approach 250,000 in Massachusetts. More advanced studies are yet to be made in order to precise the participation of this community in the census.)

Per capita income in the greater Boston area, by U.S. Census block group

People of Irish descent form the largest single ethnic group in the city, making up 15.8% of the population. Italians also form a significant segment of the city's population, accounting for 8.3% of the population. People of West Indian ancestry are another sizeable group (6.4%); about half of them are of Haitian ancestry. Some neighborhoods, such as Dorchester, have received an influx of Vietnamese residents in the past few years.

There were 239,528 households out of which 22.7% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 27.4% were married couples living together, 16.4% had a female householder with no husband present, and 51.9% were non-families. 37.1% of all households were made up of individuals and 9.1% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.31 and the average family size was 3.17.

In the city the population was spread out with 19.8% under the age of 18, 16.2% from 18 to 24, 35.8% from 25 to 44, 17.8% from 45 to 64, and 10.4% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 31 years. For every 100 females, there were 92.8 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 90.2 males.

The median income for a household in the city was $39,629, and the median income for a family was $44,151. Males had a median income of $37,435 versus $32,421 for females. The per capita income for the city was $23,353. 19.5% of the population and 15.3% of families are below the poverty line. Out of the total population, 25.6% of those under the age of 18 and 18.2% of those 65 and older were living below the poverty line.

Law and government

Boston has a strong mayor system in which the mayor is vested with extensive executive powers. The mayor is elected to a four-year term by plurality voting. The city council is elected every two years. There are nine district seats, each elected by the residents of that district through plurality voting, and four at-large seats. Each voter casts up to four votes for at-large councilors, with no more than one vote per candidate. The candidates with the four highest vote totals are elected. The president of the city council is elected by the councilors from within themselves. The school committee is appointed by the mayor, as are city department heads.

File:Massachusetts State House frontal view.jpg

Massachusetts State House

In addition to city government, numerous state authorities and commissions play a role in the life of Bostonians, including the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation and the Massachusetts Port Authority (Massport). As the capital of Massachusetts, Boston plays a major role in state politics. Boston is also the United States federal government center for New England. Properties include the John F. Kennedy Federal Office Building and the Thomas P. O'Neill Federal Building. The city also serves as the home of the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts, as well as the headquarters of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston (the First District of the Federal Reserve). The city is in the Eighth and Ninth Congressional districts.

Boston's low crime rate in the last years of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st has been credited to its police department's collaboration with neighborhood groups and church parishes to prevent youths from joining gangs, as well as involvement from the United States Attorney and District Attorney's offices. This helped lead in part to what has been touted as the "Boston Miracle." Murders in the city dropped from 152 in 1990 (for a murder rate of 26.5 per 100,000 people) to just 31 — not one of them a juvenile — in 1999 (for a murder rate of 5.26 per 100,000). In more recent years, however, the annual murder count has fluctuated by as much as 50% compared to the year before, with 60 murders in 2002, followed by just 39 in 2003, 64 in 2004, and 75 in 2005. Though the figures are nowhere near the high-water mark set in 1990, the aberrations in the murder rate have been unsettling for many Bostonians and have prompted discussion over whether the Boston Police Department should reevaluate its approach to fighting crime.

The city's Election Department has made mistakes for years, and in 2005 agreed to oversight by the federal government after the Justice Department filed a lawsuit alleging coercion and other problems involving services for voters who do not speak English. Following the 2006 election, the Election Department is also under investigation by the Secretary of the Commonwealth's office. It is reported that the department's policy has been to distribute to the polling places only enough ballots for half the registered voters, despite a state law requiring each polling place to have enough ballots for all voters. The Secretary of the Commonwealth has announced an intention to take control of the Elections Department.

See also: List of Mayors of Boston, Massachusetts; Sister cities of Boston, Massachusetts; and Boston Fire Department

Economy

Hyatt in downtown Boston

Boston's colleges and universities have a major impact on the city and region's economy. Not only are they major employers, but they also attract high-tech industries to the city and surrounding region, including computer hardware and software companies as well as biotechnology companies like Millennium Pharmaceuticals, Millipore, Genzyme, and Biogen Idec. Boston receives the highest amount of annual funding from the National Institutes of Health of all cities in the United States.

Other important industries include financial services, especially mutual funds and insurance. Boston-based Fidelity Investments helped popularize the mutual fund in the 1980s, and has made Boston one of the top financial cities in the United States. The city is also the regional headquarters of major banks such as Bank of America and Sovereign Bank, and a center for venture capital. Boston is also a printing and publishing center. Textbook publisher Houghton Mifflin is headquartered within the city. The city is home to four major convention centers: the Hynes Convention Center in the Back Bay, the Bayside Expo Center in Dorchester, and the World Trade Center Boston and Boston Convention and Exhibition Center on the South Boston waterfront. Because of its status as a state capital and the regional home of federal agencies, law and government is another major component of the city's economy.

Major companies headquartered within the city include Gillette, owned by Procter & Gamble, and Teradyne, one of the world's leading manufacturers of semiconductor and other electronic test equipment. New Balance has its headquarters in the city. Other major companies are located outside the city, especially along Route 128. The Port of Boston is a major seaport along the United States' east coast, and is also one of the oldest continuously-operated industrial and fishing ports in the Western Hemisphere.

See also: Major companies in Greater Boston

Education

Collegiate Gothic buildings of Boston College

Boston's reputation as the Athens of America derives in large part from the teaching and research activities of more than 100 colleges and universities located in its metropolitan area, with more than 250,000 students attending college in Boston and Cambridge. Within the city, Northeastern University, a large private university, maintains a campus in the Fenway district. Boston University, one of the largest universities in the world, is located along the Charles River on Commonwealth Avenue. Wheelock College, Simmons College, Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, and Wentworth Institute of Technology, founding members of the Colleges of the Fenway, are adjacent to Northeastern University. Suffolk University, a small private university known for its law school, maintains a campus on Beacon Hill. New England School of Law, a small private law school located in the theater district, was originally established as America's only all female law school. Emerson College, a small private college with a strong reputation in the fields of performing arts, journalism, writing, and film, is located nearby on Boston Common. The city is also home to several conservatories and art schools, including the Massachusetts College of Art, New England Conservatory of Music (the oldest independent conservatory in the United States), Boston Conservatory, the School of the Museum of Fine Arts and Berklee College of Music. Boston has one major public university, the University of Massachusetts Boston, located on Columbia Point in Dorchester, while Roxbury Community College and Bunker Hill Community College are the city's two community colleges.

Several major national universities located outside Boston have a major presence in the city. Harvard University, the nation's oldest institution of higher learning, is located across the Charles River in Cambridge. The business and medical schools are in Boston, and there are plans for major expansion into Boston's Allston neighborhood. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), which originated in Boston and was long known as "Boston Tech," moved across the river to Cambridge in 1916. Tufts University administers its medical and dental school adjacent to the Tufts-New England Medical Center (Tufts-NEMC), a 451-bed academic medical institution that is home to both a full-service hospital for adults and the Floating Hospital for Children. Also, Boston College, a Jesuit university, is in Chestnut Hill. It has recently expanded into Brighton, one of Boston's thriving neighborhoods.

Boston Public Schools, the oldest public school system in the U.S., enrolls 58,600 students from kindergarten to grade 12. The system operates 145 schools, which includes Boston Latin School (the oldest public school, established in 1635; a public exam school admitting students in the 7th and 9th grades only and serving grades 7-12), English High (the oldest public high school, established 1821), and the Mather School (the oldest public elementary school, established in 1639). The city also has private, parochial, and charter schools. 3000 students of racial minorities attend participating suburban schools through the Metropolitan Educational Opportunity Council, or METCO. In 2002, Forbes Magazine ranked the Boston Public Schools as the best large city school system in the country, with a graduation rate of 82%.

See also: List of colleges and universities in metropolitan Boston

Culture

Main article: Culture in Boston, Massachusetts

See also: Sites of interest in Boston, Massachusetts

File:12-28-06 043.jpg

Quincy Market

Boston shares many cultural roots with greater New England, including a dialect of the non-rhotic Eastern New England accent known as Boston English, and a regional cuisine with a large emphasis on seafood and dairy products. Irish Americans are a major influence on Boston's politics and religious institutions. Boston also has its own collection of neologisms known as Boston slang.

Many consider Boston a highly cultured city, perhaps as a result of its intellectual reputation; much of Boston's culture originates at its universities. The city has several ornate theatres, including the Cutler Majestic Theatre, Boston Opera House, The Wang Center for the Performing Arts, Schubert Theater, and the Orpheum Theater. Renowned performing arts groups include the Boston Ballet, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Boston Pops, Boston Lyric Opera Company, Boston Baroque and the Handel and Haydn Society (the oldest choral company in the United States). There are also many major annual events such as First Night, which occurs during New Year's Eve, and several events during the Fourth of July. These events include the weeklong Harborfest festivities and a Boston Pops concert accompanied by fireworks on the banks of the Charles River.

Because of the city's prominent role in the American Revolution, several historic sites relating to that period are preserved as part of the Boston National Historical Park. Many are found along the Freedom Trail, which is marked by a red line or bricks embedded in the ground. The city is also home to several prominent art museums, including the Museum of Fine Arts and the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. The University of Massachusetts campus at Columbia Point houses the John F. Kennedy Library. The Boston Athenaeum (one of the oldest independent libraries in the United States), Boston Children's Museum, Bull & Finch Pub (whose building is known from the television show Cheers), Museum of Science, and the New England Aquarium are within the city.

Boston is also one of the birthplaces of the hardcore punk genre of music. Boston musicians have contributed greatly to this music scene over the years (see also Boston hardcore). Boston neighborhoods were home to one of the leading local third wave ska and ska punk scenes in the 1990s, led by bands such as The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, The Allstonians, Skavoovie and the Epitones, and the Dropkick Murphys. The 1980s hardcore punk rock compilation This Is Boston, Not L.A. highlights some of the bands that built the genre. Several nightclubs, such as The Channel, Bunnratty's in Allston, and The Rathskeller, were renowned for showcasing both local punk rock bands and those from farther afield. All of these clubs are now closed, and in many cases razed during recent gentrification.

Media

Main article: Media in Boston, Massachusetts

Copley Square

The Boston Globe (owned by the New York Times Company) and The Boston Herald are Boston's two major daily newspapers. The city is also served by other publications such as The Boston Phoenix, Boston magazine, The Improper Bostonian, The Weekly Dig, and the Boston edition of Metro. The Boston Globe also releases a teen publication to the city's public high schools. The newspaper Teens in Print or T.i.P. is written by the city's teens and delivered quarterly within the school year.

Boston has the largest broadcasting market in New England, with the Boston radio market being the eleventh largest in the United States. Several major AM stations include talk radio WRKO 680 AM, sports/talk station WEEI 850 AM, and news radio WBZ 1030 AM. A variety of FM radio formats serve the area, as do NPR stations WBUR and WGBH. University radio stations include WZBC (Boston College), WERS (Emerson),WUMB (UMass Boston), and WMFO (Tufts University).

The Boston television DMA, which also includes Manchester, New Hampshire, is the seventh largest in the United States. The city is served by stations representing every major American network including WBZ 4 (CBS), WCVB 5 (ABC), WHDH 7 (NBC), WFXT 25 (Fox), and WLVI 56 (The CW). Boston is also home to PBS station WGBH 2, a major producer of PBS programs which also operates WGBX 44. Most Boston television stations have their transmitters in nearby Needham and Newton.

Sports

Main article: Boston sports

A Boston Red Sox baseball game at Fenway Park

Club	League	Sport	Venue	Established	Championships
Boston Red Sox	MLB	Baseball	Fenway Park	1901	6 World Series
New England Patriots	NFL	Football	Gillette Stadium	1960	3 Super Bowls
Boston Celtics	NBA	Basketball	TD Banknorth Garden	1946	16 NBA Titles
Boston Bruins	NHL	Hockey	TD Banknorth Garden	1924	5 Stanley Cups
New England Revolution	MLS	Soccer	Gillette Stadium	1995	0 MLS Cups
Boston Cannons	MLL	Lacrosse	Harvard Stadium	2001	0 MLL Championships

The Boston Red Sox (the "Sox" as they are colloquially called) are a founding member of the American League of Major League Baseball. The team plays its home games at Fenway Park, near Kenmore Square in the Fenway section. Built in 1912, it is the oldest sports arena or stadium in active use in the United States among the four major professional sports. Boston was also the site of the first game of the first baseball World Series, in 1903. The series was played between the Red Sox (then known as the "Pilgrims") and the Pittsburgh Pirates.

The TD Banknorth Garden (formerly called the Fleet Center) is above North Station and is the home of two major league teams: the Boston Bruins ice hockey team of the National Hockey League and the Boston Celtics basketball team of the National Basketball Association. The Bruins were the first American member of the National Hockey League and an Original Six franchise. The Boston Celtics were founding members of the Basketball Association of America, one of the two leagues that merged to form the NBA. The Celtics have the distinction of having more World Championships than any other NBA team with 16 championships from 1957 to 1986.

Although the team has played in suburban Foxboro since 1971, the New England Patriots are Boston's football team. The team was founded in 1960 as the Boston Patriots, a charter member of the American Football League, and in 1970 the team joined the National Football League. The team has won three Super Bowl titles (2001, 2003, 2004) since the 2001 season. They share Gillette Stadium with the New England Revolution of Major League Soccer.

Boston's many colleges and universities are active in college athletics. There are four NCAA Division I members in the city: Boston College (member of the Atlantic Coast Conference), Boston University (America East Conference), Northeastern University (Colonial Athletic Association), and Harvard University (Ivy League). All except Harvard, which belongs to the ECAC Hockey League, belong to the Hockey East conference in hockey. The hockey teams of these four universities meet every year in a four-team tournament known as the "Beanpot Tournament," played at the TD Banknorth Garden over two Monday nights in February.

One of the most famous sporting events in the city is the Boston Marathon, the 26 mile (42 km) run from Hopkinton to Copley Square in the Back Bay. The Marathon, the world's oldest, is popular and heavily attended. It is run on Patriot's Day in April and always coincides with a Red Sox home baseball game that starts at 11:00 AM (the only MLB game to start before noon local time all year). Another major event held in the city is the Head of the Charles Regatta rowing competition on the Charles River.

See also: U.S. cities with teams from four major sports

Health and utilities

File:View-over-lma.jpg

Longwood Medical Area

The Longwood Medical Area is a region of Boston with a concentration of medical and research facilities, including Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Children's Hospital, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and Harvard Medical School. Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Brigham and Women's Hospital were both formed by mergers: the former between Beth Israel Hospital and New England Deaconess Hospital, and the latter by Peter Bent Brigham Hospital and the Boston Hospital for Women. Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) is near the Beacon Hill neighborhood, with the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary and Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital nearby. Boston also has VA medical centers in the Jamaica Plain and West Roxbury neighborhoods.

Many of Boston's major medical facilities are associated with universities. The facilities in the Longwood Medical Area and MGH are world-renowned research medical centers affiliated with Harvard Medical School. New England Medical Center, located in the southern portions of the Chinatown neighborhood, is affiliated with Tufts University. Boston Medical Center, located in the South End neighborhood, is the primary teaching facility for the Boston University Boston University School of Medicine as well as the largest trauma center in the Boston area; it was formed by the merger of Boston University Hospital and Boston City Hospital.

Water supply and sewage-disposal services are provided by the Boston Water and Sewer Commission. The Commission in turn purchases wholesale water and sewage disposal from the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority (MWRA). NSTAR is the exclusive distributor of electric power to the city, though due to deregulation, customers now have a choice of electric generation companies. Natural gas is distributed by KeySpan Corporation (the successor company to Boston Gas); only commercial and industrial customers may choose an alternate natural gas supplier.

Verizon, successor to New England Telephone, NYNEX, Bell Atlantic and earlier, the Bell System, is the primary wired telephone service provider for the area. Phone service is also available from various national wireless companies. Cable television is available from Comcast and RCN, with Broadband Internet access provided by the same companies in certain areas. A variety of DSL providers and resellers are able to provide broadband Internet over Verizon-owned phone lines.

Transportation

Main article: Boston transportation

An MBTA sign at the Chinatown stop.

Logan International Airport, located in the East Boston neighborhood, handles most of the scheduled passenger service for Boston. Surrounding the city are three major general aviation relievers: Beverly Municipal Airport to the north, Bedford/Hanscom Field to the west, and Norwood Memorial Airport to the south. T. F. Green Airport serving Providence, Rhode Island, and Manchester-Boston Airport in Manchester, New Hampshire, also provide scheduled passenger service. There are also many smaller airports within a 30-mile (48-km) radius of the city.

Downtown Boston's streets do not seem to follow a logical pattern, as they were not planned when built centuries ago; they were created as needed, and as wharves and landfill expanded the area of the small Boston peninsula. Along with several rotaries, roads change names and lose and add lanes seemingly at random. In its March 2006 issue, Bicycling magazine named Boston as one of the worst cities in the U.S. for cycling. Boston has been described as a "City of Squares", referring to the tradition of naming the intersections of major thoroughfares after prominent city residents. On the other hand, streets in the Back Bay, East Boston, the South End, and South Boston follow a grid system. However, these grids are built around the existing chaos from the city's early growth.

Boston is the eastern terminus of I-90, also known as the Mass Pike. I-95, which surrounds the city, is locally referred to as Route 128, its historical state route numbering. U.S. Route 1 (also known locally as 'Route 1') and I-93 runs north to south through the city. The elevated Central Artery, which ran through downtown Boston and was constantly prone to heavy traffic, was replaced with an underground tunnel through the Big Dig.

The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) now operates what was the first underground rapid transit system in the United States, which has since been expanded to 65.5 miles of track, reaching as far north as Malden, as far south as Braintree, and as far west as Newton. Collectively known as the "T", the MBTA also operates a network of bus lines and water shuttles, and a commuter rail network totalling over 200 miles, extending north to the Merrimack River valley, west to Worcester, and south to Providence, Rhode Island. The extensiveness of the T is responsible for the fact that 31.5% of Boston commuters use public transit. Walking has a larger transit role in Boston than comparably populated cities. Owing to factors such as the compactness of the city and large student population, 13% of the population commutes by foot, making it the highest percentage of pedestrian commuters in the country out of the major American cities.

Amtrak's Northeast Corridor and Chicago lines originate at South Station and stop at Back Bay. Fast Northeast Corridor trains, which service New York City, Washington, D.C., and points in between, also stop at Route 128 Station in the southwestern suburbs of Boston. Meanwhile, Amtrak's Downeaster service to Maine originates at North Station.

See also

Back Bay

• Notable Bostonians
• Boston nicknames
• List of television shows set in Boston
• List of films, operas, and plays set in Boston
• List of Boston skyscrapers
• Boston in fiction
• Fictional people from Boston

Further reading

• Downst, Henry P. (1916). "Random Notes of Boston". Humphrey Publishing. {{cite book}}: External link in |title= (help)
• Ira Gershkoff and Richard Trachtman (2004). The Boston Driver's Handbook. Da Capo Press. ISBN 0-306-81326-2.
• Patricia Harris and David Lyon (1999). Boston. Oakland, CA: Compass American Guides. ISBN 0-679-00284-7.
• Howard Mumford Jones and Bessie Zaban Jones (1975). The Many Voices of Boston: A Historical Anthology 1630-1975. Boston: Little, Brown and Company. ISBN 0-316-47282-4.
• Rambow, John D.; et al. (2003). Fodor's Boston. New York: Fodors Travel Publication. ISBN 1-4000-1028-4. {{cite book}}: Explicit use of et al. in: |author= (help)
• Seasholes, Nancy S. (2006). Walking Tours of Boston's Made Land. The MIT Press. ISBN 0-262-69339-9.
• Vanderwarker, Peter (1982). Boston Then and Now. Courier Dover Publications. ISBN 0-486-24312-5.

External links

• Template:Wikitravelpar
• City's official website
• Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce
• Greater Boston Convention & Visitors Bureau
• The Boston Indicators Project
• Boston Logan International Airport
• Open Space Plan 2002-2006, City of Boston, maps and analyses
• Historical Maps of Boston from the Norman B. Leventhal Map Center at the Boston Public Library