July 17, 2008

A Summer Scene from Beacon Hill

While plenty of people around the city of Boston dread summer and its upsurge in violence, open windows and hot weather bring conflict of a different sort to Beacon Hill.

Let me recount an episode I witnessed last summer:

I was biking home, and as soon as I turned (illegally) from West Cedar onto Phillips, I heard a car horn. A few blocks up the hill, a moving van boxed in an SUV while a well dressed man leaned on the horn through the open driver’s side window.

Being the car-hating sort, I found it entertaining, but a young couple a few doors down was less entertained:

Young Woman: Hey, could you please stop honking your horn?

Irate Driver: No! Not until these guys move the stupid truck.

Young Man: If you don’t stop honking, we’re calling the police.

Irate Driver: Good, call the police! Then they can get these jerks to move their truck

Young Man: You’re ruining the quality of life for everyone else!

Irate Driver: No, [indicating movers] they’re ruining it!

Young Woman: No, they’re providing a valuable service and contributing to the economy, at the cost of five minutes of your time. You’re just being a jerk.

C’mon, where else are you gonna get banter like that outside your window? The 6th story of a condo tower on the Greenway? A sprawling ranch out in Sudbury? Heck, even in Back Bay, the streets are too wide for good old-fashioned hollering out the window.

Maybe, with the right crowd of people, you could create a similar scene in the North End, but there’d probably be a lot more shouting and less reasoning. And let’s face it, if you wanted that, you could just go on the internet.

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