This heat is just unbearable

A scoutmaster is preparing his charges for a week-long camping trip, to be held deep in the woods. About midway through his lecture about the general requirements of outdoor living "in the wild" and basic camping and survival skills, he decides to test the scouts to see what they've learned so far. He states to them:

"So, say we're hiking and you get separated from the others. What do you do?"

A scout replies: "I'd head back to the campsite."

The scoutmaster says "Good. But, what if while hiking back, you encounter a bear that starts charging towards you. What do you do?"

Another scout then answers "Well, I'd run away from the bear."

The scoutmaster replies "Good, you'd run away. Now say, while running from the bear, you come to a road. On the other side of the road are two buildings. One's a vacant cabin, and the other's a church where a congregation is holding services. Where do you go?"

A third scout then replies "I'd run across the road and into the church."

The scoutmaster says "OK. You'd run into the church. With a bear behind?"

he might have returned to Boston for the first time in 30 years, and was crushed to learn that the former Playland, his favorite scary dive bar, was gone, no recognizable buildings around but the one housing Kaze, now a nice hot-pot restaurant. That had to be a tough moment, realizing that Playland's former cast -- street thugs, sex workers, gays and trans people and polymorphously-perverse freaks, assorted druggie / drunk lowlifes, and maybe a very young, callow punk-rocker or two seeking an edgy moment hanging with Old Dirty Boston's demimonde -- had vanished with the rest of the Combat Zone long ago. Or so I imagine.