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Policing Channel 5
By adamg on Mon, 05/10/2010 - 11:08pm
John Keith watches the 11 o'clock news so we don't have to and reports Channel 5 just had a big graphic identifying the location of BPD headquarters as being in West Roxbury.
Ed. note: West Roxbury does, indeed, have a police station. It is SO West Roxbury: It looks like an overgrown colonial and is painted a pleasing light blue.
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Comments
Some of our best friends live in West Roxbury
Reminds me of when Mrs. Romney claimed that they were down with their homies in the hood because they had a lot of friends in West Roxbury. Classic LOLWUT?
Geo-lepers
And I recall 30 years ago when we moved to town and rented on Beacon Hill. A couple our age from West Roxbury expressed shock that we were raising our son "in the inner city." Ooooo.
What's more 'inner' than Beacon Hill?
the North End? Chinatown?
You seriously think this
You seriously think this usage is about geography?
OED: "Inner city: the central area of a city, esp. if dilapidated or characterized by overcrowding, poverty, etc."
And, most importantly,
it's a euphemism for "a part of a city that has a large proportion of non-white people." Which, to someone in West Roxbury, is the case with a place like Beacon Hill; the Hill itself is still mostly white, but you would encounter plenty of non-white people if you went anywhere nearby. Not the case in West Rox.
I can't tell here if Ron Newman is just Ron Newman-ing here, or if he's just being literal to a point of ridiculousness. But seriously Ron, get off of it-- you know as well as anyone here that "inner city" does not now and has never had anything to do with geography, except, possibly coincidentally.
WABAC
That couple went on to say how dangerous they thought Boston schools as well as downtown neighborhoods were -- instant physical peril upon entry. To your point though, back then Dot, Southie and Roxbury were far gritter, crime prone and poorer, fitting the South Bronx, south side of Chicago stereotypes of inner city.
I worked at jobs in Norwood and Burlington where the suburban types would never come into Boston, out of fear. Some would ask whether I wasn't afraid to be out at night downtown. Hearing it from WR-brand Bostonians was a surprise. Since then though, I've heard it many times from the my-neighborhood-is-safe-yours-sucks types. Meh.
Thank God we have you yuppie
Thank God we have you yuppie hipsters here now to make our city such a chic and safe place!
western world
Some years ago, when reporting a violent crime near Egleston Square, one of the Boston dailies said it happened in West Roxbury, probably since this was on the frontier of Roxbury and its neighbor to the west, Jamaica Plain. Back then, the shop talk blamed this on less informed weekend staffing. Things have changed.
Two Things Channel 5 In Boston Is NOT:
Ever since the switch from analog TV broadcasting to digital, WCVB-DT has been operating on UHF channel 20, not channel 5. (If you have a digital TV or an analog-only TV and accompanying analog-to-digital box atttached to an over-the-air antenna, try it.) And since its inception, WCVB has maintained studios in the town of Needham. So it's NOT on channel 5 and it's not located in Boston. (Neither is WFXT-DT, which is not on channel 25 but on channel 31, and operates from right next to to Dedham Place.)