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It's official: Channel 4 is now run by aliens from the Andromeda galaxy - or New Yorkers
By adamg on Mon, 07/16/2007 - 10:26pm
Wellesley Crash Closes 95, Severely Injures 1.
Listen, kiddos, the only people who call that stretch of road "95" are tourists from Illinois and anal-retentive federal highway administrators. What's next? A story about Warchester?
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Comments
But it is 95.
But it is 95.
Of course it is. But some
Of course it is. But some stubborn locals like to continue calling it Route 128 to make it as hard as possible for outsiders to get around Greater Boston.
I find that people from the
I find that people from the north of Boston tend to refer to it as 95, and people from the south of Boston tend to refer to it as 128.
I think it's far more accurate to refer to the highway that loops around Boston as 128, because 95 shares the road with 128 for only a portion of said loop.
My way for the highway?
Unless you want the federal government to take it's $$$ and go home (or certain areas of Boston to disappear in a linear poof of concrete), it is best to call it 95 and get over it. It has been I-95 for the better part of three decades, sheesh.
As for "part of the loop", well, only 40 freaking miles or more of the loop.
The only confusing part is where it is 93N/128S, but headed southeast (or 93S/128N headed northwest) over by Braintree/Stoughton. Again, that's the federal money talking, and this has been the case for 30 years.
New York and Sixth Avenue
We can call it 95 in the presence of the Federal Highway Administration, but I'm still going to tell local acquaintances that they need to get off the turnpike at 128 ...
Entirely apt!
The Sixth Avenue / "Avenue of the Americas" analogy fits perfectly here. I don't know a single native New Yorker who uses "Avenue of the Americas" unless they're giving directions to outtatownahs. "Sixth" is quicker than "Avenue of the Americas."
Likewise, if I'm giving directions to outtatownahs up here and it involves 128, I'll tell them "Route 128" unless they're coming in from 95, at which point I'll them that the stretch they'll be driving is considered both and watch out once you get to Peabody...
most boston residents are
most boston residents are probably content to let the suburbanites who use the road argue about it. Of all the numbered roads around metro boston this is probably least relevant to city dwellers. i've used it maybe 5 times in the last 5 years.
Yup.
You're right about that, pierce.
Also,
Another equally confusing part is where I-95 North and 128 North branch off and away from each other. It can be confusing for somone who's not familiar with that route at all, but one has to really watch the signs when they reac the fork-off. There's a sign--128 North, towards Ipswitch, and I-95 North, towards Gloucester, NH and Maine.
In either case, North or South, the signs have to be watched carefully.
Not quite.
95 doesn't go to Gloucester, 128 does. 128 doesn't go to Ipswich (no T), and neither does 95.
Or is it 128 that shares the
Or is it 128 that shares the road with I-95?
Lots of things are 95
The Richmond-Petersburg Turnpike is 95
The JFK Memorial Highway is 95
The Delaware Turnpike is 95
The Washington Beltway is 95
The New Jersey Turnpike is 95
The Trans-Manhattan Expressway is 95
The Bruckner Expressway is 95
The New England Thruway is 95
The Connecticut Turnpike is 95
The New Hampshire Turnpike is 95
The Blue Star Turnpike is 95
The Maine Turnpike is 95
So why don't we abolish all those names too, while we're taking down the 128 signs?
There's a perfectly good reason that the loop out around the west of Boston is called 128. Route 128 was there first, existing in some form since 1927, and Route 95 was originally supposed to go right over downtown Boston.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interstate_95_in_Mass...
This is a significant part of Boston history, as swaths of the city (e.g. Jamaica Plain) were demolished before the project was finally stopped. As the plans changed, the route of I-95 was switched several times (it used to go east at Canton, not west)until it found its current route along the Rt. 128 beltway in 1974.
The designation may change, but the road remains the same: Route 128 will continue to be itself, just as the Jamaicaway continued to be itself after Route 3 and then Route 1 were routed along it.
Route 128 also has sections to the South (from Canton to Braintree) and to the North (from Peabody to Cape Ann) where I-95 does not follow it. If the segment where I-95 follows it were abolished, then there'd be two separate and unconnected Route 128s.
You can go ahead and call it 95 if you wish, but you won't change the fact that it is and will always be 128; you'll just mark yourself as an outsider. You might as well try to schedule a facial at the Palace Spa in Brighton.
Canton to Braintree
That would be that vastly more confusing area where it is I-93, seemingly in an inappropriate direction.
Oooh horrors, an outsider. AN OUTSIDER! Quick, lock the state up before we get any of those dangerous concepts like competent public management and proper funding for maintenance! Good lord, we might just transcend the 20th century if we let them in!
Did it occur to any of ya that this damn stretch of asphalt and concrete has been I-95 long enough to graduate, marry, and have kids of it's own under that name?
Lock the state up
Before we get more outsiders here bad-mouthing our public servants instead of making coherent arguments. Let them go back to Jersey (where I-95 has four names, and isn't even continuous) or wherever they're from.
Or let them drive around in circles until their SUVs run out of gas because they can't figure out who's got the right of way in a rotary or how to get out of Brighton or which way goes to Boston at the 93/95 split or which Washington Street they're on. Boston's confusing roads are a kind of natural selection; simple people can move out to some grid city somewhere.
But folks who aren't so easily confused will keep calling 128 what it is, and keep expecting you to fill in the -achusetts in Mass Ave and the -onwealth in Comm Ave, and we'll be sure to change what roads the highways go on every decade or so, just to be safe.
Do you want to build a wall
Do you want to build a wall at our borders with Mexico and Canada too? I only ask since you sound kind of xenophobic. I guess you don't like all the $$$$ that tourists spend here in the Bay State either.
You can have it!
All of Massissippi can be all yours. I interviewed all over the northwest and Canada last year, and I only took a job here because I already owned a house here and my husband has never lived anywhere else. People like you make me really wonder why I didn't just take that offer in San Francisco. Seriously.
You can have New Jersey, too. It's just the same as most of Massachusetts if you have ever lived or travelled anywhere else. Really difficult to tell the two apart in any major way, actually! All the more local government of by an for a bunch of inbred clique families and not an ounce of public service mentality.
Geesh, for somebody who likes to get picky beyond actual accuracy about geography, you sure are ignorant of anything outside these boundaries. Go ride a f'ing bus in Seattle sometime. Go see what land use planning can do for a city like Vancouver or Toronto or Portland. Drive a road in rural Washington and then drive one in southeastern MA and you might just get ideas! Visit Chicago and understand what some vision can do for a city - even under the yoke of nepotism - from realigning streets after the great fire (Boston had plenty of chances to do so!) to usable public space. Get out of town and then MAYBE you will understand why people get irritated with your "oooh, scary outsider" attitude.
Shall I chant "best practices" and "of by and for the people" until you faint dead away from fear?
Actually, someone else irritates me
why people get irritated with your "oooh, scary outsider" attitude
Adam and Gareth try to celebrate a little local idiosyncrasy and someone jumps all over them. That seems to happen a lot when anyone says something slightly different than the way this person thinks things oughta be. What's up with all the know-it-all-ism?
Also, if someone thinks Massachusetts and Boston suck so much, I question why they spend time at Universal Hub. It makes me think it's only to laugh at and/or "educate" the townies. Which isn't so different from an "oooh, scary outsider" attitude in reverse.
Fortunately, English language naming conventions do not respond well to dictates, unless they are well-paid-for stadium names and that's just because they wear you down whenever you have to find tickets.
I tend to call it "the 128 part of I-95" or "that weird area between I-95 to Providence and the Southeast Expressway." If I didn't live north of the city, I'd probably have to come up with a shorter name.
I'll Take It!
If people like me make you want to leave Boston, I say good riddance.
Difficult to tell Jersey and Mass apart? Only if you’re freakin’ stupid.
Massachusetts is the 8th most forested state in the country, at 62% forest cover and growing. At the same time, it’s the 3rd most densely populated state, with the seventh-largest metropolis. Massachusetts has a 192 mile long coastline, with hundreds of public beaches. It's got more colleges and universities per capita than any other state. It's got lots of farmland, islands, rivers, mountains, beaches, beautiful small towns, clean air and good water. And this is like New Jersey how?
New Jersey is the most densely populated state in the country, with the highest percent (90%) living in an urban area. New Jersey is the only state in the union where all its counties are classified as metropolitan areas. New Jersey is the car theft capitol of the world, with more cars stolen in Newark than in NYC and LA put together. It has the densest system of highways in the US, the most toxic waste dumps (108), the largest petroleum containment area outside the Middle East. They've got the highest concentration of shopping malls in the country. Sure, they have some forests left, too -- 42% and dropping 10,000 acres per year. Girl, Jersey is fugly!
If can’t tell that from Massachusetts, then you either haven’t been either place much, or haven’t opened your eyes much.
And I’m ignorant of anything outside Mass, too? Washington State (where I happen to have been born) is beautiful, especially the Olympic Peninsula. But Massachusetts is beautiful too. Go down to Westport sometime, or go see the Quabbin and the Pioneer Valley. Go up to Turners Falls, up to Plum Island, out to the Berkshires (on your way out of the state). Though we’ve got 810 people per square mile versus 89 in Washington, Massachusetts has plenty of beautiful places. I think I probably know much more about rural roads in Massachusetts than you do, having ridden the length and breadth of this state on my bicycle.
Holding up Chicago (where my brother-in-law and four of my cousins live) as a vision of urban livability is ridiculous. Go ride the Loop just once and you’ll be begging to get back on the Green Line, let alone a real subway like the Orange Line. Go ride their fabulous low-speed train to O’Hare, and even the Silver Line will start to look good. Did you say usable public area? Boston’s parks are 17.6% of the land within city limits, the third-highest in the country. You know how much Chicago has? 8.1%. So if we want to take tips from them in usable public area, we should pave over half our parks with concrete, right? Puh-leese.
Hey, nothing personal, but I wonder why you didn’t take that job in San Francisco too. Gee, maybe it’s because the real estate there makes Boston look cheap. Or maybe it’s the earthquakes. Or the fires, the bridge collapses...
I live in Boston because I choose to live in Boston. I first came here when I was 16, and I’ve loved it since. I’ve lived in ten other states and provinces, and four other countries, and I think Massachusetts is one of the most beautiful places in the world, and Boston is one of the most beautiful cities. We’ve got mountains, ocean, beaches, forests, islands, rivers, farmland, and plenty of water. We live in one of the greenest, most beautiful cities in America, with a good public transportation system, clean air, and very few Republicans. We have excellent state and municipal government in exchange for a low tax burden (average 10.6% total, lower than 27 other states, including Illinois, Washington, and New Jersey).
So go ahead and call me ignorant for liking these things, go ahead and call me scared of outsiders because I don’t like people badmouthing my city and my state. And I’ll call you on it every time, because you’re just wrong.
So's the Cross-Bronx Expressway.,
I think.
AP Style is AP Style,
AP Style is AP Style, regardless of from where the new source's high ups come from. And AP Style would have it as Interstate 95, I do believe.
Whuh?
Frappe milkshake sub JP Rozzy Dot Ave. Southie triple decker The B's The People's Republic The C's and if you don't know Bucky Dent's middle name - and why. All good tests of whether or not you're a native.
Beyond that, all good tests of whether or not you have respect for the natives. That's important. If you were to go live in, for instance, England, you wouldn't say, "You moron! It's a sausage, not a banger! And why the hell do you insist on calling it the tube? It's the subway!"
If you choose to live (or visit) somewhere, expect to adapt to the native customs and idioms - even if you find the idioms idiotic. You'll be happier in the long run.
Suldog
http://jimsuldog.blogspot.com
but not always
How often do you hear people ask for a tonic anymore?
You don't hang out in the right neighborhoods
Come downna Rozzie or Hipahk ...
Moxie
Now THAT's a tonic!
Moxie!
Moxie most certainly IS a tonic. Nobody in their right mind could possibly call that stuff "soda pop".
As a native - no offense :-) - I grew up having acquired a taste for the stuff early on. My Dad always kept a bottle in the fridge. One of my favorite things in life is to see folks new to the area have their first taste of the beverage. The look on their faces is priceless.
Suldog
http://jimsuldog.blogspot.com
Gentian Roots
Cures what ails ya! Especially if you dump plenty of rum in it.
I half wonder if the surge in the popularity of Moxie during the 20s came as a result of it's legendary ability for covering booze? It almost died out until some swing kids got ahold of it and made it hip again. Truly a unique beverage. You either love it or hate it, no inbetween.
I love the stuff personally. When my younger son was a toddler, he would BEG for it! My Boston native MIL was very bemused, as she hates it herself (she's in her mid 70s, but thinks of it as "for the old folks"). He'd stand there at the fridge door when she opened it and say "Moxie! Moxie!"
The beginnings of a song
Frappe
milkshake
sub
JP
Rozzy Squayuh
Man, if only Billy Joel were a Bostonian: "We didn't staht the fiyah!"