Does Allston need an Allston Square?

to do than worry about renaming public streets and intersections for no good reason. Sadder still that the general public seems to have no objections to our politicians wasting their time (and out tax dollars) in such efforts.

Historically the name "Allston Square" referred to the intersection of Cambridge Street and Harvard Avenue in front of the Allston Depot railroad station.

I keep a file of these things, though, and I found a reference that in 2001 Harvard University proposed changing Barry's Corner to a new "Allston Square". I assume the present controversy is a new version of the Harvard proposal, now that all the residents have been removed.

(And at one time there was also a dead-end street off of Allston Street, leading into Ringer Park, that was named "Allston Square".)

One person on that list said:

No one will know where Barry's Corner is without a lot of explanation. This is not good if you want people to find it on their own. However, Allston Square is readily understood, especially when one says it's a mile south of Harvard Square.

That person is crazy. How can you not just say that Barry's corner is a mile south of Harvard Square? And who would use that to explain where the intersection is? I would just say it is the big intersection with the triangle between the library and Harvard Stadium. I'm a newbie to Allston, but I know where Barry's Corner is. Anyone who pays attention knows where it is as there's $150MM development going in there. Pretty hard not to notice.

I used to live near Barry's Corner (on Sorrento Street, if you must know.) We always referred to that part of Allston as Lower Allston or "LA". If someone said, "Meet me in Allston Square" I would assume that they meant either Comm Ave @ Harvard Ave or Brighton Ave @ Harvard Ave. While of course Barry's Corner is in Allston, it's neither the geographic nor business center of Allston, so calling it Allston Square is highly misleading.

This sounds more like a simple marketing ploy as a previous writer mentioned. Change the name of the area to bring attention to it. Replace an "old and fussy name" with something shiny and having zero historical connection. Create that sense of NEW NEW NEW and send down the sewers any sense of an area's history or culture.

The realtors who wanted to stick the farcical name of SoMo to the JP South St area south of the monument was an earlier example of the same silliness. Although it should be noted that a name such as SoMo might make people think of Sumo wrestlers. That would be an interesting addition to the eclecticism of JP.

But changing the name to Allston Square has a white washing feel. It has the impact of beige or putty as colors. The name change tries to erase the history of the area and leave the neighborhood's identity as a cypher. It white washes the history; gets rid of the smudge of any past, sordid or not. This is about creating an illusion of something that is bright and shiny by jettisoning the past.

The advertising could (though its not trite and happy enough) read as:

"Live in the newest neighborhood is Boston: Allston Square. Forget the dirty past, ignore useless history. Leave the meaningless academic pedantry to the pedants. Move to the NEW Allston Square where you can pretend to be new frontiersmen (and women) in creating a brand new urban neighborhood."

Why is there a push to name every intersection in the city? I had never heard the area of Lower Allston being called that until the hipsters moved into the run down properties in the area.