Ruth+Tulysse+2

Public Space: South Medford,Hillside Tucked in between the cities of Somerville and Medford just north of Boston, is the South Medford neighborhood known as Hillside. The area is home to Tufts University and a diverse racial population. Hillside stretches from College Avenue to the Boston Avenue at Winthrop Street intersection. The neighborhood is vibrant with activity for what seems like the majority of the day. Once an individual steps foot off of one of the three (Route: 80, 94, and 96) bus ways onto the pavement, his or her nose is suddenly struck with pulsating flavors. The flavors of pizza, Chinese cuisine, Dutch baked goods, and Italian foods. The individual’s eyes are widened to the diverse colors amongst the people walking along the streets. Mothers pushing strollers with crying babies, high school student’s happily loitering, college student’s hauling heavy backpacks filled with books, people smoking while waiting for the bus, and people sitting outside eating at the outside dining areas, these are all scenes that demonstrate the consistent activity of Hillside’s streets. The streets remain busy throughout the day, but often different scenes are depicted. Early in the morning the streets are woken up to the sweet sugary smell of Dunkin Donut’s doughnuts and freshly brewed coffee. The lines of Dunkin Donut’s soon crowd with young adults in high-end office-wear, carrying their cell phones and office bags. The crowd is in an apparent rush to make purchases in an attempt to not miss their next bus. Three other restaurants on the same street special breakfast as well, but Dunkin Donut’s excel’s in popularity. Not everyone on the street is on his or her way to a regularly scheduled nine to five. Yellow school busses cause traffic due to its blinking red stop sign’s powerful barrier against any vehicle in its way. Little children pile onto the school busses, surprisingly there is a lack or parents waiting at the bus stops with them, fortunately however there are a few crossing guards. High school students also wait at bus stops, but instead of yellow busses they wait for the MBTA busses to drop them off at their schools. In contrast of both the elementary, middle, and high school students, the Tufts University students are not in a rush. In fact, the university students seem absent from the entire fast paced scene. Not too many of the students are up early or attend early classes. The students who are up early are those of the athletic crowd, sporting athletic gear with ‘Tufts University’ written across it, and are jogging merrily. There are a few groups of people outside who are awake, but are not necessarily awake for any particular reason; those people are awake as routine. Old Italian men leave their four-story apartment houses in order to go fetch the day’s Boston Globe at one of the four places it’s sold in a two-block radius. Shop owners pull up security gates and unlock shops. A few minutes later employees begin setting up for the day. The employees begin sweeping the sidewalk, washing windows, and setting up tables outside of restaurants. Outside of Master William’s Barbershop is a group of urban Black and Hispanic men awaiting to get their hair cut, but as usual the owner is late. The men do not care because to them, this is routine, and as they wait they buy snacks at the neighboring convenient store as they talk to their girlfriends’ on their cell phones. In the middle of the afternoon at about lunchtime the rush of traffic slows down, which is unlike the usual commercial area. Delivery trucks making early deliveries drop off various items to convenient stores. UPS trucks double park on the narrow streets in an effort to drop off packages quickly without the trouble of finding parking. Pizza delivery drivers effortlessly balance stacks of pizza, bags of side orders, and huge bags of soda to their cars. Eating areas outside of restaurants remain empty because it is too cold outside, but the insides of the restaurants are crowded, it is indeed lunchtime. Lunchtime on a cold afternoon is the only time during the day that the streets of Hillside remain nearly empty for two whole hours, from noon to 2:00PM. The sounds on the streets are in lack of human conversation, and all one can hear is the sound of busses and cars zooming by. What the scenery lacks in sound and activity, it makes up for in its imagery. The streets of Hillside are a bit narrow and cars are allowed to park on both sides. An interesting symbol of the neighborhood is the mural located at the corner of Boston Avenue at Winthrop Street. The mural is painted in bright rainbow colors, with an Asian girl and a Black boy in the foreground, and the Boston skyline in the background. On the sidewalks are bus stop canopies and benches, newspaper fixtures, and tables’ setup in front of eating stores. The stores are all located on the first floor of residential buildings. The stores are a mixture of mom and pop shops and chain stores. There are no retail stores in the area, but mostly food and convenient stores. The houses that do not contain store fronts are three to four stories tall and contain apartments inside. There are two churches in the area and one former church. The two churches represent the current changes in the neighborhood, one belonging to Brazilians, and the other to Vietnamese. The former church is a catholic church that used to serve Italians, but now is no longer a church and is a Tufts University office building. The actual street floors are graveled many potholes and tar covering older potholes. The loads of potholes that cover the street floors are a sign of neglect the area has endured over the last few years. The city seems to take no notice of the area, but area is vibrant with changes and deserves a closer look. The mural at the street corner has unintentionally become the neighborhood landmark. The choice to use an Asian girl and a Black boy is ideal for the neighborhood; the image; the image displays the racial and age diversity of the neighborhood. Hillside has undergone changes in its racial and generational makeup in the last ten years. The neighborhood is a mixed residential neighborhood that is currently experiencing a process of change. The influx of big business and the change in economy are the two reasons for such changes. Historically Hillside is home to Tufts University, a school known for its academia and financial prosperity. Although the neighborhood is not part of the school, traditionally it holds the desire to live up to the school’s reputation. The older residents of the Hillside neighborhood are blue-collar Italian Americans. These Italian Americans are those who have lived in Hillside for generations since their years of immigration at Ellis Island. The neighborhood does not have the suburban look or feel, but these residents lived by the “keeping up with the Jones’” motto. The residents lived a relatively comfortable life and naturally throughout the generations became accustomed to that way of living. All too often individuals fear change and move in order to escape the possibilities of what is to come. The ability to move away from change does not stop change but rather speeds up the process. It is a known fact that the Boston metropolitan area has experience “white flight,” where white people move out of their mixed racial neighborhoods into those that are predominantly white. Unfortunately white flight has silently been occurring in Hillside over the last ten years, luckily a lot of old white residents still remain in the neighborhood and do not consider the move. The old white residents who choose to remain live contentedly amongst the new wave of immigrant groups who have moved into the area. Immigrant groups living in the area are predominantly Brazilians, Haitians, Vietnamese, and Moroccan. The relevance of these immigrant groups is apparent in the neighborhood stores, churches, and obviously the residents. These immigrants influence and impact the streets daily. The recent influx of immigrants is a result of the economic benefits at the end of the 1990s. As a result of the bettering of the economy, these immigrants were able to move out of their low-income houses or affordable government given housing into an urban middle class neighborhood. Immigrants are not the only changes of the hillside area, but over the past five years or so is the introduction of chain stores. The neighborhood is covered with unique small businesses, however, over the years as many of these businesses come to a close, chain stores by the retail space. Dunkin Donuts, BoLoco, Whole Foods, and Starbucks are all relatively new to the area, yet by far exceed the mom-and-pop shops in popularity. Whole Foods and Starbucks are located at the very edge of the Hillside neighborhood, but people choose to travel to these stores instead of going to the small businesses that are more convenient. The arrival of chain stores amongst locally owned businesses often sparks the debate of whether or not the chain stores destruct or benefit the neighborhood. The chain stores have proven to do both over the years. With the arrival of the chain stores, many of the major potholes in front of the chain stores that the city once ignored altogether have been covered over with tar in order to compliment the new store fronts. The chain stores have made the area a destination rather than just a passage to get to another neighborhood. This new depiction of the area as a destination brings more people to Hillside every day. The neighborhood is now an attraction for recent college and graduate student graduates to move into and establish their adulthood. Tufts University is definitely the cause of this attraction, because as students live on the campus throughout the years, the students grow fond to the area. A lot of the students do not want to leave the area because they are comfortable with the area and do not see a reason to leave. These graduates are fresh faces into the world of the nine-to-five and are able to escape their stresses at home in their neighborhood. Housing retailers have taken into account the Hillside neighborhood’s attraction to young adults and because of this have developed new condominium and spacious apartments. With new retail development the area will attract educated people with financial stability which is a benefit of the introduction of chain stores. In contrast people argue that chain stores are killing the Hillside neighborhood. The neighborhood is known for its various small businesses that cater to a selective amount of needs. For instance there are four sub shops on the block at the corner of Boston Avenue at Winthrop Street. These four sandwich shops have been on that block for ten years or more and have developed a sense of friendly competition. Three years ago in April 2006, the new fast-food chain store Boloco’s opened its door on the same block. Boloco’s does not sell the traditional sandwich, but instead sells wraps and burritos. On any given day since April 2006 if one were to walk down the block and look through the glass windows of the four sub shops and the glass windows of Boloco’s, the people sitting inside Boloco’s are triple the amount of people inside the sub shops. This occurs because Boloco’s is new and offers a whole new experience in comparison to the experiences offered at the four sub shops. Although Boloco’s is new, it is a chain store; there are multiple locations throughout Boston. People have grown familiar to Boloco’s set up and people are attracted to its unique experience in comparison to traditional sub shops. This familiarity and uniqueness attracts people who are new to the area. This causes Boloco to gain the entire new residential market, and the sub shops to suffer. This effect of big business is also the same with the introduction of Dunkin Donuts, Whole Foods, and Starbucks. Sadly a few small businesses that have stood in the neighborhood for years are now closed. No matter how often the faces and store fronts may change, the location will always remain the same. Location is the key to what makes the neighborhood recognizable, but its how individuals choose to function in the neighborhood that causes its immediate recognition. The functions’ of Hillside changes from day through night but its overall desires to appeal to an active lifestyle. It’s a wonder how so much activity can take place in just a three street radius. The hustle and the bustle resemble big city life in a tiny concealed neighborhood. The neighborhood marks the constant struggle between big business verses small business, old generation verses new generation, old immigrants’ verses new immigrants, temporary residents (students) verses permanent residents, and history verses the progression of time. Neighborhoods and people are constantly changing. One might grow up in a neighborhood all their life, blink for a slight second, and when he or she opens his or her eyes may find their self as a stranger to their neighborhood. Hillside is a neighborhood that is currently undergoing a change, which possesses both positive and negative effects. The sudden influx in immigrant groups is exhilarating and hints at the neighborhoods openness towards change. It is a hidden jewel, but more recently has begun to make a name for itself beyond those familiar with the area. Hillside is a mixed residential neighborhood that has spent the majority of its years living the old fashioned city life. The introduction of chain stores has generated a wave of big city life characteristics to the neighborhood. The idea that downtown can live amongst people is both frightening and exciting. What may frighten the people is the possible loss of the neighborhood. People feel that chain stores take away from the neighborhoods personality and unintentionally take away from the social sense of pride. A chain store’s intent is not to take away the sense of neighborhood, but to further develop a neighborhood commercially by attracting everyone including strangers. It is often said for one to take pride in their neighborhood, but it is difficult to do this if the neighborhood no longer feels like their own. No one wishes to wake up one day to find themselves a complete stranger in their neighborhood.