Tina+Tavares+2

Tina Tavares Engl 101 Prof. Kingsley 11/26/09 The # 1 Central Square in Cambridge MA, is not only a square where they sell merchandise it is a place where all the different parts of Cambridge meet up as one. Central Square was originated in the late 18th century as new village for the town of Cambridge. Central square was known for immigration. There were several waves of immigration, the first wave was the Irish, They immigrated from1850 to 1890, where they joined families who were already making a life here in central sq. The next wave was in the 1800s by Portuguese, Swedish, and Russians and a tiny number of Northern and Eastern European countries. When central sq. was first established African Americans who had lived in Cambridge for generations, were then joined by other Caribbean countries. Central Sq. was a meeting ground where all the different cultures could come together as one and form a community. Central sq. came from a village where all different types of cultures came together, and became a place where I will not walk at night alone. Police sirens, homeless people laying on the floors, gangs running from the police, drunks yelling in the streets, crack heads fighting. This is what Central Sq became. Besides all the negative there are some positives to central sq., The MBTA runs through central sq., making it easier on people who take public transportation. It is also home to a lot of people, even though now it is mostly all stores, there are some apartments there. Located in Central Sq. the #1 bus stop is a big bus stop in Cambridge because it goes from central sq. all the way down Mass ave. to Dudley in boston. Mass ave. is a main street in Cambridge, you can get from boston to Cambridge on it. There are also other busses who come to the # 1 stop, the # 47 and the CT1, both these busses go from Central to the BU Medical Center, through the longwood medical area. As your sitting at this bus stop you see a various amount of things. Surrounding the bus stop are liquor stores, a dounkin donuts, and a dollar store. The stores the city chose to put around central sq. say a lot about it. If you notice there are no big expensive shops, there are stores that a person can buy from, that does not have much money. At 8am on a thursday I saw a jungle of hospital workers all rushing to get on the bus. Every single person has some type of hospital wardrobe on leading me to believe there going to work. There are a couple of homeless people laying on the benches, but that is normal, it is mostly white people and a couple of minorities getting on the bus. Still there are Sirens loud as ever driving up and down Mass ave. This tends to wake you up more if you are ever tired in central. It smells like some type of concrete or tar, from the construction around the corner. Finally the bus, this is like a mini war between the hospital workers, they are all pushing and shoving to get on the bus. But when the bus leaves, so does all the white people, now it is like a dessert, tumble weed flying, but this will only last for a couple of hours. Its Friday night, its 8:00 and dark in Central sq. I am not alone here at the bus stop because I don't trust the people who come here. What I’am seeing is shocking me, there are no more hospital workers, not even one. But what they are a lot of is crack heads and bums. They sit around this bus stop like they own it, like its there house they pay rent on. The smell here is unbearable, it smells like urine and vomit all at the same time. But that is the least of my worries, as I look to my right I can see two crackheads yelling and screaming at each other, they are fighting about someone owing the other money. There are a lot of drug deals that happen here in Central sq. especially at the bus stop. All the stores are now shut, except the liquor store; I`m guessing this is to keep the bums drunk. Sometimes I wonder why the city of Cambridge wouldn't open up another shelter or rehab center. Maybe the crime rate would go down. But now I hear even more sirens, but wonder why the Police are never come here to the bus stop to arrest all the bums here. Sometimes I think even the policemen are afraid to be walking outside here. It is not pleasant here, I would never just come to this bus stop and just sit around, it should be legal to have mase when your in Central sq. As I sit I wonder about the difference from 8 am to 8pm, and how one community can change so much from a nice village to a drug infested square. I always think if possibly Central sq. could ever go back to what it used to be like when it was first established. That maybe the city would re-construct the whole square and take all the drugs out, maybe the square would go back to a village. The main part of central square was immigration, the american dream to come to america and live a happy life. This dream needs to be come back into the lives of all the homeless people and the bums. I chose to pick this as my public space because, I knew that everyone else in the class was going to chose, something pretty, exotic, and not a bus stop. I chose to do this and get to the nitty-gritty about it. I want the reader to understand what central sq. looks like, and what the people look like. I want them to get the feeling of sitting at the bus stop in the morning and at night. I don't want the reader to be scared either of going to central, but to just know the background an the rules. Hopefully my paper will do this for them.