Somerville, Mass – I arrived home to find these updated Lonely Planet guidebooks on my doorstep. These three titles – Boston, Pocket Boston and New England guidebook updates – occupied most of the first half of last year, so it’s a thrill to see them as actual books. Buy the guidebook updates at Lonely Planet…
As the lead (and local) writer of the Boston city guide, I was invited to write the section called “Meet the Bostonians,” a sort of demographic description of the city, including a small section about my personal ties to the city:
I am “from Boston” but I will never be “from Somerville.”
Which is funny, because I have never lived in Boston proper, but I have lived in Somerville, a “streetcar suburb,” for 25 years. I own property in Somerville, and I am raising my family in Somerville. But I have learned that you can’t be “from Somerville” unless you were born and raised there.
Gentrification has disrupted many neighborhoods, driving up property costs and pushing out lifelong residents. Those who remain cling proudly to their birthright, claiming titles like “Townie” and “OFD” (Originally From Dorchester).
I get it. Even after two and a half decades, I am a newcomer on my block, where other families have lived for generations.
When I travel and people ask “Where are you from?” the answer is Boston. I am one of many – immigrants and students and young professionals – who call this city home, even though we were born somewhere else. But I can never be from Somerville. I’ll leave that to my kids.