In a front page article, the Boston Globe highlights the changes happening in the neighborhood. (“Culture Clash in the North End” by Jenna Russell, September 29, 2009). The reporter presents the various sides of the issues relating to late-night revelry and how it is conflicting with the interests of North End residents.
Your humble editor was quoted,
“It’s great to live in a neighborhood with an active street life, but you don’t want to get to the point where the activity is so excessive, people don’t want to live there anymore,’’ said Matt Conti, a neighborhood council member whose six-month-old website, northendwaterfront.com, keeps residents informed.”
The article discusses the expanding college and young professional presence and how more restaurants are targeting that crowd with late night pizza and drinking hours.
The increasing number of families in the area is also adding to the mix of priorities. The ongoing question is how to resolve the balance between residents desire to “sleep at night” with the noise and problems that come with a late night entertainment zone.
North End restaurateur, Frank De Pasquale, is also quoted in the article:
If residents wanted silent nights, he said, they should have moved to Dover or Marblehead. “It’s not a secret we have 100 restaurants here,’’ he said.
That’s funny. I was talking about stores, not bars. This article is a riot. Haven for families? That is not what we are or will ever be again. The bars that the students use and come home from are in Faneuil Hall. On one side, some business would love to expand into all hours and full liquor. On the other, some seek Mayberry. Hopefully we will strike a nice balance.
DePasquale’s comment completely disregarding community concerns ensures that I will no longer be patronizing his establishments.
Neighbors: speak with your wallet$.
I think the article is poor and quite one-sided. Ms Russell should try to elicit opinions from a broader range of perspectives in the neighborhood. Maybe she should have spoken to someone from one of the younger families in the neighborhood that she speaks about in the article.
For the record, I think Hanover Street is maybe the best urban street in the city. I love walking up Hanover Street at dinnertime. My only complaint with the street, and the activity thereon, is that it should have much wider sidewalks.
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Frankie D’s comment is hilarious. He lives or lived on Marblehead neck, an exclusive QUIET enclave. Heard he bought a condo at the Intercontinental so he could "live in the North End". Yo Frank…The IC is in the Wharf District. Maybe the restaurant owners should live in the North End proper (not on Battery Wharf or some other waterfront condo) and see how much they like puttjng up with this nonsense. BTW.. Shame on the Realtors and Property owners for turning this neighborhood into a student ghetto.
Nothing new here. I moved out of the North End over ten years ago and the same people were complaining about the same thing. Harley’s ripping up and down Hanover all night setting off car alarms, drunk yuppies gourging on pizzia and local restaurants packed to the gills. Considering the North End used to be a junk yard by the harbor packed with immigrants, I’d say the locals need to suck it up or move to Medord.
Tony:
I think its time for the newcomers and former residents to show a little respect. Why the hell should the people who have lived here for years move out to accommodate the obnoxious behavior of these students and young professionals. Let them come to the neighborhood to eat and have a good time. We just ask that they tone it down about 50db when they are leaving or returning home. I myself am ready to start using duct tape on the door buzzers of the people who wake me up at 2AM with their crap. Wonder how much they will like obnoxious noise at 6AM on a Sunday. Paybacks are fun!
After reading the article in today’s Globe I took a look at your neighborhood blog; it is quite impressive. I live in a more recently burgeoning neighborhood and although we have created a local blog; yours will certainly give us a standard for what we have potential to create.
The Lowell Downtown Neighborhood Association was founded approximately 4 years ago by residents who were seeking an opportunity to discuss the problems that occur when a neighborhood has competing interests of residents (who would like to have bars close earlier on weeknights), businesses (who are doing all they can to attract new customers to support their business in difficult economic times), and the Lowell National Historic Park (similar to the historic nature of the North End) which attracts 500,000 visitors every year. When you have so many competing interests in a very small space there is bound to be a clash.
Having a neighborhood group really does create an atmosphere of community and an outlet for issues. I’ll be watching your blog to see if we can glean some good advice on handling some of our problems.
President, Lowell Downtown Neighborhood Association
The real issue here is the complete lack of leadership being shown by our neighborhood and city leaders. And no, sitting in meetings and just saying no, no, no doesn’t count as leadership. You need to get out and be proactive in engaging residents (new and old), business leaders, and others in neighborhood, city, and state government. I’m not seeing that from ANYONE, from the neighborhood associations, to our state reps, to the Mayor himself.
Right now we are at a total impasse with each party lining up to blame every other party. This isn’t the way to create a successful solution. It’s the way to create a total firestorm that leaves absolutely NO ONE happy.