I don’t want to live there. It’s definitely gentrified, though it’s harder to tell than other places, since everyone is still predominantly white, but I just don’t care for it. A) Too many Irish, B) not a huge fan of being part of the gentrification train (I prefer the long-established exclusive neighborhood a la the Upper East Side - 
), C) I find it still too poor and insular. Though it has fantastic waterfront. It’s got pockets of racial diversity via its projects - but these places are a mess. Not that I’ve wandered thru the housing projects of other cities, but these are the low-rise ones and they and the surroundings are so dirty and run down. I was taken aback, actually. Lots of my high school friends live in Southie, and several of my cousins. A few of them own there.  I do enjoy the St. Patrick’s Day parade there though.
Here, volunteering at the Dem Convention, the anti-abortionists are the most visible, and there was a sadly pathetic anarchists parade down Boylston today. I am sitting here in my polo shirt w/Mayor Menino’s name on the left pocket, a lanyard around my neck containing ID badge and keys to official car, and a Nextel phone on my belt. I drive around the city a lot, often at wheel of 15 passenger vans. I love feigning the patronage thing. Though the core of these volunteers are genuine City of Boston products, and there’s definitely a wall between them and the rest of us hangers-on. It’s fascinating, as I know of these neighborhoods primarily via the lore of my ‘rents. Feel like I am hanging out w/future State Reps/Sens/Govs and they’re drivers who bury bodies in the night. Ok, I am being dramatic.