I was just picking a town.
This Jewish guy lived in Brookline (shocker, I know, being Jewish, but that’s kind of my point)and rode his bike through Allston and Cambridge to go to school at MIT.
Allston was then pretty much working class Irish and when you crossed the Charles immediately because a black ghetto.
For such a supposed “progressive” town, Boston has the most cleanly delineated lines along race/religion/class of any town I have ever seen, reviling East and West Jerusalem.
I came to school looking for a house (I am Israeli and rather obviously Jewish), and the housing agent for MIT flatly refused to show me any brownstone near campus (”Cambridge is not a ‘good fit’ for you”) and just took me to Brookline.
Worked out well, and she was probably right, but was my first taste of the de facto segregation -— which was, in my case, probably for my own safety.
Nonetheless, still absurd to get lectured by twits who live in such segregation.
Yup,you're correct.Wealthy "progressives" do seem to segregate themselves from folks so poor that they drive four year old Fords.I know this as the result of many life experiences...including a quick drive I once took past a certain well know residence in Chappaqua,NY (*very* nice neighborhood with not a single dark skinned person in sight).
Your experience with the MIT housing agent must have been some time ago.It's hard to imagine that happening today.But one thing you've gotta admit about Brookline...the food at the Golden Temple on Beacon Street is about the best Cantonese you can find in the Western Hemisphere! ;-)