Boston, Massachusetts

A variety of DSL providers and resellers are able to provide broadband Internet over Verizon-owned phone lines. Even where there is a commonly used calendar such as the Gregorian calendar, alternate calendars may also be used, such as a fiscal calendar. Satellite television is available from Dish Network and DirecTV. The Chinese, Hebrew, Hindu, and Julian calendars are widely used for religious and/or social purposes. Broadband Internet access is provided by Comcast and RCN in certain areas. The Islamic calendar is used by Muslims the world over. Cable television is available from Comcast and RCN. The Persian calendar is used in Iran and Afghanistan.

Phone service is also available from various national wireless companies. The Hebrew calendar is the official calendar of Israel's government, but the Gregorian calendar is much more widely used in Israel's business and day-to-day affairs. Verizon, successor to New England Telephone, NYNEX, and Bell Atlantic, is the primary wired telephone service provider for the area. Calendars in widespread use today include the Gregorian calendar, which is the de facto international standard, and is used almost everywhere in the world for civil purposes, including in China and India (along with the Indian national calendar). Natural gas is distributed by KeySpan Corporation (the successor company to Boston Gas); only commercial and industrial customers may choose an alternate natural gas supplier. In the modern world, written calendars are no longer an essential part of such systems, as the advent of accurate clocks has made it possible to record time independently of astronomical events. NSTAR is the exclusive distributor of electric power to the city, though due to deregulation, customers now have a choice of electric generation companies. Calendars are also used as part of a complete timekeeping system: date and time of day together specify a moment in time.

The agency operates several facilities for sewage treatment, notably an effluent tunnel in Boston Harbor and the Deer Island Wastewater Treatment Plant near the mouth of Boston Harbor. Also a calendar may, by identifying a day, provide other useful information about the day such as its season. Established as a public authority in 1984, the MWRA pipes water from reservoirs in Western and Central Massachusetts, notably the Quabbin and Wachusett Reservoirs, for several communities within Greater Boston. For example, a calendar provides a way to determine which days are religious or civil holidays, which days mark the beginning and end of business accounting periods, and which days have legal significance, such as the day taxes are due or a contract expires. The Commission in turn purchases wholesale water and sewage disposal from the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority (MWRA). Days may be significant for civil, religious or social reasons. Water supply and sewage-disposal services are provided by the Boston Water and Sewer Commission. The primary practical use of a calendar is to identify days: to be informed about and/or to agree on a future event and to record an event that has happened.

Meanwhile, Amtrak's Downeaster service to Maine originates at North Station. The Gregorian calendar, as a final example, is complete, solar, and mixed. Fast Northeast Corridor trains, which service New York City, Washington, D.C., and points in between, also stop at Route 128 Station in the southwestern suburbs of Boston. Mixed calendars usually begin as theoretical calendars, but are adjusted pragmatically when some type of asynchrony becomes apparent; the shift from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar is such an example. Amtrak's Northeast Corridor and Chicago lines originate at South Station and stop at Back Bay. A mixed calendar combines the features of both pragmatic and theoretical calendars. Collectively known as the "T", the MBTA also operates an extensive network of bus lines and water shuttles, and a commuter rail network extending north to the Merrimack River valley, west to Worcester, and south to Providence, Rhode Island. After then, the rules would need to be modified from observations made since the invention of the calendar, resulting in a mixed calendar.

The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) operated the nation's first underground subway system, which has since been expanded to an extensive rapid transit system reaching as far north as Malden, as far south as Braintree, and as far west as Newton. This limits the lifetime of an accurate theoretical calendar to a few thousand years. Through the Big Dig the elevated highway was replaced with an underground tunnel. Furthermore if the calendar is very accurate, its accuracy perishes slowly over time owing to changes in Earth's rotation. The most infamous portion, the Central Artery, runs through downtown Boston and was constantly prone to heavy traffic. The disadvantage is imperfect accuracy. US 1 and I-93 runs north to south through the city. The advantage of such a calendar is the ease of working out when a particular date occurs.

I-95, which surrounds the city, is known as Route 128. Such a calendar is also referred to a rule-based or arithmetical calendar. Boston is the eastern terminus of I-90, also known as the Mass Pike. A theoretical calendar is one that is based on a strict set of rules; an example is the current Jewish calendar. for cycling. The disadvantage is that working out when a particular date would occur is difficult. In its March 2006 issue, Bicycling magazine named Boston as one of the three worst cities in U.S. The advantage of such a calendar is that it is perfectly and perpetually accurate.

The city also has a number of rotaries, which have confused many drivers. Such a calendar is also referred to as an observation-based or astronomical calendar. Roads change names and lose and add lanes seemingly at random. A pragmatic calendar is one that is based on observation; examples are the religious Islamic calendar and the old religious Jewish calendar in the time of the Second Temple. Boston has been described as a "City of Squares", referring to the tradition of naming the intersections of major thoroughfares after prominent city residents. Calendars may be pragmatic, theoretical, or mixed. Except for the reclaimed Back Bay and part of South Boston, the city has no street grid. The early Roman calendar, which had no way of designating the days of the winter months other than to lump them together as "winter", is an example of an incomplete calendar, while the Gregorian calendar is an example of a complete calendar.

Boston's streets appear as though they were not planned, evolving from centuries-old foot and cow paths. Complete calendars provide a way of naming each consecutive day, while incomplete calendars do not. Green Airport in Providence, Rhode Island, and Manchester Airport in Manchester, New Hampshire, are airports outside Massachusetts which serve as secondary facilities. Calendars may be either complete or incomplete. F. Cultures may define other units of time, such as the week, for the purpose of scheduling regular activities that do not easily coincide with months or years. T. Even if a calendar is solar, but not lunar, the year cannot be divided entirely into months that never vary in length.

Another airport serving the city and surrounding areas is Hanscom Field in Lexington and Bedford. This is generally known as intercalation. Logan International Airport, located in the East Boston neighborhood, is the major airport serving Boston. The same applies to months in a lunar calendar and also the number of months in a year in a lunisolar calendar. Boston Medical Center, located in the South End neighborhood, is the primary teaching facility for the Boston University School of Medicine as well as the largest trauma center in the Boston area; it was formed by the merger of Boston University Hospital and Boston City Hospital. This may be handled, for example, by adding an extra day (29 February) in leap years. New England Medical Center, located in the southern portions of the Chinatown neighborhood, is affiliated with Tufts University. Because the number of days in the tropical year is not a whole number, a solar calendar must have a different number of days in different years.

The facilities in the Longwood Medical Area and MGH are world-renowned research medical centers affiliated with Harvard Medical School. Consecutive days may be grouped into other periods such as the week. Many of Boston's major medical facilities are associated with universities. In a lunar calendar, the month approximates the cycle of the moon phase. Boston also has VA medical centers in the Jamaica Plain and West Roxbury neighborhoods. In a solar calendar a year approximates Earth's tropical year (that is, the time it takes for a complete cycle of seasons), traditionally used to facilitate the planning of agricultural activities. Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) is located near the Beacon Hill neighborhood, with the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary and Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital nearby. Nearly all calendar systems group consecutive days into "months" and also into "years".

Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Brigham and Women's Hospital were both formed by mergers: the former between Beth Israel Hospital and New England Deaconess Hospital, and the latter by Peter Bent Brigham Hospital and the Boston Hospital for Women. The ISO week runs Monday through Sunday and Week 1 is always the week that contains January 4 Gregorian. The Longwood Medical Area is a region of Boston with a concentration of medical and research facilities, including Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Children's Hospital, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and Harvard Medical School. There exists an international standard way to do this (the ISO week). As the home to some of the world's most respected research hospitals, Boston enjoys an international reputation in the medical field. Note that this calendar will normally need to add a 53rd week to every 5th or 6th year, which might be added to December or might not be, depending on how the organization uses those dates. The city is also the site of two other major annual sporting events: the Boston Marathon, the world-famous 26-mile run from Hopkinton to Copley Square in Boston, and the Head of the Charles Regatta rowing competition on the Charles River. January always has exactly 5 weeks (Sunday through Saturday), February has 4 weeks, March has 4 weeks, etc.

The hockey teams of these four universities meet every year in an immensely popular four-team tournament known as the "Beanpot". A fiscal calendar (such as a 5/4/4 calendar) fixes each month at a specific number of weeks to facilitate comparisons from month to month and year to year. The most prominent include Boston College (member of the Atlantic Coast Conference), Boston University (America East Conference), Northeastern University (Colonial Athletic Association), and Harvard University. Main article: Fiscal calendar. Boston's many colleges and universities field sports teams. Cro-Magnon people are claimed to have invented one around 32,000 BC. The team plays at Boston University's Nickerson Field. Lunar calendars are believed to be the oldest calendars invented by mankind.

Another major league team is the lacrosse team Boston Cannons of Major League Lacrosse. An example is the Jewish calendar which uses a 19 year cycle. Both teams play at Gillette Stadium. A lunisolar calendar is a lunar calendar that compensates by adding an extra month as needed to realign the months with the seasons. Boston fans travel there to see the Patriots and the New England Revolution soccer team of Major League Soccer. It does, however, stay constant with respect to other phenomena, notably tides. Once the Boston Patriots, a charter team of the American Football League, the NFL's New England Patriots football team plays in nearby Foxboro. Because the length of the lunar month is not an even fraction of the length of the tropical year, a purely lunar calendar quickly drifts against the seasons.

The game was played between the Boston Americans (currently the Boston Red Sox) and the Pittsburgh Pirates.^[11]. A lunar calendar is one in which days are numbered within each moon phase cycle. Boston was once the home of the National League baseball team Boston Braves as well as the site of the first World Series in 1903. Not all calendars use the solar year as a unit. Their home at Fenway Park, located near Kenmore Square, is the oldest ballpark in active use in the United States. Main article: Lunar calendar. The baseball team Boston Red Sox is a member of the American League of Major League Baseball. Holocene calendar is another one for counting years.

The Celtics have the distinction of having more World Championships than any other NBA team with 16 championships from 1957 to 1986. The United Nations considered adopting such a reformed calendar for a while in the 1950s, but these proposals have lost most of their popularity. The TD Banknorth Garden (formerly called the Fleet Center) is near North Station is the home of two major league teams: the Boston Bruins ice hockey team (National Hockey League) and the Boston Celtics basketball team (National Basketball Association). There have been a number of proposals for reform of the calendar, such as the World calendar and International Fixed Calendar. The outer suburbs of Boston, which tend to be forested, have vibrantly colored foliage every autumn that attracts many tourists. Other types of calendar may also use a solar day. A popular guided tour is the Boston Duck Tour, which uses World War II-era duck boats. The length of the interval between two such successive events may be allowed to vary slightly during the year, or it may be averaged into a mean solar day.

There are also two self-guided walking tours: Harbor Walk, which is designed to allow people the walk the entire shore of Boston Harbor, and the Black Heritage Trail. A day may consist of the period between sunrise and sunset, with a following period of night, or it may be a period between successive events such as two sunsets. The New England Aquarium, Franklin Park Zoo, Boston Athenaeum (one of the oldest independent libraries in the United States), and the Boston Children's Museum are located within the city. Solar calendars assign a date to each solar day. Kennedy Library. Main article: Solar calendar. The University of Massachusetts campus at Columbia Point houses the John F. There are some calendars that appear to be synchronized to the motion of Venus, such as some of the ancient Egyptian calendars; synchronization to Venus appears to occur primarily in civilizations near the Equator.

Boston is home to several world-renowned museums, including the Museum of Fine Arts, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, and the Museum of Science. An arbitrary calendar is not synchronized to either the Moon or the Sun; examples are the week and the Julian day used by astronomers. Other notable districts/neighborhoods include Beacon Hill, Charlestown, Chinatown, Downtown Crossing, North End, and South Boston. A lunisolar calendar is synchronized both to the motion of the Moon and to the apparent motion of the Sun; an example is the Jewish calendar. Back Bay is also the home of two of New England's tallest buildings: the John Hancock Tower and the Prudential Center.^[10] Near the John Hancock Tower is the old John Hancock Building with its prominent weather forecast beacon. A solar calendar is based on perceived seasonal changes synchronized to the apparent motion of the Sun; an example is the Persian calendar. The Back Bay district includes many prominent landmarks such as the Christian Science Center, Boston Public Library, Copley Square, and Newbury Street. A lunar calendar is synchronized to the motion of the Moon (moon phases); an example is the Islamic calendar.

Other parks are scattered throughout the city, with the major parks located near Castle Island, Charlestown, the Dorchester shoreline, and East Boston. Calendars in use on Earth are lunar, solar, lunisolar or arbitrary. A major recreation site for many Bostonians, it is also the site of the Hatch Shell. . Another major park is the Esplanade located along the banks of the Charles River. As a subset, 'calendar' is also used to denote a list of particular set of planned events (for example, court calendar). In the winter, the Frog Pond at Boston Common doubles as a popular ice-skating rink. A calendar is also a physical device (often paper) that illustrates the system (for example, a desktop calendar) — this is the most common usage of the word.

Boston Common is part of the Emerald Necklace, a string of parks designed by Frederick Law Olmstead. The dates may be based on the perceived motion of astronomical objects. Also along the Freedom Trail is Boston Common, with the Boston Public Garden being adjacent. These names are known as calendar dates. Many are found along the Freedom Trail, which is marked by a red line or bricks embedded in the ground. A calendar is a system for naming periods of time, typically days. Because of the city's prominent role in the American Revolution, several historic sites relating to that period are preserved as part of the Boston National Historical Park.

Most Boston television stations have their transmitters in nearby Needham and Newton. WGBH is a major producer of PBS programs. Boston is also home to PBS station WGBH 2, which also operates WGBX 44. The Boston television DMA, which also includes Manchester, New Hampshire, is the fifth largest in the United States.^[9] The city is served by stations representing every major American network including WBZ 4 (CBS), WCVB 5 (ABC), WHDH 7 (NBC), WFXT 25 (FOX), WSBK 38 (UPN), and WLVI 56 (WB).

University radio stations include WZBC (Boston College), WERS (Emerson), and WUMB (UMass Boston). A variety of FM radio formats serve the area as well as NPR stations WBUR and WGBH. Boston has the largest broadcasting market in New England, with the Boston radio market being the eleventh largest in the United States.^[8] Several major AM stations include talk radio WRKO 680 AM, sports/talk station WEEI 850 AM, and news radio WBZ 1030 AM. The city is also served by a number of smaller publications such as The Boston Phoenix and The Improper Bostonian.

The Boston Globe, owned by the New York Times Company, and The Boston Herald are Boston's two major daily newspapers. Boston also had one of the leading local ska scenes in the ska revival of the mid-1990s with bands like The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, The Allstonians, and Skavoovie and the Epitones. Boston musicians have contributed greatly to the hardcore scene over the years (see also Boston hardcore). In contrast to what might be considered the more "refined" aspects of Boston's culture, the city is also one of the birthplaces of the hardcore punk genre of music.

These events include the weeklong Harborfest festivities and a Boston Pops concert accompanied by fireworks on the banks of the Charles River. There are a number of major annual events such as First Night, which occurs during New Year's Eve, and several events during the Fourth of July. Renowned performing arts groups include the Boston Ballet, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Boston Pops, Boston Lyric Opera Company, and the Handel and Haydn Society (the oldest choral company in the United States). The city also has a number of ornate theatres, including the Cutler Majestic Theatre and The Wang Center for the Performing Arts.

Much of Boston's culture originates at its universities. Many consider Boston a highly cultured city, perhaps as a result of its intellectual reputation. Boston has its own collection of neologisms known as Boston slang. Italian, Chinese, and Hispanic groups also have major contributions to Boston's cultural composition.

Irish Americans are a major influence on Boston's politics and religious institutions and consequently on the rest of Massachusetts. Boston shares many cultural roots with greater New England, including a dialect of the Eastern New England accent popularly known as Boston English, and a regional cuisine with a large emphasis on seafood and dairy products. 3000 students of racial minorities attend participating suburban schools through the Metropolitan Educational Opportunity Council, or METCO. The system operates 145 schools, which includes Boston Latin School (the oldest public school, established in 1635), English High (the oldest public high school, established 1821), and Mather (the oldest public elementary school, established in 1639).^[7] The city also has private, parochial, and charter schools.

Boston Public Schools, the oldest public school system in the U.S., enrolls 58,600 students from kindergarten to grade 12. The city is also home to a number of conservatories and art schools, including the Massachusetts College of Art, New England Conservatory, Boston Conservatory, and Berklee College of Music. Suffolk University, a small private university known for its law school, maintains a campus on Beacon Hill. Northeastern University, a large private university with a distinctive work/study program, maintains a campus in the Fenway district.

Emerson College, a highly regarded arts & communications school, maintains a campus near the Theatre District at the southwest corner of Boston Common. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) operates several major laboratories within the city. Harvard recently announced plans to expand its main campus across the Charles River into Boston's Allston neighborhood, which already hosts some of the university's dormitories and sports facilities. These holdings include the Arnold Arboretum, and its business and medical schools.

Harvard University, the nation's oldest institution of higher learning, is based across the Charles River in Cambridge; however, most of its current land holdings lie in Boston. Boston University, now the city's second largest employer and one of the largest private universities in the country, was originally established in Vermont before moving to Brookline and later to its present campus in the Back Bay in the 1950s. Its campus, initially envisioned as an Oxford in America, subsequently expanded so that almost half of it is now within the city's political boundaries. It was originally located in the South End before moving to Chestnut Hill, on the city's western edge.

Boston College was the first institution of higher education established in the city. Boston's reputation as the Athens of America derives in large part from the teaching and research activities of over 100 colleges and universities located in its metropolitan area. It is also a major seaport along the United States east coast as well as a major fishing port. The Port of Boston is the largest and busiest seaport in Massachusetts.

Other major companies are located outside the city, especially along Route 128. has its headquarters in the city. New Balance Athletic Shoe, Inc. Major companies headquartered within the city include Gillette, owned by Procter & Gamble, and Teradyne, one of the world's leading manufacturers of semiconductors and other electronic equipment.

Because of its status as a state capital and the regional home of federal agencies, law and government is another major component of the city's economy. The city is also a major convention destination with four major convention centers: the Hynes Convention Center in the Back Bay, the Bayside Expo Center in Dorchester, and the World Trade Center Boston and Boston Convention & Exhibition Center on the South Boston waterfront. Textbook publisher Houghton Mifflin is headquartered within the city. Boston is also a printing and publishing center.

The city is also the regional headquarters of major banks such as Bank of America and Sovereign Bank, and a center for venture capital. Boston-based Fidelity Investments helped popularize the mutual fund in the 1980s, and has made Boston one of the top financial cities in the United States. Other important industries include financial services, especially mutual funds and insurance. Not only are they major employers, but they also attract high-tech industries to the city and surrounding region, including computer hardware and software companies as well as biotechnology companies like Millennium Pharmaceuticals and Biogen Idec.

Boston's colleges and universities have a major impact on the city and region's economy. The city has thrice been a recipient of the All-America City Award, the oldest and most respected civic award in the U.S. Boston has eight sister cities, as designated by Sister Cities International (SCI): Barcelona (Spain), Hangzhou (People's Republic of China), Kyoto (Japan), Melbourne (Australia), Padua (Italy), Strasbourg (France), Sekondi-Takoradi (Ghana), and Taipei (Taiwan). Though the figures are nowhere near the high-water mark set in 1990, the aberrations in the murder rate have been unsettling for many Bostonians and have prompted discussion over whether the Boston Police Department should reevaluate its approach to fighting crime.^[4][5][6].

In more recent years, however, the annual murder count has fluctuated by as much as 50% compared to the year before, with 60 murders in 2002, followed by just 39 in 2003, 64 in 2004, and 75 in 2005. This helped lead in part to what has been touted as the "Boston Miracle." Murders in the city dropped from 152 in 1990 (for a murder rate of 26.5 per 100,000 people) to just 31—not one of them a juvenile—in 1999 (for a murder rate of 5.26 per 100,000). Conley, spent nearly ten years working at reducing gang violence in the city. The current DA for Suffolk County and Boston, Daniel F.

Boston's low crime rate in the last years of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st has been credited to its police department's collaboration with neighborhood groups and church parishes to prevent youths from joining gangs, as well as heavy involvement from the District Attorney's office. The city is in the Eighth and Ninth Congressional districts. The city also serves as the home of the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts, as well as the headquarters of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston (the First District of the Federal Reserve). O'Neil Federal Building.

Kennedy Federal Office Building and the Thomas P. Properties include the John F. Boston is also the United States federal government center for New England. As the capital of Massachusetts, Boston plays a major role in state politics.

In addition to city government, numerous state authorities and commissions play a role in the life of Bostonians, including the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation and the Massachusetts Port Authority (Massport). The school committee is appointed by the mayor, as are city department heads. Flaherty, is elected by the councilors from within themselves. The president of the city council, currently Michael F.

The candidates with the four highest vote totals are elected. Each voter casts up to four votes for at-large councilors, no more than one vote per candidate. There are nine district seats, each elected by the residents of that district through plurality voting, and four at-large seats. The city council is elected every two years.

The mayor is elected to a four-year term by plurality voting. Boston has a "strong mayor" system in which the mayor is vested with extensive executive powers. Like many other major cities in the 1950s and 1960s, Boston's population decreased dramatically due to new highway systems that made it easier to access the suburbs and outer regions. On days with major events such as baseball or basketball games the population can easily increase to 1.5 million.

The population is pushed up to one million or more on an average week day. Boston has the second-largest work day population increase in the country just after Washington D.C. Out of the total population, 25.6% of those under the age of 18 and 18.2% of those 65 and older were living below the poverty line. 19.5% of the population and 15.3% of families are below the poverty line.

The per capita income for the city was $23,353. Males had a median income of $37,435 versus $32,421 for females. The median income for a household in the city was $39,629, and the median income for a family was $44,151. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 90.2 males.

For every 100 females, there were 92.8 males. The median age was 31 years. In the city the population was spread out with 19.8% under the age of 18, 16.2% from 18 to 24, 35.8% from 25 to 44, 17.8% from 45 to 64, and 10.4% who were 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.31 and the average family size was 3.17.

37.1% of all households were made up of individuals and 9.1% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. There were 239,528 households out of which 22.7% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 27.4% were married couples living together, 16.4% had a female householder with no husband present, and 51.9% were non-families. Census data did not account for this significant segment of the community because of confusing terminology, as Brazilians speak Portuguese and often do not consider themselves specifically Hispanic, Latino, White or African American. These figures became less reliable because of the large, partly undocumented Brazilian population, estimated by some studies to approach 250,000 in Massachusetts.

14.44% of the population was Hispanic or Latino of any race. The racial makeup of the city was 54.48% White, 25.33% Black or African American, 0.40% Native American, 7.52% Asian American, 0.06% Pacific Islander, 7.83% from other races, and 4.39% from two or more races. Italians also form a very large segment of the city's population. The Irish are the largest ethnic group in the city of Boston, and Boston is commonly considered the capital of "Irish America".

There were 251,935 housing units at an average density of 2,009/km² (5,203/mi²). The population density was 4,697/km² (12,166/mi²). As of the census^GR2 of 2000, there were 589,141 people, 239,528 households, and 115,212 families residing in the city. Massachusetts' geographic location's jutting out into the North Atlantic also make the city very prone to Noreaster weather systems that can dump more than 75 cm (30 in) of snow on the region in one storm event.

It also coincidentally averages 108 cm (42 in) of snowfall a year, though this increases dramatically as one goes inland away from the city. The city averages 1080 mm (42 in) of rainfall a year. The record high temperature is 39 °C (102 °F) recorded in 1926 and the record low temperature is -28 °C (-18 °F) recorded in 1934. The coldest month is January, with an average high of 2.2 °C (36 °F) and a low of -5.6 °C (22 °F).^[2] Brief periods exceeding 35 °C in summer and below -20 °C in winter are not uncommon.

The hottest month is July, with an average high of 28 °C (82 °F) and a low of 18 °C (64 °F). It has been known to snow in October and get quite mild in February. Summers are typically warm and humid, while winters are cold, windy and snowy. It is not uncommon for the city to experience temperature swings of 30 °C (54 °F) or more over the course of a couple of days.

The weather in Boston, like much of New England, changes rapidly. Boston experiences a continental climate that is very common in New England. The Mystic River separates the neighborhoods of East Boston and Charlestown from Chelsea and Everett. The Neponset River forms the boundary between Boston's southern neighborhoods and the cities of Quincy and Milton.

To the east lies Boston Harbor and the Boston Harbor Islands, many of which are part of the Boston Harbor Islands National Recreation Area, operated by the National Park Service. The Charles River separates Boston proper from Cambridge, Watertown, and the neighborhood of Charlestown. Smaller commercial areas are interspersed amongst single-family homes and wooden/brick multifamily row houses. To this day, the South End Historical District remains the nation's largest surviving contiguous Victorian-era neighborhood.

Several of these buildings mix in with modern high-rises, notably in the Financial District, Government Center, Back Bay, and the South Boston waterfront. The downtown area and immediate surroundings consist mostly of low-rise brick or stone buildings, with many older buildings in the Federal style. Only Beacon Hill, the smallest of the three original hills, remains partially intact. Much of the Back Bay and South End are built on reclaimed land—two and a half of Boston's three original hills were used as a source of material for landfill.

With an elevation of 19 feet (5.8 m) above sea level at Logan International Airport, Boston is bordered by the cities of Winthrop, Revere, Chelsea, Everett, Somerville, Cambridge, Watertown, Newton, Brookline, Needham, Dedham, Canton, Milton, and Quincy—often known as, and considered a part of, Greater Boston. The total area is 46.0% water. 125.4 km² (48.4 mi²) of it is land and 106.7 km² (41.2 mi²) of it is water. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 232.1 km² (89.6 mi²).

Once again Boston has become a hub of intellectual, technological, and political ideas. Conversely, Boston's streets currently bustle with a vitality not seen since the 1920s. The city faces gentrification issues and exorbitant living costs. Boston has begun to resemble other parts of the continuous string of Northeast seaboard cities dubbed the BosWash megalopolis.

Over the past several decades, Boston has experienced a dramatic loss of regional institutions and traditions, which once gave it a very distinct social character. The unrest served to highlight racial tensions in the city. Nevertheless, the city experienced conflict starting in 1974 over desegregation busing, which resulted in unrest and violence around public schools throughout the mid-1970s. Universities such as Harvard, MIT, and Boston University attracted many students to the Boston area.

Hospitals such as Massachusetts General Hospital, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, and Brigham and Women's Hospital led the nation in medical innovation and patient care. Boston already had a reputation for excellent healthcare services. In the 1970s, Boston boomed after thirty years of economic downturn, becoming a leader in the mutual fund industry. Boston responded by initiating various urban renewal projects, including the demolition of the old West End neighborhood and the construction of Government Center.

By the early and mid-20th century, the city was in decline as factories became old and obsolete, and businesses moved out of the region for cheaper labor elsewhere. Boston also grew by annexing the adjacent communities of East Boston, Dorchester, South Boston, Brighton, Allston, Hyde Park, and Charlestown, some of which were augmented by landfill reclamation. Almost six hundred acres (240 hectares) of brackish Charles River marshlands west of Beacon Hill were filled in with soil brought in by rail from the hills of Needham Heights. The most dramatic reclamation project was the filling in of the Back Bay in the mid to late 1800s.

After The Great Boston Fire of 1872, building rubble was used as landfill along the downtown waterfront. Reclamation projects in the middle of the century created the areas now known as the South End, West End, Financial District, and Chinatown. The present-day Statehouse sits atop this shortened Beacon Hill. Beginning in 1807, the crown of Beacon Hill was used to fill in a 50-acre (20 hectares) mill pond that later became the Bullfinch Triangle and Scollay Square (now Government Center).

Between 1630 and 1890, the city tripled its physical size by land reclamation, specifically by filling in marshes and mud flats and by filling gaps between wharves along the waterfront.^[1] The most intense reclamation efforts were in the 1800s. Fitzgerald. The Irish played a major role in Boston politics — prominent figures include the Kennedys and John F. Currently, Catholics make up Boston's largest religious community.

In the 1820s, Boston's ethnic composition began to change dramatically; groups like the Irish and Italians moved into the city and brought with them Roman Catholicism. It also became a center of the abolitionist movement. From the mid-to-late-nineteenth century, Boston flourished culturally — it became renowned for its rarefied literary culture and lavish artistic patronage. Until the early 1900s, Boston remained one of the nation's largest manufacturing centers, and was notable for its garment production, leather goods, and machinery industries.

By the mid-1800s, the city's industrial manufacturing overtook international trade in economic importance. In 1822, Boston was chartered as a city. During this era, descendants of old Boston families became regarded, in the American popular mind, as the nation's social and cultural elites; they were later dubbed the Boston Brahmins. After the Revolution, Boston became one of the world's wealthiest international trading ports — major exports were rum, fish, salt, and tobacco.

During this period, Paul Revere made his famous midnight ride. The Boston Massacre, the Boston Tea Party, and several early battles occurred in or near the city, including the Battle of Lexington and Concord, Battle of Bunker Hill, and the Siege of Boston. During the early 1770s, British attempts to exert control on the thirteen colonies, primarily via taxation, prompted Bostonians to initiate the American Revolution. Hard work, moral uprightness, and an emphasis on education remain part of Boston's culture.

For example, shortly after Boston's settlement, Puritans founded America's first school, Boston Latin School (1635), and America's first college, Harvard College (1636). Puritan ethics molded an extremely stable and well-structured society in Boston. Massachusetts Bay Colony's original governor, John Winthrop, gave a famous sermon entitled "a City upon a Hill," which captured the idea that Boston had a special covenant with God. A majority of Boston's early citizens were Puritans.

They later renamed the town for Boston, England, in Lincolnshire, from which several prominent "pilgrim" colonists emigrated. Boston's early European settlers first called the area Trimountaine. The peninsula was connected to the mainland by a narrow isthmus, and surrounded by the waters of Massachusetts Bay and the marshes at the mouth of the Charles River. Boston was founded on September 17, 1630, on a peninsula called Shawmut by its original Native American inhabitants.

. The city also lies at the center of Greater Boston, which also includes the cities of Cambridge, Brookline, Quincy, Newton, and many suburban communities farther from Boston. The area encompasses parts of the states of New Hampshire, Maine, Rhode Island, and Connecticut. The city lies at the center of the Boston CMSA (Consolidated Metropolitan Statistical Area), the fifth largest in the United States.

Citizens of Boston are called Bostonians. The city is also sometimes called The Cradle of Liberty for its role in instigating the American Revolution. Boston is sometimes called Puritan City because its founders were Puritans. William Tudor, co-founder of the North American Review, christened the city The Athens of America for its great cultural and intellectual influence.

The Hub is a shortened form of writer Oliver Wendell Holmes's phrase The Hub of the Solar System, now more commonly referred to as The Hub of the Universe. Beantown refers to early Bostonian merchants' habit for making baked beans with imported molasses. The City on a Hill came from the original Massachusetts Bay Colony's governor John Winthrop's goal to create the biblical "City on a Hill." It also refers to Boston's original three hills. Boston has many nicknames.

Its economy is based on education, health care, finance, and technology. It is the unofficial capital of the region known as New England, and one of the oldest, wealthiest, and most culturally significant large cities in the United States. Boston is the capital and largest city in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States.
Location in Massachusetts.