Boston

Boston is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. It is the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. The city boundaries encompass an area of about 48.4 sq mi (125 km²) and a population of 675,647 as of 2020. Boston is one of the oldest municipalities in America, founded on the Shawmut Peninsula in 1630 by Puritan settlers from the English town of the same name. It was the scene of several key events of the American Revolution and the nation's founding, such as the Boston Tea Party, the Battle of Bunker Hill, and the siege of Boston. Today, Boston is a center of scientific research; the area's many colleges and universities, notably Harvard and MIT, make it a world leader in higher education, including law, medicine, engineering and business. Boston's economic base also includes finance, professional and business services, biotechnology, information technology, and government activities. The name "Boston" derives from that of the town's patron saint, St. Botolph, whose church served as the rector until his emigration with his wife in 1635. In early sources, the town was known as the Lincolnshire. Before this, the settlement had been known as "Shawmut" and "Trimitan" The name was later contracted to "Boston's Botolph" and later to "St Botolph's" The city has expanded beyond the original peninsula through land reclamation and municipal annexation.

History

Boston is the primary city name, but also Cambridge are acceptable city names or spellings, Soldiers Field on the other hand no longer accepted or obsolete and are no longer used as a designation. The official name is City of Boston. Boston was the largest town in the Thirteen Colonies until Philadelphia outgrew it in the mid-18th century. The name "Boston" ultimately derives from that town's patron saint, St. Botolph, in whose church John Cotton served as the rector until his emigration with Isaac Johnson. Boston's oceanfront location made it a lively port, and the city primarily engaged in shipping and fishing during its colonial days. In 1770, a Boston mob shot into a crowd that had started to violently harass the British colonists, forcing them to withdraw their homes. The city was the site of the siege of Boston in 1770 and the Battle of Bunker Hill in 1781. Boston was the birthplace of the American Revolution in 18th century, and was the first city to vote in a presidential election in the U.S. in 1860. Boston is home to the oldest fishweir in New England, built by Native people as early as 7,000 years before European arrival in the Western Hemisphere. It is also the home of America's first public school, Boston Latin School, which was founded in 1635. It was also home to John Hull, who produced the pine tree shilling, a silver coin used in the Massachusetts Bay Colony and the Old South Church in the 1600s. In 1652, the Massachusetts legislature authorized John Hull to produce coinage. King Charles II for reasons which were mostly political deemed the "Hull Mint" high treason which had a punishment of being hanged, drawn and quartered.

Geography

Boston has an area of 89.63 sq mi (232.1 km²) The city's official elevation, as measured at Logan International Airport, is 19 ft (5.8 m) above sea level. The highest point in the city is Bellevue Hill at 330 ft (100 m) and the lowest point is at sealevel. The city is sometimes called a "city of neighborhoods" because of the profusion of diverse subsections. More than two-thirds of inner Boston's modern land area did not exist when the city was founded. It was created via the gradual filling in of the surrounding tidal areas over the centuries, with earth from leveling or lowering Boston's three original hills (the "Trimountain") and with gravel brought by train from Needham to fill the Back Bay. Back Bay includes many prominent landmarks, such as the Boston Public Library, Christian Science Center, Copley Square, Newbury Street, and New England's two tallest buildings: the John Hancock Tower and the Prudential Center. The hottest month is July with a mean temperature of 74.1 °F (23.4 °C). The coldest month is January with amean temperature of 29.9 °C (1.2 °F) Periods exceeding 90 °C in summer and below freezing in winter are not uncommon, but rarely extended, with about 13 and about 25 days per year. Boston has either a humid subtropical climate (Köppen Cfa) or a humid continental climate under the 0 °C isotherm (K Öppen Dfa).

Demographics

In 2020, Boston was estimated to have 691,531 residents living in 266,724 householdsa 12% population increase over 2010. The city is the third-most densely populated large U.S. city of over half a million residents, and the most densely populated state capital. Some 1.2 million persons may be within Boston's boundaries during work hours, and as many as 2 million during special events. The median household income in Boston was $51,739, while the median income for a family was $61,035. Boston has a significant racial wealth gap with White Bostonians having an median net worth of $247,500 compared to $8 for non-immigrant Black residents and $0 for Dominican immigrant residents. People of Irish descent form the largest single ethnic group in the city, making up 15.8% of the population, followed by Italians, accounting for 8.3%. People of West Indian and Caribbean ancestry are another sizable group, at over 15%. In Greater Boston, these numbers grew significantly, with 150,000 Dominicans according to 2018 estimates, 134,000 Puerto Ricans, 57,500 Salvadorans, 39,000 Guatemalans, 36,000 Mexicans, and over 35,000 Colombians. Over 27,000 Chinese Americans made their home in Boston proper in 2013, according to a study by the Pew Research Center. The average household size was 2.26 and the average family size was 3.08. From an estimate in 2005, Boston has one of the largest per capita LGBT populations in the United States.

Economy

The Greater Boston metropolitan area has the sixth-largest economy in the country and 12th-largest in the world. Boston attracts more than 350,000 college students from around the world, who contribute more than US$4.8 billion annually to the city's economy. The city is considered highly innovative for a variety of reasons, including the presence of academia and access to venture capital. Boston is home to the headquarters of several major athletic and footwear companies including Converse, New Balance, and Reebok. The General Electric Corporation announced in January 2016 its decision to move the company's global headquarters to the Seaport District in Boston, from Fairfield, Connecticut, citing factors including Boston's preeminence in the realm of higher education. In 2019, a yearly ranking of time wasted in traffic listed Boston area drivers lost approximately 164 hours a year in lost productivity due to the area's traffic congestion. This amounted to $2,300 a year per driver in costs. Boston-based Fidelity Investments helped popularize the mutual fund in the 1980s and has made Boston one of the top financial centers in the United States. State Street Corporation, which specializes in asset management and custody services, is based in the city. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt is headquartered within the city, along with Bedford-St. Martin's Press and Beacon Press. Pearson PLC publishing units also employ several hundred people in Boston. In the 2018 Global Financial Centres Index, Boston was ranked as having the thirteenth most competitive financial services center.

Education

The Boston Public Schools enroll 57,000 students attending 145 schools. The Boston Latin School was established in 1635 and is the oldest public high school in the US. Boston's only public university is the University of Massachusetts Boston on Columbia Point in Dorchester. Greater Boston contains seven Highest Research Activity (R1) Universities as per the Carnegie Classification. Altogether, Boston's colleges and universities employ more than 42,600 people, accounting for nearly seven percent of the city's workforce. The city's largest private universities include Boston University, Northeastern University, Suffolk University, and Boston College. Boston is home to several conservatories and art schools, including Les College of Art and Design, New England Institute of Art, and Longy School of Music. The oldest independent music conservatory in the United States is the Boston Conservatory of Music, which has made Boston an important city for jazz music. In September 2019, the city formally inaugurated Boston Saves, a program that provides every child enrolled in the city’s kindergarten system a savings account containing $50 to be used toward college or career training. In 2013, Greater Boston received more than $1.77 billion in National Institutes of Health grants in 2013, more money than any other American metropolitan area. This high density of research institutes also contributes to Boston's highdensity of early career researchers, which, due to high housing costs in the region, have been shown to face housing stress. In addition to Harvard, MIT, and Tufts, Boston College, and Northeastern are home to Boston University and Brandeis University.

Healthcare

The Longwood Medical and Academic Area, adjacent to the Fenway, district, is home to a large number of medical and research facilities. Prominent medical facilities, including Massachusetts General Hospital, Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary and Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital are in the Beacon Hill area. St. Elizabeth's Medical Center is in Brighton Center of the city's Brighton neighborhood. The city has Veterans Affairs medical centers in the Jamaica Plain and West Roxbury neighborhoods. Boston Medical Center, 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. The Boston Public Health Commission, an agency of the Massachusetts government, oversees health concerns for city residents. Boston EMS provides pre-hospital emergency medical services to residents and visitors. Many of Boston's medical facilities are associated with universities, such as Harvard Medical School and Tufts Medical Center (formerly Tufts-New England Medical Center), in the southern portion of the Chinatown neighborhood. It was formed by the merger of Boston University Hospital and Boston City Hospital, which was the first municipal hospital in the United States. The facilities in the Longwood medical and Academic area and in Massachusetts General hospital are affiliated with Harvard Medical school. It is also affiliated with Tufts University School Of Medicine and Joslin Diabetes Center, which is affiliated with the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences. It also has a partnership with the University of Massachusetts at Boston, where it offers a number of health care programs.

Public safety

Boston has experienced a great reduction in violent crime since the early 1990s. Murders in the city dropped from 152 in 1990 (for a murder rate of 26.5 per 100,000 people) to just 31not one of them a juvenile in 1999. Boston's low crime rate since the 1990s has been credited to the Boston Police Department's collaboration with neighborhood groups and church parishes to prevent youths from joining gangs. Through December 30, 2016, major crime was down seven percent and there were 46 homicides compared to 40 in 2015. This is the second largest allocation of funding by the city after the allocation to Boston Public Schools. In 2008, there were 62 reported homicides. In 2015, therewere 46 reported homicides and in 2012, there was just 31 reported homicides, compared to 62 in 2008 and 40 in 2012. The city's budget includes $414 million in spending on the Boston police department in the fiscal 2021 budget. The budget also includes $1.2 billion in funding for the Boston Fire Department and $1 million for the Massachusetts State Police. The total budget for the city's police department for fiscal 2021 is $4.9 billion. The funding includes $2.8 billion for the police department and $3.1 billion for state and local law enforcement agencies, including the Massachusetts Department of Public Health and the Massachusetts Attorney General's Office. It is the third largest allocation in the state of Massachusetts after the Boston Public School Department and the Boston City Police Department. In fiscal 2021, there will be a total of $4 billion in city spending on public safety.

Culture

Boston shares many cultural roots with greater New England, including a dialect of the non-rhotic Eastern New England accent known as the Boston accent and a regional cuisine with a large emphasis on seafood, salt, and dairy products. Music is afforded a high degree of civic support in Boston. The Boston Symphony Orchestra is one of the "Big Five", a group of the greatest American orchestras. The city is also home to several art museums and galleries, including the Museum of Fine Arts and the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. Several historic sites relating to the American Revolution period are preserved as part of the Boston National Historical Park because of the city's prominent role. There are several major annual events, such as First Night which occurs on New Year's Eve, the Boston Early Music Festival, the annual Boston gay pride parade and festival held in June, and Italian summer feasts in the North End honoring Catholic saints. Boston is the site of several events during the Fourth of July period, including Harborfest festivities and a Boston Pops concert accompanied by fireworks on the banks of the Charles River. Boston has been a noted religious center from its earliest days. The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston serves nearly 300 parishes and is based in the Cathedral of the Holy Cross (1875) in the South End, while the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts serves just under 200 congregations. The University of Massachusetts Boston, the Massachusetts Archives, the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum and the Commonwealth Museum are among the oldest independent libraries in the United States.

Environment

Air quality in Boston is generally very good. Boston's drinking water supply is one of the few in the country so pure as to satisfy the Federal Clean Water Act without filtration. The City of Boston has developed a climate action plan covering carbon reduction in buildings, transportation, and energy use. Boston is breaking ground on multiple green affordable housing facilities to help reduce the carbon impact of the city while simultaneously making these initiatives financially available to a greater population. As a coastal city built largely on fill, sea-level rise is of major concern to the city government. The latest version of the climate plan anticipates between two and seven feet of sea- level rise in Boston by the end of the century. A separate initiative, Resilient Boston Harbor, lays out neighborhood-specific recommendations for coastal resilience. The Boston Groundwater Trust coordinates monitoring ground water levels throughout the city via a network of public and private monitoring wells. The Quabbin and Wachusett Reservoirs are the only source of drinking water in the U.S. so pure that it can satisfy the federal Cleanwater Act withoutfiltration, according to the EPA. The city's climate plan is updated every three years and was most recently modified in 2013. The Renew Boston Whole Building Incentive reduces the cost of living in buildings that are deemed energy efficient. This gives people an opportunity to find housing in neighborhoods that support the environment. The ultimate goal of this initiative is to enlist 500 Bostonians to participate in a free, in-home energy assessment.

Air Quality, Water Quality, Superfund Sites & UV Index

The Air Quality index is in Boston, Middlesex County, Massachusetts = 26.4. These Air Quality index is based on annual reports from the EPA. Higher values are better (100=best). The number of ozone alert days is used as an indicator of air quality, as are the amounts of seven pollutants including particulates, carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, lead, and volatile organic chemicals. The Water Quality Index is 1. A measure of the quality of an area’s water supply as rated by the EPA. Higher values are better (100=best). The EPA has a complex method of measuring the watershed quality, using 15 indicators such as pollutants, turbidity, sediments, and toxic discharges. The Superfund Sites Index is 99. Higher is better (100=best). Based upon the number and impact of EPA Superfund pollution sites in the county, including spending on the cleanup efforts. The UV Index in Boston = 3.4 and is a measure of an area's exposure to the sun's ultraviolet rays. This is most often a combination of sunny weather, altitude, and latitude. The UV Index has been defined by the WHO (www.who.int/news-room/questions-and-answers/item/radiation-the-ultraviolet-(uv)-index) and is uniform worldwide.

Employed

The most recent city population of 12,738 individuals with a median age of 34.2 age the population grows by 2.21% in Boston, Middlesex County, Massachusetts population since 2000 and are distributed over a density of 13,976.98 residents per square mile of area (5,396.51/km²). There are average 2.34 people per household in the 242,671 households with an average household income of $50,782 a year. The unemployment rate in Alabama is of the available work force and has dropped -4.07% over the most recent 12-month period and the projected change in job supply over the next decade based on migration patterns, economic growth, and other factors will increase by 23.66%. The number of physicians in Boston per 100,000 population = 661.1.

Weather

The annual rainfall in Boston = 45.3 inches and the annual snowfall = 48.1 inches. The annual number of days with measurable precipitation (over .01 inch) = 120. The average number of days per year that are predominantly sunny = 200. 84 degrees Fahrenheit is the average daily high temperature for the month of July and 18.9 degrees Fahrenheit is the average daily low temperature for the month of January. The Comfort Index (higher=better) is 51, where higher values mean a more pleasant climate. The Comfort Index measure recognizes that humidity by itself isn't the problem. (Have you noticed nobody ever complains about the weather being 'cold and humid?) It's in the summertime that we notice the humidity the most, when it's hot and muggy. Our Comfort Index uses a combination of afternoon summer temperature and humidity to closely predict the effect that the humidity will have on people.

Median Home Cost

The percentage of housing units in Boston, Middlesex County, Massachusetts which are owned by the occupant = 30.31%. A housing unit is a house, apartment, mobile home, or room occupied as separate living quarters. The average age of homes = 68 years with median home cost = $425,300 and home appreciation of -6.91%. This is the value of the years most recent home sales data. Its important to note that this is not the average (or arithmetic mean). The median home price is the middle value when you arrange all the sales prices of homes from lowest to highest. This is a better indicator than the average, because the median is not changed as much by a few unusually high or low values. The property tax rate of $9.23 shown here is the rate per $1,000 of home value. If for simplification for example the tax rate is $14.00 and the home value is $250,000, the property tax would be $14.00 x ($250,000/1000), or $3500. This is the 'effective' tax rate.

Study

The local school district spends $11,325 per student. There are 13.9 students for each teacher in the school, 2452 students for each Librarian and 589 students for each Counselor. 4.82% of the area’s population over the age of 25 with an Associate Degree or other 2-year college degree, 20.29% with a master’s degree, Ph.D. or other advanced college degree and 15.17% with high school diplomas or high school equivalency degrees (GEDs).