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The spirit of the season at Downtown Crossing

Alicia has a verbal run-in with one of the Youth of Today at the Downtown Crossing T stop.

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What the hell is wrong with people these days when you can't even apologize for accidentally brushing against them while walking in a massively crowded public area?

I honestly cannot comprehend where that immensely elevated sense of entitlement comes from.

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Earlier today, I witnessed some Gen-X parents scolding a girl for running in the store, not stopping when her mother told her not to, and nearly running us down in the process. An older couple looked askance at them for doing so.

One BabyBoomer to Another: "What about her self-esteem?". Hearing this, my younger son said to me "what about her self-control?".

I think it is a generational thing that will run its course once the precious snowflakes are all in jail or facing natural consequences that come with legal adulthood, no matter how "just a kid" their parents think they are.

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We'll be paying just to keep the little "snowflakes" behind bars, if one gets the drift.

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The snow drift? ;)

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;=O

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Your younger son was right on the money. We had "self-control" hammered into our brains during grammar school, and we knew the value of "lowering the boom" if we misbehaved.

That "precious little snowflake" who lashed out at Alicia possibly thought it was funny, or was trying to impress her friends by acting tough, but sometimes it's much tougher to act cool.

If the "precious little snowflake" curses out someone and those natural consequences include facial injuries and/or a heady taste of her own medicine, enough for entire crowds to turn their heads and give a loud ovation for said diatribe (expletives or indictments at the discretion of the user), then she'll never curse out people again.

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As a baby-boomer myself, I believe that a good, heady taste of her own medicine administered to the offender would've made the most sense. Nobody ever ended up in jail for verbally foul-mouthing another person, especially in retaliation.

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Nobody ever ended up in jail for verbally foul-mouthing another person, especially in retaliation.

You must lead a charmed life, never having seen verbal confrontations escalate into physical ones.

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This:

You must lead a charmed life, never having seen verbal confrontations escalate into physical ones.

is not true at all, Adam.

Sure, verbal confrontations can and do escalate into physical ones, but not always.

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Nice. This sort of bullsnow is part of the reason for the decline of this area. It's no wonder people have taken their business somewhere else.
I'm in the area everyday. I've had encounters with kids just like this. I brook no foolishness with them. It has yet to happen, when confronted with situations such as this, that when you reciprocate in kind these kids slink off. Like the other respondent said, when a white middle aged individual takes them up on it they don't really know what the hell to do.
The city needs to address this. I don't have the answer on this subject. But if it's left unattended, Downtown Crossing will languish.
Merry Christmas.

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Back in the fifties when I was quite young, my mother would take us up to Boston for shopping, maybe a couple of times a year. Jordan Marsh was the place to go, really a much nicer store than Macy's is today. Lots of other nice stores: Filene's, Kennedy's, etc. Then you didn't have the collection of ignorant trash wandering to-and-fro on Washington St/Summer St like we see today.

Today, fifty years later, though I work only a few blocks away in the financial district, I avoid Downtown Crossing (What a cutsey name!!!) unless absolutely necessary.

I can't imagine anyone with any class whatsoever buying a condo in the Filene's development. Why would anyone want to live at Downtown Crossing????

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Even in the late 1970s-late 1980s, Washington/Summer/Winter was a place where people wanted to go to shop, maybe to be seen. Once the shops started to close down, like Barnes and Noble and Filene's (thanks to competition from stores like Marshalls, TJMaxx, and Borders Books) the entire character of that area began to decline.

Now, it's an area where you have to watch where you walk and make eye contact with...not everyone, of course, but some who merit extra attention. The new generation of youths have nil in the courtesy department. Their only purpose is to hang out, be rude, fight, and be "ignorant trash." Also, back in the old days, you actually dressed up and treated an outing to Boston as a special occasion. These days, the only people who dress up are in the Financial District, and only come for lunch. Everyone else is dressed up in Uggs, flip flops, yoga pants, puffy jackets, and oversized hats.

If I want the old ambience of Boston, ironically, I have to take a trip to New York City.

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However, the kind of stuff that goes on doesn't just take place in the Downtown Crossing area. it's everywhere, even in the 'burbs, where I grew up.

It's true that many of Boston and Cambridge's funky neighborhoods and areas have pretty much vanished. In NYC, there are still a number of funky areas left. I have a cousin who lives on Manhattan's Upper West Side, in a rather funky neighborhood that's almost in the Bronx, which is cool to walk around in, and still has lots of "old time" neighborhood character. The same thing is true with Hartford, CT, San Francisco, and even Albany, NY, in a way.

Harvard Square used to be much more funky in the 1960's and early to mid-1970's. I still remember me and my friends going into Boston and/or Cambridge pretty much every Saturday and having a blast.

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