|
Over the past three decades I have observed and photographed what Lyn Lofland refers to as the "Private, Parochial, and Public Realms", of a wide range of Italian and Italian American neighborhoods. To say that they do not generally conform to the visual expectations of middle-class Anglo-American urban "ideal" would be an understatement. Here Gans reflects on the visually induced misperceptions by outsiders of the Italian West End of Boston as a "slum": "The West Enders themselves took the poor maintenance of the building exteriors, halls, and cellars in stride, and paid little attention to them. The low rents were more than made up for these deficiencies, and for the generally rundown appearance of the area. Moreover, they did not consider these conditions a reflection on their status. Having no interest in the opinions of the outside world, they were not overly concerned about the image which the West End had in the eyes of outsiders (my emphasis). They did not like to be called slum dwellers, of course, and resented the exaggerated descriptions of West End deterioration that appeared regularly in the Boston Press. Nor were they happy about the rooming houses that bordered the West End, or the skid row occupants who sometimes wandered into it. Unlike the middle class, however, they did not care about "the address." Consequently, the cultural differences between working- and middle-class residential choice suggest that the prevailing professional housing standards-which reflect only the later-could not be rigidly applied to the West End" (1962:315-16). |
