We are all spokes in the Hub

I CONSIDER myself a Bostonian despite that fact that my first and only residence in the city proper was my relaxing stay at Boston Lying-In Hospital when I entered this world. As a resident of Somerville, I made the most of a glorious recent late-October day by riding my bike downtown. I explored the park at the river locks across from the Museum of Science, the park at the foot of Spaulding Rehab, the curiously placed giant stone balls surrounding the Tip O'Neill building on Causeway Street, and proceeded along the Greenway past loungers, walkers, and fountain gazers, across Fort Point Channel through South Boston. I was ultimately rewarded with a view of the harbor, a bounty of hardy mums at the foot of the Farragut statue, and a soft-serve twirl at Sullivan's on Castle Island.

I relate all of this because I don't believe that Meg Mainzer-Cohen, president of the Back Bay Association, understands what "neighborhood" means. She endorses the bending of established development rules in favor of the large towers of luxury condominiums and shops she cites, and labels anyone who might question such development with the standard epithets - "zealots," "activists" and "NIMBYers" - all familiar terms to anyone who has ever questioned why something that serves only the wealthy is considered progress.

The Back Bay is the jewel that it is exactly because it has been protected by zealots and activists, Bostonians all.

ERIKA TARLIN
Somerville