Why in the world are you down in the North End?" he said. "Money? Why, no money or work has gone into the North End. Nothing's going on down there. Eventually, yes, but not yet. That's a slum!
"It doesn't seem like a slum to me," I said.
"Why, that's the worst slum in the city It has two hundred and seventy-five dwelling units to the net acre! I hate to admit we have anything like that in Boston, but it's a fact.
"Do you have any other figures on it?" Iasked.
"Yes, funny thing. It has among the lowest delinquency, discase and infant mortality rates in the city. It also has the lowest ratio of rent to income in the city. Boy, are those people bar the child population is just about average for gains. Let's see the city, on the nose. The death rate is low, 8.8 per thousand, against the average city rate of I 1.2. The TB death rate is very low, less than per ten thousand, can't understand it, it's lower even than Brookline's. In the old days the North End used to be the city's worst spot for tuberculosis, but all that has changed. Well, they must be strong people. Of course it's a terrible slum.
"You should have more slums like this," I said. "Don't tell me there are plans to wipe this out. You ought to be down here learning as much as you can from it." down there myself
"I know how you feel," he said. "I often go just to walk around the streets and feel that wonderful, cheerful street life. Say, what you ought to do, you ought to come back and go down in the summer if you think it's fun now. You'd be in summer. But of course we have to rebuild it crazy about it eventually. We've got to get thosc people off the streets.
Here was a curious thing. My friend's instincts told him the North End was a good place, and his social statistics confirmed it But everything he had learned as a physical planner about what is