The Party After You Left

So, I lived in Somerville’s Union Square until 1999. After that, the hipness fairy descended on it and blessed it.

Here’s Wicked Local singing its praises,

It’s been well over a decade since Davis Square eclipsed Harvard Square’s hip factor. When the Museum of Bad Art was looking for a new home, it chose Somerville. And anybody who’s in the know these days will tell you that Union Square in Somerville in the new hip place to be with events like the Rock ‘n’ Roll Yard Sale, the Fluff Festival and The All-American Beard & Moustache Competition.

Now, I’ve just moved to Takoma Park in time to learn that as the Washington Post puts it,

It’s taken four decades, but Takoma Park may have finally started to leave the ’60s.

After years of flagging interest, the city recently killed its Free Burma Committee. Last month, it made a rare exception to its “nuclear-free zone” ordinance. The city’s corn silo still stands, and Takoma Park still refuses to buy bottled water, but the community tool library is gone, and many of the activists who once defined what has long been called the People’s Republic of Takoma Park are getting older.

Roz Chast has my number (like all her books, wonderfully wry and well worth checking out):