The cruise-ship tour season is well underway and every week I meet hundreds of people from across the country and around the world who have come to visit Boston. Many tourists just want to sit and listen as our bus takes them around the city. I’m happy if they listen quietly and laugh at my jokes.
Others have questions, which tend to follow patterns. Here are the questions I hear most often either on the bus or after passengers have gotten off.
Container ship and cruise ships in the Reserved Channel
Questions About Population
Question: “How Many People Live in Boston?”
Answer: Easy-peasy. The population of Boston is 654,453. The Greater Boston area is home to an estimated 4.7 million, making it the 10th largest metropolitan area in the United States.
Questions About Homelessness
Question: “Where Are Your Homeless People?”
This one takes my breath away.
Answer: Point-in-time data collected by the U.S Department of Housing and Urban Development in 2023, reported the total number of people experiencing homelessness in Greater Boston to be approximately 12,674 people. The numbers shift and change, however.
What Boston doesn’t have is a large tent city of homeless people. Some tents do cluster around the intersection of Massachusetts Avenue and Melnea Cass Boulevard but I have taken tourists through that area without them even noticing.
When tourists ask why Boston doesn’t have a tent city, though, I don’t really have an answer. I think the right-to-shelter law may explain it. If anyone knows the reason, please comment so I can respond accurately.
Comments About Boston
In addition to questions, my tour guests often have two comments:
- Boston is such a beautiful city. I agree, of course, and can respond to this easily with a smile and a “Thank ”
- Boston is so clean. The tourists appear surprised by this. What surprises me is the number of times I hear it. I thank them, but I also wonder what their city looks like by comparison. And why.
Assuming I Was a Teacher
Many of my tour guests get off the bus and ask me, confidentially, if I was a schoolteacher. Having worked as a tour guide for 11 years, I do know my way around the city, and they take my narration as demonstration of a career in education.
Actually, I worked in marketing and corporate communications for high-tech companies of all sizes. When I retired, I wanted to do something totally different. Now, I don’t have to deal with office politics and budget reports, sales leads and fractious executives. Instead, I’m out in the fresh air, sharing what I learned about the city. When my tour is over, I go home and relax. I also sleep soundly without worrying about what might happen tomorrow.
Assuming I’m a Historian
Having gotten my career wrong, the tourists try again and assert that I must have been a history major. Wrong again. I got my degree in English at Northeastern and didn’t study history until I retired. Now I have shelves of books on the histories of Boston, Massachusetts, and New England, from the geology underlying the city to its art and architecture.
The smart ones just ask, “How did you learn all that?” And the answer is simple: training with Boston By Foot, preparation for each tour, reading, studying and an excess of curiosity.
Bustling and Busy
Me on the bus
Over a month of the tour season remains before early November. Right now the Flynn Cruiseport is bustling. Buses come and go along with Duck boats, Hop-on trolleys, taxis and ride-share cars. People flow in and out of the cruise ships and the ships themselves dock in Boston on their way up or down the coast.
I’m happy to show those folks the city, answer their questions, and tell the–for the umpteenth time–that I was never a teacher.
