to
Update
was annexed by the City of Boston in 1836 and is separated from the rest of the city by Boston Harbor and bordered by Winthrop, Revere, and the Chelsea Creek. Directly west of East Boston across Boston Harbor are Charlestown, the North End and Boston's Financial District.
East Boston, which some people call "Eastie," is now predominantly Hispanic, and the once-sizeable Italian population still resides in areas, like Orient Heights.
Though East Boston has a spectacular view of the downtown skyline, the community's rents and property values have increased more slowly than the extraordinary growth seen in the rest of the metro-Boston region during the late 1990s and early 2000s. This slower growth can be attributed to factors such as: the isolated nature of the neighborhood, difficulties of real estate development along the waterfront and the negative attitude towards Logan Airport that local East Boston residents have perpetuated.
For many years East Boston’s connections to Boston, which included the Sumner (westbound), Callahan (eastbound) tunnels and through Chelsea by way of the Tobin Bridge, have been overcrowded. Persons going to the Airport from western and southern Massachusetts would have to use one of these two access points causing constant traffic jams. The building of the Ted Williams Tunnel which extends the Mass Pike to the airport has alleviated much of this traffic problem. Boston has also supplied residents with special transponders that allow them to pay reduced tolls on the Sumner and Ted Williams tunnels.
Local government has hindered private investment in the waterfront for many years. Recently this has changed and the Boston Redevelopment Authority has begun implementing the East Boston Municipal Harbor Plan. This development is created in order to reconnect East Boston with its waterfront through condominiums, restaurants and shops.