My Dad was a first-generation Greek-American, born in 1927 and grew up in Roxbury, in an area that was then Greeks and Jews. One of the few stories I remember him telling of his youth is the lasting impression it made on him as a child when he visited a friend who lived in Somerville, I believe Union Square area. He was bowled over by the stink - like slaughterhouse stink - in the neighborhood, and that people seemed to be unaware of it; his friend certainly didn't remark on it. He found it sobering; I think for him it was a defining moment of youth when you begin to recognize that others may have different from you....and appreciate what you got.
By the way, I would be ecstatic for a Union Sq LJ, having moved from Davis closer to Union a year ago!