This is the week to be in Boston.

After four years of planning, our city this weekend plays host to one of the two major media events of this summer: the Democratic National Convention. Amidst all sorts of dire warnings of broken routines and roadway diversions, of difficulties commuting and predictions of a downturn in activities for downtown businesses, the big event arrives, and with it, this Hub of ours becomes the center of attention across the nation.

We noticed some of the buzz this week, when a big CNN TV trailer parked itself next to Bayside Expo and an anchorwoman set-up to broadcast a one-hour mid-afternoon program.

"Live from Dorchester, Massachusetts" read the crawl on the screen, the skyline of South Boston and the city, and Dorchester Bay serving as a backdrop for the newscast. It wasn't so long ago, we remembered, that same area was the daily scene of ugly, violent racial confrontations, back during the early years of court-ordered busing.

Today, in that small video vignette, there's the picture of our city, in all its glory, beamed out to the rest of the country and beyond. The proud vision of Mayor Tom Menino in hosting this event became crystal clear: it is a time to show the face of our city, the new Boston, to the world. We have had our share of negativity- the Big Dig, the old strife over race and schools. Now there's this picture of a city that works, whose people want to live here, whose leaders want to lead.

It truly is a great week. The Yankees come to town for three games beginning Friday night, and by the time the first gavel comes down in the FleetCenter on Monday, we're likely to have a real pennant race again. There will be events all over town - not just downtown, but in the neighborhoods. Dot residents were looking forward to a hoped-for Boston Pops concert next Wednesday night on the lawn of the beautiful new UMass-Boston Student Center, and a free fireworks display over Dot Bay near Malibu Beach.

So today, it is eight days and counting - just eight more days until the convention will have run its course. It will be a full week of excitement, and perhaps some minor inconveniences. But look at it this way: It's a good way to prepare ourselves for the hoped-for celebrations come next October, when the Red Sox win the World Series. When that happens, our town will have come full circle. -Ed Forry

The Beginning of a Beautiful Friendship

We appreciate the generous recognition of the Improper Bostonian, which this week recognized the Dorchester Reporter as "Boston's best neighborhood newspape." We congratulate our fellow Dorchester winners, but hope that this year's increased awareness of our neighborhood is the beginning of a trend.

High-gloss magazines like the Improper and Boston magazine have long overlooked Dorchester with patronizing nods in our direction or, worse, reporting simply the neighborhood's flaws. This year, the Improper also honored the Blarney Stone, Restaurant Cesaria, and author Dennis Lehane, all neighborhood treasures. This is a stark improvement from last year, when Dot went 0-for-65 in the food-and-drink categories, with too many of the magazine's laurels going to haunts in downtown, Beacon Hill, and the Back Bay. Not enough attention was paid to the city's neighborhoods, where most Bostonians live.

Such a reductive view - repeated too often by guidebooks that profess to provide a glimpse into "the insider's Boston" - robs readers of the chance to experience all the charms offered by this great city and all it neighborhoods.

This week, with the convention looming, we return the Improper's salute, and encourage them to continue exploring the city in its grand wholeness.

-E.F.