Unlike the “North End” which is not an official neighborhood, South End is. But, there is confusion created by the same lazy or uninformed individuals who call an entire half of the city the “North End” or “South End.” As someone who is basically centrally located, it’s weird to hear people insist that your home is in some nebulous category that is not all that accurate. It’s time that these descriptions stop being shorthand for ethnic neighborhoods.

The actual South End starts south of Barry Square, goes east until it becomes the industrial area of South Meadows, and is also bordered by the South West neighborhood and town of Wethersfield.

Mid-morning, Sunday, the neighborhood is mostly quiet, maybe because of the threat of rain. Who wants to get a picnic started when everything will just need to be moved?

Who’s out? Joggers and golfers. Someone fishing. People walking their dogs.

There’s a path in Goodwin Park that is moderately cleared but not especially marked in a way that indicates the public should be using it. We go that way and in the thick of the woods encounter two teenage boys playing fetch with a dog. Without being asked, they put the dog on leash and wait for us to pass before resuming their fun. Previously, we spotted adults with off-leash dogs not bothering to exercise the same courtesy.

There is no active construction as we pass through, but plenty of signs show that this has been ongoing.

There are those who bemoan how the neighborhood has changed. In some ways, it has, but not much differently than other neighborhoods in Hartford. Again, what seems like nostalgia is a not much more than a kind of code.

Just as Frog Hollow is no longer a French Canadian or Puerto Rican neighborhood, the South End is not Little Italy. Pieces of that still exist, but thankfully, times are changing. Times have changed. Each block contains more diversity and less isolation. That is something to embrace.