Moving to Boston, advise me!

In My Humble Opinion
1

Mr. Jeeves and I are about to make our second major life change togethor, moving to Boston from Los Angeles. I have been accepted into MIT for my masters degree, and he has lined up a pretty exciting job here as well.

We flew into Boston this weekend to check out the area, and definately don’t want to bring our cars. Mr. Jeeves job is just off the South Station T stop, and we want to be within walking distance of campus, or the red line since the T is so convenient.

So what do we need to know about living on the East Coast, and about moving cross country? Tips, hints, and horror stories welcome. Also, if anyone has a place in Cambridge or along the T red line to rent we are great tenants!

2

That’s awesome that both his job and your school are both on the same line. I hope you find something close to the station that doesn’t have too many partying students.

As for tips and tricks? Hmmmm. Well, for one thing, if you’ve spent your life on the west coast, particularly Southern California, you’re going to have to adjust to our winters. They can get pretty bad, but if you’re not driving, they’re more uncomfortable than dangerous. Google a few sites that deal with dressing warmly, and you’ll be OK.

Bostoners are probably a bit more reserved than what you’re used to, but they’re not that bad. When I first came to Boston all those years ago, I spent a little time temping before settling into a library, which meant I was often on the street looking for an address. Quite a few total strangers just walked right up to me and volunteered to help without my having asked. They’re not the most outgoing people I’ve ever run into, particularly in winter, but they’re OK.

Hell, I love Boston. Interestingly enough, my wife and I are planning to move to the west coast as soon as we’re able, but more because of the climate than the city and the people. Every year, the winters get a little harder to take. I actually suggested LA, but Mrs. Fresh vetoed that suggestion with one sidelong glance. :smiley:

The winter thing is all that pops into my head at the moment, but please feel free to PM me with any specific questions. If I don’t know the answer, chances are I can find someone who does.

Welcome to the club. :slight_smile:

3

but you will be living in one of the MOST expensive cities in the USA. And, Boston is NOT good value for the money. What you will be able to afford will most likely be an apartment in an old building-a lot of the residential neighborhoods are >120 years old. So, old houses.
Culturally, Boston is great-but very expensive. It’s a good thing you won’t have a a car-parking is impossible, and parking fines are enormous. People are rude and snappy-and God help you if you stop to chat with someone (while you are waiting in line). The infrastructure is poor-roads stink (large potholes every winter);and be prepared to pay high prices for food. Public transist is OK (but the T is dirty and infested by drunks and mentally ill people.
That said, if you don’t mind the high prices and terrible winters, Boston can be very nice.

4

Yeah, I forgot to mention that the rents are sky-high, although you probably know that by now. I talked to my wife, a lifelong resident, and she’s no rental expert on the red line area, but in general, most people in your position live on the Harvard side of the line. She says that as a rule, the Davis Square area is nicer but more expensive, while Central Square is cheaper, but you don’t want to take too many moonlit walks around wherever you wind up. She says that you can rent around Alewife, but it’s more suburban (and thus probably more expensive), and I’ll add that it’s a further walk to the T station.

She also says to check out the area around the Quincy stop. You might have some luck there.

I disagree with the characterization of the people as rude and snappy, and I’ve often had quite pleasant conversations with strangers in line. I agree with the T, though. It serves its purpose, but it could be a helluva lot better. It stinks, but you’ll get used to it (It’s not like you have to hang out there all the time), and while I’m no city mouse, I’m sure there are drunks and transients in stations all over the US. I really, really wish I grew up here instead of in some farmtown.

As far as the food prices . . . Yeah, given your situation, you’re going to have to go back to college food for awhile, depending on your husband’s income. Pizza and ramen, baby, and don’t tell me part of you doesn’t miss it! :wink:

If I could ask a question of my own as a lifelong east-coaster, BTW. I’m curious, never having been to LA. What are the people there like? Is everything at a fast pace? Are they all polite, or are they snappy? Do they tend to be as spacey as we east-coasters have heard, or is that all bullshit? I don’t mean to be offensive, especially if you grew up there, but man, you should hear some of the rumors east-coasters have heard about Socal (No, you shouldn’t.).

5

Lived outside of Boston for about 5 years after college. My younger brother also lived there for a number of years. We were only there at the same time a few weeks though before I moved to NYC.

I don’t need to echo what has already been said about driving, parking, winters and housing costs.

I find people from Boston to be dull and unpleasent. Like they have pieces of the Mayflower still shoved up their ass. Having lived most of my life in the Northeast, I don’t expect random people to give me a cheery “Hi!” like they do in the South. But I did find Boston people tended to be very cliqueish and not very welcoming of outsiders. Kind of like you would go to an event full of Boston people and not only would no one talk to anyone, you would immediately feel uncomfortible if you tried.

By comparison, I found New Yorkers, in spite of their reputation for being rude, to be much more social and outgoing.

You still might want a junker car though because unlike NYC, Boston really isn’t that big. In the summer you might want to head to Newport, RI or Cape Cod and there is always skiiing and other activities further north.

6

You are pretty much fucked all all around. I kid, I kid but not really. Boston traps people like yourself in its web of world class schools much like a black widow spider. It sounds like you got into the best and good for you. Boston is what it is. It calls itself the hub of the universe and claims to be extremely cosmopolitan but is, in fact, and insular, as any backwater town in Appalachia. I am a transplant from the South and I have had to work very, very hard to make it work for me and my Boston area wife. I like it now but we live 35 miles out and I even had to choose that carefully. However, when my wife and I got married, we lived in the Allston/Brighton area and I liked that just fine. It is a youngish area and can be a little upscale and somewhat inexpensive by Boston standards. It has T access as well but getting to MIT could take a while. I would recommend keeping a car. Boston public transportation is decent in U.S. terms but it won’t get you everywhere.

7

Awesome! What course? I am going for my Master’s in VI right now.

Have you looked into MIT’s graduate housing options? I don’t really know anything about housing for married couples, other than that it exists.

You definitely need a car. You don’t need one in Boston itself, but at least for me, Boston itself got old quickly. It is nice to be able to get into the countryside once in a while.

8

M.Eng in course I, Environmental track.

As far as housing, not sure if people realize that I live in fucking LA region. We have the advantage of high housing costs, without any public transit infrastructure. I have seen people peeing in broad daylight at the train stop in LA, the T can’t be any worse. We have actually been happier about the housing possibilities then we are here. The only thing that annoys me about housing is that they can charge a “fee” for you to rent an apartment, that strikes me as bullshit.

I have applied to married student housing, but we probably need to move out there before before it is available, and they wouldn’t allow us our cats anyway.

Does anyone know what the food prices are like compared to LA? Online cost of living index’s say they are lower, but I didn’t see a single grocery store while we were there. On the plus side, the night we had delivery to the hotel for dinner, we had more choices than I have ever seen in my life! That could actually be dangerous I suppose.

9

In my experience, people are pretty laidback here compared to the east coast. I was a little shocked at how all the pedestrians just cross the street whenever while I was in Boston. I am used to waiting for the walk signal here in LA, but that seemed very gauche. Drivers are much more polite here, and I get that from people who grew up in NY/Boston and moved out here. It is pretty rare to honk your horn, and people usually let you in when you are merging.

LA is kinda a wasteland culturally, you can find stuff but it is spread out all over. I am really sick of having to drive everywhere, for restaurants, for concerts, for museums, etc. I actually live in a more built-up section of Long Beach, and have some stuff near us, but nothing like the density concentration we saw in Cambridge.

Oh, and stucco, stucco everywhere. 90% of the buildings are stucco. It was so refreshing to be somewhere there are different styles of architecture, rather than just off white stucco.

10

We live near Boston and hate it. We have lived here <1 year and are moving overseas, running away as fast as our feet can carry us. We can’t afford housing. We take our child to the playground in the best of weather and never meet any other children. The people are very stand-offish (my wife and I are from the South, and find people here cold). Taxes are high, and services (roads, libraries, etc.) are shit.

I may have just gotten myself uninvited to the Boston Dopefest, but there you have it.

11

Live in Cambridge. Seriously. I worked a ten-minute walk from the S Station T stop, and got to work in about 25 minutes (walking included. usually. barring craziness from the T that day). Here’s a little known secret: live in Kendall Square. You’ll be on the same stop as MIT, the neighborhoods are quiet, the business area is industrial (largely biotech companies) and shuts down at 5, no noise, little traffic, my gf and I both had cars and had few problems. It has parks and is convenient to almost anywhere you want to go on the T, red or green lines. No one ever talks about Kendall, but are quick to extoll the virtues of Davis or Central, which have their own problems that Kendall avoids. Davis is very collegey, and though people will talk about the “high culture” of Davis, it’s a scurrilous lie. There are only a couple places with live music, and there are plenty of other places to find that in Boston/Cambridge. Central is crowded, little place for parking, and the housing is more cramped.

As for food, shop at Trader Joe’s. Great stuff for extraordinarily cheap prices. I honestly don’t know how they do it. There’s one that’s easy to get to by bike (a pain to get to walking by any T stop, although the closest is Central). Don’t worry about grocery stores; there are plenty in the area. Shaw’s (dunno if those are in LA, but they’re a pretty sizable chain), Super Foodmart, etc.

If you’re trying to avoid the housing fee to the realtors, I’d suggest craigslist. I’ve found every single place I lived from there, and while realitors do post on there, there are also plenty of owners who do directly.

PM me if you want some more info, but I really can’t stress enough how little people talk about Kendall, and how great it is, especially if you’re going to MIT.

12

If you don’t mind a sucky commute, I can find you housing. The building is great and the rent is low. There is something like a seven year waiting list, but if you know an insider (like me), it can be shortened considerably.

13

Sorry tdn , while I really appreciate the offer, we both have sucky commutes right now, and one of our main requirements in the move is that I can walk to campus, or be a short walk from a red line T stop. Right now, that will also result in a great commute for Mr. Jeeves as well, so we win all around.

14

Welcome to Beantown! I moved here a couple of years ago from the midwest. It was an adjustment at first–going from driving everywhere to taking the T; the people are not nearly as friendly as they were in Illinois; things are more expensive. That said, I do like the area. I live on the red line, which is ever so convienent. The T does have its problems, but it’s much cheaper than a car. (My monthly train pass for the subway and buses is $59.) I joined zipcar so that if I do want to drive somewhere, I can get a car for the day or even just an hour for a reasonable price. Gas and insurance is included with this service, and they have cars parked all over Boston.

I’m sure I’ll think of more later…I’ll try to remember to check back here. But if there’s anything you want to know or need, especially since I live in the area you’re planning on moving into, feel free to drop me a PM.

15

Libraries are shit??? :dubious: :dubious: :dubious: Have you ever been to Copley Square??? The library is HUGE! I find it inconcievable that you’re complaining about the libraries here! The Boston Library system has more books than any public library in the country. (Sorry, no site, this info came to me from a trivia thing. I thought the answer was NYC.) Plus, no matter where in Boston you are, you can request that any circulating book be sent to your local library where you can conviently pick it up.

You may be aggravated at Boston right now, but geez…

16

Fair enough. We live in a suburb of Boston, and the little towns around Boston have terrible libraries–and some of them don’t have a library at all. A neighboring town just closed their library altogether. I was spoiled by living in Arlington, Virginia, where they have a fabulous public library.

17

Our apartment is in Back Bay and we will never willingly live in the suburbs. I don’t think you can compare suburb living with actually being in the city.

I find the people very nice, not at all what I had expected and I’ve lived in the midwest for the last 20 years–you don’t get much friendlier than the midwest.

I can’t speak to LA rents but I will tell you our rent is about $1500 a month for a 600/650 square foot one bedroom apartment–its in a renovated brownstones that has a total of nine apartments.

I also don’t understand the complaining about taxes–I don’t think people in MA realize how much more stringently other places are taxed. In KC, I pay KS state tax (work in KS), MO state tax (live in MO), KC city tax (because I live in the city), plus our tax rates here are not low at all. So far we aren’t seeing anything nearly that bad in Boston. Maybe someone who’s lived there longer can shed some light on that.

We did decide to keep one car (at least so far) but my husband has been there for six months w/o a car and doesn’t miss it. When he needs a car, say for a Costco run, he uses Zip cars.

18

We will definately check out Kendall Square, our goal is to wait until June if we can and hopefully snag an apartment after all the undergrads have cleared out.

Of course, with Kendall Square, you have to decide if you want to be close to the epicenter of the zombie outbreak, so there aren’t very many yet, or if you want to be further away so you have some warning.

One thing I love about LA are the farmers markets, which you can get great produce at all year round. Obviously that won’t be the case in Boston, but are there any really good ones during the summer?

Oh, and whats the deal with alcohol sales? Can you only buy beer and wine in liqour stores?

19

The undergraduates never clear out. Leases are set up that way.

There are several good farmers markets close by, including a very nice one in Central Sq. Obviously we don’t have them in winter but for the summer you can use those or sign up for a community supported farm.

Some supermarkets have beer and wine (only 3 per store chain in the state) but otherwise you need to go to a liquor store. Fortunately we have several. :slight_smile:

20

There’s a great one in Brookline, but you’ll need a car to get there. While it’s technically in the city, it’s about as rural a setting as you can imagine. I think it’s open year-round.

There’s also Haymarket. I don’t know what all you can get there, but I know you can get amazingly fresh fish for pretty cheap.

Yep. And they close at 11.