I just got a job offer as a research technician in Boston, and while I excited for the job itself, I want to more about living and area. Particularly since I’m coming straight out of undergrad with a pile of student loans, I’m concerned with the cost of living in the area. How feasible is it to commute by public transit, or by bike? My potential workplace is by the North Station T stop. Would it be reasonable to live out in the 'burbs where rent might be cheaper, and commute by car?
I did see this earlier thread, but I’m more concerned with living on the cheap.
Housing costs are very high there (or they were up to about a year ago). It’s one of the few markets where buying a house wasn’t that much cheaper than it would have been in the San Francisco Bay area.
It would be vastly more reasonable to take the commuter rail in, seeing as you’re working pretty much right at the terminal. Taking a car into the city would be nightmarish unless you work odd hours, and parking would be ridiculously expensive.
Word. As soon as I read “North Station” I thought “Commuter Rail!”.
If you look at the map embedded in this page North Station | Stations | MBTA you get some idea of the number of places you could live in and commute to North Station by public transportation, without needing a car.
Of course the subway and especially the commuter rail cost money too but many employers subsidize passes for their employees, do you know if that would be the case for you? What part of the country are you coming from?
Laughing Lagomorph, research technician in the Boston area for 19 years.
Boston driving sucks yak cock. And not in a good way. If you can avoid it, do so. Depending on how far you go looking for “cheap” suburb housing you could be adding two hours, each way, to your day with your commute. Considering that your workplace is going to be close to a T stop, I’d look for finding an apartment that’s also on a T line, and give up the car altogether. Boston is one of the few places in the US where you can live fairly well without a car.
You can find reasonably priced housing in Malden that is right on the Orange Line and would be an easy subway commute. I lived there on a grad student stipend. Boston is probably second only to New York City in the United States for places where you can get along without owning a car (and where owning one is mostly a giant pain in the ass).
If you decide to use commuter rail to/from North Station, make sure you live north of Boston, not south of it as the commuter rail systems do not cross the downtown between north and south sides. You would have to take a subway across town from southern 'burbs. Even suburban living is expensive there, though. Maybe as far north a Gloucester would be more reasonable, but an hour or more train ride.
I am a transplant to the Boston area from the South. I always say that Boston is a city of huge positives with an off-setting number of huge negatives. I don’t know if the final score is positive or negative but it is close. Here is my list.
Positives:
Education - Boston is definitely the higher education capital of the world. Even the second tier schools here are world class. Most people think of Harvard and MIT but there is also Boston College, Boston University, Brandeis, and Tufts to contend with. I am sure I am leaving something out because there are literally dozens of great schools in the area.
Culture - this one is a mixed bag because a lot of Boston culture disgusts me but museums, theater, music and sports are all great. It is probably the #1 sports city in the U.S. but I never cared about that personally.
Access to the rest of New England. Rural New England is gorgeous and offers everything from sightseeing to skiing.
American history - that may or may not mean much to you but I am very into it and this is the place to be.
Public transportation - It isn’t Europe but you can live here without a car if you plan things carefully.
Negatives
Boston is very expensive - San Francisco is usually listed as the most expensive city in the U.S. to live but Boston and NYC usually come in 2nd and 3rd and flip-flop places for 2nd depending on the survey.
Provincialism - Boston calls itself the hub meaning “The hub of the Universe” but it is remarkably provincial and not friendly to outsiders to people that grew up here. The accent is vomit inducing as well. The people aren’t generally mean but they are cold in a big way. Your main chance for friends relies on other newcomers.
Driving - the driving really is that bad and Boston driving means you have to learn a play-book like many professional sports players. You have to learn how to weave through and block cars by force to let you through. I have lived here for eleven years and I have learned to driving style but not my way around the entire city. Being one of America’s oldest cities, there is no road plan and major roads just meander and change both names and physical directions on a whim. Manhattan seems like a single road small town by comparison and I mean that literally because I have driven both.
The weather - unless you love skiing with all your heart, the weather sucks for 5 months of the year. It gets dark shortly after 4 pm on December 21st for example and that really affects me. Summer is pretty good. It does get hot here. Temperatures in the 90’s aren’t uncommon in July and there are plenty of swimming spots.
If you are in your twenties, I would try to live in the Allston-Brighton area of town. That is the young section town and has plenty of places to walk to like good bars and restaurants. The true suburbs could be extremely isolating to a newcomer. However, North station isn’t a direct run from the Green Line that serves the area but it is doable.
If you are working by North Station and want to live in the suburbs, pick on whose trains go into North Station. There is no quick easy way to get to NS from the other main train terminus (South Station). It will add anywhere from 30-45+ minutes to your commute. Oh you’ll think it’s not so bad–just a couple of stops on the Orange Line!–but you will think back one day and say you never should have moved where you moved to.
If your company offers totally free parking I’d just drive in probably unless your home rail station is really easy and close to get to. But it’s doubtful they’ll offer free parking, so you’re gonna be stuck taking the train. See Paragraph #1. Plus you need to figure in the cost of your train pass vs. living in town and paying possibly higher rent, and factor in the worth of your time that you’d spend getting to the commuter rail. Honestly rent is not that much cheaper unless you live outside of 495, and that’s a loooonnnnggg way away from Boston commuting-wise.
At your age, I’d ditch the car and find roommates in town close to North Station. I don’t think a newly graduated college student is going to get the “Boston experience” by living in the suburbs.
Pepper Mill used to work near North Station. We lived, at the time, about 3 blocks from a commuter rail stop. It was perfect for her. I, at the time, worked in Cambridge, and had parking. Sometimes I’d drive her in. Sometimes I would take the train. In warm enough weather, I’d cycle in. (Consider cycling carefully – commuting on narrow Boston roads, with Boston drivers, in winter snow and slush is NOT fun)
Don’t even think about commuting in if you work near North Station – parking rates in Boston are usurious, and they deliberately limit the number of parki ng spaces. Even parking at night is ludicrous.
OTOH, Boston is a nice small city. It doesn’t feel as huge and as sprawling as New York or Chicago. You can get in and out quickly, and suburbs nearby are pleasant. The housing is pricey, but prices are coming down right now.
One unfortunate thing is that a lot of towns are getting cash strapped right now. My own towmn has had to lay off police and firemen and close down one fire station. The schools are hurting, and the library closed for a few months. Look carefully at any towns you’re thinking of moving to. Also, towns with ready access to commuter rail and subway stations will command higher prices, for obvious reasons. And there’s never sufficient parking near the commuter stops.
Oh I’m sure lazybratsche can experience scorpion bowls at the Hong Kong and waiting in line at the Purple Shamrock or Black Rose with a bunch of BC students living in Maldan just as easily as living in the North End.
If you want to maximize your access to North Station and you Boston experience while minimizing costs, I would recommend looking for appartments in the North End, Alston Brighton, Cambridge or Kenmore Square. The have direct access along the subway (T) line and there is a lot to do in those neighborhoods.
You might also try Waltham (where Brandeis is located), where I lived for a number of years. It has commuter rail access, is only a few miles from the Green Line (but that’s a slow-ass train) and there are a few restaurants in town along the main street (Moody IIRC). You need a car though.
The problem I found with Boston is that there is a very small area actually covered by public transportation. And even for the parts that are, it’s often easier to drive there anyway. Really it’s too expensive to live in Boston. The only people I know who did were making pretty good salaries.
In addition to the neighborhoods already mentioned, I’d suggest looking for a place in Jamaica Plain. It’s getting gentrified, but housing there is as cheap as anywhere else, the neighborhood is fantastic, and the commute will be a breeze.
I live in Malden, without a car, so it can be done. Find a place relatively near Malden Center, and you’ve got an easy walk to the train station, grocery shopping, and a few decent bars/restaurants. The train ride from Malden Station to North Station is 10 or 15 minutes. Expect to pay anywhere from $1000 - $1500 for a decent one or two bedroom apartment. Expect to pay $2000 for a better than decent apartment.
Feel free to PM me if you’d like more information about the area.
Well I didn’t mean she had to live in the Back Bay or anything like that. Just a neighborhood of Boston as opposed to a suburb or far-out-there-but-technically-Boston neighborhood. And, it’s hard to do stuff at night in Boston if you live outside the city unless you want to 1) leave early every night; 2) pay for cabs. If you’re paying for a lot of cabs, you should just live in town and walk home. You’ll spend the same amount of money and time.
Whatever you do, do NOT live not on the orange or green line or on a North Station train line, if you take that North Station job. You really, really will regret it.
-dirty
-expensive
-crowded
-nasty, unfriendly people
-jaywalking is common
The city offers very little, for a high price. The local government is incredibly corrupt-you will learn why when you travel the “Big dig”-at > $100,000/inch the most expensive highway ever built
You bastard! How could you say that about my new adopted home. Ummm, on second thought, I guess I agree with you 100%. My wife is from an expensive Boston suburb (Winchester) and I got sucked into the area against my will. We lived in Brighton when we first got married and in our 20’s and I loved it for three years but we decided to have kids and move to the suburbs. I put my foot down and said that I was going to pick the suburb that we live in. We practically moved into the sticks and I love Holliston.
However, I find the area incredibly fragile when it comes to life satisfaction for a given person. The Boston area isn’t a place where you can just randomly pick a place to live and expect to be happy. I wouldn’t be caught dead in Malden or Medford for instance but I don’t think there is anything wrong with those places for the right people.
I still think the best place for the OP is Allston-Brighton. It is technically in the city and has the city vibe but it isn’t overly expensive at least by Boston standards and there is plenty of stuff to do even by walking and it nice and clean in many parts. You can have a car in Brighton. I did it for three years but it needs to be parked on the street by 6 pm before people start getting home from work. It did it for three years and rarely had any problems at all. If you decide to drive places and get home at 10 pm, expect driving around for half an hour or much more to find a parking space. You also have to budget for tickets which they hand out like Halloween candy and can easily run $50 - $80 a month or more depending on your circumstances. It is technically avoidable if you are the Second coming of Christ but few people reach that ideal.
Thanks for the input. It turns out that a friend of mine is also moving there sometime soon, he’s looking at Central Square in Cambridge and we may room together. I could then take a pair of buses more directly than the T, actually.
I get the impression that I would enjoy living there for a few years, but not much longer than that. One plus: I’m coming from northeast Ohio, so the weather will be a marked improvement if the weather records are true at all. Less snow AND more sun!
In terms of cost, it looks like living in the Boston area without a car will be the same as living in another city with a car, so that kind of comes out as a wash.
(And, fwiw, I’m a dude. You may continue to use whatever pronouns you wish, however.)
