Ok, people, tell me about Boston

I've only visited once, but I really enjoyed it.  Based on that visit, I tried to get into college there (but failed... had to go to Michigan).  I hear the winters suck, and the summers aren't much better.

I had a friend who taught at Harvard for a while, and he loved it.  His only complaints were the weather, and the lack of "good Chinese food".

Good luck!  And remember, nothing is permanent!  Even if you guys move there and you hate it, it's only for a year or so, right?   

I have lived here since 1998 (when I finished residency) and I love it here.  I have lots of harvard researchers in my practice and they all seem pretty happy, if overworked like most post docs....

Tons of great restaurants,  50 schools of higher education, easy to get to mountains for skiing, Harvard has a good pool - Cambridge master's uses it as one of the sites, at least 3 tri clubs off the top of my head, tons of bike stores (Landry's is closest to where he would be working and is where I go and also did bike class this winter).  Plenty of running routes, THE RED SOX and on and on.

Winter sucks if you are not a skier at all but not really any worse than PA plus nearer to good skiing.

come visit - I have plenty of room 

They're a rock 'n' roll band.

Well, the marathon is always on the 3rd Monday of the month to coincide with Patriots Day. The race has traditionally started at Noon but they recently moved the start time to late morning. (Depending on which corral you get into)

The race is point to point: Starts in Hopkinton and finishes on Boylston St right near the John Hancock Building. It is a pretty tough course with the last big hill just before the 35k mark as your heading into Brookline.

The race is the oldest marathon (Modern Marathon) and this years race, on April 21st, will be the 112th Running of it. 

Qualifying for this race is one of the most satisfactory experiences of many folks running life and there is no other race or experience like it. This year, the Women's Olympic Trials will be run the day before and one of my friends will be running. (Go Lightfoot!!!)

Another friend of mine, who recently was the overall winner in her Boston Qualifying Marathon, was awarded one of 12 Elite Masters Bibs and gets to line up with the rest of the super fast folks in the elite wave. (Go Corinac!!!)

There are quite a few BT Folks that are running Boston this year and it promises to be a great race. I will miss it this year due to a Family Obligation but will be there in 09, ready to rock

Boston sucks!

26 World  Championships and 39 AL pennant wins!

YUCK FANKEES!!!

and all your wins were in the LAST CENTURY.  We have 2 world series wins in THIS century to your NONE. ;-p 

I could give a rat's a$$ about baseball....yankees, sox....whateva!

What about rental properties? Are there apartments in the city? Are they insanely expensive?

LOVE IT. I lived there for 5 years (in college and after) and visited a lot as a kid. It's a very manageable city to live in, lots of stuff to do and see, very intellectual environment, overall pretty liberal, despite it's very Puritanical roots and the fact that there are lots of Italians/Irish Catholics. I will say, though, that it is a pretty WHITE city, probably due in part to the large number of colleges in the area, and the fact that New England in general is pretty much that way - hate to say it, but it's true. Lots of old money (ie, the Kennedys)

It's a pretty safe city, in general - there are some bad areas, but they're not all places you'd want/need to go. As a young single woman, I felt safer there than I do here when I go into DC (which is why I live in NoVA). Great Irish pubs, great Italian food, great seafood. And I like that they haven't ruined the architecture and early colonial charm of the city by crapping it up with skyscrapers, and they haven't torn down a lot of the old buildings - my college dorms were old brownstones that were converted into dorms, so they had cool molding, and cool tiles around the fireplaces, etc. It's old, but cute and charming.

The streets are somewhat confusing to navigate, however, to get around you don't need a car - public transit is cheap, quite reliable and gets you everywhere you need to go. And since it's not a big city, it's quick to get around. You can walk from Back Bay to Cambridge if you have an afternoon to kill.

Housing, both in the city and in the burbs, is/can be expensive, but it's a city. I was in college, or renting, so I can't say much about it.

The winters don't ALWAYS suck. Fall is beautiful and summers get just as hot and humid as they do in other places - they just don't last as long. Spring can be rainy and cold one day and 80 degrees the next day. But I happen to like seasons, and I do think the city is very pretty when there is snow on the ground.

The nice thing about Boston, too, is that you don't have to go too far outside the city to get to "wilderness" and "nature". It's not as sprawling for a metropolitan area.

Oh, yeah, and it is home to the RED SOX...

Being on the coast, I would think winters are milder in Boston than PA.

Lived in suburbs just west of Boston for 7 years and loved it.  Public transportation everywhere, any kind of food you could want, generally well-educated population, Cape Cod, culture, everything we don't have in CO

Mmmm..China Pearl in Chinatown - dim-sum....I miss Boston

heh heh you say that now......

dollars to donuts if you move here that changes..... 

Yes. And yes and no. You can find better deals if you don't look "downtown", but rather along the Green Line in Boston (Brookline, Allston/Brighton) or the Red Line in Cambridge (Davis Square, Porter Square).  (Keep in mind that Cambridge is a different city and some Cambridge-ites hate it when you refer to it as "Boston" - ie, Harvard folk. The MIT folk are cool and don't care). Some are small, some are not. Thing is, apartments in Boston are just kind of created out of buildings that have been there forever. For example in Davis Square, there are tons of old houses where each floor is an apartment, and is rented out. And some of those are quite reasonable - my ex-boyfriend who was a PhD student lived in one of those with one other guy - the whole thing was like $1100 a month, and it was 2 bedrooms, a nice kitchen, a small den, a living room and a dining room. I lived in a building in Back Bay that had obviously been there for a long time - there was no standard unit layout for the building. Spaces were just sort of created. My studio apartment was rather large - some of the others were not. Mine cost as much as my ex-boyfriend's whole place.

Yup - you pretty much HAVE to become a Sox fan. And god help you if you are a Yankees fan...

No, it's just really hard not to.

Oh, and the beer is good. New England has some great breweries. And there are several restaurants in Boston that brew their own. Mmm...blueberry beer...

My wife and I lived in a town at the end of the red line on the other side of Cambridge  from Boston...  We went there so I could do my internship for a year. 

Absolutely.

loved.

it.

My wife is a pianist so we had TONS of music to see performed... great museums. great history.  I became a member of Red Sox nation... Fenway is THE perfect place to see a ball game.  

If I could  move there, I would in a heartbeat... of course the bishop there... well, I don't know if I could work under her... but that's another story.

Boston is awesome.  

-Brian 

wurkit_gurl - 2008-03-20 1:54 PM I should also add that if you're only going to be there for 2 years - MOVE THERE. Seriously. For only two years, there is plenty of awesomeness to outweight any of the less-awesome aspects. And then you can say you lived there

werd! 

akustix - 2008-03-20 1:56 PM

wurkit_gurl - 2008-03-20 1:54 PM I should also add that if you're only going to be there for 2 years - MOVE THERE. Seriously. For only two years, there is plenty of awesomeness to outweight any of the less-awesome aspects. And then you can say you lived there

werd! 

Or should I say "You are wicked retahded if you don't move there"...