Boston Overall (Berlin, Florida, Washington: rent, crime, how much)

[detroit boy]

Im of Irish Decent and my family moved from Boston to Detroit During the 20's when the auto industry took off. I was wondering how the crime and the communitys of Boston were and is it really as expensive as everyone says?? ive heard nothing but good things about boston but ive never been. it sounds like a interesting place to be..

[skytrekker]

Boston has become not only a preeminent American city, but also a world class one.

The city is elegant & beautiful- with many wonderful neighborhoods. The city has come back remarkably from a down period from the 1950's to 70's.

Crime for a city it size is low- some neighborhoods are a bit tough- but overall the city is safe.

Boston is expensive- but less then New York, Washington, Los Angeles & San Francisco. It is priced about the same as Seattle.

[WannaGoHome]

skytrekker covered it all pretty much and I second what s/he has already stated. It's definitely a world class city, elegant and beautiful.

Boston is definitely expensive, but the thing that I love about Boston is that you have the options that you might not have in other big cities without a hassle. For example, LA is very difficult to find affordable housing because a.) the rough neighborhoods are pretty rough, and (for the main point) b.) the most affordable housing that is nice is light years away from either the central Los Angeles Business district (Wall St/6th St/San Julian St/etc) and the West LA Business district (the western Wilshire corridor). The beast about being so far from business districts in LA is that the public transportation is horrific, as is traffic. So, you're essentially stuck on a freeway 24/7 (ok. . maybe that's an exaggeration. But do it for a month and it'll certainly feel like 24/7).

New York is fantastic. Open later than Boston. Has more "stuff" than Boston. Has more people than Boston. NY is very fast paced. Boston is faster paced that downtown LA (because it feels like more of a city. LA lacks a central thriving downtown area. but that's for another post haha), but nowhere near as "overwhelming" as Manhattan. I put overwhelming in quotes, because I don't find midtwon Manhattan to be overwhelming, but a lot of people do. The thing that NY lacks that I feel Boston has a leg-up on (besides the fact that Boston just feels more accessible to newbies and tourists based on sized) is the fact that public transportation here rocks! Yes yes. . . I know NY has a great sub system. Rode it for ages. But, for the neighborhoods where you can find a good deal on rent, you are sittin' on that train for ages and you might not want to take that train home too late at night. Because of annoying track work that makes you transfer in some not-so-hot spots and because there are some strange ones on some of the trains late at night (E train to Forest Hills is a great example of both. haha. i've seen some oddities on that one).

I can't speak for San Fran and Washington. Been to both but haven't "experienced" either.

I love Boston. To pieces. I love that there are still places where people own their own stores, where I can get a real cannoli, that people still go to church (I don't really. . . but it says a lot about people to make the weekly commitment in this "day and age" boy do I sound like a fogey). I love the different neighborhoods. How even the most expensive neighborhoods don't feel exclusive/snotty/kitschy. How the display of wealth isn't over the top ridiculous (for the most part). I love that you can get a completely different vibe and feel like you are in a completely different city just by picking a train and riding it to the end of the line. I love that the commuter rail is open on Saturday and Sunday and tends to be pretty much on track. I love that it is so close to other major cities (NY, Hartford, Montreal, DC, Philly, Baltimore. All good places to go for a three day weekend. Take a plane and it's even weekend-doable). And I love that if you just can't handle anymore sidewalk, there are parks, the river, and the commuter rail or zipcar to whisk you away to the beach/mountains/etc.

Oh Boston. :-) My love.

[Pinkhat]

What Skytrekker and WannaGoHome said plus:

The Big Dig is over and the city is experiencing a renaissance. This is a great time to enjoy Boston and all it has to offer. The city is looking better than ever.

When are you planning to visit?

[detroit boy]

Man I want to be there now by the way You Guys have described it!!! Moneys the only issue right now, Detroit is in Shambles, and Boston sounds like a place that i would love to be. How much is monthly rent usually??

[Pinkhat]

Also for pix and info on all the neighborhoods check out this blog.

[Pinkhat]

Sorry about that, CaseyB, I didn't know about that rule.

[skytrekker]

detriotboy

rents will vary on neighborhood and type of building- do consider paying well over for 1K a month for a 1 bedroom is a nice neighborhood.

[Bluefly]

Just to offer a balance of opinions, having lived in both metro Detroit and Boston,

1. You will find the scale of Boston to be unbelievably small. For a region with about the same population, you will be in the leafy suburbs of Boston to begin about as many miles from downtown Detroit as Hamtramck is (a city within the city of Detroit, still many miles from the leafy, wealthy suburbs). That's all due to the fact that Boston grew up before the auto and Detroit after.

2. Boston's mass transit is rather hard to handle. It's very old. The green line stops every two blocks and shakes your breakfast out of you in between. It doesn't connect the city very well if you're going anywhere but right downtown. But, any mass transit is better than Detroit's downtown carnival ride that pretends to be mass transit.

3. While the above statements about Boston are accurate, I personally didn't like Boston. I've found people raised in the New England culture tend to love Boston, and those not tend to find it a little provincial and sports obsessed. It's hard to go into an upscale club or restaurant without televisions blaring some sports game. You will feel like you're living in the world's biggest college town. If you're over 25, you will be very old in the bars. Many people, especially wealthier ones in the western suburbs, settle down and have at least 4 children simply because that's what they were raised to do.

I went searching for the great history of Boston, and kept ending up at the same churches and grave yards. I eventually realized that was the great history of Boston. <Shrug>

Having lived in Washington, DC, DC was just a far more vibrant, happening-now city with people from all over the world - truly a world-class city where people of diverse ages and races and backgrounds intermingle. Boston was very rooted in its old ethnic baggage with mostly people from New England and college students. Yet, Boston is very clean and safe, almost to the point of sterility if you're used to urban culture. It's also very white. Coming from Detroit and DC, I took for granted how much the black culture adds to a city's vibrancy until I lived in mostly white Boston.

I'm not looking to get into a big debate with Boston lovers. I understand why people love it. But if this gentleman is going to uproot his entire life, he should be aware that it isn't the lost City of Gold. It's done well with what it has. Not everybody finds that to be enough, though.

[TomDot]

According to this unbiased categorization of global cities, Boston is apparently a well rounded "world city"
DC has several significant strengths but it is not considered well rounded.
Before you dismiss this categorization, you should go to the GaWC website to see how the listing is done.
Brussels and Geneva are good company though!

Global Cities [8]
Well rounded global cities

1. Very large contribution: London and New York City.
   Smaller contribution and with cultural strengths: Los Angeles, Paris, and San Francisco.
2. Incipient global cities: Amsterdam, Boston, Chicago, Madrid, Milan, Moscow, Toronto.

Global niche cities - specialised global contributions

1. Financial: Hong Kong, Singapore and Tokyo.
2. Political and social: Brussels, Geneva and Washington, D.C.

World Cities
Subnet articulator cities

1. Cultural: Berlin, Copenhagen, Melbourne, Munich, Oslo, Rome, Stockholm.
   Political: Bangkok, Beijing, Vienna.
2. Social: Manila, Nairobi, Ottawa.

Worldwide leading cities

1. Primarily economic global contributions: Frankfurt, Miami, Munich, Osaka, Singapore, Sydney, Zurich
2. Primarily non-economic global contributions: Abidjan, Addis Ababa, Atlanta, Basel, Barcelona, Cairo, Denver, Harare, Lyon, Manila, Mexico City, Mumbai, New Delhi, Shanghai