Indianapolis vs. Boston (Columbus, Carmel, Marion: home, universities, living)
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Jad79, what you've said about Boston is exactly why we are considering it. You make some good points and it is refreshing to hear that our expectations are on target.
One of my main concerns is the friendliness of the people. Have you been able to make good, lasting friendships. Not just people to hang out with, but people you could call on if you needed help or were going through a hard time. When you live far from family, those type of friends can be even more important. Just wondering if that comes easily in the Boston area.
I find the people just as friendly in MA believe it or not. Perhaps easier to meet people in MA due to the walkability of neighborhoods and the fact that many suburbs are small towns of 10,000-12,000 people instead of big suburbs like Carmel with 85,000 people. That said, I think it can be difficult to move to any suburb in your 30s and develop deeper friendships if you don't have kids. In Boston, it would be much easy in towns with more transplants like Boston, Cambridge, Brookline, Arlington, Newton, Wellesely, etc.
We have lived within a few blocks of a nice farmers market in each of our four neighborhoods, great city recycling programs, dozens of local farms within 30 miles of Boston that focus on direct to consumer food (as opposed to vast majority of Indiana farms that focus on mass amounts or corn or soy for industry). Here is one partial list of Pick your own farms in the area, many have picnic areas, live music on weekends, hay rides, etc: Where to find pick-your-own (u-pick) farms in Boston and surrounding counties in Massachusetts
Methinks this is a bit of an oversimplification. Indiana has considerably more farm acreage than New England because the soil is vastly superior. The Midwest is full of farmers who trace their origins to Connecticut and Massachusetts (at least after they left Europe), but those settlers left New England almost two centuries ago when they heard about the soil conditions in the Northwest Territory. The giant agribusiness dominates the Midwest because it can: land is cheaper and more fertile out here, so economies of scale facilitate mass farming in ways that are impossible in New England, because it's hard to find more than 10 contiguous acres that are good enough to farm in the rocky soil of MA. Thus, New England has what you might call "boutique farms"--those are generally the only type of farms that are viable out there.
As for the farmer's markets, I've been to those petit bourgeois gatherings in MA, and they're great, but that is more of a reflection of demographics and demand than actual supply. Metro Indy has plenty of farmers markets because it, too, has a well-educated urban population that is willing to pay for those. (Which is why businesses like Trader's Point Creamery and Farm Fresh Delivery work in Indy while they would be less likely to work in some rural, low-tech part of the state.) Metro Boston has a HUGE well-educated urban population, which is again the type that values these things. You can find lots of u-pick farms in that part of MA that is close to yuppies, but farmers markets are not going to be so easy to come by in the economically distressed mill towns like Lawrence or Fall River or New Bedford that are overwhelmingly populated by working class immigrants. Boutique farms, whether in Indy or Boston, tend to charge more than supermarkets for some of processed goods like bread. Furthermore, the unfortunate reality is that lower-income people (again, in both MA and IN) usually demonstrate a far lower demand for healthy, organically grown produce, which is why it's so hard to find good supermarkets, and virtually impossible to find farmers markets, in low income areas: "food deserts", as people tend to call them. Boston is big, rich, and very well educated; Indianapolis is medium sized, fairly wealthy, and reasonably well educated. Another example is Bloomington IN, which is a well-educated town with a higher amount of boutique farms--it also makes sense because the less fertile soil of southern Indiana's limestone belt means that giant agribusiness isn't going to work so well there.
I think your comparisons between the two cities are otherwise right on the mark. Thanks for your input, and sorry for my own long-windedness: obviously this subject is a weird passion for me.
Chalcedony, I agree with most or all of what you said, all are good points. I was just very surprised when I moved to MA how many farmers markets there were and how good the fresh produce was when I never had exposure to similar markets in the middle of the farmers belt. I'm sure that has changed in the last 10 years as farmers markets increased in popularity.
In MA, they are trying hard to bring farmers markets to all communities and have done quite a good job at it. Foodstamps (WIC in MA) are now accepted at many markets, Fall River has three good farmers markets, etc. But no doubt, income and education are highly correlated. Another thing that really helps the farmers market trend in MA (and really drives high real estate prices) are public policies that make it very difficult or impossible to sell farms in order to build housing. That makes it possible to have large working farms in areas like Lexington, Winchester, Concord, Andover, etc. on land that would be worth 10s of millions of dollars if it could be developed.
All I'm saying is that if she values locally grown produce, restaurants that focus on serving local produce and farmers markets, then Boston has that covered. Perhaps parts of Indy do too, but I get the feeling it's not as wide spread at the moment. I wasn't really commenting on why that may be, I agree with you on that.
1. We like an urban environment with walkable neighborhoods...There are a few blocks of this in Broad Ripple
You're seriously comparing a strip of bars to the urban fabric of one of our country's most distinct cities? I'm sorry, but that's just asinine.
This isn't a knock on Broad Ripple, but it is not urban, particularly diverse, or "independent" and especially when compared to an area like, say, Beacon Hill.
You're seriously comparing a strip of bars to the urban fabric of one of our country's most distinct cities? I'm sorry, but that's just asinine.
This isn't a knock on Broad Ripple, but it is not urban, particularly diverse, or "independent" and especially when compared to an area like, say, Beacon Hill.
Broad Ripple is not just a strip of bars along Broad Ripple Ave.
You're seriously comparing a strip of bars to the urban fabric of one of our country's most distinct cities? I'm sorry, but that's just asinine.
This isn't a knock on Broad Ripple, but it is not urban, particularly diverse, or "independent" and especially when compared to an area like, say, Beacon Hill.
No I'm not saying they are similar at all, I'm saying that Indianapolis doesn't really have anything that compares to Boston's neighborhoods, but that Broad Ripple area is probably the closest. Perhaps you missed this line in the very next sentence "However all of the places we have lived in Boston, there is literally nothing similar in Indianapolis"
No I'm not saying they are similar at all, I'm saying that Indianapolis doesn't really have anything that compares to Boston's neighborhoods, but that Broad Ripple area is probably the closest. Perhaps you missed this line in the very next sentence "However all of the places we have lived in Boston, there is literally nothing similar in Indianapolis"
Then you contradicted yourself. Otherwise, what was the point of that last sentence?
How can something "come the closest" to anything if there's no comparison? Either they do or they don't. To me, it sounded as if you were comparing them.
This isn't a knock on Broad Ripple, but it is not urban, particularly diverse, or "independent" and especially when compared to an area like, say, Beacon Hill.
Beacon Hill is diverse?!
You might be right on the other accounts, but I'd say Broad Ripple, by being much more affordable, is open to far more than the white patricians who dominate Beacon Hill.
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