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Old 03-17-2012, 09:02 AM
 
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You don't really get an urban feel from Watertown. The Square area is pretty busy with a lot going on, and Mt. Auburn street has its interesting stretch, but Watertown is mostly suburban as well.
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Old 03-17-2012, 10:37 AM
 
Location: a bar
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Quote:
Originally Posted by azmntbker View Post
Cliff- Yes, Southie is definetly a place I'm considering, I've just heard that besides the north end it's the worst parking in Boston. Is that not true? Since having 2 cards in the HH isn't an option I figured I'd leave it on my short list but only if I could find a place that has coveted parking spots included or available. Street parking, especially in the winter, sounds like it could be a real issue there.
A lot of the newer builds have garage space. I have a deeded space with my building. With that said, I have had a couple Southie apts in the past that did not have off street parking, and it can get trying at times. I don't think it's anywhere near as bad as the NE or Beacon Hill though. Worst case scenerio, I'd have circle the block a couple times. Wasn't that bad IMO.
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Old 03-17-2012, 09:54 PM
 
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Quote:
Originally Posted by azmntbker View Post
Ogre- You summed me up well! I'm looking for a mix of urban lifestyle with just a bit of a more grown up feel than the areas that tend to immediately surround schools. I will look much closer at the parts of Brighton and Brookline you mentioned, that's very helpful thank you!

As far as Cambridge and Somerville go, both those areas are great, commute distance (mileage) could probably work but my concern is getting to the highway each morning can be such a nightmare if you end up 3-4 miles away and add to that a 30 mile commute after you've spent 20 minutes getting to the highway and I don't think it would last very long. Sticking within 5 minutes of the Pike anywhere between Southie and Waltham should keep the commute livable. If I'm judging this wrong let me know, that's just my impression from the time I've spent visiting friends in Cambridge and Somerville. I previously lived in Charlestown and could spend as much as 10 minutes getting through Sullivan square at a rush hour for a reverse commute I had North of Boston. A lot of times it took much longer to get to the highway then the 10 miles I traveled on the highway took.

I will say that Cambridge closer to Harvard would probably be very ideal since Pike access would be fairly close, I do think East Cambridge is probably a bit too far.

Another area I've looked at is Watertown, do you get any type of Urban feel from there?
It has been a number of years since I've done any commuting through Cambridge, so any thoughts I offer on that should be taken with a grain of salt. Based on past experience, I'd say that you're probably right that from East Cambridge you'd have to spend an inordinate time negotiating local traffic before getting to main roads connecting to the Pike. From Harvard Sq. you may encounter some heavy traffic approaching the Pike, because you've got the same roads feeding into the Pike, Memorial Drive, and Storrow Drive, so it's generally kind of clogged with traffic converging on that area where these roads are close to each other. What would make that commute reasonable, though, would be the fact that you would be traveling only a short distance to get there from the Harvard area. You'd probably be in reasonable shape as far as time, but it depends on how much tolerance you have for the headache of slowly moving traffic during the stretch where you would be dealing with this at the beginning of the trip. Again based on past experience, but nothing recent, this is probably not a bad commute by Boston standards.

You'll also have to take my thoughts on Watertown with a grain of salt. I pass through there once in a while, but it's been some years since I really got out and walked around there. The word is that there is an influx of young professionals beginning to become a presence around the central part of W'town, like around W'town Sq. Based mostly on things I've heard, W'town's discovery by the young pros has happened fairly recently, so this area is behind Waltham in its development as a place with dining options and the like for this demographic group. If I've heard correctly, given the choice between Waltham and Watertown, all other things roughly equal in terms of finding a good apartment at a relatively decent price, you'd probably do better in Waltham if you wanted some significant presence of businesses young professionals are likely to enjoy. Keep in mind, though, that I'm telling you this largely on hearsay, so you probably want the word of someone more currently familiar with Watertown before deciding where it ranks on your list of possibilities.

I can tell you for sure, though, that Vfrex's description of Watertown is accurate. Any residential neighborhoods I've seen there are more densely built than the less dense areas of Waltham, but the general idea is similar to Waltham in that there is some modicum of an urban feel around the central area, but once you get outside of that it's mostly residential.

You've also mentioned Newton in at least one post. The issue for you in Newton would involve demographics. Newton is very family-oriented. If you lived near some of the larger commercial districts, such as West Newton or Newton Centre, you'd have walking access to some restaurants and local shopping, and its population in the 80-90k range makes Newton large enough to have a variety of demographic profiles represented to at least some degree, but Newton lacks any real concentrations of young professionals of the sort you'd find in many of the other areas discussed on this thread. It's also another town which is mainly residential outside of the commercial districts.

The advantage to Newton is that areas on the north side of town are easily accessible to the Pike, and you'd have a fairly easy trip to Boston (except you'd want to avoid depending heavily on commuter rail, which has long gaps in service in Newton) if you were okay with traveling a bit for the company of your fellow young professionals. You would have to do that traveling, though, most likely, since Newton's populace is made up predominantly of families.

Last edited by ogre; 03-17-2012 at 10:05 PM..
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Old 03-18-2012, 03:01 AM
 
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As a follow up to Ogre's post, I was a young professional looking at apartments in Watertown and Newton 3 years ago. I ended up in Newton(ville), but headed to Watertown pretty frequently for dining and occasionally for bars. My preference was to be in Watertown near the square. Newton is definitely family oriented, but there are a lot of young professionals as well.
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Old 03-18-2012, 06:35 AM
 
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This has been very helpful! I appreciate all the feedback, I think I've narrowed it down to Southie, Watertown, Waltham, a few select parts of Brighton and I'll definitely test a commute through Cambridge a few times from roughly Harvard Square over to the Pike to see how frustrating that piece of the drive would be every day.

Just based on my sheer knowledge alone Southie is an area I'd love to be in. The crowd I've delt with out and about at times seemed to be less college kids and more working types, which makes sense with no colleges in the immediate area. I also like having access to the water. I'll see if I can't find something with parking available and that would really take care of my main concern for this area.

Watertown/Brighton/Waltham- Each of these seem to have exactly the types of things I was concerned about, Watertown sounds like it may be decent if you can get into the right area, but I'm also thinking I only live once and having never had the opportunity to live in a real urban area before this might not have quite the energy I'm looking for at least once in life.

Waltham- This sounds like an area I'd really like a few years down the road still, but I will go by the area and see what it's like first hand.

Brighton- If I can stay near the pike it sounds like this area could be good.
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Old 03-18-2012, 10:56 AM
 
Location: Camberville
15,798 posts, read 21,316,439 times
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On Waltham - I really enjoyed my time living there. While I have chosen to move to Somerville, and now Medford, rather than stay in Waltham where I work, that's mostly because my group of friends lives and works in Cambridge/Boston. There are many younger professionals living in Waltham and I still will drive out for Moody Street restaurants on my weekends. Don't discount it - there's a lot of really great things going for Waltham!
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Old 03-18-2012, 11:50 AM
 
92 posts, read 179,885 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by azmntbker View Post
Cliff- Yes, Southie is definetly a place I'm considering, I've just heard that besides the north end it's the worst parking in Boston. Is that not true? Since having 2 cards in the HH isn't an option I figured I'd leave it on my short list but only if I could find a place that has coveted parking spots included or available. Street parking, especially in the winter, sounds like it could be a real issue there.

If you're thinking about the SB area consider the Andrew Square to Eddie Everett Sq/UMass Boston corridor. It provides easy access to the Pike, has decent on-street parking opportunities depending on which streets you're on, and a good diverse group of residents. It's walking distance to Andrew Sq on the T and could be closer to UMass on the T depending on which end you're on. If you look on a map it encompasses Boston St from Andrew to Columbia Rd, Dot Ave from Andrew to Columbia Rd, and points in between. It's still fairly affordable it just depends on what kind of unit you rent. Lots of three deckers. I think those are better options than the heart of Southie. And the better part of Southie (east side) isn't really walkable to the subway. Also, the apartments over in the heart of Southie tend to be on the smaller side. Savin Hill is also a good spot and near the T. Also in Dot is Jones Hill, which started on the upswing in the late 90's though I think it might have slipped back a little bit to where closer to where it was in the hayday of Uphams Corner in the 80's-90's. It might be working checking out though.

I would also look at Fenway. Pros: close to town, close to storrow drive/93/Pike, fast growing urban village, steps to Kenmore, Fenway Park, Longwood, Brookline, great greenspace/Olmstead Parks, Landsdowne, musuems, backbay. Perfect spot. Parking can be a b...ch but is available for a fee as well as residential permits. There are also a couple of hidden gems for parking in the area once you get to know the area. Cons: Fenway Park and it's traffic/crowds, parking, expensive but not as bad as Brookline in my opinion, less students than Allston/Brighton but a lot if you're on the East Fenway near NU. The West Fenway is much better.
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Old 03-18-2012, 12:25 PM
 
3,755 posts, read 4,778,284 times
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I would take a look at North Quincy. Here are things I liked about living there:

-East access to 93
-Not too far from the downtown area
-Wide range of Asian food
-Transit access with a red line stop
-Squantum and the water is nice to walk/run/bike along 8 months out of the year
-Parking on the street is not an issue
-Good value apartments
-Wide range of retail options in a small radius.
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Old 03-18-2012, 12:28 PM
 
92 posts, read 179,885 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by TAM88 View Post
I would take a look at North Quincy. Here are things I liked about living there:

-East access to 93
-Not too far from the downtown area
-Wide range of Asian food
-Transit access with a red line stop
-Squantum and the water is nice to walk/run/bike along 8 months out of the year
-Parking on the street is not an issue
-Good value apartments
-Wide range of retail options in a small radius.


N Quincy isn't bad, but it's not urban.
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Old 03-19-2012, 10:44 AM
 
41 posts, read 102,760 times
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How about Cambridgeport? If you can find a place with parking in the area around whole foods/trader joe's, near the river, it's an almost instantaneous hop on the pike going either direction in the morning. If you are traveling to metro-west it's a reverse commute and should be easy (I do a similar commute). The only thing that might not be perfect is that coming home in the evening, traffic can get backed up coming off the Pike at the Cambridge exit...but if you get a place super close by, you will basically come off the exit and be home.

Just a thought.
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