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I know...cue the Mission Impossible theme song, right?
So here's the deal. I finally have the Boston job thing figured out, and I'm in! Excited doesn't even begin to describe it. (Dude, I'm like totally stoked!--ok, my California is showing, sorry) I now have to get a November 1st move in on a Boston apartment. And, I have only 4 days to be out there to look. (My current work situation is really crazy, so I was only able to take two days off, next to a weekend). I'm going at the end of September. (Maybe I should have planned this end of October?) My only thought is to set up appointments with realtors/brokers and have them find me something fast. I have one recommendation of a realtor, suggested by my future employer. Even then, not sure this will be enough time.
I'm not looking to buy a house or anything. Just a simple studio apartment. Budget ideally under $1400. I will have to have a car for work, unfortunately. People have suggested Brookline for this reason, which I don't fully understand. Is it easier to have a car there? Why? What are some other areas where it would not be a huge pain to have a car?
I've read tons of threads on here about neighborhoods, trying to figure it all out. And I'm still confused. And four days is not much time to see for myself. The only thing I am clear on is NOT to do Allston/Brighton I'm older, so looking for a mature 30 something crowd, with still a lot of singles, hopefully. I'm single and childless. I think JP is out because of possible sketchiness, even though some seem to love it. It's a risk I don't think I want to take as a female. I thought Southie sounded good until my employer said parking/having a car would be an issue. Hmmm. And I love the look of Beacon Hill (I know, expensive, but I do see the occasional Craigslist studio there--are these scams or what?) Beacon Hill just looks so "Bostony" to me, an outsider. The cobblestones, the historic buildings. Love that. But maybe that is a rookie mistake.
I have a history of moving into the wrong neighborhood wherever I go. Wrong in terms of "does zero for me socially." In Chicago I moved to Lincoln Park, which I was told was the classic newbie choice, and completely lame Chicagoans have such strong opinions about their neighborhoods! There is literally a war between the east and the west, Lincoln vs. Wicker. I can't tell you how many times I was shamed and told "all the cool kids live in Wicker Park" until I finally moved there, and didn't like it all that much anyway. Now in LA I live in Pasadena, because I was seduced by all the east coast-ish old architecture. But there is truth behind that saying "the little old lady from Pasadena". Basically I am that little old lady now! There's nothing to do here for a single person. It's strollerville. Again, my friends in other parts of town make fun of me for living in such a lame place. So I don't want to continue this trend in Boston.
Anyway, sorry for the long rant. I am so thrilled to be moving in a couple months!
Where will your work be located? That can make a difference in recommendations for places to live, because sometimes the location of home in relation to work can make the difference between an okay commute and daily hell.
Without knowing the work location, it's difficult to recommend any area for sure, but based on the character of the areas, you might consider the vicinities of Central, Harvard, and Porter Squares in Cambridge, and Davis Sq. in Somerville. I'm not really familiar with parking regulations in either Cambridge or Somerville, so that's something you'd want to check out further, but you'll find populations of young professionals, along with some nightlife, in all those areas.
I'm guessing that what people meant to tell you about Brookline was that it's a place you want to AVOID if you need a car. Brookline prohibits overnight parking on the street, so living there with a car means either shelling out extra money for a rented parking space or finding a rental property with onsite parking, which most likely will add to the rent.
Brookline is nice. However, Brookline is expensive in general, so the issue would be finding many options within your preferred budget, especially with the likelihood of additional cost for off-street parking. If you could consider roommates, at least once you're settled in and have more time to make arrangements, Brookline could be worth a look. You may find more options you could afford there, with off-street parking included, if you had a roommate or two and shared expenses.The Coolidge Corner neighborhood and to some extent Brookline Village would be where you'd find some of the young professionals crowd.
I wouldn't write off Brighton as quickly as you might be thinking. If you live around Brighton Center or Oak Square, you'll find more of a mix of grad students, young professionals, and longtime blue collar townies, with a few undergrads sprinkled in. Generally, Market St. is the rough dividing line between the party-hearty, noisy undergrad areas and the generally more mature populace, with the more mature crowd found west of Market St. It's worth keeping mind, though, that the presence of grads and young pros around Brighton Ctr. and Oak Sq. does not necessarily mean that these are trendy, hipster areas. They're not. More like local neighborhood coffee shops, bars, mom-'n'-pop little eateries. But if you don't necessarily need trendy as long as you have some fellow young but not too young folks to hang with in the local coffee places, those two areas of Brighton could be worth a look.
Chances are--no, more like guaranteed--anything in your price range on Beacon Hill will be a really cramped, teeny-tiny little studio. Nice neighborhood, and you have the right impression about its being very "Bostony," but your housing budget doesn't really fit the neighborhood unless you could consider roommates or would be okay with very cramped quarters. I'd think twice about a tiny studio there for a second reason, that being that there are a few students in the Beacon Hill neighborhood, and a building where apartments are cheap by the neighborhood's standards might attract some of the scattering of noisy undergrads to be found in that area.
Oh sorry, work will be in Rhode Island, actually (Pawtucket). Is that crazy? I was told it would be a reverse commute, and do-able, but maybe they are just messing with me. I don't really want to live in Rhode Island, I don't think. There is something about Boston that really appeals to me, even though unfortunately there isn't much work there in my industry...hence the Rhode Island thing.
Ok, I was curious about Cambridge/Somerville. Also Charlestown, maybe? Good to know there are still areas of Brighton that could work. Hmm...it's weird that she recommended Brookline then. That doesn't exactly inspire confidence in her guidance!
Noted about Beacon Hill. I sort of figured as much. Since I'm in LA, I am currently paying an arm and a leg for a tiny shoebox....but yeah I'd rather not do so in Boston if there were smarter choices.
The roommate thing is confusing for me. As an older person, I tend to think I am too old for all that. And I do like my privacy. But I've also heard that it's more commonly done in Boston, also because of the way the buildings are set up. I go back and forth on this. I suppose if I found roommates who were also older 30 somethings I might be ok with it. Might be a way to meet people....but would definitely be outside my comfort zone.
Why wouldn't you want to live in Rhode Island instead? You can always visit Boston. But apartments are much cheaper around Rhode Island. Then if you really want to live in Boston, you can take your time finding a good one later on.
ogre speaks the truth. It is important to know where you'll be working, but I would generally agree about the Red Line neighborhoods in Cambridge & Somerville sounding like a good fit for you.
Edit: whoops, didn't see your reply. Commuting to Pawtucket? Yeah, I think that'll be rough no matter which neighborhood you choose, although Cambridge and Somerville would be even worse than anywhere in Boston. I would seriously re-consider Jamaica Plain if you're committed to staying in Boston, or maybe even look at Quincy, which is conveniently connected to downtown Boston via public transit but would also make for an easier commute. Plus, you'd get a lot more for your money there. Although, it does sound like you're trying to avoid the suburban lifestyle, so...
Hmmm...ok thanks, good to know. I will re-think JP, but I am pretty sure Quincy would be too suburban/dull. Is it foolish of me to be so emotionally attached to being in Boston? Should I just live in, say Providence?
Cambridge/Somerville would make for a more difficult commute to RI than, say, Brighton or Beacon Hill, because you'd have to go in toward downtown Boston before heading back outbound and getting into the reverse commute. That might be true to some degree with Charlestown, but less so because that area is very close to downtown. Still, you'd have some local traffic headaches commuting south from C'town before you got into a smooth-flowing reverse commute.
If you're really feeling as if Boston is calling to you, well, that's understandable. Sometimes a very particular place just feels right. If you can be more flexible about where you live in this general area, you might consider checking on the RI board and finding out some details about Providence. Providence is an interesting smaller to mid-size city. In some neighborhoods it may remind you of a smaller version of Boston.
But if it really has to be Boston, I wouldn't rule out Cambridge or Somerville completely. It really depends on whether you're up for a bit of local traffic before you get onto the open road and start the reverse commute. However, I'd also recommend looking at a couple of areas south of downtown Boston in addition to areas I mentioned in the previous post. First would be, maybe, Jamaica Plain. Even though you mentioned in your opening post that you've heard J.P. is sketchy, that's tricky. Unfortunately I don't know J.P. well enough to steer you to the right areas, but I do know in a general kind of way that the character, safety, etc., all varies a lot not only from neighborhood to neighborhood but sometimes even from street to street. Because of this, J.P. may not be the best area for someone in your situation to be looking. It might be better if you're looking for another place after living in Boston for a time, after you're more familiar with the area. It's at least worth considering, though, if you're sure you're getting good info on the quality of any location you might consider.
Roslindale is sort of similar to J.P. in its variety of areas. Again, a place where you would want good info on the immediate neighborhood of any location you might be considering. Unfortunately, Rozzie is another area I don't know well enough to fill you in on that. In addition to avoiding sketchy areas, you'd also want knowledgeable info on Rozzie in order to find the young professionals areas--Rozzie is kind of new in having populations of young professionals--and not end up in more of a family neighborhood (nice, but probably not for you).
Out on a limb here, but maybe, at least give some thought to downtown Waltham. That's not for you if you really feel the need to pretty much be right in the city, but if you can compromise, and if as easy a commute as possible is a priority, Waltham might be worth a look. The vicinity of downtown is the only place you'd want to consider, though. Downtown, there is a population of young professionals and a pretty good restaurant scene, but the outlying sections of Waltham are pure suburbia. I'm getting the feeling you're more inclined toward being really in the city, in which case I'd rule out even downtown Waltham, but it's worth at least a glance if the commute is a priority. From Waltham there would be a little bit of fairly easy navigation of some local streets to get around a slow stretch of highway, then straight into the reverse commute.
Why wouldn't you want to live in Rhode Island instead? You can always visit Boston. But apartments are much cheaper around Rhode Island. Then if you really want to live in Boston, you can take your time finding a good one later on.
Oh ok, I didn't see this when I posted last. I have been wondering this! I have heard good things about Providence, being an artsy place, RISD, and so on. My biggest concern with RI would be feeling too isolated, or not having enough of a vibrant social scene nearby (singles my age, etc.) It can be really depressing to live in a neighborhood where everyone your age is already married off/has kids. I am living that now And while it's good in theory to think that "Oh, I can just visit the cooler area" I know that I rarely have the energy to actually venture very far after a long work day.
There are parts of Providence where you can find the kind of crowd you're seeking. One concern I would have about that for you is whether Providence might just be too small for you, even with some sections that have young professionals. It's possible that after L.A., Boston will seem on the small side, and before you might give any thought to living in Providence, it would be good to consider the reality that Providence, while it definitely has an urban feel in some areas, and is clearly a city, not a town, is not really a very large city. And I think you're smart to consider the reality of how often you'd be likely to make it up to Boston. I'm guessing that would be mostly a weekend thing, and even that might get old after a while, given that you're talking about an hour's drive each way.
Speaking of the sizes of various cities, the question of how you feel about heavy traffic for the early part of your commute becomes significant. It might be that since you're used to L.A., maybe you could live in Cambridge or Somerville and not find the early part of the commute on local streets so bad compared to what you may be used to. Still, there are some routes around the Boston metro area you definitely would want to avoid. For example, at all costs avoid any commute from locations north of Boston that puts you on I-93 southbound into Boston in the morning. There are also stretches of the I-95/rt. 128 outer belt that many people would pledge their first-born to avoid having to negotiate during a commute, while other stretches of the same road are okay.
So one key question might be how long a commute you're okay with, and also how you'd feel about some driving on local streets, some of which will have heavy traffic, at the Boston end of the commute.
Yeah, it sounds to me like you really want the vibrancy and social scene of a Boston-sized city rather than a Providence-sized one.
Several of my co-workers are single females who live in JP and use the T to get around the city. To put things simply, you ideally want to stay west of the train tracks and close to either the Green St or Stony Brook stations, rather than Forest Hills or Jackson Square. This "central" part of JP away from the fringes is among the safest neighborhoods in the city. If you can nab a place close to Centre St, I think you will be pretty happy with the location. I would definitely choose JP over Rozzie, as the latter has an older population and doesn't have T access. I think the JP atmosphere would suit you better.
That said, Cambridge and Somerville are even more vibrant than JP in terms of a social scene and have more singles, so it's really just a matter of how long of a commute you want. I wouldn't rule out Brookline either, but I suspect it will be harder to find parking there on your budget.
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Excited doesn't even begin to describe it. (Dude, I'm like totally stoked!--ok, my California is showing, sorry
) I now have to get a November 1st move in on a Boston apartment. And, I have only 4 days to be out there to look. (My current work situation is really crazy, so I was only able to take two days off, next to a weekend). I'm going at the end of September. (Maybe I should have planned this end of October?) My only thought is to set up appointments with realtors/brokers and have them find me something fast. I have one recommendation of a realtor, suggested by my future employer. Even then, not sure this will be enough time. 
I'm older, so looking for a mature 30 something crowd, with still a lot of singles, hopefully. I'm single and childless. I think JP is out because of possible sketchiness, even though some seem to love it. It's a risk I don't think I want to take as a female. I thought Southie sounded good until my employer said parking/having a car would be an issue. Hmmm. And I love the look of Beacon Hill (I know, expensive, but I do see the occasional Craigslist studio there--are these scams or what?) Beacon Hill just looks so "Bostony" to me, an outsider. The cobblestones, the historic buildings. Love that. But maybe that is a rookie mistake. 
And while it's good in theory to think that "Oh, I can just visit the cooler area" I know that I rarely have the energy to actually venture very far after a long work day.
