Boston is without a doubt the worst place I have ever lived. (Cambridge: appointed, how much)
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So I came here from Los Angeles kicking & screaming due to my spouse's job. Obviously the weather isn't going to sit well with me. My experience has been long and brutal winters, a non-existent spring (mostly rain), humid summers that warrant 2 showers a day with the beauty of the tropics. Fall is so-so but living for fall seems sad.
We actually live in Newton which is 80% white and have had more than enough racist encounters.
While the food scene is growing it's at least 10 years behind the times and the segregation saddens me i.e. no Little Tokyo (downtoan la), Little Saigon Westminster), koreatown, armenian village etc. I have eaten a lot, and I do mean a lot and my decent meals have been few. In two years I've eaten at two-3 places that I would take out of towners to....providing I could find parking.
My experience with Somerville & Cambridge is why don't they just gate the whole town with two entrances/exits where residents show their pass to enter. It doesn't inspire me to check out my new unfortunate home. For the record Somerville is 7.5 miles from my home in newton and to take the MBTA i would have to take 3 busses and 1 train. It would take approximately 75 minutes and cost 11.25. That just seems whacked to me.
Move into town? Well when we first got here my spouses's job put us up in a apt. in Brookline. Another unfriendly parking city especially when out of town guests come to visit.
I don't feel any buzz or excitement and the independent commercial stores are just rundown, terrible looking and full of crap as is the majority of art I have seen which surprises me given all the youth. Having been to Portland Maine recently it seems to me the youth moves up there where it is more affordable? This would go for Portsmouth as well.
Boston is notorious for navigating and I get lost too often (as does spouse) even with a GPS!
On a slightly positive note, when the trees "pop" in the "spring" it is nice and I do appreciate all the parks, walden pond, the audobon parks. the lack of a horizon/mountains makes me crazy and attributes to my lack of a sense of a direction.
I'd like to understand the physics of road deterioration. h20 expands in the cold, got it, I figuredthe water would mostly be out of the cement? Does the snow and salt really do that much damage? really, the roads here are horrible. That allston/brighton strip leading into boston! Jeez.
I could go on and on and on and on.
I'd really like to know how out of towners survive here/
Long, brutal winters? How long have you been here? Last year was particularly mild and this year looks to follow suit, save a few cold snaps. I grew up in Atlanta (couldn't get out fast enough) and I didn't even have to turn my heat on until the end of November this year.
Of course there's not the Asian culture in Boston that you find in LA. It's a fact of geography. It's funny that you lament the lack of Armenian food - Watertown has the largest Armenian-American population in the USA. Sevan Bakery is particularly good. Boston is very Europe-centric - lots of Italian, Irish, Jewish, Middle Eastern, and general American/New England seafood fare. Complaining about how Boston does not have the Asian offerings that LA has would be like me complaining that Boston doesn't have as well-rounded of an array of BBQ joints as my hometown of Atlanta.
I note you mention parking a lot. Boston is not LA. The entire metro area of Boston is still smaller than LA proper - and you can walk Boston proper from top to bottom in about 2 hours. It's small! And we walk. Of course there's not parking - the roads were constructed over 100, 200 years ago and are not set up to accommodate cars. So you walk, take the T, etc. Again, Boston is not LA.
Cambridge and Somerville are very accessible - I'm sorry that you CHOSE to live at the end of the green line where you were choosing to live further out of the city which will invariably take longer and be more expensive. Where in Newton do you live? If you are closer to the Riverside stop, then yeah, it can be quite expensive or long. Either you take the D line for 45+ minutes into Park Street and switch, or you have to take a bus into Waltham and then another bus/train into Cambridge (Central Square or Porter Square respectively). Provided you plan it right, it shouldn't take longer than 45 minutes. Since you have a car, you could easily drive to Watertown and hop the 70 bus into Central Square - would take you half the time. People tend to spend time in the neighborhoods they live in and commute into the city, and those pathways are really how the transit lines are designed. There are limitations, but Boston has one of the best public transit systems in the US (and head and shoulders above LA!).
Portland, Maine is a tourist town, as is Portsmouth. So yes, of course there are trendy shops - they're not for the people who live there. No, youths certainly do NOT move to Portland or Portsmouth. Quite the opposite - the more ambitious and successful recent grads tend to flock to Boston to build their careers. I've never heard complaints of shopping in Newton and Brookline - and certainly not in downtown Boston!
It just sounds like you want to complain about anywhere that isn't LA (how long would it take to go 7 miles via public transit in LA if trying to deviate from standard transit lines? 2 hours? 3?). LA is very different from Boston - and I would say a pretty miserable place to live, personally.
How do out of towners survive here? By being pleasant, getting active in the community, and not trying to relate it back to where they are from. Boston and LA couldn't be more different from each other (thank goodness - can't imagine a more horrible place to live thanks to the sprawl). There is so much to do in this city thanks to the cultural offerings downtown and the dozens of colleges, so if you aren't finding a buzz or excitement, it's because you're choosing not to.
So I came here from Los Angeles kicking & screaming due to my spouse's job. Obviously the weather isn't going to sit well with me. My experience has been long and brutal winters, a non-existent spring (mostly rain), humid summers that warrant 2 showers a day with the beauty of the tropics. Fall is so-so but living for fall seems sad.
We actually live in Newton which is 80% white and have had more than enough racist encounters.
While the food scene is growing it's at least 10 years behind the times and the segregation saddens me i.e. no Little Tokyo (downtoan la), Little Saigon Westminster), koreatown, armenian village etc. I have eaten a lot, and I do mean a lot and my decent meals have been few. In two years I've eaten at two-3 places that I would take out of towners to....providing I could find parking.
My experience with Somerville & Cambridge is why don't they just gate the whole town with two entrances/exits where residents show their pass to enter. It doesn't inspire me to check out my new unfortunate home. For the record Somerville is 7.5 miles from my home in newton and to take the MBTA i would have to take 3 busses and 1 train. It would take approximately 75 minutes and cost 11.25. That just seems whacked to me.
Move into town? Well when we first got here my spouses's job put us up in a apt. in Brookline. Another unfriendly parking city especially when out of town guests come to visit.
I don't feel any buzz or excitement and the independent commercial stores are just rundown, terrible looking and full of crap as is the majority of art I have seen which surprises me given all the youth. Having been to Portland Maine recently it seems to me the youth moves up there where it is more affordable? This would go for Portsmouth as well.
Boston is notorious for navigating and I get lost too often (as does spouse) even with a GPS!
On a slightly positive note, when the trees "pop" in the "spring" it is nice and I do appreciate all the parks, walden pond, the audobon parks. the lack of a horizon/mountains makes me crazy and attributes to my lack of a sense of a direction.
I'd like to understand the physics of road deterioration. h20 expands in the cold, got it, I figuredthe water would mostly be out of the cement? Does the snow and salt really do that much damage? really, the roads here are horrible. That allston/brighton strip leading into boston! Jeez.
I could go on and on and on and on.
I'd really like to know how out of towners survive here/
Stop comparing apples to oranges. I moved from MA to TX, and believe me if I complained about the mammoth churches, low educational attainment of residents, lack of walkability, lack of good seafood, Italian food, or Asian food (yes if you hate Asian food in Boston, try TX), I would be miserable. Boston is not going to change for you. Accept what is around you and lose the attitude.
Then you probably haven't lived anywhere truly awful
Quote:
Originally Posted by nobodyyouknow
I'd really like to know how out of towners survive here/
Boston isn't a horrible place to live. There's plenty of work and plenty to do; the weather isn't San Diego but it's not Minnesota cold, either. There are four real seasons, ocean and mountains nearby, reasonable public transportation, and you can actually walk places. It's expensive but actually cheaper than LA (taxes are lower, too).
I went to college in LA. There are still a lot of things I miss: mountains, Mexican food, In 'n' Out, things that are open 24 hours (although now that I'm old that seems less important). My wife had similar struggles adjusting to Boston, but for very different reasons. She went to grad school in LA but grew up in the midwest and she's had trouble adjusting to how pushy people can be here. You also start to notice how much dirtier it is here, in part because of the weather and in part because of the age.
How do you survive? You stop trying to pretend it's LA. It's not. It's Boston. If you haven't been to any good restaurants here you must not like seafood or Italian food. And Watertown, while no Glendale, does have plenty of Armenians (and Armenian groceries). Somerville and Framingham have Brazilians. Chinatown, while nothing compared to places like Monterrey Park, does have restaurants that pass muster with recent Chinese immigrants.
I don't know what you like to do, but there's plenty to do in Boston. If you can't find something you like then it's likely your problem. Short of an attitude change, though, you should lobby your spouse to go somewhere else. If you don't like it here and don't want to try to like it here, there's no sense in staying.
Glendale, CA has many many more Armenians than Watertown. Not even close.
Ah, my facts were off by a few decades. :P Watertown was one of the first stops in the migration pathway, but it looks like LA became a secondary point that has grown. That said, the Armenian population in the greater LA area is over 400,000 - the entirety of Boston is 630,000. You can't compare LA's ethnic enclaves to Boston when LA proper is larger than the entire Boston metro.
Well, most of the other responses have harped on the big things. Typically, this is where the person responding should say "I'm sorry your experience hasn't been good, but..." in order to hide behind a veil of feigned sincerity. I'm not going to do that. I'm not sorry your experience hasn't been good because you came into it "kicking and screaming." It's the adult version of what a kid does when they decide they hate pork before they've even tried it because pork isn't chicken and they're used to chicken.
I'm not sorry because you came into Boston expecting things to be the same as LA. Boston is very different city. It's smaller. By a lot. The climate is different, by a lot. The culture is different, by a lot. Perhaps most importantly, the topography and built environment are different, by a lot. Parking sucks in Boston. Everyone knows that. It's why Boston has one of the best transit networks in the country. It's so you can go into the city center and walk to your destination (Boston's incredibly walkable) with relative ease not having to pay for or worry about parking. Our roads are hundreds of years old which would explain the difficulty when it comes to navigating them (though we still don't see traffic at nearly the same level LA does). None of this stuff should catch you by surprise. It's all fairly common knowledge and has been discussed to death on these forums and anywhere else where Boston is discussed.
I'm not saying Boston is or would ever be a great place for your tastes. However, a little research and a little adaptability would go a long way towards making your life a little easier until you can leave. "Kicking and Screaming" and expecting exactly what you left in LA is bound to make your life miserable.
Quote:
Originally Posted by nobodyyouknow
I don't feel any buzz or excitement and the independent commercial stores are just rundown, terrible looking and full of crap as is the majority of art I have seen which surprises me given all the youth. Having been to Portland Maine recently it seems to me the youth moves up there where it is more affordable? This would go for Portsmouth as well.
You're way off the mark here. Having lived in Portland for college and just after, the situation is actually the opposite of what you are insinuating. It's a tourist town and the city center caters specifically towards tourists. Locals will go there for dinner occasionally since there's really nothing else around the city, but the city center is a tourist haven. It's not an exciting place to be as a resident. Most people in their 20s (assuming they haven't settled down with a wife and kids which is something they do very young in Maine) are chomping at the bit to leave Portland and Maine. Every few weeks or so there's another statistic published in the Portland Press Herald or on another local source of the youth leaving Maine only to be replaced by retirees from out of state (Maine is statistically the oldest state in the nation). Boston is where most of them are aiming to be. Portland is a nice place to visit, but for "youthful" energy, it's the pits. I can't speak to Portsmouth since I don't have as much experience there, but I get the same feeling.
Perhaps the problem is your comparing downtown Portsmouth and downtown Portland to Newton. You're taking regional hubs of activity and comparing them to an established, somewhat affluent suburb of a major city. Like the overall LA/BOS comparison, it's apples and oranges. Hang out in much of Cambridge, Somerville, Jamaica Plain, Allston, Fenway, etc. and you'll see much more buzz or excitement and youthful energy than you'd find anywhere in Portland or Portsmouth.
Quote:
I'd really like to know how out of towners survive here/
I came from out of town. I had lived in a Maryland suburb of DC and Providence before moving to South Eastern Massachusetts (outside of Metro Boston). I then moved to Maine. After nearly 5 years in Maine I simply couldn't wait to move to Boston. I moved into Boston and absolutely loved it. I didn't expect to be able to drive everywhere (in fact, I didn't own a car). I didn't expect Boston to be identical to DC or Providence so I wasn't surprised or disappointed that it wasn't the same. I had an open mind and that makes all the difference in the world. It probably would have helped you adjust a little better.
Portland and Portsmouth better than Boston? =)) Sorry, it's hard to type while laughing so hard.
Don't know why people are responding to the OP if this is the OP's criteria for "excellence"....
There are a hundred more people waiting for the OP's rental- let them move and welcome someone new from this forum who really wants to enjoy Boston.
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Then you probably haven't lived anywhere truly awful
