Why does the City of Boston have residency requirements? (salaries, housing)

[masssachoicetts]

Originally Posted by redplum33

Tell that to the college students living in Boston.

A working professional who is starting/enhancing their career will not be living in a 6 bedroom 2 bath house in Allston/Brighton, to start. Also, many kids DO have cars who go to school in Boston.

To add- I lived in a remote upstate NY town without a car in college. When you go to college everything is there. Your classes, the dorm, the food hall, etc. parties and going out are relatively close by. When you LIVE in a place, you need to grocery shop, go to the DMV, commute to work, do adult things. You can’t exactly do that in most of Boston. That is why car ownership is so high in Boston, outside a few boujee neighborhoods north of Roxbury. But you’ll pay.

Point is. College kids =\= Adults in workforce

(Im 26)

[redplum33]

Originally Posted by masssachoicetts

That is why car ownership is so high in Boston

Here are the top 10 U.S. cities with the lowest percentages of households that own vehicles:

1. New York, New York — 45.6%
2. Newark, New Jersey — 59.7%
3. Washington, District of Columbia — 62.7%
4. Jersey City, New Jersey — 62.9%
5. Cambridge, Massachusetts — 63.2%
6. Boston, Massachusetts — 66.2%
7. Paterson, New Jersey — 67%
8. Hartford, Connecticut — 67.4%
9. San Francisco, California — 70.1%
10. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania — 70.5%

https://www.titlemax.com/discovery-c...cle-ownership/

https://res.cloudinary.com/tmxfoc/im...5per.png?_i=AA

[redplum33]

Originally Posted by masssachoicetts

Also, many kids DO have cars who go to school in Boston.

2% of BU students have cars.

6% of BC students have cars.

3% of MIT students have cars. (Cambridge, but same thing)

Can't find stats but I'd bet Northeastern is close to 0%.

[yesmaybe]

Originally Posted by masssachoicetts

I turned down multiple positions with the City of Boston because of this exact requirement. They also don’t offer much help in the form of transportation.

Why would I take a 70k salary and pay $2,600 for an apartment in a crappy area of Boston? Are they on crack? You also NEED a car living in Boston, unless you make $600,000 a year… soooo lol.

Im an employee of NYC now and make way more, and live in NJ and my rent is well under 2k. Next to reliable transportation and busses that come every 4 minutes into Manhattan… in 28 minutes. Or I can take the train but the headways are every 25 minutes which is garbage compared to the express bus.

I'm surprised that NYC doesn't have a residency law. If only because of the city income tax that (IIRC) you only pay if you live in the city.

[msRB311]

Originally Posted by masssachoicetts

I turned down multiple positions with the City of Boston because of this exact requirement. They also don’t offer much help in the form of transportation.

Why would I take a 70k salary and pay $2,600 for an apartment in a crappy area of Boston? Are they on crack? You also NEED a car living in Boston, unless you make $600,000 a year… soooo lol.

Im an employee of NYC now and make way more, and live in NJ and my rent is well under 2k. Next to reliable transportation and busses that come every 4 minutes into Manhattan… in 28 minutes. Or I can take the train but the headways are every 25 minutes which is garbage compared to the express bus.

But yeah, Boston needs to fix that lol. I remember when I first started out. The City of Boston offered me $64k. My other job opportunities were $81k, $90k and $87.559k. They couldnt fill those roles for anything. My neighbor in my complex just moved here from Somerville (MA) and he had a city job there, and said it was the worst experience of his life regarding the residency requirements and lack of proper transportation.

This seems a bit exaggerated. While I don't disagree that the residency requirements need updating, plenty of city employees make over 70k and plenty of people in general get by on under 600k lol.

Maybe you didn't want those jobs at those salaries but Im sure someone else did and made it work.

[yesmaybe]

Yeah... 70k is very doable in Boston. Not alone though.

[bostongymjunkie]

Originally Posted by yesmaybe

I'm surprised that NYC doesn't have a residency law. If only because of the city income tax that (IIRC) you only pay if you live in the city.

They have a hard enough time filling jobs as it is. Their pay rates are ridiculously low.

[robr2]

Originally Posted by bostongymjunkie

They have a hard enough time filling jobs as it is. Their pay rates are ridiculously low.

At one time, a city job was taken with not so much pay in pay but with the benefits and long term retirement income potential in mind.

[bostongymjunkie]

Originally Posted by robr2

At one time, a city job was taken with not so much pay in pay but with the benefits and long term retirement income potential in mind.

I'm not sure what the purpose of this response is, but that was--at one time--when a middle or working class professional person could afford to live relatively comfortably in boroughs of NYC. Benefits and retirement aren't useful if you can't pay for the roof over your head, and the food on your table.

[masssachoicetts]

Originally Posted by redplum33

Here are the top 10 U.S. cities with the lowest percentages of households that own vehicles:

1. New York, New York — 45.6%
2. Newark, New Jersey — 59.7%
3. Washington, District of Columbia — 62.7%
4. Jersey City, New Jersey — 62.9%
5. Cambridge, Massachusetts — 63.2%
6. Boston, Massachusetts — 66.2%
7. Paterson, New Jersey — 67%
8. Hartford, Connecticut — 67.4%
9. San Francisco, California — 70.1%
10. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania — 70.5%

https://www.titlemax.com/discovery-c...cle-ownership/

https://res.cloudinary.com/tmxfoc/im...5per.png?_i=AA

You quite literally cut up my sentence lol