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I have posted in many forums. My husband and I are looking to move from a small town in Ohio to a larger city. We are young; early 20s, my husband is a teacher, we are very active...we like to excercise, walk our dog, swim, shop (well ok, I like to shop and actually will have my BA in education but would like to get a job in some type of fashion...is that possible there), we enjoy music (this could range from attending a broadway production to concerts, to local stuff played in a casual bar), history (museums etc.) sports...and just about anything else you can think of.
What are some of the biggest differences Boston has? We are used to cold, icy winters...so snow is not really an issue, what are the big summer differences? Cooler? And we are well aware that cost of living will skyrocket. As I said my hubby is a teacher so we need preferably good school systems...how are the education jobs out there? And safety...I have seen areas to avoid...but where are the better places?
Sorry, I know this is a lot of info, but we are really branching out and trying to find a new place. We've looked into a lot of places and Boston is one that we still have to find info about.
It would help people narrow this down more if you provided some information on what type of setting you'd like to live in, your housing budget, and whether you would be renting or buying, whether you would like a house or an apartment, as well as whether you are looking for a place to settle down, so that quality of schools in the local area where you lived would be an issue for any children you may have now or later.
I'm not familiar with the education profession enough to recommend school systems as good places to work, or to have info on how to transfer licensure. I can tell you that generally it is the case that many suburbs of Boston have very high-quality school systems.
What are the safe areas? That depends on your definition of safe. Most outlying suburbs are quite safe. Generally, outside the known bad areas, Boston proper is safe as big cities go, but it still has more crime than you'd find in a quiet small town. The usual precautions you would take in any large city are in order. In the city of Boston, a lot of Mattapan and Dorchester, and some areas of Roxbury, are some of the more dangerous areas. Some might also add South Boston and East Boston to this list. It depends on where you would like to live. Some areas of Boston and the more urban inner-core suburbs may be safe overall but have some questionable neighborhoods locally. Your best bet if you wanted to live in a more urban setting would be to find out enough general information to narrow it down to a few towns, or broader sections of the city, then get some info here about how particular neighborhoods are in those areas.
As for the climate, how it will compare to what you're used to depends on what part of Ohio you're living in. I grew up in the Boston area and went to college in central Ohio, a little north of Columbus, so I'm familiar with both areas. You'll find the climate in the Boston area very similar to that in northeastern Ohio, both summer and winter. The Boston area averages a few inches more snow in the interior suburbs west of the city than in areas within a few miles of the coast. The area in general probably averages about the same amount of snowfall as downtown Cleveland, which means less snow than the areas in OH with heaviest lake effect snow, but close to twice as much snow as you find in central OH. Summer temperatures in MA are cooler very near the coast than elsewhere. Otherwise they are very similar to the summer temperatures in OH. Winter temperatures are similar, but I found OH to have more gray days during the winter. Winters here will be longer by a few weeks than those in central or southern Ohio, about the same length as winters in far northern OH.
Okay, it's getting to be kind of a long post. Take a deep breath here, and look over this broad overview. If you can provide a few more details of the sort I mentioned at the beginning of this post about what you're looking for, this should help in narrowing down the possibilities. Good luck with your search and possible move.
It also depends on how large of an urban area you'd like to be situated in. The Worcester, Hartford, and Providence vicinities might be worth investigating too. Each city has "civic center" arenas visited by national recording acts, and Worcester and Providence have thriving club scenes. Live "legitimate" theater is well represented by Providence's Trinity Repertory Theatre. During warmer months, Riverfire is a spectacle put on in downtown Providence at dusk: wood-filled braziers in the middle of a channeled river are set alight as gondoliers glide past and spectators line the banks, while live bands play.
Even as I compose this, Providence seems to be emerging as a viable choice to consider, lol...it's undergone a tremendously successful revival in its core area. While the downtown itself has a ways to go in terms of retailing, the enclosed Providence Place mall is a Mecca for national-chain-store shopping and features a Nordstrom department store. The East Side, home of Brown University, is chock full of older brick apartment/condo buildings as well as intact and split-up Victorian mansions and brick rowhouses. Its Thayer St is the place to go for "ethnic" take-out, used records, and the like. Foodies swarm into town for upscale eateries downtown and "scads" of good Italian restaurants along or close by Atwells Ave in the Federal Hill neighborhood. It's easy to be car-free within the city, and the statewide RIPTA bus system can get you 'most anywhere in "Little Rhody" - including Newport.
Providence's city schools do a good job, relatively speaking for an urban district, and there are private and parochial schools in the area too. The pay scale, whether in a city or suburban or rural system, is lower than it'd be in Greater Boston. But the cost of living is so much more reasonable that you wouldn't notice. All of New England is feeling the one-two punch of increased birth rates and a high incidence of teacher retirements, so it wouldn't be difficult to land employment once state certification is all set.
Definitely think about Providence in addition to Boston, and don't rule out Hartford or Worcester either. The nice thing about these other three cities is that you don't have to drive for over an hour before reaching countryside, but when you need to have good times in "the Hub" it's not too far away.
Goyguy
Native of Greater Cincinnati, longtime transplant to MA
Thank you both for your responses. I did not realize how vague I was about the living situation and that bit. Sorry!
For rent I would say no more than $1500 a month, but again that is based on an estimated salary of my husbands, not including any money I would bring in. As far as safety...I'd like to be away from as much crime as possible, but in a city we are fully aware that will be difficult. However, I must add that while I live in a small town about 2 hours NW of Columbus, we have a smaller city about 20 min. away that I would be more terrified to walk through at night than I would be Columbus. The crime and murder rate are terrible. So...I know very well that the size of a city does not always mean "the bigger, the more dangerous". (sorry for that little rant!) So yes, some place where if I'm walking at night, I'm not going to be as likely to get mugged!
(I should add our dog is very small...>10 lbs.) Will that make a difference in finding a place to rent? We wouldn't mind living in Boston proper...but any nice outlying areas I would like to know about too.
Oh, and I will look into those other cities mentioned above as well!
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm getting the impression that you want something a little more city and a little less suburban. You never know what you might dig up with some diligent searching, but if you want to rent, within the central part of the city of Boston itself you'd most likely be looking at a townhouse. In the more outlying sections, and in the densely populated close-in suburbs, you might be looking at an apartment in a large older house that had been divided up into two or three units, or possibly renting a house which would most likely be on the older side. The Boston metro area has grown slowly in recent decades, so there is not a lot of new construction. In the nicer towns, though, many of the older houses are kept up well, and have some real character.
Assuming I'm right that you want to avoid anything too suburban, the first town that comes to mind is Newton. My recollection is that several years ago Newton was in the news for having the lowest crime rate of any city in the country that year. Newton is a small city of about 80,000, oriented around a number of neighborhood shopping districts rather than one large downtown. It's an older, fairly densely populated suburb, a little urban in some areas, close to Boston, and served by public transit, both commuter trains and light rail. You might also look at Brookline, kind of like Newton in general character, but just a bit more urban. A good clean safe town with nice local shopping and dining, in the crossover zone between urban and suburban, is Arlington. You might also check out Quincy, and maybe the West Roxbury section of the city of Boston itself.
Some of this will also depend on how long a commute you can handle, where you would commute to, and whether you would be using a car or public transit. Newton and Brookline are west of downtown Boston, Quincy is south of the city, West Rox. is in the southwestern section of the city, and Arlington is northewest of Boston. This could matter, depending on which direction you would need to go for work.
As Goyguy suggests, Providence is a good possibility for a smaller city with some nice neighborhoods, if you are flexible in how close to Boston you would like to be. A nice, clean, active larger town you might look at if you're willing to look some distance from Boston in the other direction is Portsmouth, NH, kind of a colonial seaport town. I'm not sure whether there really are cobblestone streets in Portsmouth (it's been some time since I've been there). Maybe, but if not, think of cobblestones and gas lamps and that gives you some idea of the town's general character.
Those are some suggestions that are a bit more urban, or an urban/suburban mix. Let me know if you had another kind of place in mind, and I'll see what I can think of. Best of luck with your search.
Dog ownership might prove problematic, especially if you have a little yapper. My condo association rules prohibit canines. Landlords of large apartment complexes, as well as of many older buildings and even owner-occupied duplexes, now either forbid pets outright or charge an extra fee with the rent. There've been too many problems caused by incessant barking, "presents" left outside, etc to prevent this from being a reality. Don't assume by the absence of "no pets" from an ad that your pooch would be welcomed.
Bad things to happen to good people, everywhere, but even in the middle of big cities the odds of something befalling you are low as long as you stay in well-lit and populated places. The only time I was victimized in my urban neighborhood was when I was walking home down a darkened side street after 1 AM. I've taken the same route at roughly the same time on many occasions before and after that incident with no trouble at all. By the same token, the apartment I shared in "quiet and safe" Brookline was once broken into, and during the year I resided in Quincy several harassment incidents happened because of the "Deadhead" look I had at the time. Nowhere is entirely crime-free. But neither are many places grossly impacted unless we're talking about hard-core "ghetto" communities like parts of Boston's Roxbury and Dorchester and Mattapan, or the North End of Hartford, Providence's South Side, or Main South in Worcester.
Your best weapon against crime is not only a "good" neighborhood, but good neighbors. My own block is feeling some of the negative effects of gentrification - transient students and yuppies, "with money," displacing or replacing longtime residents. The "three decka" next door, once owned by a friendly older woman who passed a lot of time either socializing in front of her house or keeping an eye on the street from the living room, was converted to condos three years ago. The apartments' floor plans were radically altered so that the common spaces are now toward the back of the building and the front room is a bedroom (!) AC was installed. Of the three self-absorbed thirtyish couples who bought the units, two have already departed and are now acting as absentee landlords. So far only one of the couples - renting a unit - has shown any sign of having social skills and neighborly inclinations. Does this have an effect on community safety? Absolutely. When folks could give two sh*ts about where they live beyond how hot an address they're at and how current their decorating scheme is, the "bad guys" soon pick up on it. For a long time there were ZERO problems on my street. It's still a laid-back area, but now there's an occasional occurrence of a car break-in or vandalism. Meanwhile, property values which soared all through the '90s and into this decade are holding steady as much of the real-estate market takes a dive. This goes to show that the income level of a locale doesn't necessarily say much about how secure that locale may be.
Take Goyguy's Saturday/Sunday Test when you're narrowing down places to relocate to. On a pleasant Saturday night at around 11 o'clock, and again on a nice Sunday afternoon, "take the pulse" of a street. Is it quiet or noisy? If it's noisy during the day, is the sound generated by birds, children playing, and animated human conversation - or by "rolling stereos" blasting metal or hiphop and by people arguing? At night, are most of the windows either illuminated - without the emanation of sounds from the buildings - or dark? Or are there lively parties going on? By day, do folks greet you or pass with a nod and smile, or do they avert their glances? At either time, do you get a general sense of calm or foreboding? If a block passes this test, only then is it worthy of staying in the running.
Well, that is somewhat frustrating to hear about the pet situation. Especially when the dog is well behaved and is like a part of the family.
I really like that description of Portsmouth. We are looking for a more historic place, which is one of the reasons we were drawn to Boston. We have also checked into DC and Annapolis. However, we concluded that DC was too expensive and the crime rates were too high for us. When we first started looking to move in early March, Annapolis was a BIG contender. We like that it is a city that has access to water and is pretty historical. It also has easy access to places like DC. I would like to look more into Portsmouth. It sounds like a very nice place, so I will go check it out. If you have any details about it that I may not be able to find over the web, please share!
Can anyone help me with the differences between Boston and Annapolis? From what I've seen apartment rent is quite less in Annapolis and just like Boston (or any city for that matter) you have to be careful of where you live...basically be smart. I also know there are many education jobs in Annapolis, but I am less familiar than those available in Boston.
It just happens that someone has recently posted some pictures of Portsmouth in the General U.S. forum. Here is a link to that thread (I believe the Portsmouth pics are on page two, several posts down): //www.city-data.com/forum/gener...wntowns-2.html.
As I said yesterday, I haven't been to Portsmouth in some time. I'm not sure whether there really are cobblestone streets and gas lamps there, but the general atmosphere that this image conjures up fits Portsmouth well. I've never been to Annapolis, but I have a friend who lives there. From what I've heard and read about Annapolis, I think that if you felt you would like it there, you would do well to check out Portsmouth if you are interested in the broader vicinity of Boston.
An advantage to Portsmouth is that it is fairly close to Boston while being far enough to be its own town. There is Amtrak service to Boston from the nearby towns of Dover and Durham. I'm not sure about Portsmouth or nearby towns specifically, but generally house prices drop as you get this far from Boston. In many areas this distance from Boston, housing costs are still kind of high by nationwide standards, but they often are considerably lower than in the very local Boston area.
Now, here are some possible drawbacks you would need to consider: Where you would work would be a consideration. In light traffic, it probably takes a bit over an hour to drive from Portsmouth to Boston. The time will increase significantly during commuting hours. It's also worth considering that New Hampshire has no earned income tax, but if you live there and work in Massachusetts you still pay MA income tax, though there is still the advantage of NH's lack of a general sales tax.
So it depends. Portsmouth might not be the best place if you would be working in or very near Boston. However, if you're flexible about where you could live in the wider Boston area, from what you've said about your interest in Annapolis, Portsmouth sounds like a town you should investigate.
Boston and DC are about the same size. Annapolis and Portsmouth are similar satellite cites, about an hour's drive to the larger city. I think Annapolis is larger than Portsmouth. DC really is not an ocean front city like Boston. As a city, Boston is much safer but both have safe suburban areas. Boston and DC have among the best economies and job markets right now for big cities. DC is quite hot in the summer. Boston winter is more moderate than Cleveland and closer to Columbus with a cooler summer. There is Amtrak service from Boston to Portsmouth and some use it to commute but I think it would be hard. Portland, ME is about two hours from Boston and is probably one of the coolest small cities in the US (metro ~500,000). It has a colder winter than Boston and I'm not sure of the economy, but has a great and thriving waterfront.
If you want a big city Boston and DC both have a lot to offer and IMHO are among the best in the US. If you want a small city any of those mentioned are really nice.
My personal opinion is that Hartford does not come close to any of the cities mention. The best mid-sized city in New England is almost certainly Providence (metro 1.6 million), and it's only 45 minutes from Boston with lots of commuter rail.
BTW - I don't think your dog is that much of a problem. I live in Boston and have a dog. Plenty of places accept them. I would check out Craigslist Boston for apartments rented by owner to save fees and get permission for the dog - it's generally right in the ad for the apartment.
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