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And certainly Montreal has a good deal of education and healthcare industry--not stronger than Boston's (which I have not claimed), but certainly notable. They have overlaps and their respective strengths. Boston's design, video game development, aerospace and film industries aren't nearly as strong, right?
You would be correct, you have not claimed Montreal's healthcare nor education industries are stronger.
Industries are important, it may influence to those employed but as a resident I'm more concerned about my city's healthcare and education industries. I'm just starting a family of my own and a strong educated place is where I want my children to be around. It's one thing to be inspired by institutions like Harvard, Brown, MIT and another to be in a city where the video game industry is powerful. See where I'm going with that?
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No one lives in a metro really--they live in neighborhoods. A lot of Boston's metro is suburban development and that's not really all that interesting to me. City-wise, urban area-wise, Montreal and Boston are pretty similar. The rest of it simply doesn't matter that much to me. Running the restrictions the other way around--taking the Boston-Quincy and Cambridge Metropolitan Divisions gets you something closer to what Metro Montreal is in population and size (Montreal slightly more populous and denser, I believe) and much more what a person actually lives in rather than the idea of traversing across huge areas all that often.
This is where we differ. I actually do care about the suburbs just as much as the city. What I love most about Boston is how much culture and character many of its suburbs have, they aren't your typical soulless crap that you would find in places like Florida or North Carolina. These suburbs and towns all have their own history and culture. Places like Lexington, Concord, Providence, Worcester, while many not suburbs but are still bedroom communities of Boston all have their own personalities. Living in the bay, its something I truly appreciate about Boston because similarly many of our suburbs have their own personality. Although Boston is more lower density but that's ok for me, it preserves history and character to those towns IMO. New England is special.
Boston in no way feels like a place of only 4.5M, all things being looked at its not IMO.
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Montreal and Boston feel about the same size to me, though Montreal at night seems a lot more vibrant to me. Montreal's had plenty of large-scale infrastructure developments and is still going on pretty strong. I'm not sure why you wouldn't want to look at ridership especially since Montreal is actually a smaller metro--it's a good indication of how well-done Montreal's transit really is.
I wont take anything away from Montreal because it has a great system but MBTA is the 4th best system in the US IMO behind NYC, Chicago, and DC. The coverage from PVD to downtown Boston and well as over the metro region is what I look for most. I don't care for transit riders so much as I do about the coverage distance. Boston is a region where a car can be used at minimum.
You would be correct, you have not claimed Montreal's healthcare nor education industries are stronger.
Industries are important, it may influence to those employed but as a resident I'm more concerned about my city's healthcare and education industries. I'm just starting a family of my own and a strong educated place is where I want my children to be around. It's one thing to be inspired by institutions like Harvard, Brown, MIT and another to be in a city where the video game industry is powerful. See where I'm going with that?
This is where we differ. I actually do care about the suburbs just as much as the city. What I love most about Boston is how much culture and character many of its suburbs have, they aren't your typical soulless crap that you would find in places like Florida or North Carolina. These suburbs and towns all have their own history and culture. Places like Lexington, Concord, Providence, Worcester, while many not suburbs but are still bedroom communities of Boston all have their own personalities. Living in the bay, its something I truly appreciate about Boston because similarly many of our suburbs have their own personality. Although Boston is more lower density but that's ok for me, it preserves history and character to those towns IMO. New England is special.
Boston in no way feels like a place of only 4.5M, all things being looked at its not IMO.
I wont take anything away from Montreal because it has a great system but MBTA is the 4th best system in the US IMO behind NYC, Chicago, and DC. The coverage from PVD to downtown Boston and well as over the metro region is what I look for most. I don't care for transit riders so much as I do about the coverage distance. Boston is a region where a car can be used at minimum.
Yea, Boston is a great city, I don't deny it and it is one of my favorite cities in the US. Montreal is also a great city and I like about as much. I'm not sure why you singled out the video game industry if you wanted to go for prestige. There's other stuff like the Canadian Space Agency, aerospace in general, the wonderful art and design that comes out of Montreal, etc. It's a good lot of things there and Montreal is a surprisingly cosmopolitan place. I think if you went there with some degree of French fluency, you'd probably get a lot more out of it.
I'm not sure why you singled out the video game industry if you wanted to go for prestige.
As a resident and family guy colleges and hospitals are more important to be around IMO. Boston's the best at those, likely the best or one of the best in the world. I'm Chinese and I want my kids to grow up around Stanford and Berkeley and make it their goal to get in there, if I lived in Boston I would want them to take note and aim at Harvard, MIT, and Brown, if they couldn't get in at least I wouldn't have to pay out of state tuition to some of the great public schools in either California or Massachusetts. Speaking as a resident.
Hospitals goes without saying. I value the little things in life like safety and healthcare. Only place with high crime I could ever live in is Chicago because that city is great otherwise anywhere in the double digits for murder rate is out of the question.
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Yea, Boston is a great city, I don't deny it and it is one of my favorite cities in the US. Montreal is also a great city and I like about as much.
I agree very great city. The scenery of coastal New England is a beauty too and the water quality is superior to the midatlantic, from the air it was lighter blue and from the beach it was pristine. The harbor was my favorite thing about Boston.
Places like Martha's Vineyard and Cape Cod and all those islands in the harbor are great additional features for Boston.
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There's other stuff like the Canadian Space Agency, aerospace in general, the wonderful art and design that comes out of Montreal, etc. It's a good lot of things there and Montreal is a surprisingly cosmopolitan place. I think if you went there with some degree of French fluency, you'd probably get a lot more out of it.
True. I'm not saying Montreal is a bad place but for what I'm after, it doesn't strike me as a place I would ever consider living in. Scenery, safety, diversity, healthcare, infrastructure, education, and local culture are all important things to me and Montreal has most of those things but I cant deal with its landlocked location and I like bigger cities and metros.
As far as Irish New England up tight culture is concerned I am not sure what people are talking about. I am a transplant and I hardly run into the stereotypical Puritan Irish New Englander that everyone speaks about in Boston. Its strange that people have this view, but those of us who are transplanted into the city barely notice it. Also those that start "people are rude in XYZ city" threads are typically fragile and insecure. I wouldnt put much stock in those. I will agree that Montreal is a very friendly place and is a city I have many close friends and good associates in. Definitely an incredible place to spend time in.
I have. And they're not just in Boston. They're in Detroit, Chicago, etc. They don't like humor with a sexual double entendre or anything off-color. Not even the men. You can't cut up with them.
I don't have problem with rude. I can be rude. I have a problem with a high level of PC and aloofness, like one finds in Seattle.
Again, in reading city/city threads, the aloof capitals of America seem to be Seattle, Minneapolis, Portland OR, Boston, and sometimes Philadelphia. I've transplanted a few times, and it's great to move into an Atlanta, where one instantly finds their footing ... and who were the nicest people there? The "rude" New Yorkers.
Well, at least you're honest. That's probably what I do like about it. I've met some pretty uptight Irish Catholics and assorted other New Englanders who did not respond well to my candor. It takes a lot to ruffle French-Canadian sensibilities. In 8 visits to Quebec, I have never encountered a rude person and, if you are an American who speaks French fairly well, they are even friendlier.
You could even say it's annoying and somewhat sad how bad Quebec wants to be French and tries to push that as their identity and not being Canadian.
A friend of mine who is French says they speak dirty French; it's not true French.
As a resident and family guy colleges and hospitals are more important to be around IMO. Boston's the best at those, likely the best or one of the best in the world. I'm Chinese and I want my kids to grow up around Stanford and Berkeley and make it their goal to get in there, if I lived in Boston I would want them to take note and aim at Harvard, MIT, and Brown, if they couldn't get in at least I wouldn't have to pay out of state tuition to some of the great public schools in either California or Massachusetts. Speaking as a resident.
Hospitals goes without saying. I value the little things in life like safety and healthcare. Only place with high crime I could ever live in is Chicago because that city is great otherwise anywhere in the double digits for murder rate is out of the question.
I agree very great city. The scenery of coastal New England is a beauty too and the water quality is superior to the midatlantic, from the air it was lighter blue and from the beach it was pristine. The harbor was my favorite thing about Boston.
Places like Martha's Vineyard and Cape Cod and all those islands in the harbor are great additional features for Boston.
True. I'm not saying Montreal is a bad place but for what I'm after, it doesn't strike me as a place I would ever consider living in. Scenery, safety, diversity, healthcare, infrastructure, education, and local culture are all important things to me and Montreal has most of those things but I cant deal with its landlocked location and I like bigger cities and metros.
I'm Chinese, too. I'd rather my kids be comfortably bi or trilingual and with a strong sense of what there is in the world, whether within academia or not. Canada has some incredible public schools to choose from, with McGill in Montreal generally regarded as one of the best of the whole lot and roughly on par with the best of the US. Hospitals are fine in Montreal as well--not the best among the best, though I reckon if you have a situation that requires that level of care, you'd probably go to whatever hospital has the best specialist for your condition no matter if it's Boston or elsewhere. Crime is basically a non-starter issue when talking about Canadian cities--not non-existent but generally way lower than any US city. Boston is considered a fairly safe big city for the US, but would be among the most if not the most violent in Canada.
Yea, also you probably don't speak French and probably have no particular reason for you to live in a French-speaking place so it makes sense for you on a practical level to not prefer Montreal.
Sort of a tangent, but I was thinking about why Montreal's system gets so much more usage and I think maybe it's just a far better plotted design. Boston's is very much a hub and spoke system with its transfers all located in a very small area downtown and has sort of odd gaps in their connections with the commuter rail lines terminating in two separate stations and the blue line not connected to the red. Meanwhile, Montreal has several connections further apart from each other rather in just a single area and multiple points of connection between the subway and commuter rail. Chicago also seems to have the same strong hub and spoke model and correspondingly low ridership despite having so many lines and stations. Oh, how interesting.
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