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Montreal was once the alpha city of Canada and a hugely cosmopolitan city until the obsessed french language separatists stifled it to the point that Toronto superseded it. Now it is still one of the biggest Canadian cities and has great architecture, attractions, nightlife and scenery but it it is a shadow of itself pre-1970.
Boston was never the alpha city of the US unless you go back to the 1700's. In the past it never had the alpha vibe of New York or even Montreal. It was always a city of education and innovation, starting in shipping (clipper ships, electricity), manufacturing (shoes and textiles), and finance (banks, stocks, mutual funds), and later in computers, electronics, aerospace (GE Lynn), biotech, software, finance. With the rapid growth of technology and finance, especially since 1950, Boston has become increasingly wealthy and powerful while Montreal has been in decline or at best flat.
While both cites are old and have an eastern NA feel, they are also different in many ways. Boston has a strong economy and that has attracted many outsiders so the old Boston accent and puritanical ways have been diluted and in many places are a thing of the past.
Now, Boston is one of the world's leading centers for research, biotechnology, innovation, finance and other modern fields. Montreal is still a player in many area but not a world leader at the level of Boston.
Either place is good to visit. Both are safe: murder rate Boston 2/100,000, Montral 1/100,000 (Toronto 2/100,000) Homicide rate - Montréal International
If you want a job go to Boston. If you want cheap rent go to Montreal. If you want cold winters Boston. If you want really really cold winters Montreal. Harbor Boston. French language Montreal........
In general, one is really not better than the other. It depends on what you are looking for.
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.
My ear is not that finely-tuned that I can tell if it's dirty or clean. It's from the textbook, and they make no comments about it being "off." What I can say is that Montreal may look very North American, but there is both a tangible and intangible European feel. The rest of Canada doesn't even feel minimally European. Not even metro Toronto, with 600,000 Italians, 150,000 Greeks, and 90,000 Portuguese.
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.
Then we have different priorities. My kids can learn to speak English and Spanish, for home Chinese to speak to their grandmother and grandfather.
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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.
I'm sure they do but look at this group and tell me if it wows you or not
Harvard, MIT, Brown, Tufts, Boston College, Boston University, Northeastern, University of Massachusetts Boston, Brandeis University, Bentley University.
Boston can only be rivaled by the NYC area but majority will give the edge to Boston, I don't I think of them as coeducation capitals but it is highly debatable. I've never heard of this "McGill" before.
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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.
I agree Montreal likely has several great hospitals but when comparing the two cities I would want the better and very places in the world can stack up to Boston. Longwood and Harvard have some of the best doctors, psychiatrists, therapists, and nurses in the world.
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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.
Montreal wins safety, you're right. However when in Boston you cant really go wrong, I walked all over Boston from block to block, corner to corner, street to street without the slightest care or intent in the world that I may get jumped or mugged. It was very liberating for me, as a careless tourist to go anywhere I pleased without a sweat of worry. Boston is a very safe city for American standards and the metro is very safe outside a few areas of Brockton and a few more. I loved that feeling, the power to just walk and go anywhere without the hesitation of a criminal jumping you with a gun!
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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.
Je parle Francais.
I took a couple years of it in highschool and a few more years of it in college. It was between either French or Spanish and I wanted to take French back in the ages when I was just very fascinated with Paris. I still listen to French music. My French isn't very strong but to get basic settlements out of the way, its good enough.
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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.
Ridership is ok. I can see why people base their opinions on ridership it shows how successful a system is.
I however disagree with that. I think of distance and coverage as the main proponent. Point of transit is to get from A to B and for the transit to serve you to as much of the metros amenities as it can. Boston is no disappointment in this category. MBTA will take you from PVD in Providence to downtown Boston, it will take you to most interesting areas, and you can live in Boston without a car or without having to use one that much.
Three months ago you couldn't pay me to defend the east or any cities in the east or the rest of America for that matter but after a refreshing visit to Boston, I'm a believer. I still think the bay is better () but no doubts about it, Boston is one of my top 5 places outside of California in North America.
Boston, by far, I just dislike Montreal, the city just isn't for me, they seem still angery over the French &Indian war, and the fact that they are not their own country.
Other than that, I just don't care for it.
Boston, by far, I just dislike Montreal, the city just isn't for me, they seem still angery over the French &Indian war, and the fact that they are not their own country.
Other than that, I just don't care for it.
1) I do not live in Boston, I live north of the city, i put it in my name because people here act like the collective IQ of non-urban America is 63.
2) I am no more bias than the people calling Boston a racist Hellhole full is ugly people.
Last edited by btownboss4; 09-09-2012 at 06:08 PM..
Then we have different priorities. My kids can learn to speak English and Spanish, for home Chinese to speak to their grandmother and grandfather.
I'm sure they do but look at this group and tell me if it wows you or not
Harvard, MIT, Brown, Tufts, Boston College, Boston University, Northeastern, University of Massachusetts Boston, Brandeis University, Bentley University.
Boston can only be rivaled by the NYC area but majority will give the edge to Boston, I don't I think of them as coeducation capitals but it is highly debatable. I've never heard of this "McGill" before.
I agree Montreal likely has several great hospitals but when comparing the two cities I would want the better and very places in the world can stack up to Boston. Longwood and Harvard have some of the best doctors, psychiatrists, therapists, and nurses in the world.
Montreal wins safety, you're right. However when in Boston you cant really go wrong, I walked all over Boston from block to block, corner to corner, street to street without the slightest care or intent in the world that I may get jumped or mugged. It was very liberating for me, as a careless tourist to go anywhere I pleased without a sweat of worry. Boston is a very safe city for American standards and the metro is very safe outside a few areas of Brockton and a few more. I loved that feeling, the power to just walk and go anywhere without the hesitation of a criminal jumping you with a gun!
Je parle Francais.
I took a couple years of it in highschool and a few more years of it in college. It was between either French or Spanish and I wanted to take French back in the ages when I was just very fascinated with Paris. I still listen to French music. My French isn't very strong but to get basic settlements out of the way, its good enough.
Ridership is ok. I can see why people base their opinions on ridership it shows how successful a system is.
I however disagree with that. I think of distance and coverage as the main proponent. Point of transit is to get from A to B and for the transit to serve you to as much of the metros amenities as it can. Boston is no disappointment in this category. MBTA will take you from PVD in Providence to downtown Boston, it will take you to most interesting areas, and you can live in Boston without a car or without having to use one that much.
Three months ago you couldn't pay me to defend the east or any cities in the east or the rest of America for that matter but after a refreshing visit to Boston, I'm a believer. I still think the bay is better () but no doubts about it, Boston is one of my top 5 places outside of California in North America.
Haven't eaten yet, but getting to some cooking.
Spanish maybe if your spouse is a native Spanish-speaker. Otherwise, I'm pretty hard-pressed when thinking of any major city in the US that is as thoroughly bilingual as Montreal. I'm surprised that you don't know McGill given how much emphasis you put on higher education so it's funny that you'd have to put it in double quotes.
Again, both have their respective strengths but it doesn't amount to the other just being completely deficient. Boston certainly does better in higher education, but it doesn't negate the good universities within Montreal. Boston has some of the top hospitals, but it doesn't negate Montreal having the largest hospitals in Canada.
Sheer coverage is not a great metric. Good planning is far better. Boston's is pretty good, but it's missing some obvious screws that should be and probably will one day be fixed. I know that the Blue line is to be extended some day to make a connection with the red for a direct transfer, and there's talk but little action about making through-running happen between North and South station for the commuter rail. Montreal's system isn't really bigger, but its per-capita and overall ridership is certainly very good and a result of a possibly much better layout (less of the rigid spoke and hub). It's a shame that Boston/Massachusetts can't muster the political will to get some relatively simple and intelligent work done on their system while Montreal has an outlined goal their working towards for the end of the decade.
Anyhow, you prefer Boston and that's that. It's a better city for you and for certain fields. Montreal is a better city to others and for certain other fields. Boston felt a bit duller to me overall and a bit antiseptic despite being the slightly more dangerous city of the two. You are probably more familiar with Boston though, since there seems to be lots of facts you have on Boston but relatively little stated on Montreal, and it seems to be a bit much to call Montreal typical flyover country. It's situated at the confluence of two rivers on an island among other islands with a mountain/hill on it with a region of odd hills and mountains popping out in the middle of nowhere. And the view from Mont Royal is pretty amazing.
Last edited by OyCrumbler; 09-09-2012 at 06:02 PM..
Quality of life - tie for most income brackets save for the lower and the higher (lower for Montreal, higher for Boston maybe). both have low crime rates and a decent social safety net.
Climate - Boston. Maybe Montreal's summers are slightly less stifling (but still really humid), but that doesn't make up for the winters (not that Boston winters are great either)
Dining - Montreal on this one. Just great food all around to me, though I do love seafood.
Nightlife - Montreal by a large margin. There just seems to be more and more variety.
Skyline - About a tie for me
Cultural Attractions - Strengths in different categories
Architecture - About on par with each other, though I like Boston's winding layout a lot
Friendliness/People - Montreal for me
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