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Cambridge always felt like an extension of Boston on the other side of the river. Just an urban neighborhood that isn't legally in Boston that happens to have universities and some offices scattered in a few districts but no real downtown.
Oakland is more of an independent city.
Even Boston for the Most Part is like that, Postoffice, Copley, Washington, DTX sqs are all busy and then there are quiet(er) parts of town between them. Like Back bay near the river is quiet. as well as parts of Beacon hill.
Cambridge Has more people working in it than Oakland (by 10,000) so its is close enough to an independant city.
Even Boston for the Most Part is like that, Postoffice, Copley, Washington, DTX sqs are all busy and then there are quiet(er) parts of town between them. Like Back bay near the river is quiet. as well as parts of Beacon hill.
Cambridge Has more people working in it than Oakland (by 10,000) so its is close enough to an independant city.
It lacks the amenities of a truly independent city though. If you live in Oakland, there's not really a "reason" per say to go into SF other than for fun; if a wall suddenly went up separating Oakland and SF, Oakland has the infrastructure to not suffer or lose much from the separation (although a significant number of Oaklanders would be unemployed). Cambridge is definitely not as self-sufficient as Oakland.
It lacks the amenities of a truly independent city though. If you live in Oakland, there's not really a "reason" per say to go into SF other than for fun; if a wall suddenly went up separating Oakland and SF, Oakland has the infrastructure to not suffer or lose much from the separation (although a significant number of Oaklanders would be unemployed). Cambridge is definitely not as self-sufficient as Oakland.
You were calling Cambridge a College town, when of the top 25 employers 3 are colleges and they accont for 45% of Emplyees of the top 25 emlpyers which only account for ~65% of the total workforce.
1) I think Cambridge and Berkeley is a much better comparison.
2) Due to proximity, I think that Cambridge functions much more as an extension of Boston than Oakland does of San Francisco - party do to geographic distance, SF and Oakland have quite different identities / feels.
3) Overall, even as a Bay Area native, I find Cambridge a more appealing place. I've been up there a couple times in the fall and it is seriously amazingly beautiful. I love the architecture and the New England character.
I should note however, Oakland is not the hellhole people describe. The Oakland Hills are amazing and downtown Oakland is quite bustling for an American city of its size. Just comes down to my personal preference.
I dunno, I grew up for the most part in Cambridge, and it had enough amenities in it that you don't really have to get into Boston for most things.
Say you live in Cambridge, and you work in biotech. You work at the Amgen building in Central Square. You live near Porter Square.
You wake up and walk past independent coffee shops, jump on the T, head to Central Square, walk to work. For lunch, you and some coworkers hit any one of the dozens of restuarants in Central Square: Indian, Ethiopian, Chinese, Italian, Middle Eastern, Soul, Irish/English, Caribbean, Mexican. After finishing work, you stop by the Korean grocer and pick up some Kimchi for the Mrs' dinner project, then by the Co-Op to get some organic/free-trade coffee - you don't really care, but it makes a big deal to her. After taking the T back to Porter, you stop into Cambridge Music and pick up a set of strings for your guitar, and see that they have a used Mesa for sale for a great price, so you put that on layaway, and pick up those yoga pants and that knitted llama-fur sweater-thing at Susanna for her to mitigate the fact you bought another damn amp. Then, you stop at the independent pet store (Big Fish Little Fish) and pick up some high-quality cat food, and on the way back stop at Shaw's supermarket, pick up some veggies and other perishables for dinner and head back home.
Wife tells you that some of her coworkers invited you to drinks at John Harvard's in Harvard Square. You get dressed, walk back to the T, jump on, get off at Harvard, and are struggling to enjoy their company amid throngs of future investment bankers and lawyers trying to hold down pitchers of Sam Adam's, when you get a text that some of your friends, who are much more awesome and interesting, are going to catch a punk show at the Middle East down in Central. You convince the Mrs. to go down to Central with you and have a much better time mashing around to angry guitars and Irish Catholics chanting "oy!" than listening to griping about the inner workings of the Cambridge Public School District's beauracracy.
Wife complains that although it's fun watching you and your buddies flop about like drunken fools to punk rock, she wants to go somewhere where she can dance, so you walk up the block to Man-Ray, where a room full of steampunks are dancing to throbbing electronic music. It's too late for your organic kimchi/tofu noodle dinner, so you stop at Hi-Fi on the corner instead and split a calzone loaded with cheese and sauce.
You just lived, worked, ate, drank, shopped for ethnic and organic groceries and food, and partied, all within the borders of Cambridge, and in a five-block radius in any direction from three subway stations
This isn't meant as a slight to Oakland in any way, shape, or form, which is one of my favorite cities. Cambridge functions, relative to Boston, in the same way that a borough like Brooklyn functions to NYC, or Oakland functions to SF; largely independent, but both cities are quite well interwoven into eachother culturally, socially, and economically.
I dunno, I grew up for the most part in Cambridge, and it had enough amenities in it that you don't really have to get into Boston for most things.
Say you live in Cambridge, and you work in biotech. You work at the Amgen building in Central Square. You live near Porter Square.
You wake up and walk past independent coffee shops, jump on the T, head to Central Square, walk to work. For lunch, you and some coworkers hit any one of the dozens of restuarants in Central Square: Indian, Ethiopian, Chinese, Italian, Middle Eastern, Soul, Irish/English, Caribbean, Mexican. After finishing work, you stop by the Korean grocer and pick up some Kimchi for the Mrs' dinner project, then by the Co-Op to get some organic/free-trade coffee - you don't really care, but it makes a big deal to her. After taking the T back to Porter, you stop into Cambridge Music and pick up a set of strings for your guitar, and see that they have a used Mesa for sale for a great price, so you put that on layaway, and pick up those yoga pants and that knitted llama-fur sweater-thing at Susanna for her to mitigate the fact you bought another damn amp. Then, you stop at the independent pet store (Big Fish Little Fish) and pick up some high-quality cat food, and on the way back stop at Shaw's supermarket, pick up some veggies and other perishables for dinner and head back home.
Wife tells you that some of her coworkers invited you to drinks at John Harvard's in Harvard Square. You get dressed, walk back to the T, jump on, get off at Harvard, and are struggling to enjoy their company amid throngs of future investment bankers and lawyers trying to hold down pitchers of Sam Adam's, when you get a text that some of your friends, who are much more awesome and interesting, are going to catch a punk show at the Middle East down in Central. You convince the Mrs. to go down to Central with you and have a much better time mashing around to angry guitars and Irish Catholics chanting "oy!" than listening to griping about the inner workings of the Cambridge Public School District's beauracracy.
Wife complains that although it's fun watching you and your buddies flop about like drunken fools to punk rock, she wants to go somewhere where she can dance, so you walk up the block to Man-Ray, where a room full of steampunks are dancing to throbbing electronic music. It's too late for your organic kimchi/tofu noodle dinner, so you stop at Hi-Fi on the corner instead and split a calzone loaded with cheese and sauce.
You just lived, worked, ate, drank, shopped for ethnic and organic groceries and food, and partied, all within the borders of Cambridge, and in a five-block radius in any direction from three subway stations
This isn't meant as a slight to Oakland in any way, shape, or form, which is one of my favorite cities. Cambridge functions, relative to Boston, in the same way that a borough like Brooklyn functions to NYC, or Oakland functions to SF; largely independent, but both cities are quite well interwoven into eachother culturally, socially, and economically.
To clarify, I was not saying you couldn't work, eat, drink, shop, etc. in Cambridge. I was saying there are a lot of things you can do in Oakland (go to the zoo, catch a professional sports game, etc.) that you cannot do in Cambridge, and these are for the most part things associated with independent cities. Oakland, SF and SJ all have their own zoos, sports stadiums, airports, etc. because they're all independent cities... Cambridge isn't really independent from Boston. Does it have its own entertainment? Absolutely, but then so does Berkeley, which is why I've been saying Berkeley's a better comparison.
This isn't meant as a slight to Oakland in any way, shape, or form, which is one of my favorite cities. Cambridge functions, relative to Boston, in the same way that a borough like Brooklyn functions to NYC, or Oakland functions to SF; largely independent, but both cities are quite well interwoven into eachother culturally, socially, and economically.
Interesting point, I can see how this would be the case. I would still argue that Oakland may still be a little more removed from San Francisco, but I can see how Cambridge too would function independently as well.
I dunno, I grew up for the most part in Cambridge, and it had enough amenities in it that you don't really have to get into Boston for most things.
Say you live in Cambridge, and you work in biotech. You work at the Amgen building in Central Square. You live near Porter Square.
You wake up and walk past independent coffee shops, jump on the T, head to Central Square, walk to work. For lunch, you and some coworkers hit any one of the dozens of restuarants in Central Square: Indian, Ethiopian, Chinese, Italian, Middle Eastern, Soul, Irish/English, Caribbean, Mexican. After finishing work, you stop by the Korean grocer and pick up some Kimchi for the Mrs' dinner project, then by the Co-Op to get some organic/free-trade coffee - you don't really care, but it makes a big deal to her. After taking the T back to Porter, you stop into Cambridge Music and pick up a set of strings for your guitar, and see that they have a used Mesa for sale for a great price, so you put that on layaway, and pick up those yoga pants and that knitted llama-fur sweater-thing at Susanna for her to mitigate the fact you bought another damn amp. Then, you stop at the independent pet store (Big Fish Little Fish) and pick up some high-quality cat food, and on the way back stop at Shaw's supermarket, pick up some veggies and other perishables for dinner and head back home.
Wife tells you that some of her coworkers invited you to drinks at John Harvard's in Harvard Square. You get dressed, walk back to the T, jump on, get off at Harvard, and are struggling to enjoy their company amid throngs of future investment bankers and lawyers trying to hold down pitchers of Sam Adam's, when you get a text that some of your friends, who are much more awesome and interesting, are going to catch a punk show at the Middle East down in Central. You convince the Mrs. to go down to Central with you and have a much better time mashing around to angry guitars and Irish Catholics chanting "oy!" than listening to griping about the inner workings of the Cambridge Public School District's beauracracy.
Wife complains that although it's fun watching you and your buddies flop about like drunken fools to punk rock, she wants to go somewhere where she can dance, so you walk up the block to Man-Ray, where a room full of steampunks are dancing to throbbing electronic music. It's too late for your organic kimchi/tofu noodle dinner, so you stop at Hi-Fi on the corner instead and split a calzone loaded with cheese and sauce.
You just lived, worked, ate, drank, shopped for ethnic and organic groceries and food, and partied, all within the borders of Cambridge, and in a five-block radius in any direction from three subway stations
This isn't meant as a slight to Oakland in any way, shape, or form, which is one of my favorite cities. Cambridge functions, relative to Boston, in the same way that a borough like Brooklyn functions to NYC, or Oakland functions to SF; largely independent, but both cities are quite well interwoven into eachother culturally, socially, and economically.
Great post. I would rep you if I could.
Cambridge is a very cool, unique city. It obviously has a strong connection with Boston, but it may (somehow) be one of the most overlooked border-cities in the country. Not only does it have all the amazing amenities which you just described, but it could also be likened to Berkeley and Silicon Valley combined and then thrown into 6 square miles.
Where the Bay has two fantastic institutions in Cal-Berkeley and Stanford, Cambridge has MIT and Harvard within walking distance of one another. Cambridge is also arguably the most impressive cluster of high tech/biotech in the world. There are major offices, headquarters and research centers for Genzyme, Biogen Idec, Millennium Pharmaceuticals, Novartis AG, Akamai Technologies, Analog Devices, Google, Microsoft, Sanofi Aventis, GlaxoSmithKline, Vertex Pharmaceuticals, Pfizer, Raytheon, the Broad Institute and IBM, among many others. Again, that's in 6 square miles.
Someone said Cambridge is a college town...to a degree it is, because Harvard and MIT do rule the town. However to compare it to a college town like Berkeley wouldn't due Cambridge justice. The combined endowment of MIT and Harvard tops $42 billion, roughly equal to Albany's GDP. Along with the cluster of companies I mentioned , there's roughly 21 million square feet of office/lab space in Cambridge at this time, with another 5 or so million coming on line in the next four to five years. That's considerably larger than Atlanta's CBD. Cambridge is a powerhouse.
To clarify, I was not saying you couldn't work, eat, drink, shop, etc. in Cambridge. I was saying there are a lot of things you can do in Oakland (go to the zoo, catch a professional sports game, etc.) that you cannot do in Cambridge, and these are for the most part things associated with independent cities. Oakland, SF and SJ all have their own zoos, sports stadiums, airports, etc. because they're all independent cities... Cambridge isn't really independent from Boston. Does it have its own entertainment? Absolutely, but then so does Berkeley, which is why I've been saying Berkeley's a better comparison.
Cambridge is a very cool, unique city. It obviously has a strong connection with Boston, but it may (somehow) be one of the most overlooked border-cities in the country. Not only does it have all the amazing amenities which you just described, but it could also be likened to Berkeley and Silicon Valley combined and then thrown into 6 square miles.
Where the Bay has two fantastic institutions in Cal-Berkeley and Stanford, Cambridge has MIT and Harvard within walking distance of one another. Cambridge is also arguably the most impressive cluster of high tech/biotech in the world. There are major offices, headquarters and research centers for Genzyme, Biogen Idec, Millennium Pharmaceuticals, Novartis AG, Akamai Technologies, Analog Devices, Google, Microsoft, Sanofi Aventis, GlaxoSmithKline, Pfizer, Raytheon, the Broad Institute and IBM, among many others. Again, that's in 6 square miles.
Someone said Cambridge is a college town...to a degree it is, because Harvard and MIT do rule the town. However to compare it to a college town like Berkeley wouldn't due Cambridge justice. The combined endowment of MIT and Harvard tops $42 billion, roughly equal to Albany's GDP. Along with the cluster of companies I mentioned , there's roughly 21 million square feet of office/lab space in Cambridge at this time, with another 5 or so million coming on line in the next four to five years. That's considerably larger than Atlanta's CBD. Cambridge is a powerhouse.
From what I've seen in this thread, Cambridge probably beats Berkeley by a decent margin. IMO it's somewhere in-between Berkeley and Oakland as far as the criteria of this thread goes though.
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