Culture shock - More modern burbs (Boston, Cambridge: apartment, construction, subdivisions)

[Parsec]

Originally Posted by Boston_Burbs

I recently bought in Marblehead which is "so isolated" yet within 4 miles I have 3 grocery stores, Marshalls/TJ Maxx, Home Depot, and Target. 6 mi gets me to the N. Shore Mall which has every purchase imaginable. This is not the case for a lot of towns between 95 and 495.

People say Marblehead feels isolated because it takes so long to get out of town, not because it's far. 6 miles to North Shore Mall sounds great, but it will take you over 30 minutes to drive those 6 miles most of the time. It doesn't take more than 20-25 minutes to get to a mall from any town between 95 and 495, so what's your point?

[semiurbanite]

Originally Posted by Boston_Burbs

I am a frequent reader of Mr. Money Mustache, a financial blog about early retirement. The author lives in Longmont, CO where he can ride his bike to every major attraction he needs.

I read it too, the recent "urban tribe" blog post reminds me of our life. We make it happen here in Somerville - our lives exists within a 3 mile radius and excluding my job, it's more like a 1.5 mile radius. We use a cargo bike to tote the kids around, ride the train, and walk to literally everything we need. This area is actually a pretty ideal place to make that happen.

The one exception is occasional Home Depot trips and we have a car for weekend trips out of town.

[Boston_Burbs]

Originally Posted by Parsec

People say Marblehead feels isolated because it takes so long to get out of town, not because it's far. 6 miles to North Shore Mall sounds great, but it will take you over 30 minutes to drive those 6 miles most of the time. It doesn't take more than 20-25 minutes to get to a mall from any town between 95 and 495, so what's your point?

Having put 15k miles each a year on two cars while living in Townsend, driving to Nashua (30+ mi round trip) like it was nothing, I have begun to look at mileage over time.

[Parsec]

Originally Posted by Boston_Burbs

Having put 15k miles each a year on two cars while living in Townsend, driving to Nashua (30+ mi round trip) like it was nothing, I have begun to look at mileage over time.

Townsend is not between I-95 and I-495. I live about as far as you can from a highway while still inside I-495 (I'm smack between I-95, 495, Rt-2 and the MassPike). I've never driven more than 10,000 miles in a year, but I'm usually around 6,000 miles. My wife drives about 5,000 miles per year around town. We both get the low-mileage discount on our car insurance premium (under 7,000 miles). Like you, I'm an advocate of public transportation.

[Boston_Burbs]

Originally Posted by semiurbanite

I read it too, the recent "urban tribe" blog post reminds me of our life. We make it happen here in Somerville - our lives exists within a 3 mile radius and excluding my job, it's more like a 1.5 mile radius. We use a cargo bike to tote the kids around, ride the train, and walk to literally everything we need. This area is actually a pretty ideal place to make that happen.

The one exception is occasional Home Depot trips and we have a car for weekend trips out of town.

Since moving I have not used my car (only a $115/mo pass for the bus) and my wife has used one tank of gas.

My last house hunt I focused waay too much on just the house price. Not taking into account the $300+ per month in gas + maintenance + my car is approaching the 200k mark.

Its a pretty great feeling.

[gf2020]

Originally Posted by Parsec

I've never driven more than 10,000 miles in a year, but I'm usually around 6,000 miles. My wife drives about 5,000 miles per year around town.

You must not go anywhere! My wife works 1 mile from our house. We're 7 miles to the North Shore Mall and 11 miles to the Burlington Mall and she still puts 17,000 miles on each year.

[Parsec]

Originally Posted by gf2020

You must not go anywhere! My wife works 1 mile from our house. We're 7 miles to the North Shore Mall and 11 miles to the Burlington Mall and she still puts 17,000 miles on each year.

LOL, I haven't done the math so I don't know. Let me see... my annual commute is 5,000 miles. We visit family in the NYC area 4x per year, vacation on the Cape, White Mountains and Southern Maine once a year each. That's about 2,000 miles right there. We also take an international vacation every other year and have 2 more vacations either on the West coast or Southeast each year, but we take the cab to the airport and rent a car at our destination. My wife works in town and our kids have activities 5x per week, but they are all in town too so my wife's total daily mileage is only about 10 miles which is another 2,500 miles. The kids take the bus to school and we do our grocery shopping on the way home from work so that doesn't add any mileage. We make a trip to Framingham twice a month for shopping trips. It's really not a lot of mileage when you add it all up. I think we just do a good job at combining trips so we don't have to drive a lot. I never have time to drive around for no reason anymore. My parents also visit often and they have a 7-seater, so we use their car when we go on daytrips on the weekend.

I'm at a loss as to how your wife racks up 17,000 miles per year. That's an insane amount of mileage. You guys must be driving out of state every weekend or maybe she's having an affair with a guy in Worcester

[tovarisch]

People come to New England BECAUSE it's quaint. Change your expectations!

[Surf123]

Mission Hill/salamandersmile/script kitten I think you guys helped clarify what I was trying to say. A but more buzz - restaurants/shops and the like.... not the 50s/60s vibe a lot of places offer (which I can appreciate but don't necessarily want it to be my every day). I will be reasearching areas mentioned. At the same time I will be trying to find ways to make changes to our budget/ other sacrifices to live in areas closer to the city.

For those who asked about commute - we work from home but my husband does have to travel to different parts of the city every so often which actually makes it a bit tricky to narrow down. Anywho, thanks to those who offered ideas of places for me to look into.

[timberline742]

Originally Posted by semiurbanite

I read it too, the recent "urban tribe" blog post reminds me of our life. We make it happen here in Somerville - our lives exists within a 3 mile radius and excluding my job, it's more like a 1.5 mile radius. We use a cargo bike to tote the kids around, ride the train, and walk to literally everything we need. This area is actually a pretty ideal place to make that happen.

The one exception is occasional Home Depot trips and we have a car for weekend trips out of town.

This is great. I'm pretty much the same, but my job is (one of my offices), is also within 1.5 miles. I walk, bike, or take the T for pretty much everything.

IT IS AWESOME.