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the best part about Boston is it’s proximity to other areas during the nice months. Unlike texas where everything is 4+ hours away, in Boston a lot of things are 1-2. Use this summer to explore, take the commuter rail to Providence, drive to Newport, drive to the cape, take the ferry to the vineyard, drive up to Portsmouth NH, or Portland, ME.
And then yes the winters absolute suck
Our winters are cold. The roads eat your cars. You need 3 different types of snow shovels. The bugs are relentless in the spring. Pollen season is now 2/3 of the year. Masshole drivers. And both the staties and the cops will ticket you to oblivion. That's my end of the bad.
Boston is walkable year round. It is small. The food is decent and some of it is outright fantastic. There are 60+ colleges within the 128 loop amd 140ish before you hit Worcester. Top talent here is interesting. Neighborhood parties are genuinely interesting. The ballet and symphony and MFA are all totally top notch. The pops is an absolute treat - including the fireworks (though plan on walking home). Boston Sailing is a great alternative. Some top comedy acts come to Boston, as well as concerts. Our sports fans are likely assholes to the world, but pretty much the entirety of new England asides from western Connecticut considers them their home teams. The Ig novels. Hell - the entire museum structure at Harvard. MIT is a riot with their pranks. Watching moving day on Sept1.
Public transportation is second rate compared to new York, but it gets you nearly everywhere including out of the city through the commuter rail. The rail trails. The minuteman trail from ailwife out through Lexington and beyond. Our aquarium is neat - mystic is better and they are both close enough to visit. The museum of science. Memorial drive is closed on Sundays so people can run bike walk amd whatever. You haven't lived on the edge until you've nearly jousted with the e line out past fenway. Fenway - yeah there's a ballpark there which - even if you don't like the Sox - is an experience to have for its age. We sometimes do collectively wakeup as a city and ask, 'Does anyone remember what we did last night?'
You can job hop, work in incubators, find colleagues outside your company. There is opportunity to succeed. Bostonians only ACT unfriendly at first, surprisingly, when you are in a jam - someone will help you out... it's a chips are down thing. Marathon Monday. Oh, and schools. They're pretty damn good. Lastly, whoopie pies.
Is it the best place? No... but it is a pretty wicked pace to live.
Rising Star
OP, you’re welcome to go back to Texas. Our housing prices and traffic situation do not need any more people here.
If you decide to stay though here are a few suggestions. 1) you can learn to sail. It’s very affordable on the Charles river and you will make friends. 2) Join a club. There are a lot of soccer, ultimate frisbee, softball, etc. clubs that play at night and on the weekend. Cheap and great fun. 3) start brewing beer. New England is home to many great micro breweries and there is an avid home brewing community you can learn from. 4) Learn how to ski.
Yes these are great suggestions! I will say Boston’s oysters have ruined me forever; I’ll never go back to eating gulf oysters
I mean I guess it has a grid that can survive a winter storm and it’s not 105 degrees right now
I'm going on 5 years in Boston, originally from Chicago. It's a tiny, tiny city compared to an actual "city" and after about 2 weeks, you literally see all Boston has to offer. Traffic is awful and everyone is in a rush to get to nowhere in this tiny, boring city.
Yet it's been 5 years and here I am, and will continue to be. Why? NEW ENGLAND
NE is an absolute gem, and this boring, tiny town of Boston is the perfect spring board to the region. Get yourself a place outside the city (never waste a dime paying the ridiculous rent within), get a car, and then every chance you get, drive an hour and a half in any direction away from this little boring POS and have an absolutely majestic time.
Maine, NH, Vermont, Western Mass, CT, RH, cape cod, etc. Just awesome. I enter the city only to get to the airport these days.
D2 I also moved from Chicago to Vermont (lost that job to the pandemic) and had to move close to Boston for a new job. Totally agree with your sentiments. I hate the city infrastructure so much, the train sucks, the people are all short and mean and driving into Cambridge every morning sucks ass.
But the nature/outdoors/beaches/skiing in the surrounding areas is amazing and easy to get to compared to things in the Midwest. Makes it totally worth living here imo.
I moved here last Jan, actually loves it! I like the fact it’s a smaller city and I can practically walk everywhere (I live in back bay) and relatively clean compare to PHL or NYC, the drive to cape/VT/ME, also still close enough to NYC. The price is bad but generally tolerable if you lived any major cities on the east or west coast. You’ll get used to the weather, remember there is no bad weather, only bad outfit.
There is also an app in development based on interest groups to help you meet new people and find events/activities that you want to do (particularly for people like you who just moved here). It is called Hint Social and will be launching in the fall (@hintsocialapp on Instagram). Happy to chat more about it if you are interested!
Where are you living? I feel like to get the most out of Boston, traffic shouldn’t be a part of your day to day life. Weather these days is the best here - Dallas isn’t gonna have a single day without a high temp above 100 this week.
Prices are up a lot everywhere - not a uniquely Boston thing. Hopefully your TC here reflects the higher cost of living.
You have any hobbies?
Learn how to ski or some other winter activity to make it worthwhile.
If you like the outdoors and hate winter I would really recommend winter hikes (bring micro spikes) and snow shoeing. It is less investment (and easier) than learning to ski/snowboard and a really lovely way to appreciate winter scenery. Take a nice hike, come home and warm up in a cute bar with a nice cold beer.
This might sound dumb but get good, bright lighting in your home for the dark evenings I do think it helps me be less depressed.
Get a good down coat (I’m from the UK and it took me a few winters to get used to it too). High quality gloves made me less miserable too.
Skiing is also super fun but this is way easier lol
I am sympathetic to this as I came back here after 6 years in Texas. Boston is a horrendous deal for what you get per dollar and the city is tiny (but charming). That said, go to the towns along the water or on a boat or ferry and enjoy having the nice (not silty) ocean here. I couldn’t care less for most of the various western suburbs but the ocean towns, waterfronts, and city itself being such a pleasant and continuous place to walk around are things Texas doesn’t offer anything comparable to and perks of living here. Wegmans is also nice and almost as good as HEB. If you spend a lot of time talking to people you’ll also appreciate the intellectual density here. It’s only really present in certain bubbles in Texas but it’s spread throughout all of greater Boston. There is no cure for the cold though. It’s horrible and you just need to book a place somewhere else and escape from January to March. There are still other cold months but they are generally more tolerable.
Rising Star
Oh god. Trader Joe’s produce is terrible. Where in the city do you live? We can direct you to far better grocery options!!
Thank you all for the suggestions and/or commiseration! To clarify, I did expect a high COL when I moved here and can afford it; it’s just taking more getting used to than I anticipated (sometimes, I just want a $7 happy hour marg). Again, thank y’all for giving me something to look forward to by checking out these recommendations!
I’ve lived in LA, NYC, Dallas, and now Boston. TX was easily the worst imo. What do you miss about it that you can’t get/find in Boston?
There are good African options in Boston and there are ok tex mex options, which doesn’t matter since tex mex is always ok at best and can’t compare to legit Mexican food that is best found in CA. If you want moderate local politics you can go just 30 min outside of Boston. But you’re right, the best thing about TX is that you can leave and access a better place in less than 4 hours lol
I moved here from Dallas, and I love it here. A lot depends upon your town/neighborhood, I suppose.
This is tough, it’s about what feels like home. Sounds, smells, tastes. You may as well have moved to Mars. I love everything about this place, especially the things most people complain about but that’s because I am a New Englander and cannot imagine ever being happy in a place like Texas.
What do you hate? And, what do you like / are you seeking more of?
The prices are tough but our jobs pay more to compensate, it’s all comparative.
As for the winter, I really struggled with seasonal depression and started red light therapy at a local tanning salon yearly from Nov-April. I also ALWAYS vacation somewhere warm in Feb or March, if I don’t, winter feels much longer. It’s incredible how much these helps
Bars here are pretty good. Try the Bukowski Tavern.
It is one of the highest COL areas in the country, not much you can do about that
DM me if you want ideas of affordable activities.
If you like going out to eat there’s a couple of Facebook groups I like that have all the new openings so you can check out new places. One is “Friends of Boston’s Hidden Restaurants/Boston Restaurant Talk”. Another is “Eater Boston Restaurant Recommendations”. Boston isn’t huge so it’s nice when something new opens to check it out
Thank you for these!!
Go back to Texas.
Wait have you checked out the following places/events?
Lolita for amazing and fun Mexican food
Isabella Stewart Gardner museum
Red Sox game
North end Italian restaurants
Cafe Landwer for brunch & Nutella latte
I can imagine it’s hard to meet friends and such with remote work, feel free to message me :)