I've never been to Canada, so I couldn't say, but here in Boston, there are numerous downpoints...
1) Everything closes at 10PM. The only places you're going to find open later than that are bars and clubs. Even the IHOP in Kenmore Square, when it was still there, closed at 2AM I believe.
2) Red Sox Suck. This seems to be something the people around here don't get. I'm not much of a baseball fan. I think it's a sport that pays entirely too much money to players whilst packing as many people into a crammed space as possible and getting them as drunk as possible, only to let them out into "society" a few hours later so that they can bother "the rest of us". I'm not saying all sports fans suck, but the ones around here treat it like a reilgion, and think the Red Sox are God, despite the fact that they keep losing.
3) College Students. Boston has the largest college population, Atlanta is number two. Not all college students suck. They're not all loud, aggrevating, annoying, and just plain dumb. But the fact is that when you cram enough of them into a single city, you're going to run into a lot more of the annoying ones. You know, the ones that drive their cars around like Comm. Ave is the Indy 500... the ones that honk their horns all the time because it's "cool", or the ones that rev their engine anytime they drive by a cute woman.
I could go on and on and on and on about the moronic happenings of the college students around here, but I'm trying to cut back
4) Massholes. The drivers here are the absolute worst. I thought Florida drivers were bad, but just being a pedestrian here I fear for my life constantly. If I have to cross a one way street, I look both ways, and I don't just casually stroll across then, I run across the street. I have nightmares about some of the situations I've been in while riding my bike around here. I shouldn't be alive. I think the main reason all the drivers here suck are because most of them are yuppie college kids with shiny new cars that cost as much as their education, and they drive them like they just don't care.
But it's also not just the college kids. It's the general attitude you get from native Bostonians in general. They posess a sort of holier than thou attitude, and get really offended even when you politely ask them to come off the cross, and never believe that we have better things to do with the wood. One example of many is the EMT-B certification. Every other state in this country goes by a national registery for EMT-B's, but MA has it's own special program. It would seem like Boston has to have it's own special everything, because it's better than all the other states. And such is the general attitude of most of the people in this damn city.
5) Money, Money, Money! Hold onto it tightly right now, because once you move here, you won't have it anymore. When I first came up here for school, I lived in a studio apartment that cost me $975 per month. It was 12' x 12'. The kitchen barely held one person, the oven didn't open up all the way because it would hit the sink, and the bathroom had all sorts of holes that the mice came out of I would later discover. Not to mention the landlord was a complete ass (Bobson Realty, *never* rent from them). And I lived in a good neighborhood then too... in the Fenway.
I still live in that neighborhood, and am in a better building. Now my girlfriend and I pay $2100 per month for a two bedroom. It's technically a luxury two bedroom, at we have a thermostat, dishwasher, 1.5 bathrooms, and some carpet. But still, for $2100/mo. I should be living in a palace.
I'm not trying to slam current Boston folk, as they're not all bad. I grew up in Atlanta, I had a good time there. I've also spent some time in a few other cities, and so far, Boston is my least favorite, though I'm sure some will disagree with me
Having been a Montrealer for 6 years, let me suggest Montreal. I hope to return to live there somewhere.
That city is always happening, and is closer to Europe than anything else you will find on this continent.
Extremely cheap to live in, always on. No need to speak French, although it would be a great time to learn. Plenty of culture, good food, great summers.
Montreal is a great city! lots of fun. I go up there every summer for the jazz fest.
But I would reconmend Boston. the Quebecouis(sp?) are ****ing morons. They have language police to make sure french remains the dominant language and they are trying to cecede from canada. wich incidentally destroyed the local economy. lots companies packed their bags and left. The upside is that the cost of living is much lower, if you can get a good paying job.
Boston is booooooring. More goddamned Irish bars than in Ireland. everything closes at 2am. But New York is 4 hours away and montreal is 5 hours away. I go to NY every weekend. The Cape makes sumemr times in boston very nice. But boston is extremely expensive rents are only behind NY and SF.
But I have one question: Why are you asking this question? Boston has a lot of advantages, as it has great schools and has lots of technology-based jobs around 128.
Opposing some of the posts above, Boston is not a town of drunken people. Sure, we get excited when our sports teams win, but doesn't everyone?
Plus, when the Red Sox finally win the World Series, the entire region is going to have a week long party! Who can pass up that opportunity?
[quote] But I have one question: Why are you asking this question? <hr></blockquote>
I am moving back to North America, and I have just finished a round of job searches. I have solid offers in these two cities (four cities actually, but this thread is a "what if..." spurred by having to decide between these two cities). I am Canadian, but have never lived in Montreal (or Boston for that matter). Naively, I would have picked Montreal outright (daycare is $5 a day; the evidence of a more socialist society is clear), but the Boston job comes with a salary nearly 2.5 times higher, so I could afford the ridiculous cost of privatized US daycare and Boston housing. I have to decide this weekend and was looking for feedback from one of the more diverse and generally well-spoken internet societies I am aware of.
[quote]I still live in that neighborhood, and am in a better building. Now my girlfriend and I pay $2100 per month for a two bedroom. It's technically a luxury two bedroom, at we have a thermostat, dishwasher, 1.5 bathrooms, and some carpet. But still, for $2100/mo. I should be living in a palace.<hr></blockquote>
:eek:
i pay $800 a month for a HOUSE. with a yard, and a garage, and three bedrooms. good lord almightty!
[quote] I still live in that neighborhood, and am in a better building. Now my girlfriend and I pay $2100 per month for a two bedroom. It's technically a luxury two bedroom, at we have a thermostat, dishwasher, 1.5 bathrooms, and some carpet. But still, for $2100/mo. I should be living in a palace.
<hr></blockquote>
Poor Taylor indeed!!
Well, it looks pretty even here... maybe a slight edge to Boston, despite M3D Jack's vitriol.
Well, it looks pretty even here... maybe a slight edge to Boston, despite M3D Jack's vitriol.</strong><hr></blockquote>
Living in town gets to you after a while. Every night people pour out of the bars and clubs and walk past my apartment yelling, screaming, singing (poorly), throwing things, etceteras. Aside from that, it's really not so bad.
But the very real problems are how expensive it is, and that if you're planning on owning a car, commuting will suck just like anywhere else.
On a positive note, Boston is very good to the arts. We have a wonderful symphony, a few gorgeous museums, including my college, the Museum of Fine Arts. Boston really does a lot to support the arts, and it shows, and it is a real plus. But getting back to the whole cost of living thing, the MFA is one of the most expensive museums in the country.
I'm not all bitter, I just don't much care for baseball and football, I'm not into the whole club hopping bar scene, I don't like grown men walking outside my apartment at 2am making ape noises, and I'd like to think my rent would be cheaper than a mortgage payment on a house, because at least then I'd be working on owning something, whereas I'm never going to "own" a single piece of this apartment. And also not fearing for your life whenever you get near an intersection is an obvious plus. I'm looking forward to moving out in just shy of two years.
Boston isn't hell on earth, but it's in the top 10.
Comments
I would say Boston because it's not in Canada, but then again you'd have to live around Bostonians... tough call.
Boston is a very fun and very historic city, nothing beats Boston
1) Everything closes at 10PM. The only places you're going to find open later than that are bars and clubs. Even the IHOP in Kenmore Square, when it was still there, closed at 2AM I believe.
2) Red Sox Suck. This seems to be something the people around here don't get. I'm not much of a baseball fan. I think it's a sport that pays entirely too much money to players whilst packing as many people into a crammed space as possible and getting them as drunk as possible, only to let them out into "society" a few hours later so that they can bother "the rest of us". I'm not saying all sports fans suck, but the ones around here treat it like a reilgion, and think the Red Sox are God, despite the fact that they keep losing.
3) College Students. Boston has the largest college population, Atlanta is number two. Not all college students suck. They're not all loud, aggrevating, annoying, and just plain dumb. But the fact is that when you cram enough of them into a single city, you're going to run into a lot more of the annoying ones. You know, the ones that drive their cars around like Comm. Ave is the Indy 500... the ones that honk their horns all the time because it's "cool", or the ones that rev their engine anytime they drive by a cute woman.
I could go on and on and on and on about the moronic happenings of the college students around here, but I'm trying to cut back
4) Massholes. The drivers here are the absolute worst. I thought Florida drivers were bad, but just being a pedestrian here I fear for my life constantly. If I have to cross a one way street, I look both ways, and I don't just casually stroll across then, I run across the street. I have nightmares about some of the situations I've been in while riding my bike around here. I shouldn't be alive. I think the main reason all the drivers here suck are because most of them are yuppie college kids with shiny new cars that cost as much as their education, and they drive them like they just don't care.
But it's also not just the college kids. It's the general attitude you get from native Bostonians in general. They posess a sort of holier than thou attitude, and get really offended even when you politely ask them to come off the cross, and never believe that we have better things to do with the wood. One example of many is the EMT-B certification. Every other state in this country goes by a national registery for EMT-B's, but MA has it's own special program. It would seem like Boston has to have it's own special everything, because it's better than all the other states. And such is the general attitude of most of the people in this damn city.
5) Money, Money, Money! Hold onto it tightly right now, because once you move here, you won't have it anymore. When I first came up here for school, I lived in a studio apartment that cost me $975 per month. It was 12' x 12'. The kitchen barely held one person, the oven didn't open up all the way because it would hit the sink, and the bathroom had all sorts of holes that the mice came out of I would later discover. Not to mention the landlord was a complete ass (Bobson Realty, *never* rent from them). And I lived in a good neighborhood then too... in the Fenway.
I still live in that neighborhood, and am in a better building. Now my girlfriend and I pay $2100 per month for a two bedroom. It's technically a luxury two bedroom, at we have a thermostat, dishwasher, 1.5 bathrooms, and some carpet. But still, for $2100/mo. I should be living in a palace.
I'm not trying to slam current Boston folk, as they're not all bad. I grew up in Atlanta, I had a good time there. I've also spent some time in a few other cities, and so far, Boston is my least favorite, though I'm sure some will disagree with me
That city is always happening, and is closer to Europe than anything else you will find on this continent.
Extremely cheap to live in, always on. No need to speak French, although it would be a great time to learn. Plenty of culture, good food, great summers.
But I would reconmend Boston. the Quebecouis(sp?) are ****ing morons. They have language police to make sure french remains the dominant language and they are trying to cecede from canada. wich incidentally destroyed the local economy. lots companies packed their bags and left. The upside is that the cost of living is much lower, if you can get a good paying job.
Boston is booooooring. More goddamned Irish bars than in Ireland. everything closes at 2am. But New York is 4 hours away and montreal is 5 hours away. I go to NY every weekend. The Cape makes sumemr times in boston very nice. But boston is extremely expensive rents are only behind NY and SF.
But I have one question: Why are you asking this question? Boston has a lot of advantages, as it has great schools and has lots of technology-based jobs around 128.
Opposing some of the posts above, Boston is not a town of drunken people. Sure, we get excited when our sports teams win, but doesn't everyone?
Plus, when the Red Sox finally win the World Series, the entire region is going to have a week long party! Who can pass up that opportunity?
I am moving back to North America, and I have just finished a round of job searches. I have solid offers in these two cities (four cities actually, but this thread is a "what if..." spurred by having to decide between these two cities). I am Canadian, but have never lived in Montreal (or Boston for that matter). Naively, I would have picked Montreal outright (daycare is $5 a day; the evidence of a more socialist society is clear), but the Boston job comes with a salary nearly 2.5 times higher, so I could afford the ridiculous cost of privatized US daycare and Boston housing. I have to decide this weekend and was looking for feedback from one of the more diverse and generally well-spoken internet societies I am aware of.
:eek:
i pay $800 a month for a HOUSE. with a yard, and a garage, and three bedrooms. good lord almightty!
As for Montreal.....yeah...those French speaking people and language police are so annoying
<hr></blockquote>
Poor Taylor indeed!!
Well, it looks pretty even here... maybe a slight edge to Boston, despite M3D Jack's vitriol.
<strong>
Poor Taylor indeed!!
Well, it looks pretty even here... maybe a slight edge to Boston, despite M3D Jack's vitriol.</strong><hr></blockquote>
But the very real problems are how expensive it is, and that if you're planning on owning a car, commuting will suck just like anywhere else.
On a positive note, Boston is very good to the arts. We have a wonderful symphony, a few gorgeous museums, including my college, the Museum of Fine Arts. Boston really does a lot to support the arts, and it shows, and it is a real plus. But getting back to the whole cost of living thing, the MFA is one of the most expensive museums in the country.
I'm not all bitter, I just don't much care for baseball and football, I'm not into the whole club hopping bar scene, I don't like grown men walking outside my apartment at 2am making ape noises, and I'd like to think my rent would be cheaper than a mortgage payment on a house, because at least then I'd be working on owning something, whereas I'm never going to "own" a single piece of this apartment. And also not fearing for your life whenever you get near an intersection is an obvious plus. I'm looking forward to moving out in just shy of two years.
Boston isn't hell on earth, but it's in the top 10.