Advice for moving to Boston • Otherwise

I’ve sent advice to a couple of friends recently who are moving to Boston. Here’s a tidied-up version.

If you’re like most of my friends and work on the red line (Harvard, Kendall), you probably want to live in Cambridge or Somerville rather than Boston proper. If that’s too expensive, maybe Watertown, Belmont, Medford, or Arlington.
Which city you live in isn’t that important unless you have kids in public school.
The city of Boston includes the center city, a couple of northern suburbs, and a lot of the southern suburbs. For example, Roslindale is technically part of Boston but feels like a suburb of similar density to Medford in the north.
The northern and western suburbs, for whatever reason, mostly stayed independent towns. They have their own city governments and their own school systems. These include Cambridge, Somerville, Medford, Arlington, Watertown, etc.

Something like 80% of Boston leases turn over on September 1.
Most of these apartments get listed over the summer, peaking in late spring to mid summer. More data here.
Moving on September 1 is hectic. It’s hard to get a moving van, and traffic is bad. If it’s possible to move a day or two before or after, that will probably be easier.

Jeff has made a useful map of apartment prices. Some of the areas that are colored expensive are actually just areas with very few apartments.
Jamaica Plain is nice and cheap, but a lot of people experience it as living in exile. A lot of your friends will live north of the Charles river, and it will take a long time to get there by car or public transit. If your work or social life is north of the river, I wouldn’t recommend living down there. Living close to the river (e.g. Allston if you want to spend a lot of time in Harvard) is more practical.
Allston and Brighton are largely student neighborhoods.
The posh suburbs with well-regarded school districts are Weston, Newton, Wellesley, Lexington, Carlisle, Winchester, etc.

If you work in downtown Boston or a busy part of Cambridge like Kendall Square or Harvard, you probably do not want to drive and park there every day.
Boston drivers are notoriously aggressive. Traffic is worse than most US cities though not as bad as LA, NYC, or DC.
Snow and ice makes driving more difficult in winter.
The subway is middling compared to other cities; not a model of service but not terrible. The southern green line is much less reliable than the other lines.
It is possible but not pleasant to bike year-round. More guidance
There is rain or snow about 10 days a month.

This guide from MIT explains the basics of moving here (mostly to Cambridge) with kids and enrolling them in school.

Jeff’s post on reasons he likes Boston.
Paul Graham’s essay partly about Cambridge is charming.
Once you are more familiar with Massachusetts towns, this list of fake Massachusetts towns will be funny.
Because of the number of people moving, especially in student neighborhoods, September 1 is known as Allston Christmas because you can find a lot of free stuff on the sidewalks.
It is also the annual day when people don’t notice the signs and get their moving trucks stuck under bridges on Storrow Drive.

I can walk to almost everything I need to go to (stores, library, doctor and dentist, etc). My kids walk to school.
Jeff has about a 30 minute door-to-door commute on the red line to Kendall Square.
Between my children’s school and the folk dance community, I often run into people I know while walking around the neighborhood.
My kids have had a good experience in the public schools.
There’s a lot of charming quirky stuff, like the time a lot of cats ran for mayor of the bike path, and the sculptures people build by the bike path.
Events: Porchfest, the Honk festival, the marshmallow fluff festival, block parties in my neighborhood.