What should I know about Boston?

Parent Cafe
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<p>D2 moved some of her belongings there a couple of weeks ago and has been staying with a family friend while job hunting. As of today, she and a friend have a lease on an apartment in the Brighton area. Embarrassingly, I’ve never been to Boston, but will be going out next month. And I’ll probably be making more trips out there as long as she’s there.</p>

<p>What should I know about Boston? From the mundane to the eccentric. I’ll have to admit the only thing I really know about it is all the stereotypes. Oh, and her roommate grew up in the area, so D2 is set as far as having an expert show her the ropes.</p>

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<p>What are the stereotypes about Boston?</p>

<p>Brighton is a nice in-city residential area where lots of students live. Boston is a city where there are tens of colleges and zillions of college students—and a whole bunch of real adults too. Public transportation is good and safe. Parking and driving are a nightmare. Food is good, and ranges from the tasty and inexpensive to the horrendously expensive.</p>

<p>Being intelligent is considered a plus in Boston.</p>

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<p>When we lived there, the top two things that people wanted to see when they came to visit were the Aquarium and the JFK Library.</p>

<p>[New</a> England Aquarium Home](<a href=“http://www.neaq.org/index.php]New”>New England Aquarium in Boston - Protecting Animals & the Ocean)</p>

<p>[Home</a> - John F. Kennedy Presidential Library & Museum](<a href=“http://www.jfklibrary.org/]Home”>http://www.jfklibrary.org/)</p>

<p>Of course, there are many more fun and interesting things to do, but those were the top two. :)</p>

<p>The parks are beautiful:</p>

<p>[Friends</a> of the Public Garden](<a href=“http://www.friendsofthepublicgarden.org/our_parks/index.htm]Friends”>http://www.friendsofthepublicgarden.org/our_parks/index.htm)</p>

<p>Lots of historical things to see:</p>

<p>[The</a> Freedom Trail Foundation](<a href=“http://www.thefreedomtrail.org/]The”>http://www.thefreedomtrail.org/)</p>

<p>Many wonderful museums, this is just one:</p>

<p>[Museum</a> of Fine Arts, Boston: Home](<a href=“http://www.mfa.org/]Museum”>http://www.mfa.org/)</p>

<p>And if you have younger children with you, this is a must see:</p>

<p>[Welcome</a> to Boston Children’s Museum](<a href=“http://www.bostonchildrensmuseum.org/]Welcome”>http://www.bostonchildrensmuseum.org/)</p>

<p>Legal Seafoods now seems to be everywhere, and seems to have declined in both quality and service, although many still enjoy it. I was never a fan but I know that a lot of Bostonians still like to take visitors there.</p>

<p>We love the restaurants in the northend, Boston’s Little Italy:</p>

<p>[Dining</a> in the North End](<a href=“Boston / Massachusetts - mattconti”>Boston / Massachusetts - mattconti)</p>

<p>The on/off trolley tours are good in Boston because, as I said, the driving is horrendous and the parking almost as bad. They give you a good overall tour of different areas and you can get on and off as much as you want.</p>

<p>If you go to the aquarium, a good spot aftewards for some shopping and/or eating is Faneuil Hall Marketplace.</p>

<p>[Faneuil</a> Hall Market Place](<a href=“Faneuil Hall Marketplace | Boston, MA”>http://www.faneuilhallmarketplace.com/)</p>

<p>And, of course, the Boston Pops should be on everyone’s list:</p>

<p>[Boston</a> Symphony Orchestra](<a href=“http://www.bso.org/bso/index.jsp?id=bcat5220105]Boston”>http://www.bso.org/bso/index.jsp?id=bcat5220105)</p>

<p>A quick overview. Hope that it’s a start anyway! Boston is a great city.
The other thing you should know is that driving in Boston is unlike in any other city, in my opinion.</p>

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<p>One thing we’ve learned so far (S1 is a sophmore just outside the city, in Medford):
most of the time you’ll be better off taking the subway than driving-- the traffic in the city and surrounding areas can be awful. The Boston subway/T system is easy to follow.</p>

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<p>Wow - you guys are quick!</p>

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<p>Traffic in the city is a nightmare. Boston drivers are unique – sort of a kamikaze aesthetic combined with a frightening insouciance about other cars on the road. New England is a terrific place to visit if you are a history buff (I am). I don’t know if you will be there when it warms up, but Old Sturbridge Village and Hancock Shaker Village museum are well worth the trip. Massachusetts is tiny. Watch where you walk, especially at night. Like most cities, there are places you don’t want to be (ask me about the time I wandered into the Combat Zone when I was 17).</p>

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<p>Oh! Boston, is by far my most favorite city. It has the city life one looks for in a place like NY without the cold detatchment that pervades NY city. It has the hustle, bustle of a city life and yet it’s possible to find quaint old streets where history beckons you from the walls of its edifices, it has the chilly, cold winters but warmth of youth and their bustling enthusiasm and brilliance. It’s a city that retains its charm. The best part of Boston is its multitude of lectures that are open to public… so one can continue to stimulate ones’s mind in to our ripe old age.</p>

<p>I agree that the traffic is horrible but the Metro (their subway) is so much cleaner than that of NY and really nice.</p>

<p>Great reasonably priced seafood is found quite close to Harvard, MIT near Fanuiel Hall market center.</p>

<p>I live in the suburbs of NY and travel to NY for work many times a year… but I absolutely love Boston and hope to retire there.</p>

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<p>You guys are quick!</p>

<p>Some of this is making sense. She does not want a car anymore, so her car (a year old) will become H’s car, and he will sell his 10-year old truck (thank God!)… or donate it. Would you compare the public transportation equivalent and as efficient as that in Chicago or NYC?</p>

<p>alwaysmom - funny that you should list the aquarium first. She has an application in with them right now. I think it would be a coup to just get an interview.</p>

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<p>Take a duck boat tour in the late spring to early fall.</p>

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<p>Metro and subway of Boston is much cleaner and far better than that in NY city (IMO). But I would like someone from Boston to confirm this since my use of this transportation is only when I attend conferences there.</p>

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<p>The subway is cleaner, but less useful. It can be quite hard to get somewhere that is physically very close because of the hub and spoke model of the subway system. THe lines only come near each other at a very few locations. But it is far better than driving!</p>

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<p>teriwtt:</p>

<p>We use the subway and zipcar since S1 moved out of the city and went to live elsewhere, taking our old car with him. Your D can use the same system as well. You sign up for a membership fee, then reserve a car by the hour for when you need it. Depending on the kind of car you reserve, it is about $10 an hour. So far, it’s worked out well, though we no longer just hop on the car for spontaneous shopping or outings.
Subway fare is now $1.75 one way. You buy a Charlie card and put money on it. You can replenish it repeatedly.</p>

<p>If you are going next month, the weather will be too iffy to do much outdoorsy sight-seeing. There are some great museums in Boston and Cambridge. Besides those listed above, I like to suggest the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. It’s small and houses Isabella Gardner’s private collection so it’s highly personal. </p>

<p>The North End has some wonderful Italian restaurants. Brighton seems to have an increasing number of ethnic restaurants. In one street, I saw a Vietnamese and an Indian restaurant. On a nearby street, I saw a Cambodian and a Burmese restaurant. Brighton is also home to a fairly substantial Brazilian population, so it has some good Brazilian restaurants.</p>

<p>If you are a history buff and the weather is clement, you might take a walk on the Boston Commons and take a look at the statue commemorating Robert Gould Shaw and the 54th Massachusetts regiment, the first black unit in the US military. Go to Faneuil Hall, Old North Church, Trinity Church. Take a peek at antiques stores on Charles Street.
There should be lots of concerts with varying ticket prices, especially on college campuses.
Boston.com should have some good tips for sight-seeing and eating. Enjoy!</p>

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<p>^ Good to know about transportation in Bean town. Son may call it a home in near future. He loved Seattle for the same reason. He likes others move him around.</p>

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<p>Are those fifteen minute, $2 swan boat tours still around? College girls will want to check out Newbury Street. Quincy Market is fun, too. I know a lot of people from other places who say they don’t like seafood but like it once they’re in New England, so it’s worth checking out a good seafood place. You need to have clam chowder in the summer, too.</p>

<p>I grew up driving in Massachusetts. It’s not too bad, but drivers are pretty aggressive, and since the city isn’t on a grid like Chicago and there’s a lot of construction, you’ll probably get lost a lot. I use buildings as landmarks when I drive around, but if you don’t know the area it’s tougher. Plus, you get to avoid traffic on the T. </p>

<p>The weather is similar to Chicago, but it’s not as cold in the winter and not as hot in the summer. Most of the winter will probably be days with lows in the 20s, highs in the lower 30s. Boots for snow and slush are necessary.</p>

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<p>If d has any interest at all in classical music, besides the Boston Symphony, Boston Pops and Boston Camerata, it’s home to Boston College, Boston Conservatory, Longy School of Music, New England Conservatory, plus Harvard & MIT which have some fine “under the radar” performers and composers. And don’t forget Berklee. Most student concerts and recitals are free, or of nominal cost. Name artists are featured in on campus small venue performances and masterclasses. If these are at all of interest, do take advantage of them. Boston is one of the hotbeds of music in the country.</p>

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<p>Having lived in Cambridge and NY, I’d agree that the Boston subway is cleaner and more pleasant but that the NY subway takes one to a much, much higher percentage of the places I would want to go to (YMMV). </p>

<p>The great virtues of Boston are: 1) probably the highest percentage of interesting people per capita; 2) you can be outside the city and in beautiful countryside very quickly (well, not so quickly at rush hour); and 3) there is a culture that rewards intellectual inquiry so the lectures that an earlier poster cited are actually well attended (Harvard and to a lesser extent MIT are nodes in the network of power in the world and so extraordinary people are always passing through and sometimes speaking). </p>

<p>The major flaws: 1) the native folk (who are a decreasingly small part of the population) are actually less friendly and less helpful than New Yorkers (you have to get their attention but once you do, they can actually be warm and helpful); 2) the infrastructure (roads and especially signs) is a joke; 3) the politics is a joke (the power in the state seems to be centralized in Boston and to understand the politics, you need to understand which particular neighborhoods the politicians come from); and 4) the theater is usually pretty dismal (though it could have gotten better but I never go – only in NY). There are now quite a number of pretty good restaurants and a few excellent ones. It’s not NY or San Francisco but it is a lot better than it used to be.</p>

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<p><<ask me=“” about=“” the=“” time=“” i=“” wandered=“” into=“” combat=“” zone=“” when=“” was=“” 17=“”>> Oh Washdad, you have revealed your age! The Combat Zone no longer exists.</ask></p>

<p>Also, for those who refer to the “metro” or “subway,” in Boston it’s the T. Look for round black and white signs that just say “T” to find a station. It’s all color coded, and would be easy to navigate if the station names actually made sense to anyone who hasn’t lived here for many years! But I still find it much less intimidating than NYC.</p>

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<p>What station name do you need besides Harvard Square? ;)</p>

<p>Take the T there and have ice cream at Herrels.</p>

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<p>A couple things from a Chicagoan (like you, right?) whose experience of Boston has been only quite recent, in connection with my older son’s going to school there (at H, as it’s called in CC-land):</p>

<p>–I’ve found the public transportation system very easy to negotiate. You’ll find that wherever you want to go, it usually isn’t too far away (though sometimes, as noted, you may have to go to one place, then change to another line); to me it feels like a much more compact urban environment than Chicago. (One drawback to the public transportation system is that as I recall the trains quit running pretty darn early [midnight?].)</p>

<p>–If you like the Art Institute at all, make sure to go to the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. As with the AI, it has a strong collection of French Impressionist paintings. (It also has a very strong collection of Asian art.)</p>

<p>–If you ever get to Cambridge (and you should try to), go to the Harvard Book Store (which is not affiliated with the university – it just shares the name). When you walk through the front door, you immediately feel as though you’re with folks who not only sell books; they love books. (And right nearby is the Grolier book store, one of the only places in the country that’s devoted entirely to poetry.)</p>

<p>–Oh, and try not to say anything too unrefined while you’re there; they already suspect that those of us out here in the heartland still have dirt floors and outhouses, and you wouldn’t want to do anything to reinforce those suspicions.</p>

<p>[Harvard</a> Book Store](<a href=“http://www.harvard.com/]Harvard”>http://www.harvard.com/)</p>

<p>[Grolier</a> Poetry Bookshop](<a href=“http://www.grolierpoetrybookshop.org%5DGrolier”>http://www.grolierpoetrybookshop.org)</p>

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<p>I should have added that she did a semester in London, and absolutely loved the lifestyle there, meaning the availability and reliability of public transportation along with living in a neighborhood where you can easily walk to most places you need to go to (grocery store, pharmacy, etc.). She quickly became very adept with the Tube system.</p>

<p>When I’m there, it will be a very task-focused visit, trying to help her get set up - she never lived in an apartment in college, and basically has nothing. So I don’t think on this trip we’ll be doing much sight-seeing. The car I will be using has a Navi built in, so I’m not worried about getting lost… it will correct me if I make a wrong turn. I expect all the touristy stuff will be put off until another visit, perhaps in the spring when the weather is nicer. Oh, and speaking of weather, she went to school in Syracuse, so she Boston will be a piece of cake (except for those n’easterns).</p>

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<p>Well then, I may be at a double risk… although I’ve lived in the Midwest for over 20 years now, I still have a slight Texas drawl. It’s going to really confuse them. ;)</p>