Long Term Somerville?

[amy-s1.livejournal.com]

Just curious as to how many of our community members here consider themselves residents of Somerville long term, or temporarily as in "when I have kids i'll move to the burbs" mentality.

Do you see yourself here as a long term, or potentially permanent resident?

Do you have kids here already? Are they in the Somerville Schools? If no kids would you raise kids here?

Do you own property or are you renting? If renting would you like to buy?

Comments

[molyflogs.livejournal.com]

We moved to Revere in August from Davis Square, because we were able to rent an entire 2 bedroom house here for $1,000 a month. We decided that we'd do this for a couple of years to save a bunch of money for a down payment on a house or condo in Somerville, which is where we want to be in the long run.

Now we're expecting, and are trying to figure out what this will change about our time frame. We still intend to move back to Somerville as our forever home, but I hear babies are super expensive!

S'ville is stuck with us!

[miss-chance.livejournal.com]

Sure, I'll play. I think demographics are fun, especially when attached to real people.

I first moved to S'ville in my early 20s, when I dropped out of college in New Orleans. It was a place I could get cheap rent while taking art classes. I eventually went back to college, finished a few degrees here and there, moved around the country following jobs for a while... and then came back.

My spouse and I bought our house here in '98 and sincerely hope to stay here, in this very house, as long as we can make it up and down the stairs. (And maybe then we'll move to our downstairs unit and put in ramps... or, I dunno, just hover our flying cars outside the window to float in and out of the apartment).

We have no kids and have no intention of having kids, so those questions don't apply.

[genevra-mcneil.livejournal.com]

Oooh! This is one of my favorite discussions!

I am a long-termer. This is my 12th year in the city. I have a daughter, 5, and I won't consider leaving the city until she's in college. We have no plans to leave after that, but if we did it would be to a tiny cabin deep in the woods.

We own our place and have for 4 years.

She's not in the Somerville School System yet -- she starts K in September -- but we intend to keep her there, barring a sudden magical infusion of cash that allows us to afford $28K a year for private school.

Speaking of magical infusions of cash -- when the lottery was up to $330 million, we were playing the "What if" game and we decided that we'd probably buy a house here, even if we won all that money. We'd probably have bought a house in London, too.

Can I ask why you're asking?

[amy-s1.livejournal.com]

"Can I ask why you're asking?"

No specific reason really, just curious. We bought a house here a few years ago, thinking we would consider leaving once we had kids that were approaching 1st grade. This would be 5 years from now. But now we love it so much I dont think we would leave even for a "better" school system. The benefits, even for kids, of a vibrant walkable neighborhood outweigh living on a "have to drive" suburban cul de sac any day.

I think alot of people move here thinking it will be temporary, but then realize that they don't want to live anywhere else and end up staying. But with the cost of living I'm sure its not realistic for alot of people.

[plumtreeblossom.livejournal.com]

I moved here to Davis in 1994, partly because of a boy and partly because, back in Rochester NY, I was a 30-year-old barista ($4 an hour!) with no hope of a career future. The relationship didn't last, but my career was completely reborn in Boston's comparatively booming (at the time) job market.

I'm staying. My partner owns a house in Quincy, but he eventually hopes to move to this side of the river. I hope we're both living here in Davis when we're old.

No kids and no plans for them, but if I had them I would raise them right here.

[josephineave.livejournal.com]

I, too, arrived here in 1994 and bought a 2-family in 1999.

Looks like Somerville should be investing in infrastructure in Davis Square for the future, cause we are going to have a lot of old folks with no kids to take them in. Perhaps Sacco's could be modified to accommodate bowling from our mobility scooters and The Burren & Sligo could lower the bar, literally.

[ukelele.livejournal.com]

I have a kid who is unlikely to be in the Somerville public schools, but we intend to be here for...decades, really. We own our place. (Why would I want to raise a kid in the 'burbs? I love my town.)

[lyonesse.livejournal.com]

i bought my house in '97 (having lived here briefly in the 1980's) and consider myself permanent. i have five renters who are all as permanent as they want to be; oldest one's been here about a year less than me.

[noire.livejournal.com]

Very interesting topic! I'll be looking back to see the data you collect.

My husband and I bought a house here in 2000. Unless we win the lottery we plan to stay here (in this house) until we die. If we win the lottery we might think about buying a house closer to Davis with off street parking.

We have no children and do not plan to have children, so that's not an issue. But I would raise them here and most likely send them to Somerville public schools. (Being the product of a high urban upbringing, I think the 'burbs are horrifying! I would never consider moving out there and think that children benefit from the complexity of the urban mix, multiculturalism, and public transportation.)

[pekmez.livejournal.com]

I'm with you on raising kids in the burbs, as a product of a suburban upbringing! (answering the rest of the demographics not in a sub-reply.)

[wheeiminvisible.livejournal.com]

I definitely see myself as a long-term resident. I just bought a condo here last month, after having moved here after college in 2005. I definitely don't see kids in my future, but if I were to have kids, I think I'd rather have them grow up in Somerville than in the Mass burbs where I grew up (Marblehead and Concord).

[tsuki-no-bara.livejournal.com]

i've been in somerville twelve and a half years. i rent because i can't afford to own (yet...), i don't have kids and don't ever expect to, and i don't have any plans to move. i like it here. :D

[mamabunny72.livejournal.com]

My family lived on Highland Ave just outside Davis Sq when I was a baby, but I grew up in Arlington. Hubby and I moved to Somerville as newly married renters in 1996; we bought a single family home in Davis in 1999, right before the market went sky high. We do have a first grader in public school. We plan to stay for the long term.

[first-clark.livejournal.com]

Own, 23 yrs, 3 publicly schooled daughters all now in college on scholarships. Stairs navigated successfully even with broken hip!

[en-ki.livejournal.com]

I'd like to stay long term, but it seems unlikely I'll be able to afford a decent place bigger than a one-bedroom. I have no interest in the suburbs; if I have to move out of the city, I will move to the country.

[pakoo.livejournal.com]

File this under, "been there,done that"....We lived here 30 years ago and then did make the move to the burbs to raise three kids. They are grown now so we downsized and came back. Honestly, I think it would have been better to have stayed. Somerville schools get a bad rep but if you take a look at their test scores, they actually do quite well. I know plenty of successful young people who went through this school system and got a really good education. Don't be fooled by the "if you pay tuition, you get a better education" private school trap. Public schools get funded by the state and quite often their programs and equipment(computers, etc) will be superior to what is found at a private school.
I really think my kids would have been better off staying in Somerville; we had to work really hard to keep them from being part of the Entitlement Generation. Anyway, I could go on with this topic for pages, but in a nutshell, if I had a do-over, I never would have left in the first place; Somerville is a great place to raise a family.

[ocschwar.livejournal.com]

Having done some work with Somerville high schoolers, I've reached the same conclusion. They're well educated, just poorly credentialled. That's why I'm in it for the long haul.

[lillibet.livejournal.com]

I lived in Davis in 1993-5, then left town for six years. When I moved back with my husband in 2002, we considered Somerville strongly, especially the Davis Square area, but just didn't find anything we liked that was at all affordable. So we bought in Arlington and founded a theatre company in Davis and are pretty happy with that solution. We have a daughter who will most likely go to Arlington public schools, which are reasonably well-rated. There are times that I would like to be closer in, but we can still walk to good places for dinner and make it to Davis for rehearsal in ten minutes at non-peak traffic times.

[clevernonsense.livejournal.com]

i'd prefer to stay on the cambridge side of the line thank you very much ;)

but, long term, my wife and i are shopping for single family houses right now, which makes somerville more likely than cambridge, but we both decided we'd much rather live near moody street in waltham than anywhere in somerville not close to the porter/davis hubs (we're still wary of waltham, but the moody st area matches a lot of our wishes). but, we're of the mindset of a "forever home" so whatever we choose will be with that in mind.

no offense to folks who've moved to the burbs, but i'd sooner live in a cardboard box :p

[intuition-ist.livejournal.com]

hm, i've always heard of moody street as traffic-jam hell...

[kylenffxi.livejournal.com]

My wife and I rented a tiny place in Davis for 5 years after college while saving up for a down-payment on a house or a condo. When it came time to go house-hunting, we looked at many towns, but ultimately decided to stay near Davis and bought a condo 3 blocks away from our old apartment. Having grown up in the MA suburbs, I couldn't get excited about the idea of living out there, even though I work 1/2 hour outside of the city. Plus, the wife works downtown and really enjoys living within walking distance of the T, so Davis ended up being the most mutually convenient location for both of us.

Our short-term plan is to stay in our condo for at least another 5-6 years, at which point we'll re-evaluate our situation depending on whether we have kids and need more space, and how property values and school systems are doing. We've been really happy living in Davis for the past 6 years, and if we're just as happy here 6 years from now there's a good chance we'll stick around.

[pekmez.livejournal.com]

I rented in Teele Square for 2 years starting in 1996, then rented our current house in Powderhouse Square for another 2 years before my SO and I bought it from our ex-landlord in 2000.

Then we got married, then we had kids - one who's pre-K at the Capuano, and one who's 3 months old. Our house is definitely a forever house in my book, and I'd never flee to the suburbs - I'd hate living there and the things I value in education aren't significantly better there than here.

Fleeing to another country, on the other hand... an urban public education in a country that teaches algebra and foreign languages before middle school and where my kids' other grandparents lives - that's tempting. but really it's more about the inlaws and the spousal homesickness than it is about not loving where we are and being optimistic about our kids' future experiences in Somerville public schools.

[prunesnprisms.livejournal.com]

1) I will live here as long as it makes sense for my lifestyle.

2) I don't have kids. I would probably raise children here.

3) I own.

[masswich.livejournal.com]

Lived here 12+ years. Owned a two-family near Union, moved over to Teele for a little more space when we had our second kid.

Love living here. More or less plan to stay. First kid is in 2nd grade at the Healey and second kid is in preschool at Agassiz Preschool (newly relocated to Somerville from Mass Ave.)

The schools seem OK in the younger grades. The biggest problem appears to be the self-fulfilling prophesy where people who can afford to panic and move out to other places, thus lowering the ability of schools to fundraise and such. The exodus starts when kids enter kindergarten, as if what K someone goes to makes the difference between Harvard and the gutter. It speeds up around 2nd-3rd grade. It seems the biggest problem in the schools is the lack of resources for the middle school years. I think I will seriously consider private school for grades 5-8, then back to Somerville High.

The City has not helped the situation with the schools by messing around with one of the 2-3 best options in the City (the soon-to-be former Choice program at the Healey) without much regard to what many parents want. As a result, I know many families that have left the public schools. Don't get me wrong, I think unifying the Healey was probably the right idea in the long term, but to just decide to do it in one year despite many parents' thoughtful concerns is indicative of a school system that does not respect its customers.

But in the end the benefits of growing up in the city seem great for the kids, so I hope to avoid the suburbs.

[m-b-w.livejournal.com]

I've lived in Davis Square since graduating from Tufts more than 20 years ago. The time has been split almost exactly in half between my being a renter and a home owner. I see myself as a permanent resident and do have a child who is a Somerville Public Schools student.

[greyling.livejournal.com]

I moved here 2.5 years ago, partway through a PhD program. I'd guess I have 2.5-3 years left. At that point, whether or not I stay in Somerville will have a lot to do with what job I wind up getting; if I get a (good) job in the Boston area, I'm not leaving Somerville for a long time, and would consider myself potentially permanent.

I do not have kids yet. I would probably prefer to send my kids to a better school district, and will cross that bridge when I get there.

I own property.

[svilletheatre.livejournal.com]

This really is interesting!

I'm 3rd generation Somerville, as my grandparents moved here from Charlestown in 1957. Aside from moving away for school and some random post-college wandering, I've lived here most of my life and intend to stay as long as possible.

No kids or marriage, but if I had them, I'd certainly have no issue with the public schools. I *might* send them to St. Clement's for K-8 because I myself went there, but we'll cross that bridge then.

I have rented since college but just bought a home in Teele Square from another family member. If it wasn't for the familial discount, there is no way in hell I could afford to buy anything bigger than a studio in Somerville. Should I have a family someday I hope to stay in that house.

-Ian/Somerville Theatre

[pearlythebunny.livejournal.com]

We bought here in 1999 and have no intention of moving. Our daughter is now ten. The people I know in the suburbs all seem to be talking about downsizing and moving to a more urban area now that their kids are approaching middle school. The idea of a big back yard is appealing at first, but kids outgrow the yard fast.

When my daughter was young, I much preferred going to a local playground every day, where my daughter could always find someone to play with and I could always find someone to chat with. We don’t go to playgrounds much anymore, but we both still keep up with our friends from the playground days.

My daughter has friends who go to every school in the city, and I have friends who live in every neighborhood. I think the parks and playgrounds and events-too-numerous-to-mention bring people of the city together in a way that doesn’t happen in the ‘burbs.

[balsamicdragon.livejournal.com]

We've been here for about 15 years now, renting and now owning. Have a kid in the public schools and planning to stay, well, pretty much forever :)

[trtls.livejournal.com]

I LOVE LOVE LOVE SEEING THAT PEOPLE ARE THINKING OF STAYING!! Yay for community!

We've owned in Somerville for 4 years and have kids in the school system here. I could rant about parenting, but suffice it to say, we love the schools and there's more to schools than the school itself - parents are a key necessity for a healthy productive school. It's not all about test scores for us.

We plan to stay for at least the foreseeable future. Space is an issue, but we recognize that families with small children often have limited funds and hope to have a bigger place some day.