Whither after Somerville?

[beinneighe.livejournal.com]

Hi all,

It's been clear for a while that I can't afford Somerville anymore, but I'm at a loss as to where to move next.

I've lived in Camberville for eight years, having moved here directly after college. I absolutely love this area--I love that I don't need a car, I love all our festivals, I love the concentration of artists/creatives and scientists/techies, and I love that Somerville is an actual community, not just a city. As a single, childless freelancer, I need those things to avoid going all Jack Torrence.

Does anyone have any suggestions for cities (local, national, international) that would suit someone who loves Somerville but can't swing $1500/mo for a one-bedroom, $18 for a sandwich/latte at a cafe, etc.?  

Comments

[desiringsubject.livejournal.com]

No specific suggestions, but: http://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/ is useful, and some of the posts on https://www.reddit.com/r/digitalnomad/

[lb-lee.livejournal.com]

I ended up in JP myself, but have also lived on the edge of Somerville/Medford, where it was cheaper.

I can't rec other cities, since Boston's been the one I lived in best in the country. The only living space I had that rivals my positive experience is Wellington, NZ.

[mirrored-echo.livejournal.com]

Wow, this... post described my present situation perfectly. Thank you.

[secretlyironic.livejournal.com]

Also everyone write your city and regional authorities and demand zoning reform that allows for more construction of multifamily housing. There is still a real shortage of moderately priced market rate housing!

[somergirl80.livejournal.com]

Seeing this post about fighting back kind of irks me a bit. Mostly because what you're suggesting people do is exactly what those of us who grew up here in Somerville did and nobody did anything about it. Barney's still moved here knowing what was happening and they didn't care less it was happening. The mayor who brought all of the wealthy people in to push us out did nothing. I sort of see this as a kind of karma. I mean really? It doesn't feel good to be pushed out does it? Imagine if you had generations of family who lived here, imagine growing up here, imagine seeing families be forced to sell and move far away most often separating those families. Imagine seeing those nice comfortable homes get torn down and built into ugly over priced condos. I'm not trying to be mean but it's an awful thing to have happen that most who weren't apart of it couldn't imagine. I'm one of few who are still here and it definitely doesn't feel like the close community it once was. The people here are so different from those of us who grew up here. I'm not wishing bad upon anyone but I don't feel bad that this is happening to the very people who did it to us the last 10-15 years when gentrification really flooded in.

[secretlyironic.livejournal.com]

Also everyone write your city and regional authorities and demand zoning reform that allows for more construction of multifamily housing. There is still a real shortage of moderately priced market rate housing!

[zzbottom.livejournal.com]

I think people are finding Providence to be a fun, cheaper alternative to Boston. If you want warmer, the Raleigh Durham area in North Carolina is well thought of. Not sure that either place is quite as easy to be carless, though.

[rax.livejournal.com]

I'm currently in Weymouth, which would not meet your criteria, although meets my related-but-different criteria. :) Had I been able to convince my partner into it I would have gone to Providence, which is much more like what you're looking for, try especially the neighborhood on Hope St near the Pawtucket border or over by Thayer nearish Brown and RISD. If you want something vastly different, Tucson is my favorite place I have ever lived by far, but if you don't want a car you have to be comfortable biking in 100F weather, and I have no idea if that's an option for you. (There are buses, and they're not _awful_, but they don't provide a thorough means of transportation to anywhere in the city, they're mostly just useful for commuting.) If you'd like to be sold on Tucson, I'd be happy to ramble more.

[mem-winterhill.livejournal.com]

My nephew moved to Pittsburgh a while back, and I've visited a few times. Because it has several colleges, it gets part of the way there for me. And they seemed to have some of those festivals as well.

The sports drama turns me off a bit. But I can turn that off here, too.

Seemed quite reasonably priced too.

[3rdragon]

My brother went to college in Pittsburg, and certainly thought it was a nice city to be a college student in.

I would recommend Philadelphia, which has some lovely neighborhoods. (Actually, one of the things I like about Somerville is that it in some ways reminds me of the neighborhood I grew up in.) For the most part it's not as dense as Somerville, but there are benefits to that. Summers tend to be a little hotter than here, but most winters you can see the ground on a pretty regular basis, and both the growing season and winter days are a little longer. There are not AS many festivals and road races and whatnot as Somerville, but there are some, and strangers on the street tend to be more likely to greet and perhaps strike up a conversation. (Whereas here I find that people mostly only talk to you if they're lost tourists or the T is super late again.)

Mt. Airy/Germantown is a nice, integrated neighborhood with a lot of local color and community instutitions. These days Mt. Airy is starting to be considered a little pricey and gentrified (nothing on Camberville, though), but Germantown is still quite affordable. It's right by the Wissahickon Creek and one of the largest urban parks in the US (perhaps the largest). Philly's subway system is not as comprehensive as Boston's, but there are buses and regional rail service (with schedules more reasonable than the commuter rail).

West Philadelphia is supposed to be a wonderful neighborhood, also with a lot of local color. There's a trolley system, it's near Drexel and UPenn, and quite close to center city. (Well, when I say "quite close," I mean, "farther than from Cambridge to the ocean.") There are parks and restaurants and neighborly cafes and they have a Shakespeare in the park every summer. I haven't lived there myself, but I knew a lot of people who did, and if I had struck out on my own in Philly and looked for an apartment, that would have been one of the areas I considered.

[mem-winterhill.livejournal.com]

This just came through my twitterz:

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/16/dining/pittsburgh-restaurants.html?smid=tw-nytimes&smtyp=cur

[secretlyironic.livejournal.com]

In the area, malden, revere, chelsea, quincy, lowell, waltham, and salem are less expensive and have cores that are interesting and fun. The large immigrant populations in lowell and quincy especially mean that theres great food!

Further afield, northampton and providence.

Further still, Philly, Pittsburgh, and Minneapolis are underrated and less expensive.

If you like Northampton, try Charlottesville or Raleigh. College towns, lots of young interesting people, lower prices.

If you go to Charlottesville, PM me, i know people there.

[ifotismeni]

i can give a hearty rec for waltham, as i've often done in this group. i miss somerville, and waltham isn't the same of course, but there are a lot of camberrville expats here, building our community.

[achinhibitor.livejournal.com]

Check for blue cities in red states. Austin, I gather, is a good example. Blue cities will have a culture you'll like. Red states tend to have limited zoning which allows the building of enough housing to keep the housing costs down. Unfortunately, I don't think there are many places where being carless works nearly as well as Boston, as Boston is one of the oldest and densest cities. OTOH, there are a lot of places where rent is so much lower that the costs of owning a car are tolerable.

[shadow.livejournal.com]

Portland, OR is gentrifying, but still pretty damn cheap. The public transit is decent though not always reliable; you'll want a bike or the disposable income to use Lyft.

[aedifica]

The Seward neighborhood of Minneapolis sounds like it would fit what you're looking for, though it has fewer festivals. I miss it. (Other neighborhoods might too--Longfellow comes to mind, for one--but Seward is the one I know best.)

[jbsegal.livejournal.com]

Almost all of the comments here depress the fuque out of me.

I live in Boston(Camberville) because 75% of all the people I like live here, and I REALLY don't want to start my in-person social network all over again.

Providence!

[bostonartist.livejournal.com]

I moved to Providence and love it! The cost of housing in Providence is on average 1/2 of the cost of the Boston area. Surprisingly, the cost for goods and services are only slightly lower. My wife and I where able to buy a nice house in Providence that we could never afford in our lifetime in Camberville. It's refreshing to live in a neighborhood/city that is more down to earth in affordability.

Providence is highly walkable, public transportation is pretty good, you can take a RIPTA bus for $2 from one end of the state to the other! The art/music scene is very healthy for a city of it's size with many yearly festivals downtown, and "Waterfire" on many Saturday summer nights. The city has 2 cute independent movie theaters and a megaplex in the mall downtown. The restaurant scene is also very good. I find Providence a lot less crowded and more laid back, making it easier to do things. If you want to do something in Boston, it's just an hour down the road.

The drawback to Providence is it doesn't have anywhere near the job market that Boston has and it's much smaller in every regard. That may or may not be a problem for you.