Susan Mai’s Beacon Hill apartment is a postage stamp of a place. The kitchen isn’t much bigger than the bathroom, and entertaining friends is a bit like playing Frisbee in a phone booth.
But for all its drawbacks, Mai says she couldn’t be happier. She walks to work at a local publisher, eats out five times a week, and thinks of Boston Common as an ideal front yard.
Comments
While a positive and encouraging article in many respects, my guess is simply that Boston's infrastructure will not permit circulation of population throughout the city and small neighborhoods will "pocket" rather than the city becoming a diverse and unified mega-town. And this:
Though positive in many respects, the population growth creates many challenges for city officials and residents alike: crowded schools, roads, and transit lines, and harder-to-find housing at moderate prices.
Simply system overload. Light rail and rapid transit are already operating at full capacity, schools are overcrowded, nightlife and cultural entertainment are staid and clichéd, and housing priced confabulated. Seems like too much inbreeding has happened in Boston. Fresh blood may demand new changes, however, history teaches us that Bostonians are slow to respond to opportunity and do so grudgingly at best. My guess is that Boston will polarize to ultra wealth due to biotech, IT and medical opportunity and the wealth Universities engender, but middle-income and lower classes will be squeezed out mercilessly. Look for an increasing disparity in wealth, possessions and property and the attendant rise in crime, security issues and policing that will spawn.
But most of all Bostonians have to learn to drop the false camaraderie that characterizes your city and concentrate on being real (and adult). Too much "fluff" and not enough substance. You just haven't learned how to sustain an illusion.
Hmmm....and what thriving metropolis to you live in?
While it's true that the volume of new housing unit construction in Boston over the last decade has occurred downtown, new urban residents (particularly young families and middle class empty nesters) are also settling in Boston's livable neighborhoods outside the downtown. When the price of gas hit $4 per gallon this decade, life at the exurban edge became a lot less attractive. Neighborhoods with good transit access, solid and reasonably priced housing stock, vibrant walkable main street districts, low crime rates and abundant green space are seeing a dramatic influx of newcomers. Just look at Roslindale today.
"...and more young families opt for Boston over the traditional move to the suburbs in search of better schools. "
Casey, do you have any numbers or statistics at all to back up this claim? Name one family with young children, name one, moving into a $4000 per month city apartment or condo who are also planning on putting their children into the public schools and keeping them there through high school. Name one. Private schools yes, of course.
This was the sole reason I moved OUT of Boston in the first place 5 years ago, the school lottery. Maybe recent changes in the school assignment system will minimize the flight, but when you get older and live in certain neighborhoods the best option for your kids is to move out to a burb. We had a great condo in Brighton, of all places, with usable transportation although the winters and the snow shovelling/parking was annoying at times it was workable but I would never go back to that.
Interesting, as Boston Magazine just noted that 1 out of 4 residents of formerly shopworn Medford is 20-34 years old, a remarkable influx. Not everyone is willing or able to pay Boston prices, and the big city is not the only place with public transportation and walkable amenities.
Hopefully this influx of well-educated,well-heeled,older and younger fresh blood will push for better spending priorities,more funding for public transit and public schools,parks,maintainance and beautification of streets,grass,trees,lighting,walking and bike lanes.There is a walkway coming along the South Boston and Dorchester coastline.
This influx,as noted in some comments,extends beyond Beacon Hill and the South End to Dorchester,Roslindale,Somerville,Brighton,Brookline,Jamaica Plain,Arlington,Watertown-all the more need for good transit and reduced traffic gridlock.
One major attraction to living in the Boston area is its small scale,walkability,beauty.New developments would have to take this into account or else it will become a gleaming and teeming metropolis which crushes the very features that have made Boston desirable.
This is a very encouraging story. And while I think it's indisputable that the city is coming back, I'm concerned that the article paid so little attention to the one group that we seem to have the biggest problem with, which is middle to upper middle class families with children just old enough to start school. The vast majority of people I know personally in this age group (neighbors, co-workers, etc.) still seem to be leaving the cities for a fantastical (in my opinion) vision of great schools and rolling hillsides in the distant suburbs (nevermind that when their kids get old enough to tire of the swingset, they will have nothing to do and be dependant on their parents to ferry them everywhere until they can drive...which is its own problem of course).
When the majority of people in this group choose to stay in the city, then I'll know we're truly "back."
It's easy to be negative and it doesn't take a rocket scientist to do it. Boston is one of the most charming and liveable cities in the US with a public transportation system that rivals the great metropolises of the nation. It has every amenity for the middle class and above, the best medical facilities in the world, the greatest educational institutions in the world, theater, opera, music, sports, night clubs, every venue imaginable including great parks and beautiful architecture. in a couple of hours you can be in some of the most beautifuls scenery in the world....ocean, beaches, mountains.
What a great city! I LOVE Boston!