I'm moving to Boston

I've heard that people there cook fish with prunes.

Are you a lesbian?

My favorite description of Boston:

“It’s like San Francisco, but racist!”

Cold frigid weather, lots of pale white dick.

OP where in JP? Are you going to be close to the Orange Line, which makes for easy transport into the city? Or closer to Centre St where the restaurants and hangouts are?

Where are you moving from? I’ve lived in Boston for 20 years and have found that a lot of West Coasters struggle here because the people aren’t as fake friendly as they’re used to. Be forewarned Bostonians, and New Englanders in general, do NOT suffer fools lightly.

But welcome to the city! Hope you enjoy it.

What happened OP?! Did you move yet or change you’re mind?!

I live in JP. What do you want to know?

Boston guys with accents are hot.

Thank heavens it has gentrified. I spent a miserable year in Cambridge in the 80s when I was 18. Awful people, bullies who would walk into you, nasty types. Unhappy townies everywhere. Maybe the awful weather played a role.

Now its changed so much. No more unpleasant types. Don't know where they had to go, but it's good they are gone.

r1 LOL!!!!

some of the most distant, cold people you'll meet in the americas

seriously, new england? they out-english the english with their glassy stares and avoidant natures

Boston for the springtime?

You can sell your paintings on the sidewalk

By a café where I hope to be workin' soon

[quote]New Englanders in general, do NOT suffer fools lightly

What a farce. The vast majority of New England natives [italic]are[/italic] fools; fools with entitlement, attitude, and not much to back it up.

r13 uhhhhm???

I grew up in JP in the 1950s. I think it is a very different place now.

Watch The Gilded Age. It's just like that.

Practise how to cut upstarts dead with the flick of a fan, and lure hot bumpkins in with a flutter of it.

I haven’t been there in 14 years, but unless it’s changed, all the stereotypes about them being unfriendly and cold is absolutely true. And the guys under 30 are rowdy racist, homophobic trash with no manners.

I lived in Boston for about 30 years. I made great friends, most of whom were from there. I'm an outgoing person so maybe that was part of it. Bostonians are like the French: they don't like to make the first move in becoming friendly.

OP, I hope you have lots of money for rent. It is truly crazy.

R7 Is the Brendan Behan in JP still good craic, or has it been gentrified out of existence...? Thanks

Boston is too damn expensive now.

Rory, I don’t drink so have never been.

They stare at you and avoid you at the same time?

R22 How else to know who to avoid?

I’d spend my money in SF before Boston. Some great architecture and access to some nice nature - but SF is just nicer all around. It was a nice alternative when it was cheaper - but now I would never pay that much to live in a cold northern small city. I would take Philly before Boston even - at least it’s affordable big and diverse.

Apartments are relatively cheap in Philly.

R3 My favorite description of San Francisco:

“It’s like Boston, but there's no black people and it's covered in shit and you can't walk anywhere without being accosted !”

R24 Where are you living now?

Boston - the armpit of the NE

R12 you beat me to it. I love his sales pitch though: “Hey honey, I’m couch surfing with some friends and thinking about getting a job in a café. Don’t actually have the job. Just thinking about it. Do you wanna hitch your wagon to this star?”

R28 Been to Lowell?

Alice Ghostley explains it all for you, in a surprisingly strong voice.

What restaurants besides Cheers are worth a stop?

The Kowloon in Saugus. Then Kane's donuts for dessert.

Jamaica Plain is a cool part of the city.

I moved here in 85, elder gay, I know, and I really love it here. Not perfect, but enough to do, you can walk almost everywhere, liberal, lots of smart people, almost under the radar. Don’t forget we turned down the Olympics too. You gotta love that.

But it does help, like a previous poster mentioned, if you make the first move.

r26, that is partly true.

Met my partner (PAHT-NUH) randomly on a beach in Mexico at an elderbear event a few years ago. We've been inseparable ever since and commute back an forth to each others' coast several times per year (despite COVID). We're both old and close to retiring. I'm from SF. He's from Boston, but has lived in SF off and on throughout the years and knows what he's getting himself into . Next year, he'll move out here to retire and live with me. I then only have a couple more years until retirement.

The human feces shitty streets of San Francisco is exaggerated and is limited to small parts of certain neighborhoods, but it is still shocking and disgusting. The number of aggressive, psychotic, confrontational homeless people here is also tiresome. But you learn to avoid all of that and enjoy the beauty of the Bay Area -- if you can afford it -- which I can because I grew up here and bought my home decades ago. Meanwhile, Boston metro and New England is far whiter. It's almost scary. Portland (OR) and Seattle similarly lack ethnic diversity, but none of these cities are bland by any means.

I think Bostonians are a scream. Not warm and "open," but real and sarcastic and funny. I can be as loud and obnoxious and upfront as they are. Not like superficially 'nice' Southern Californians, whom I deplore.

Have always wanted to visit Jamaica Plain because I hear it's crunchy granola and lesbionic and not in a Vermonty polite way, but a Bostonian in your face way.

The bottom line for me and my guy is that we will never be able to shovel fucking snow at our age. I like to watch it snow when I'm there in Winter as it's a novelty, but don't like being in it for more than 3 minutes. The cold freaks me out. Humans should never have settled there. Even with Dunk's on every cornuh.

See you at Dunkin’

R36, as someone said about me in a different thread, "You sound nice."

But I will go one further and say, "I'd like to buy you a drink." Mary!, I hope it isn't Dunk's but something actually enjoyable. So come to Boston and let me know... will meet you and the man at Sola's.

Has Boston’s Terror Tot been detained yet? I have to go out tonight.

Philly? um

You should know that Lowells speak only to Cabots, and Cabots speak only to God.

R3 R36 San Fransisco is less than 6% Black.

r42, sadly, that is true now for black residents within The City. Gentrification. But San Francisco and the Bay Area in general have far more people of color of all kinds of ethnicities than what I have encountered in Boston and New England, which frankly feels strange. Note: my paaathnuh lives in beautiful downtown Lynn, on the Noth Shaw, which still feels muy blanco.

r38, we accept! Mary! I'll be back in July. Had to Google it. There's a twee bahh called Sola's and then there's Sola's Disco Dumplings trucks.

R36 Lawrence MA is 80% Hispanic. Where ever you go, you see what you want to see. Get out more.

There were more blacks in SF when I lived there in the late 80s. They were pushed out by gentrification. This happened at the same time in Los Angeles, with blacks pushed out to the Inland Empire and Lancaster.

Now SF is 30 % Asian.

Please come to Boston for the springtime I'm stayin' here with some friends and they've got lotsa room. You can sell your paintings on the sidewalk by a café where I hope to be workin' soon...

Boston, percentage-wise, has greater than double the black population of San Francisco: 13.6% vs 6%.

Yes, the wealthiest suburbs north of Boston are more or less lily white. So is Atherton, 17 miles from San Francisco, with a black population of 0.86%. And Atherton looks mighty integrated when compared to Belvedere, just north of SF, where the black population is non-existent: 0.0%

Boston, like Lynn and the state of Massachusetts, has plenty of other minority residents. In fact, both Lynn and Boston are majority-minority. Boston’s new mayor is the daughter of Chinese immigrants. The parents of her opponent in the mayoral race? Polish and Tunisian. The acting mayor last year got the job because she was the head of the Boston City Council. She’s black. So is Boston’s representative in Congress. As is the last governor, Deval Patrick.

Anyone who does’t see minorities and people of color in and around Boston - and especially in Lynn - isn’t looking very hard because they’re not hard to find.

I recently left Boston. Good luck trying to drive anywhere within a 30 mile radius of the city.

Gotta run to the supermarket a mile away for something quick? Pack a lunch and plan on spending an hour in traffic on the way there and another hour on the way back.

I've heard in Bahstan they like to pahk the cah in Hahvard Yahd.

Expect lots of short-haired women wearing turtlenecks.

R48 Walk, you fat whore.

OP, Please come to Baastan. "We said no!" - Friendly Baastonians

What’s great about JP—at least its cushier parts—is that you have tons of trees and green space but can generally walk to the grocery store, drug store, and a few decent restaurants.

You have the ocean, the city, the mountains, the country, the arts, top universities, top hospitals, liberal politics. What's not to like?

Allow me-- the first thing most New Yorkers notice about both SF and Boston is... there are no Black people. New York may not be an island of racial harmony but walking abound the city you see people of all races whereas in SF and Boston you really only see white people.... primarily white people between the ages of 18 and 45 wearing preppy-ish clothing.

They are both charming cities (when not overrun by homeless) but have in certain ways a very similar vibe-- low-rise, walkable, smaller city center that has influence beyond its size.

r55, that's bullshit. Your island of Manhattan is 60% white, while SF is 39% white. The rest are people of color, albeit a majority of whom are not black. Nevertheless, SF is far more ethnically diverse than NY. All the young white preppies you say you saw here were attending the same downtown conference for tax accountant executives that you attended during your one trip to SF. Like you, they were visiting from elsewhere; places such as Cleveland, Des Moines, and the UES.

Nice try R56 but preppy Indian and Chinese tech bros don't make your city all that diverse. I am in SF several times a year and, save the massive influx of insane homeless people (which is limited to certain areas) over the past few years, it is a very white city. Yes there are plenty of Indian and Chinese tech bros amongst the white tech bros, all in fleece vests, but you need to travel to Oakland to see an actual black person.

It is amazing too how un-gay SF has become too. I've seen comedy bits from the 80s where "San Francisco" was synonymous with "gay" and now the Castro is just another gentrifying neighborhood like the Mission

Hey gamblin’ gay why don’t you settle down? Boston can’t be your kind of town. There ain’t no gold and there ain’t nobody like me. I’m the number one fan of the man from Tennessee.

New Englanders don’t do phony nice. And they like a little backbone, so you have to give as good as you get.

[quote] we accept! Mary! I'll be back in July. Had to Google it. There's a twee bahh called Sola's and then there's Sola's Disco Dumplings trucks.

Think Solas' is twee? We can go down the street to Bukowski's for the second round!

Summahs in Prahvincetahwn …

r57, I don't disagree at all with what you wrote, as I've been watching this happen for decades. BTW, blacks are being displaced from rapidly gentrifying Oakland.

But my original comment is that comparatively, Boston and the surrounding area seems much more caucasian to me when I visit from SF to see my future husbear who lives there. He frequently visits me in SF and agrees.

Nevertheless, Boston and New England are fabulous, and OP is in for a treat, except for occasional weather extremes that happen in Winter and Summer. There is plenty of cultural diversity, rich history, access to arts, seafood, and (obviously) major league sports. Locals are blunt and direct and genuine, sarcastic, and just fucking funny. Plus, the accent.

When we retire and finally live permanently together, I hope my partner and I can somehow keep our homes in Boston and SF.

Good luck, OP!

And I agree with what you wrote R62-- the area around Boston is very white --there are some Hispanics and more Asians are moving there to work in biotech, but it is still much whiter than Silicon Valley and the East Bay.

Marin, OTOH....

r63, I also happen to work in biotech, for almost 4 decades now. Before I met my current partner who lives near Boston, I used to travel to Cambridge, MA for work meetings at biopharma companies with whom my company collaborated. We wore jeans and T-shirts under our lab coats; they wore kaki's, and buttoned Oxford shirts with ties and called each other "Doctor". My first trip was in the bleak month of February. While my boss, some executives, and I were piled in a chauffer-driven "sedan" up to a meeting in Andover, I blurted out: "Hey, what the fuck is up with all these dead trees?". Boss says to me: "They're DEE-CID-UOUS...Doctor!". I argued that it was Acid Rain and wondered where do peoples' cats go during the frozen tundra season? And worried that all of those brick buildings that the Pilgrims lived in were not earthquake safe.

Regarding Marin: My ex partner of 26 years is Chicano and grew up in a large, "financially challenged" family in San Jose. I decided to learn how to sail and then bought a used sailboat that was docked in Sausalito. Next door to the marina is a Mollie Stone's market (really high-end, like Whole Foods, but even more twee and pretentious). We'd never really visited Marin County before. And now we own a "yacht". First time we enter Mollie's, he's completely silent, staring at everyone and everything, then says loudly, "Where the fuck did all these White People come from?!". I was so stoned and couldn't stop laughing, but he was serious. At the deli, everything costs $30 per pound. Every car in the parking lot is German. Everyone is blonde and smiley and self-confident and entitled looking. We get some Brie, Pate, and a bottle of Chardonnay -- because what everyone else is getting -- and then we sail My Biggest Regret back to South SF where it will be docked amongst decrepit, inoperable boats that are basic meth labs.

Are you the rebirth of Hunter S. Thompson, R64? Cuz I could be here for that....

Am more Ginsburg than Hunter S., but thanks.

You should know how to reload quickly while squatting under a car.

I hope you like candlepin bowling!