Maryland or Massachusetts?
 

So, it looks like Badger and I will be moving this summer -- either to the Columbia, MD area or to the greater Boston area. We have both been given good job offers in both areas.

A great deal of our desire to move is to leave the Jersey area. I have lived here since I was 2 1/2. I think it's time to see... something different. We are toying around with the idea of living in the city proper if we move to Boston. Columbia, on the other hand, is a more suburban-type experience. It's about half-way between Baltimore and D.C.

What would you do, and why? What attracts or repels you about Boston, or cities in general? About the Maryland area, or the suburban lifestyle? The cultural opportunities? The traffic? The weather?

As background information, we don't have (or plan to have) kids. We may get a dog some day, if it works out. We currently have two cats. I'd like to keep my commute under 1/2 hour, if I can, but I am amenable to a longer ride using public transit.

My 2 cents.
I have lived in Jersey twice, once as child/teen, S. Plainfield; once in the military, Ft. Monmouth. Good move leaving Jersey.

I have lived in the following states in order of event; Chicago subb's, Long Island, Jersey, Oklahoma, S.A. Texas, Washington-D.C., S.A. Texas, Hawaii, S.A. Texas, Ft. Campbell-KY, Jersey, Augusta-GA, Savannah-GA.

Boston:
1) Negatives: Cost of living-Very Expensive to live in the city unless you make a good six figure income, Crowds- to many people everywhere, Traffic- absolute gridlock and no parking, Attitudes, Winter Weather- way cold in the winter, Pollution, apartment living makes it very difficult to own a dog.
2) Positives: Cultural diversity, Always something to do every weekend or day off, public transport or ability to ride bike or motorcycle and keep costs low, Spring and Fall are beautiful, Quick dash to the country side, Canada, and Maine/VT/New Hamshire.

Maryland:
1) Negatives: Comuter traffic, not quite as bad as inner city Boston but bad enough, Housing may be difficult to find that is not going to require a commute, May be required to live way out on commuter line to afford cost of living.

2) Positives: Quick shot to the countryside and coast and Washington D.C., easier to live in the countryside and commute, Cost of living less than Boston, May be able to rent a house and have a dog.

Note having never lived in either city I have experienced inner city living and rural living. Maybe the older I get the less I like the crowds. I prefer rural living more. The city does not make a big difference as most problems revolve around population density. Columbia is a bit less big city but a city any way you look at it. Boston is an animal all it's own. Not much different than D.C., Atlanta, Honolulu, Nashville, Baltimore, etc. The personality may be a bit different but the problems are all the same.

The most important factor in your decision should be cost and affordability. If you think you can swing it go to Boston and see if you like it, you may, like I said I have become more biased as I have gotten older. I met my wife in D.C. and we had a blast as a young couple living there with no serious ties to anything or anyone.

JMHO. Good luck and let us know what your decision tree led you to do. (good idea to write it all down on a bit of paper individually and then compare notes to see where you agree after some joint research).

I am interested to hear what others have to say.

Let's not forget the corruption aspect. Boston spends 14.6 billion on it's 'big dig' a project that kills a motorist in a ceiling collapse almost a soon as it's complete.

Maryland might also be corrupt, but at least Southern frauds are more interesting.

I chose Columbia,MD because the city always ends up on 'best places to live' lists.

It would depend on Where in Boston exactly which area. It is the 10th largest city in the U.S. Pick your neighborhood wisely. I guess there arn't many working class communities anymore in urban Boston but if you were talking say, Cape Cod or some other beachy city.

But what do I know...I'm just a tree hugger from out west.

Massachusetts? NO, no, no, no, no! :headshake
Income tax, sales tax, excise tax on personal property (every year), high energy costs, high insurance costs, stratospheric housing costs... and they talk funny.

I lived in Columbia for almost three years. Loved it.
It's a great town, very unlike the rest of mind-numbing, soul-crushing suburban sprawl in the area. I very much recommend it... however, cost of living and real-estate prices are extremely high in the DC area. Probably a good deal higher than Mass.
If cost is not a great worry, I would definitely choose Columbia.

Well this is interesting anyway.

Ibby, why did you find Columbia to be different? What differentiated it from the rest of the "soul crushing"? I have been down there many times in the past few years on business, and I saw very little that was dissimilar from the area of NJ I live in (Princeton-Trenton area).

Badger found a site (bestplaces.net) that does COL comparisons, and the Columbia vs. Boston comparison can be seen here. They're roughly equivalent; Boston is cheaper, even, once you factor in that health care is covered by our employers. We have crunched the numbers and we should be able to swing it comfortably in either area.

To be honest, I was hoping for a slightly more Boston-positive viewpoint... I saw Columbia as being more of what we are living in now, and boredom is a large motivator in our decision.

Please, educate me.

We can't educate you on the "X" factor, which is highly personal and very important. :headshake

Boston. If you can't live in LA, NYC, or Seattle, Boston will do.

If it were me, I'd choose Boston in a second.

It's got more personality. It's right on the water. It's very historic. It's vibrant.

Suburban Maryland is boring.

I would go for Columbia, MD. It's close to all the great stuff you can do in D.C. and Baltimore, and it's easy to get to sticks to relax. Also, you're close to three major airports (Reagan, Dulles and BWI), if you're going to travel much.

For Columbia, honestly, it's the people I liked most, but columbia has a little personality at least. the 'village center' design ensures convenience, and also helps build a little more 'community' with events and stuff. Plus, with WAY harsh limits on signage and billboards and stuff, it's pretty damn good looking for suburbia.

the further north and east you go in the US, the nastier people are. People in Boston are horrible sonsabitches. MD is a better choice. boring, maybe.....but at least ther're no traffic rotaries.

I don't think I could live in Taxachussets or Maryland. Especially as a Yankee fan and someone who isn't fond of our federal government.

Yabbut, they have the best job opportunities in our line of work. (My other possibilities are Huntsville, Colorado Springs, or Dallas.:headshake)
AND I don't give a rat's ass about professional sports of any kind. I don't particularly like the feds either, and I counted that as a smirch on MD, not Boston.

It was on MD, not Boston. Boston would be a great place if it weren't in Taxachussets and they got rid of the Red Sox. ;)

From the choices you listed, I'd pick Colorado Springs.

I will agree that Columbia's prettier than the average suburb.
I think my perfect location would be a cross between Seattle (in the summer!), Portland, Oregon, and Portland, Maine. Unfortunately, Seattle does have The Rainy Season, and Portland has a dearth of the types of jobs we're looking for. Maine has SNOW. However, you can drive there from Boston!

The Boston burbs are pretty nasty, so the city would be the only way to go. The public trans worked out well for us when we visited, it's already been mentioned how awful the traffic and parking are (worst I've ever experienced).
Jim threatened to get a job there recently so I looked into real estate and decided we were not going to live there.

Wait a minute - I might have just changed my mind.

I'm sorry, did you say Austin? 'Cause that's what it sounded like you said.

Boston Sux and Md is at least drivable to the cellar BBQ's in the summer

Too 'effin hot in Texas. I am a defective Indian. I don't like the heat, and I don't like rice. I realize Austin is an oasis of blue in a sea of red, but even that can't overcome the karma of the Republic of Texas. I have been there once or twice; nice enough to visit...

You and Ibram, man, I swear...

See, see, Texans swear. :haha:

Please come. But bring your foul weather gear for June...

Yes, forecast was for two feet of snow in the mountains today, and last night the wind blew treetops down. The parking lot is littered with blowdown debris. It's not really really cold, but it's a lot more like November than June.

*sigh*

You wanna talk about weather? Columbia MD is currently 99 degrees, according to Wunderground.

On the water's edge in Boston, it's a perfect 74.4. (just ignore the fact that in the city center it's 99.6)

See? See?! I knew there were places as hot as Texas.

I mean, we still win, because this is our third day in a row over 100 degrees and it's not even noon yet, but MD deserves a pat on the back at least...

If it were me, I would choose Columbia and live in Baltimore. Columbia is a nice area and has a lot of stuff, though it still feels like typical suburbia to me. Baltimore is a very underrated city, much like Philadelphia. The commute to Columbia would be like 30-45 minutes, and you can take MARC to Columbia from the city. Weather is about the same as it is in NJ, and the traffic would also be about the same.

Baltimore and its suburbs (I'd say Columbia is more Baltimore than DC, though I've seen DC folks try to claim it too) have character, and the cost-of-living is lower than Boston (and DC...and probably your part of NJ for that matter). I like Boston, but I don't know if I'd want to live there for both the reasons Bruce mentioned and that shit might be piled too much on top of each other for me.

Huntsville is a great place to live. More smart people concentrated there than most cities in the US. I like Huntsville.

I'm with sycamore. Baltimore is great. Try to live in the actual city, not out in the county...

So, you're telling me that all the horror stories I've heard about Baltimore recently are all fabrication? The crime, the corruption, the murder rate?
According to wikipedia, it's the second most violent city, after Detroit. Boston is the 29th.

Well, the Baltimore inner harbor is nice.

But Boston Rocks!

I live in St. Louis, which was the most violent city in 2006...and my neighborhood is and has been quiet and peaceful. It's all about where you live and where you go. The north side of St. Louis is notoriously awful. Some parts of Baltimore are pretty fucking rough, in particular most of the west side and parts of the east side. But you and Badger seem like you do well...based on that, you could certainly find a nice place in a great area, like Canton or Mount Vernon.

I have family in, or rather around, both cities. The DC/Baltimore areas are far better than those in Boston.

Update:

Looks like it's Maryland after all. The decision points: better job in a better field for me, better pay and more respect for Badger.

So now we have to figure out how to
A) sell our house
B) move to Maryland
C) buy a new house
D) make the above interlock financially
E) continue to emotionally support my newly-widowed mother...

The good news is that I have enough vacation that I only have to work two weeks between now and Sept. 8, which is my start date with my new employer. I still need to maintain my health insurance through the transition!

Best of luck on the move, and the new jobs.:thumb2:

You can buy a bridge policy through COBRA insurance. Look it up on the web. Good luck.

So, it's amazing how you discover exactly what a dump your current house is when you go to sell it. We are sinking some serious $$ into new carpets, a fireplace surround, new arborvitae out front (the old one got eaten by bagworms :vomit:when we were out of town this summer)... "touching up" the walls, then realizing that the manufacturer reformulated and it no longer matches :mad:... Deciding what stays to "stage" the house, buying fake plants, bedding, frippery like candles and funny soaps, stuff I'd never use myself...

The good news is that we are throwing away a metric ass-load of crap we don't need or want. Some of it will go on craigslist, so at least someone will use it. The rest gets landfilled in a proper landfill, instead of my basement. :p

Ha Ha, that's why I'm staying put. Moving would kill me for sure. :haha:

Makes me want to move just to get my attic cleared out...

Well, once you get there, I may very well be coming to visit.
Like when I come back and have nowhere to stay and turn up on your doorstep with my suitcases.
Surprise!

Ibby, you're welcome anytime. When we find a house. :)

Pie, you should freecycle your crap. Someone out there will come and take it. You would be amazed.

If I had the time, Glatt, I would. We are going to list on Friday; not enough time. The 'crap' really is crap -- non-working, broken or otherwise unusable. I realize some guy out there really needs my old busted toaster oven to complete his art project, but I don't have the time to find him.

All the clothes, furniture or other household goods are going to goodwill or our local Home Front.

Good luck to you Pie.
And I know it's a matter of expediancy, but thank you on behalf of someone who has previously benefitted from someone else's moving largess.

In fact Jesus gave me a cooker when I was trying to claw my way back up last time. It meant I could live on huge vegetable stews through a long cold winter of debt.

Hey SG, I was in grad school once. I know how cool it is to get something like that. In fact, I'm currently looking at a pair of chairs we got for $5 from a fellow student. The chairs are coming with us. :)

Both here and at our last house freecycling is/was as easy as dragging the stuff out onto the sidewalk. There's no changing your mind, it goes quick.

so pie...
whereabouts in columbia are you now? which 'village'? school district?

Yeh - How's it going?... Whats it like? ... Where's the video?

Same here mostly, except for the time we put out a broken and beaten-up gas grill. It stayed there for 2 days!?! So we put a sign on it that said $50 and it was gone the next morning.

:lol2:

Human nature in a nutshell.

We're in a fly-by-night rental place in "hobbit's glen" right now -- not too happy with it. WTF is up with the street names around here??? I have vetoed certain properties because I am not goddamn living on freakin' Bare Bush Path. What were these folks smoking?

My husband and I are pretty close to making an offer on a place in Hickory Ridge. It backs on the Little Patuxent nature preserve; that's its best feature.

To be honest, Ibby, I don't like Columbia much. There is no soul here. It's suburbia to the n-th power; all strip malls, no downtown. But it's still the best commute to our places of employment, and we can go to DC or Baltimore on the weekends. :shrug: We'll make do.

Between Bare Bush Path :lol: and Madam's Wood Estate (from ... was it Dana? Or Sundae? :smack: ), we have some rather saucy place naming going on.

Please, think of the children.

That was Dani.
I grew up Elmhurst Estate.
No rudies there.

We have some crackingly rude place names here, all genuinely old. How someone managed to call something Bare Bush Path in recent times I have no diea - classic!

Columbia's street names are mostly taken from poetry. Or from Tolkien.
I suppose I'll get used to it after a while.

They just needed that little 'added value' push. My husband thought he was a pretty smart for thinking it up. lol

Tell your husband it was brilliant! I will keep that tactic in mind.

Well, since none of the above isn't an option ... at least the People's Democratic Republic of Maryland is closer to The Cellar.

I go to Baltimore every other year for a conference, never liked chowdah, but love a good crab cake.

edit: note to self. Check original post date and read entire thread before posting, as the deal is done and I'm 4 months late and probably a dollar short.

Wolf, I'll take your "dollar-short" any day! ;)