Scared of going down south.

July 1, 2011 12:33 PM

Moving back to Boston, working in Quincy, working nights, need to practice music at night (hopefully), would like to live in Cambridge, would like to get rid of my car. Lots of different details I'm trying to piece together. Details inside. Advice requested.

So I’ve accepted a job in Quincy. Rather not be too detailed, but lets say that I work 12 hour shifts, 7PM to 7AM, 3 days a week. It’s about a 20 minute walk from the subway. I’m trying to keep my commute as short as possible because with only 12 hours between work hours I don’t have a ton of time to sleep and be a human being. That said I’d rather live in an area I like and suck it up on my work days than feel out of the loop. I’d ideally like to get rid of my car.

I’ve lived in Davis Square off and on for 10 years, but I’m currently living in Maine. I’ve always wanted to live in Inman square. All my friends are in Cambridge/Somerville/Medford/Melrose. I lived in JP 2x and felt very isolated from everyone. I’ve recently found Davis kind of over run and a little claustrophobic but I think I would really enjoy Inman if I could find a place.

Since I’ve been doing this job (I work nights now too), I’ve been keeping a pretty much nocturnal schedule. I usually stay up till 3, sometimes 4, and get up 8 hours after I go to sleep, so usually 11 or 12. I’m not sure if I’ll keep that up when I get back to town, but it sort of works. Definitely on my work days, I need to sleep till 2 or 3. I’m not the soundest sleeper in the world, but can usually manage with a fan or some white noise in the room. Jackhammering or constant lawn mowing or something like that would be a problem. I know well though that you have to deal with noise in the city.
I’m a musician. I play violin (fiddle really), guitar and sing. I’m concerned about having a place I can practice and not drive my neighbors crazy. I oftentimes play electric guitar through headphones, so that wouldn’t be too much of an issue. But I do like to sing and practice fiddle. I’ve been able to do that really late here (I live in the middle of nowhere) and that’s been great. Not sure how I’m going to do that in the city though.

I’m also a photographer and do darkroom stuff in my bathroom. At least that’s what I’ve done so far. I have a bit of junk I need to put someplace (desk, scanner, equipment). So a tiny, tiny studio probably wouldn’t work that well. (unless I went with option 2). I’ve never had my own place in the city. Never paid more than $675 in rent. I’m hoping beyond hope that I could find something around $1200 or less. Or that my combined space expenses (see below) would be less than $12 or 1300.

So possible solutions are:
1) [dream solution] Find a free standing apartment (like an above garage apartment) or well soundproofed studio or 1 BR in Inman and be able to get rid of my car and practice at home and all is well.

2) Find a nice, smaller place in Inman where I can sleep. Rent a studio space somewhere where I can practice at night. Get rid of my car.

3) Like #2 but find a good roommate situation with people who won’t mind not waking me up. Same thing with finding some studio space.

4) Find a place in Dorchester, hopefully much cheaper than Cambridge. Have a much shorter ride to work on the T. Keep my car but pay less in rent.

5) Live in Quincy? I don’t think that would be awesome but I’m not sure.

6) Something I haven’t thought of?

So, any advice or recomendations? I'm not sure what to expect as far as Inman (or Central) rent. I'd consider Cambridgeport too. If you have recomendations for areas I haven't thought of, I'd take those. I'm open to the idea of Dorchester, it's not my first choice and I don't really know anything about it but it would be a lot closer to work.

Specific question: is my idea about finding some studio space in Cambridge/Somerville practical? I was thinking about finding a space to keep my darkroom equipment and practice in too, maybe in one of the big studio buildings in Union, but I'm not sure if they are hard to come by or not, and/or prohibitively expensive.

Thanks for your thoughts!

posted by sully75 to Work & Money (13 answers total)

Response by poster: ps may not be entirely relevant, but I'm starting Aug 1, but may sublet for the first month and put my stuff in storage so I can search in earnest, as I'll be working in Maine till the end of July.
posted by sully75 at 12:46 PM on July 1, 2011

A friend of mine is looking to share band studio space in Brighton, listed the price as $250/mo. So they must exist! Maybe you can find a share situation like that, where it's not yours every night, but on your nights off.

Can't help you with the rest. Housing market is tight!
posted by clone boulevard at 12:57 PM on July 1, 2011

sully75, just a word of caution: if you are dependent on public transportation, Inman is a tough commute, especially during those winter months when you either have to stand outside to wait for a bus, or hike it to Central Sq. to catch the red line. That combined with a commute to Quincy—on the opposite end of the city, basically, means your commute time could be very long. It's certainly possible, just long. So it may mean you wouldn't be able to get rid of your car...I dunno.

Otherwise, I think it's likely you could find some good places to live in both Somerville and Cambridge where you could have your studio space. But again, as you know I'm sure, whenever you are close to the train you are going to pay for it. You could look maybe around Alewife, that'd be cheaper, but definitely that much longer to Quincy. I think a one-bedroom right in Inman would be tough, but moving further in the direction of East Cambridge or towards Somerville you may have more luck. By the way, East Somerville, around the end of the Green line (Lechmere) has its perks—it wasn't as happening as Inman, but it wasn't far away (Kendall is close too, on the back side of MIT, but it gets more expensive the closer you get to the school), and you're close to the river, and the rents are cheaper...

All of that aside, Dorchester does seem like a smarter move considering how much closer you'd be to Quincy, and how you'd be more likely to get a cheaper place. I guess you could consider Brighton/Brookline/Allston and thereabouts, but if you're not loving Davis then the college scene in those areas may drive you nuts, and you'd probably be about as isolated as you were in JP—it's ridiculous how long it takes to get to those areas from across the river! Boston's public transportation drove me nuts because of stuff like that...and when it's a game night? Forget about it.

I've heard Southie is up-and-coming...? Others probably know a lot more about this than I...

Sorry if I sound negative; I'm not a big fan of Boston, haha. I lived in JP a while back for about four years, and Davis for a few years recently (left early this year, and for what it's worth found it to be stifling like you do) and this is just what I found to be true for me. Personally, I always wanted to live in Union Square (which I thought had a lot of the same cool qualities as Inman but was less expensive). However, again, the commute is tough since you're nowhere near a train. Seems like the best neighborhoods in the Boston metro area are like that.
posted by dubitable at 1:19 PM on July 1, 2011

You can totally get studio space in Cambridge, not far at all from Inman in Central Square (down the street from The Middle East). I know some peeps who might be looking to share a room to house your gear and give you the nights when you can practice. The Brighton spot that clone_boulevard's friend is in is probably The Sound Museum, which is also good but it's not red line/Inman square accessible so a little bit more of a PITA if you don't have a car (although you can take the 64 bus to it from Central Square).

Memail me. I might be able to get you in touch with some folks at New Alliance, see if there's a room available or someone looking to share.

FWIW, I live in Allston and the rent is decent and while there are a lot of irritating party college kids, it's not too bad to take the green line to the red line, and then that Brighton Sound Museum rehearsal space is easier for you to get to. I have a friend who works in Quincy and goes to shows in/around Somerville, Cambridge and Allston all of the time, he's in like 3 bands with practice spots in all three -- and he lives in Allston. It's totally doable.

I don't think you should live in Quincy. If I had my druthers I'd live off of the red line myself, so hopefully you can make that work. I personally would live in Davis or in Central before I lived in Inman, though, because it's a bit of a hoof to the red line in the winter.
posted by pazazygeek at 1:24 PM on July 1, 2011

FWIW, I live in Allston and the rent is decent and while there are a lot of irritating party college kids, it's not too bad to take the green line to the red line, and then that Brighton Sound Museum rehearsal space is easier for you to get to. I have a friend who works in Quincy and goes to shows in/around Somerville, Cambridge and Allston all of the time, he's in like 3 bands with practice spots in all three -- and he lives in Allston. It's totally doable.

Yeah, I hope I didn't sound too negative in my comment about getting from one side of the river to the other; to frame it another way, I'm one of those people whose patience for dealing with public transportation is relatively low especially after living in NYC (doh, I outed myself...). But everyone has a different tolerance for this sort of thing: I had a good friend who lived in Allston, commuted to MIT by bike except when it was really terrible weather, and loved living there. He and his girlfriend found it to be a vibrant, fun place to live—point of all this is to say, it'd be worth it to check all these areas out if you can, and do some 'test' commutes to see if you can swing it (and consider what the commutes would be like in the winter, don't forget). Good luck!
posted by dubitable at 1:31 PM on July 1, 2011

With your schedule, you could take a bike on the T... that might open more possibilities up to you, or at least make both the Inman and Quincy sides of a red line trip take less time.

I've heard North Quincy / Wollaston has some younger/hipper folks these days, and you'd be close to the T and Beach... but as a Central Square resident, if I were you I'd try for one of your combinations in Cambridge.
posted by ldthomps at 1:41 PM on July 1, 2011

I live in Quincy! I think you're more likely to find the quality-of-life things you're looking for down here, although you won't have as many people right nearby.

-Music -- Quincy isn't huge but it does have a few of its own programs and some neat local things happening. Depending on what kind of singing you do, you may be able to do something like join the local community choir program at Eastern Nazarene. They do the Messiah every winter term and then something else cool in the spring.

-Sleep -- most of the residential neighborhoods are quiet, and some of them are still close to the T and the city-type areas.

-Facilities -- Quincy has nice parks, a really pretty beach along Wollaston (just don't talk about the historic issues with the water quality), and a decent bus network. We're on the Red Line. It's not perfect for getting into Cambridge at night, but it's pretty good. There's a few bad neighborhoods, but most places are pretty safe.

-Some really good restaurants. Weekly farmer's markets during the summer.

-Still affordable, especially compared to Cambridge (!). I suspect you'd find it easier to find a small but still affordable apartment that has basement and/or suitable practice space in one of the many multi-family dwellings than you would in Cambridge, too.

I'd definitely go for Quincy over Dorchester, especially if you're working here.
posted by pie ninja at 1:57 PM on July 1, 2011 [1 favorite]

Re: Studio space: Artisan's Asylum in Somerville is opening a new location and renting studios starting at $200/month ($125 membership + $75 rent).
posted by ignignokt at 2:57 PM on July 1, 2011 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Thanks for the info! I should have mentioned that my plan is to take the Red Line if I live in Cambridge/Somerville, and know that it will be a long commute if I do.

I'll have to do some more living-in-Quincy research. But honestly I've been wanting to live in Inman for a long time, just never found the perfect place. Now that I have a tiny bit of money to throw around I would really like to make it happen.

That Artisan's Asylum thing looks pretty awesome.

I don't think I can do Alston/Brighton. I don't know anyone there, and I've found in the past that makes a huge difference for my mental health...
posted by sully75 at 3:43 PM on July 1, 2011

Response by poster: Looks like bikes are not allowed on the T before 7PM? But folding bikes are...hmmm...
posted by sully75 at 3:45 PM on July 1, 2011

Response by poster: Just wondering, is general art/music studio space in Somerville/Cambridge like OMG I've been on a waiting list for 6 years or somewhat more available than that?
posted by sully75 at 3:47 PM on July 1, 2011

I think Quincy is a fine place to live, if you work in Boston or Cambridge. I think living in and working in Quincy will probably make you feel rather cut off from the "big city," especially since you're quite artistic.

Cambridge can be pricey, but with your 12-hour shifts, perhaps you won't be at home so much, so you can go for efficiency, rather than spaciousness?
posted by xingcat at 3:53 PM on July 1, 2011

The T blocks bikes at rush hour, 7-9am 4-7pm. You might consider a junker at each end.
posted by sammyo at 4:36 PM on July 1, 2011