Moving from Brooklyn to Boston
July 6, 2012 6:06 PM Subscribe
what is the brooklyn of boston?
i like brooklyn; i'm moving to boston; where should i live?
i like brooklyn; i'm moving to boston; where should i live?
Depends what it is you like about Brooklyn (because, ultimately, I'd bet the experience of living in Brooklyn is irreplaceable). But if you wanted to try:
If you're into old brownstones and interesting history - Back Bay
If you're into cool art exhibits/music shows and left-wing politics - Cambridge
If you're a hipster - Allston
posted by sidi hamet at 6:15 PM on July 6, 2012 [4 favorites]
If you're into old brownstones and interesting history - Back Bay
If you're into cool art exhibits/music shows and left-wing politics - Cambridge
If you're a hipster - Allston
posted by sidi hamet at 6:15 PM on July 6, 2012 [4 favorites]
I suspect Somerville is the closest-to-right answer, but Boston really has no Brooklyn. In general Boston is very poor in viable NYC analogues.
posted by Miko at 6:47 PM on July 6, 2012 [6 favorites]
posted by Miko at 6:47 PM on July 6, 2012 [6 favorites]
Used to be Cambridge, now is Somerville.
posted by Rock Steady at 6:48 PM on July 6, 2012
posted by Rock Steady at 6:48 PM on July 6, 2012
Tell us where you'll be working. If you're working downtown, Jamaica Plain is a good choice. If you're working in Cambridge, Somerville is a good choice.
posted by Sidhedevil at 6:55 PM on July 6, 2012
posted by Sidhedevil at 6:55 PM on July 6, 2012
Also what neustile said about where in Brooklyn you're talking about. Park Slope and Harvard Square/Huron Village/North Cambridge are pretty interchangeable in some of their most annoying aspects (I say this even though I live in North Cambridge and love it here, but the self-righteous vegan work-from-home parents with $700 baby strollers make me want to open a vein). Carroll Gardens's closest analogue is probably East Cambridge. Bed Stuy's closest analogue is probably Roxbury or maybe the Shawmut neighborhood in Dorchester. Etc., etc., etc.
posted by Sidhedevil at 7:00 PM on July 6, 2012 [1 favorite]
posted by Sidhedevil at 7:00 PM on July 6, 2012 [1 favorite]
Nthing that you really need to tell us what you mean by Brooklyn. I mean, if you mean Bed-Stuy, that's going to be pretty different than if you mean Greenpoint.
posted by lunasol at 8:15 PM on July 6, 2012
posted by lunasol at 8:15 PM on July 6, 2012
Jamaica Plain is FAR (but great). Cambridge is great but expensive. Somerville is great and cheaper than Cambridge, and depending on where you live, not any farther from the action than Cambridge.
posted by morninj at 9:26 PM on July 6, 2012
posted by morninj at 9:26 PM on July 6, 2012
I haven't lived in Boston for a while, but Somerville and JP feel like the right answers to me. On the Cambridge/Somerville end you may want to check out Union Sq, Inman Sq, Central Sq, Davis Sq, and maybe Cambridgeport - haven't spent as much time in JP so maybe someone else will have more useful comments on that front.
posted by en forme de poire at 9:40 PM on July 6, 2012
posted by en forme de poire at 9:40 PM on July 6, 2012
(Allston/Brighton maybe, but it strikes me as more like the area around NYU.)
posted by en forme de poire at 10:09 PM on July 6, 2012
posted by en forme de poire at 10:09 PM on July 6, 2012
I think Somerville is a little more vibrant than Allston if you're comparing to Brooklyn. Allston has more bars, and a couple of great music venues, but the median age is probably about 20 - it is VERY young and pretty dirty, lots of trash and barf on the street because there are so many students. There are some families and folks over 22 in Allston, but not many - so if that might be irritating for you, I'd caution you against it. All that said, you can get lots of different types of food late at night, and it stays busy until much later than the rest of Boston. That's a huge plus. Disclaimer: I live in Allston and I might just be getting tired of it, so take what I say with a grain of salt. ;)
Somerville is larger, parts of it are not easily T accessible (will you have a car?) and the music scene is more varied. Allston is pretty much all punk, hard rock and metal, Somerville has a lot more bands of different styles.
What is it that you like about Brooklyn? We might be able to guide you better knowing that.
posted by pazazygeek at 4:50 AM on July 7, 2012
Somerville is larger, parts of it are not easily T accessible (will you have a car?) and the music scene is more varied. Allston is pretty much all punk, hard rock and metal, Somerville has a lot more bands of different styles.
What is it that you like about Brooklyn? We might be able to guide you better knowing that.
posted by pazazygeek at 4:50 AM on July 7, 2012
I live in Brooklyn now but I lived in Boston for a long time and my favorite place was JP.
posted by nathancaswell at 6:26 AM on July 7, 2012
posted by nathancaswell at 6:26 AM on July 7, 2012
Jamaica Plain is absolutely the right answer, but I'm surprised nobody has said Southie, because that was my first thought before centering on JP.
posted by General Malaise at 12:46 PM on July 7, 2012
posted by General Malaise at 12:46 PM on July 7, 2012
Response by poster: Wow, this is great -- I intentionally didn't define Brooklyn because I wanted to see what variety of answers I could get -- and you guys gave my family some great leads to check out. Thanks!
posted by LittlePumpkin at 6:59 PM on July 9, 2012
posted by LittlePumpkin at 6:59 PM on July 9, 2012
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by xingcat at 6:14 PM on July 6, 2012 [1 favorite]