good pun there in the title. Also, ErinMaru is heading to LA in the next few months. I think you could muster up a good friend-group in So Cal.
Though I do feel for you, when you enumerate all the people moving that is pretty massive, especially after a divorce. The same thing happened to me after college, I had managed to find a great group of people I really cared about and they all moved away. But I was determined not to let that be the end of it. It took alot of work, but I set myself up as the "hub" for our group and made sure to call everyone and keep us all in touch.
It's not the same not being able to hang out with people all the time, but I've developed some great friendships that have grown a lot since the scattering. Plus, I have places to stay all over the country.
I gotta confess the title isn't original -- I think it's a slogan I saw at kendall square, people trying to get business to migrate to Rhode Island.
It does seem like a pretty massive amount of people. On the other hand I'm sure if I worked at it I could find a great big swath of people who are staying, but still.
Speaking as an evil bastard with a wife and the desire to have a family, Massachusetts sucks. There is no way you can raise a family in this state on a single income without one of the following:
1. Two full time incomes.
2. A hellish commute.
3. A substandard housing arrangement.
A friend at work just purchased a new place in Acton, 25 miles out of the city. He has $2500 a month in the first mortage, $400 in an interest only second, $500 in property tax. When you count in water , food, electricity, etc his monthly bills have to come to at least $5000. So, for $60,000 a year he affords himself the privilege of a sucky commute, crappy winters, and working in Boston. And that situation has to persist in some form for at least 5 years, based on his plans of when to sell the house.
That, my friends, is for the birds.
oh and at the end of that period, he expects to sell his house for a profit. I.E. to a bigger sucker. Does this area really enrich enough for that to be reasonable?
EB you make a strong case...and lacking a strong sense of "home" it's harder for me to mount a good defense of Boston, at least for someone has family minded as yourself.
Heres a good paragraph I quoted from an old kisrael entry, http://www.kisrael.com/viewblog/?date=2002.06.07
"How do you choose a place to live and work?" and the answers just came out: Diversity, we want a place that's diverse, where there's different kinds of people on the street. Of course a job is important, but it isn't just "a" job: We need lots of jobs because we know now that "a" job isn't going to last long. We want a city to be creative, we want it to be exciting, we want it to have all kinds of amenities, we want it to have outdoor sports, extreme sports, rollerblading, cycling, art scene, music scene. Then we asked, "Do you do all that stuff?" and the answer was "No, we just want to know it's there."
Whoops, hit submit too soon.
It seems like it would be hard to start from scratch...first you have to pick what city (which some people might have an edge in, either from living there before or visiting), then you have to make sure your assumptions about the job market and the housing and the schools and the fun and all that hold up, then once you move you have a lot to do to really get intimate with the traffic patterns, where to go to buy stuff, where to go to do cool stuff, etc etc.
Despite my moving around childhood, and all the small moves I've done since college, it still intimidates me. And wanting someplace warm, Cleveland aint such a hot option.
Grew up around Springfield, school in Boston then moved to Medford. Escaped to Philly area in '66 and never regretted it...ever.
Having friends and family in MA, updateing me, keeps reminding me I'm glad I got out.
Took a while to develop a new circle of friends but it happens... sometimes in strange and wonderful ways. Some friends come with friends that fade but they stay, like my ex-brother-in-law and his wife.
Philly has lots of wonderful cultural facilities....I don't use.heh heh heh
If you think having friends moving away is tough, wait til they start dying. That really sucks.
What makes you glad you got out in particular? The whole leftist bent to the state, the cost of living, or what? It's not like Philly has much better weather, if memory serves...
things I don't miss about Boston: high rent, no where to park, the simple act of getting a new couch into an apartment in town is nigh impossible (John and I were commenting on this recently.). Gas and food costs the same, and believe it or not, I pay more in car taxes in NC than Mass. Let me tell you, after being in a cultural black hole, Boston is heaven. But the big draw back of Boston is that it is made for students who move in for a few years, don't need a lot of space, walk everywhere, and then leave. As far as rent, I wil be paying a butload again in L.A., which is worse in some ways. I found people complaining about L.A. parking didn't know how good they had it. Plenty of reasonable parking garages and street parking. Hopefully my job will for once pay enough to support a decent apartment and start me on my life. I liked the Hippie California lifestyle, what can I say? They are as friendly as southerners, but not nosy. I can forsee L.A. getting to be as annoying as Boston did, and I may move again. I want to settle down and put down roots, but I have to keep up with the tides too. oops, gotta go to work...C U
OK, I'll bite. This is from someone whose only major move was for 4 years of college and across town when I got married. The sense of excitement associated with the unkown and moving to a new community/area has got to be pretty cool. For someone like me the anxiety associated with that greatly outweighs a secure job and familiar environment.
There is a lot to be said about stability and a real knowledge of where home is. I don't think I would ever be hurt if my parents sold their house but it will always be the place I grew up and called home. Hope to have the same thing for Caden (& the twins on the way). I think a home (not a house) helps create a sense of stability/security that we (atleast I) desire.
Example - Hampden, MA. A couple bought an old farm house that had lost half it's windows and all it's paint. Fixed it up then cleared the brush in the field between the house and the river. It had been a hayfield/pasture since the 1600s but the brush grew in when the house was running down. Probably hadn't been cut in 12 or 15 years. The local tree huggers raised hell about it being flood plain and wet lands...the fine was $20k.
I can't afford MA, my money and sanity are to dear.
That's pretty anecdotal, dude. I'm not saying there's not some endimic issues, but I don't think that case is fairly representative.
Yeah, it's indeed worst case scenario but it's just the worst of way too many scenarios over the last 30 years. You probably don't see the intrusion being an urbanite but believe me, the folks in suberban/rural areas are getting hammered with rules, regulations, restrictions, permits and more fees than you can shake a stick at. You can divide the up in thirds between not necessary but might do some good somewhere, sometime - silly - evil.
To top it off, MA is very, very expensive. Probably half of my long distance phone bill is a result of that. You known, listening to the bitching. ;o)
Pardon my spelling. ;o(