5 ms·

Boston meets all your criteria, except for cost of living. If you live in New Hampshire (like I do) you can commute to pretty much any place other than Boston

by brk 17y ago

Boston meets all your criteria, except for cost of living. If you live in New Hampshire (like I do) you can commute to pretty much any place other than Boston proper, and reduce your COL significantly. And even that, I worked in Cambridge for a while and it was manageable if I avoided peak rush hour times. The majority of the startup activity isn't IN Boston anyway, it's in the general beltway between 495 and 128.

DanielBMarkham 17y ago
Boston was a very, very close second place. My feeling was that I could get out into the cheap countryside much easier in Austin, the cost of housing was generally much, much cheaper, and the traffic, bad as it was, wasn't up to par with the Boston area. I'd love to hear reasons why I missed something.
- JayNeely 17y ago
  I'm a 15-minute walk from Davis Square, where the subway is, and my rent is only $425 / month. Not only is Boston the #2 city by number of startups: http://radar.oreilly.com/archives/2006/06/startup-centers.html http://radar.oreilly.com/archives/2006/06/startup-centers.ht... It's the #1 city by number of universities. It's really a fantastic place with a terrific startup scene, and one that's still growing and getting more connected.
  - hga 17y ago
    The Davis Square area is certainly very nice, I lived in it for the last half-dozen or so years of my stay in the Boston area (late '80s-very early '90s), but there's no way a family is going to fit into a $425/month apartment that's anywhere near it. For the criteria of taxes, cost-of-housing, congestion, state debt and general cost of living the Boston area is just plain bad and as far as I know getting worse. Commuting from southern New Hampshire isn't a great option either, the cost of living there is still pretty high and unless you can do it off peak it's very congested. And there are a lot of tasty startups in Cambridge, you'd need to have a commute to there be practical. While I believe there's a big separation from the Boston area to the next largest startup areas in the nation, I think Daniel's criteria that rule out SV also rule out it, although not as strongly.

by brk 17y ago

DanielBMarkham 17y ago

Boston was a very, very close second place. My feeling was that I could get out into the cheap countryside much easier in Austin, the cost of housing was generally much, much cheaper, and the traffic, bad as it was, wasn't up to par with the Boston area. I'd love to hear reasons why I missed something.

JayNeely 17y ago
I'm a 15-minute walk from Davis Square, where the subway is, and my rent is only $425 / month. Not only is Boston the #2 city by number of startups: http://radar.oreilly.com/archives/2006/06/startup-centers.html http://radar.oreilly.com/archives/2006/06/startup-centers.ht... It's the #1 city by number of universities. It's really a fantastic place with a terrific startup scene, and one that's still growing and getting more connected.
- hga 17y ago
  The Davis Square area is certainly very nice, I lived in it for the last half-dozen or so years of my stay in the Boston area (late '80s-very early '90s), but there's no way a family is going to fit into a $425/month apartment that's anywhere near it. For the criteria of taxes, cost-of-housing, congestion, state debt and general cost of living the Boston area is just plain bad and as far as I know getting worse. Commuting from southern New Hampshire isn't a great option either, the cost of living there is still pretty high and unless you can do it off peak it's very congested. And there are a lot of tasty startups in Cambridge, you'd need to have a commute to there be practical. While I believe there's a big separation from the Boston area to the next largest startup areas in the nation, I think Daniel's criteria that rule out SV also rule out it, although not as strongly.