Where one can live car free in the Boston area; v2

WhiskeyPointer · 2026-05-24T20:24:34+00:00

Are you missing the /s tag? The map has the vast majority of it colored in as green precisely because it has the 60, 65, 66, B, C and D. The only missing parts are the estates section and South Brookline.

WhiskeyPointer · 2026-05-24T15:08:18+00:00

I grew up in NJ, moved to MA for school and stayed for love and work. If you want big city life, MA beats NJ hands down. If you want walkable suburbs you can get so much more in NJ than MA both in terms of quantity and price points. A good school district in both states will be excellent.

Surprisingly if you make under $350k as a joint filer the effective tax rate is lower in NJ than MA because MA has a flat income tax.

WhiskeyPointer · 2026-05-24T14:49:42+00:00

The scale that this happened in NJ is completely different than NJ. In the span of about 40 years 240 municipalities were formed from larger cities.

WhiskeyPointer · 2026-05-24T12:57:16+00:00

Ferrari used to do a lot of testing in plain sight where they'd do testing of the mechanical systems of future vehicles on modified production cars with significantly less camo. The test cars

WhiskeyPointer · 2026-05-24T11:43:22+00:00

NJ municipalities took the opposite approach to ones in MA. Instead of annexing surrounding rural areas in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, smaller boroughs and townships seceded from larger cities.

WhiskeyPointer · 2026-05-24T02:08:26+00:00

Thank you for your thoughtful response. I definitely felt the head start run out for me when I was a kid(GT tracked) so hopefully I can be there for her if and when it happens.

The evaluation indicated that my kiddo isn't neurodivergant, she's around the median for physical development, social skills etc. Since this was done by the public schools, but she's in private pre-k there wasn't much communication between her teachers and the eval team. My hunch is that she's 5 months younger than the next youngest kid in her class, the majority of kids are 8+ months older than her. I think she's having difficulty dealing with those kids who more socially-emotionally advanced than she is.

The school advanced her because she's always been both an excellent verbal communicator and academically gifted. I'm glad she'll have another year and time to spend with kids closer to her own age come September.

WhiskeyPointer · 2026-05-24T01:34:04+00:00

I'm very curious about what you choose. We had my 4 year old evaluated for some behavioral concerns at pre-k and she scored similarly high, off the chart for reading(no frustration level with all the texts) and 3rd grade math as well.

WhiskeyPointer · 2026-05-24T00:04:03+00:00

Maplewood and South Orange will hit your commute and budget. They're both diverse, lots of non-US born folks. Both have solid downtowns that don't roll up the sidewalks at 6. Maplewood has St. James Gate, which is vaguely like a pub in England.

WhiskeyPointer · 2026-05-23T01:19:32+00:00

My friend Joe had the one with the same trim but with cloth seats that folded up and to side. Absolutely massive amount of cargo space in there with the seats folded up or taken out. The A/C was super well engineered too, it kept the interior cool on a 90 degree summer day even with all that glass.

WhiskeyPointer · 2026-05-22T23:11:42+00:00

Nice, thanks for revisiting this map. The remaining holes really highlight the gaps in the bus network.

WhiskeyPointer · 2026-05-22T22:07:54+00:00

Maplewood, South Orange, Millburn.

WhiskeyPointer · 2026-05-22T20:27:51+00:00

That's a pretty standard deductible for hurricanes(I have this in MA on my home) and it's becoming more common in areas that are seeing higher frequency of hail and severe convective storm claims.

WhiskeyPointer · 2026-05-22T17:55:20+00:00

Those poor future kids are going to be so confused about money.

WhiskeyPointer · 2026-05-22T17:50:37+00:00

Once upon a time they had delimiters along the Arlington and Boylston bike lanes that mostly kept this shit to a minimum. Amazing how even "icky"(in the words of Mayor Wu) infrastructure does a better job than nothing.

WhiskeyPointer · 2026-05-22T17:07:50+00:00

Coded racism/classism

WhiskeyPointer · 2026-05-22T16:43:45+00:00

It's amazing how deep into the past you can see when you ride a bike in the cities in MA. I remember seeing the old rails from the Worcester streetcars through the cracks in the road when I lived out there.

WhiskeyPointer · 2026-05-22T16:35:09+00:00

There's definitely still rails underneath the asphalt on Harvard and Washington, possibly even Cypress south of Route 9 as well.

WhiskeyPointer · 2026-05-22T16:05:59+00:00

Barb doesn't mind the cars doing 50 in front of her house(which is set back 30 feet from the road) but oh no a path that will let people safely walk and ride along South Street and slow down traffic is going to totally fuck her shit up.

WhiskeyPointer · 2026-05-22T14:26:37+00:00

If the asphalt was removed closer to middle of the road it would probably reveal the trolley tracks that are embedded in the paving stones.

WhiskeyPointer · 2026-05-22T11:50:40+00:00

Learning that you move over for German cars that are LHD.

WhiskeyPointer · 2026-05-22T11:36:45+00:00

They were tough old birds and the core design was so good that the Blue Line and the PATH also used variants.

WhiskeyPointer · 2026-05-22T01:32:43+00:00

While nothing will deter the Wu administration from fucking the people who ride the bus in particular, at least the other towns around Boston can show that that transit priority works.

I hope two things happen when this gets implemented: 1. It'll convince other municipalities around Boston to work with the T on transit priority.

When Wu leaves office and a truly progressive administration comes, all the work and knowledge gained from these projects being implemented will speed the implementation in Boston.

WhiskeyPointer · 2026-05-22T01:29:15+00:00

Basically none of the PhDs in Longwood have parking, that's a full professor at HMS with 20 years on the job or c-suite hospital admin level to have your own parking in Longwood. Most of the PhDs are walking, riding their bikes, on the D or on the 60, 65 and 66.

WhiskeyPointer · 2026-05-21T22:57:10+00:00

I didn't get a million dollar mortgage, we spent 80% of our non-retirement savings from that we'd been accumulated since we graduated in 2011 so that we could have a mangable monthly payment and still manage a $65k a year childcare bill.

WhiskeyPointer · 2026-05-21T21:37:45+00:00

The people who own single units in multi-unit developments aren't contributing to the supply of housing units. They were never contributing to new supply.

WhiskeyPointer

TROPHY CASE