It’ll cost $9 each time. They’re raising money for the mass transit system by charging specifically those people who don’t use the mass transit system and that feels really unfair to me.
It’ll cost $9 each time. They’re raising money for the mass transit system by charging specifically those people who don’t use the mass transit system and that feels really unfair to me.
I want to clarify that I thought that Cambridge and Somerville were pretty nice - nicer than where I lived at the time. I had friends in Cambridge and I enjoyed visiting them, but I didn’t know anyone in Boston so I never felt like I had any reason to go there. I actually saw more of Boston earlier this year when a friend invited me to go there with her as a tourist than I ever did during the six years that I lived in Massachusetts. The waterfront was pretty, there was an Italian bakery with really good cannoli, and overall the city was cleaner and less crowded than NYC. I don’t have any particular desire to visit again, but that’s not because of anything wrong with Boston in particular.
I do see the irony in the fact that I spend a lot of money to live in a place that tens of millions of tourists visit every year but I really don’t like it. I’m here because this is where my relatives are and they’re not going to leave. (I tried to persuade them to, but it really would be very difficult for them.) I admit that while I know that many people like being in big cities, I don’t really understand why. The tourist attractions presumably get boring quickly even if they were interesting at first, and after that what’s left?
I just want to leave and go somewhere more pleasant and they’re going to charge me $9 every time I do that.
(Full disclosure: right now I want to save some money so I park my car in a Brooklyn neighborhood that doesn’t have street cleaning and then when I want to go somewhere, I take the subway to my car first. I won’t have to pay this toll if I keep doing that, but it isn’t fun and I really want to go back to having my car near me. I’m actually blowing off a dinner invitation as I write this post, because seeing those people would be nice but not nice enough that I actually want to get on the subway.)
Edit: Also I don’t really mind the downvoting. I know most people around here either like urban areas, dislike cars, or both so I wasn’t expecting sympathy from everyone. I do wonder whether the people talking about how wonderful taking mass transit is have ever actually taken mass transit.
Every week something interesting’s happening. Concerts, sports events, art shows, book readings, parades, festivals, etc … usually multiple things per weekend and a couple during the weekdays. Then there are restaurants and cafes of all types to discover, crafts stores and bookstores and markets, clubs and meetups and demonstrations and celebrations. I’m an asocial shut-in who spends all his time on Lemmy but I still was really into wandering around town (yes, using mass transit) and just… coming across unique stores or organizations that were in a historical building and were randomly having an open-house and it turns out that it’s Armenian Heritage Week or something.
I’m not trying to change your mind. I’m just saying what I find good about it. Where I live now there are only 1 or 2 interesting things happening per month.