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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=GKDad][quote=Anonymous]This is all really interesting; I have lived in both cities. I loved DC in my 20s. I found it so easy to meet people! Easy to navigate, people were transient so everyone was eager to connect (even if it felt a bit fueled by profession). Not sure if this memory is was fueled by my youth and rose-colored glasses, but it seemed like there were happy hours all the time, easy access to power (in the sense that you might randomly end up at a senator's barbecue somehow!), great for visiting family with all the monuments and attractions. Fun restaurants, too, and so much diversity.

However, as we had kids, it felt less livable. I felt the DC suburbs had nothing on Boston's suburbs in terms of schools, charm, livability, town squares, housing stock. The towns farther out in VA felt so drab and cookie-cutter, as did Maryland's (though a bit less so, but places like Chevy Chase were not affordable). I also began to miss day trips: In Boston, you are a stone's throw from adorable towns, skiing, ocean, great smaller cities like Providence or Portland, et cetera. I also appreciated the largely progressive politics and the sense of hometown pride (yes, it can be insular). In DC, people kept moving every couple years, nobody was from there, there wasn't a ton of hometown nostalgia. Also liked the neighborhood-i-ness of Boston and the weirdness/edge/grit/magnitude that puts it on par with a large city like NY.

However, I deeply miss the DC food scene and the sheer ease of meeting new people. It is SO MUCH HARDER in the Northeast.

That is my take.[/quote]

This is my experience (born and bred Bostonian, moved to DC out of college in the early 90s and never left, much to my chagrin). [b] Insular is a better description than provincial, but provincial isn't wrong. [/b] [/quote]

I also grew up in the Boston area and moved to DC when I was in my 30s, and agree with both of these posts.

I'm hoping to move back to New England in retirement because it still feels like home, and because between now and dead, I really don't want to live in DC.[/quote]

I alos grew up in the Boston area and totally agree with this  [b] Insular is a better description than provincial, but provincial isn't wrong. [/b]
i have no desire to stay in DC but also no plans to ever move back to the Boston area. [/quote]

NP.  Eh, I grew up in the Boston area (lived in DC 20+ years), but I wouldn't describe it as provincial.  Insular, fine. MA has some of the best public education systems in the country.  People are much more progressive than most places, and of course you have some pockets of ignorance, but overall I'd say it's much less provincial than the rest of the country.  [/quote]

Totally disagree.  Boston is one of the most provincial cities in America.  This is very obvious to anyone NOT from there.  [/quote]

Sigh. Ok.  Have you been to the rest of the country?  Where, pray tell, are you from that is so worldly and sophisticated? [/quote]

More transient cities like Dallas, LA, Atlanta, Houston etc.

From your question about worldly and sophisticated, it shows you don’t even understand what we mean by Boston being provincial. [/quote]

Ooooh sick burn.  What exactly does provincial mean to you, wise one?[/quote]

It means having a narrow point of view and limited exposure to any place outside of Boston. Most people in Boston [b]are from there, vacation on the cape and have done limited travel outside of the Boston metro.  They have had limited exposure to other cities and people and truly have an inflated view of Boston.  There is also less racial diversity[/b].  I could go on… it’s a provincial place.  [/quote]

This is so spot on. Vast majority of people I went to high school with still live in Boston, never lived outside of the area after college, do in fact vacation on the Cape and rarely leave New England. [/quote]

Yes! We live here now. I’m not from here and am amazed at the educated people around me that find it sophisticated that they own a house on the cape and might get a trip in to Florida from time to time. Even those that have traveled west only find themselves on popular ski slopes. I can’t think of anyone who has admitted to traveling the inner landscape of our country or really even Chicago or Minneapolis. They think they know rural because they’ve been to North Conway. [b]They don’t know rural people or what it would be like living in a desolate place.[/b]

Those that listed “adorable” towns above stuck to those with HHI and very little diversity, whether racial or socioeconomic.

Believe me, DC drove us crazy with kids. But we had friends and were able to find a like-minded community of people with whom we could relate. It’s much,
much harder up here (especially if you bring athletic kids with you- they can deal with academic kids in their school
but athletic and smart kids are seen as direct competition to their legacy in the town- it’s pretty awful, both as a new athletic kid and his/her parent).[/quote]

This is weird.  Why would you live in a place that doesn't make you happy if you have the means to move?  Assuming you do, as you lived in DC prior.  Rural america is kind of depressing - is that supposed to be the bellweather of an educated and open minded person?  Extensive travel in Oklahoma?  Mississippi?  Which cities on the American coasts are intimately familiar with rural America???  LOL[/quote]

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