Boston is a rather small city considering its age and notoriety. Many of its residents live in the suburbs as a better place to raise a family. Yet the classic neighborhoods and brownstones of Boston proper are wonderful places to live, ranging from the historic to the very modern. Beacon Hill has old colonial homes and is one of the most upper crust areas to live. The Back Bay is also quite pricey, though wonderful apartments and condos lie along main streets like Beacon and Massachusetts Avenue. They are short walks to shopping and dining streets like Newbury and Kenmore Square. The Fenway has more modern apartment complexes, as does the area around the Prudential Center and Copley Square. Just across the Charles River, Cambridge feels like its own small town with all the big-city pluses and few of the negatives.
Unless you live outside the city and need to commute to Boston, you really don't need an automobile. Boston is a small city with an excellent mass transit system. The train system, known as the T, takes you to all corners of the city, or at least to an area that is close enough to let you walk to your destination. Having a car in Boston will ultimately burden you with additional costs, such as parking fees for a permit, gas you burn in a fruitless search for a parking space, or parking tickets and towing. Parking enforcement is notorious for being ruthless within the city.
One of the best things about Boston is the definitive change in seasons. That is, until you're in the midst of a season. The summers are mercilessly humid and even hot, with temperatures pushing 100 degrees at times. What makes the heat even worse is that most homes don't have central air installed because the weather is cold for most of the year and an air conditioner is a bit of an afterthought. The fall may be the greatest time of year. The weather is usually perfect except for a bit of rain and the leaves change color. The winters are some of the worst of any major city. The weather is cold, windy, and constantly gray and stormy, ranging between blizzards and driving rain in temperatures just above freezing. Yet the spring, when it hits, makes you want to do it all over again. It's a slightly warmer version of the fall and people flock to the Boston Commons, stripping off their heavy winter clothes to nap in the grass and sun.
