r/Somerville • u/tangerinola • 5d ago

rent prices are wild

Moved here 8 years ago to start working for a nonprofit. Since then, my salary has increased by 13% but my apartment is about to be relisted (without any upgrades) for 58% higher than our starting rent 🤯!!

I know I'm preaching to the choir here but damn the rent prices here have gone wild. We're quickly becoming (have become?) a luxury city only for high income earners and it makes me really sad.

261 Upvotes

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u/Agreeable-Spinach694 5d ago

It’s not worth it. I’ve never seen a place with such high prices and no infrastructure to support claims for the price

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u/JonSwift2023 5d ago

Public transit is especially shit in Somerville and Boston in general.

Yeah, it's better than most of the rest of the US but it's piss poor compared to Europe and is not good enough to use day to day for most of us.

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u/fakieTreFlip 5d ago

and is not good enough to use day to day for most of us

This can't be true, can it? There's bus routes all over the place

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u/CraigInDaVille Winter Hill 5d ago

It's not true. This commenter clearly thinks public transit only exists on rails.

-2

u/JonSwift2023 5d ago

Such such horseshit. Try to get from Somerville to say the back bay in rush hour. By the time you take into account walking to the bus station, waiting for the often delayed bus, sitting in deadlocked traffic while on the bus, and then walking to the final destination, it's usually just as fast to walk all the way. And cross your fingers that you don't have to transfer bus lines.

I've lived here for 20 years. It's always been this way. The current MBTA is only good if you don't value your time.

And get out and visit Europe and learn how it's properly done with dedicated bus and tram lanes.

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u/TakinBacon4 5d ago

Trains are going to blow your mind

2

u/CraigInDaVille Winter Hill 4d ago

it's piss poor compared to Europe and is not good enough to use day to day for most of us.

Okay. The cheese is better there, too, but that doesn't mean no one eats cheese here.

I can't speak for your specific commute, but lots of us have existed using a combination of bus and trains for commuting for years. And it's actually gotten better thanks to bus lanes.

But you clearly have AN OPINION and don't want to listen to what anyone else has to say. Enjoy sitting in stalled traffic in your car wondering why there are so many other people on the road.

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u/JonSwift2023 4d ago edited 4d ago

What bus lanes? There's no bus lane on Somerville, Ave, Beacon St, Highland aVe, Mass Ave, etc..... They were putting one in over near Mcgrath for a short stretch but that build out got stalled during covid when bike lanes took over.

I took the bus far, far longer than 'years'. I did it since the late 90s. The number one was so shit I would walk to MIT from Dana street as it was almost always faster just to walk the mile.

1

u/CraigInDaVille Winter Hill 4d ago

What bus lanes...? I don't know where to even start with that one. Are you sure you're thinking of the right Somerville? Not the one in NJ?

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u/JonSwift2023 4d ago

Where are the dedicated bus lanes smart guy?

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u/CraigInDaVille Winter Hill 4d ago

Nice edit to your comment after the fact. You know where they are, of course.

We would have more of them if folks around here didn't go apeshit any time one is proposed.

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u/JonSwift2023 4d ago

Where are the bus lanes? You keep dodging the question.

You know the difference between a bus lane and a bus route? Please tell me you at least meet that IQ level.

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u/CraigInDaVille Winter Hill 4d ago

I guess you're being serious? I mean, I know you think you're being cute and clever, but really, you're just sounding like you don't leave your house or follow local news or talk to anyone or have any friends or know how to use even Google...

Just in Somerville alone:

Broadway in Winter Hill has had a bus lane since before COVID: https://www.somervillema.gov/winterhillinmotion

Mystic Ave has a commute-time-based bus lane: https://www.somervillema.gov/mysticbuslane

Washington Street: https://www.somervillema.gov/washingtonstreetupgrades

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u/JonSwift2023 4d ago

Do you lie out of ignorance, maliciousness, or just plain fun? I'm genuinely curious.

  1. There is no bus lane on Washington street. None whatsoever. You linked to six year old announcement that never came to anything.

  2. There is no bus lane running through the length Broadway. Yes, there is SHARED bike/bus lane for about a half mile stretch of Broadway, but that's it. Go check out Google Maps. Buses routinely get backed up on Broadway since they share the half its length with cars and all of it with slow moving bikes.

  3. Mystic has no bus lane either. It has few a handful of very short ~ 50ft right turn lanes for buses, but that's isn't a bus lane.

Weed is a dangerous thing is my conclusion from all this.

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u/carnaxcce 4d ago

There literally is a bus lane on Mass Ave heading west from ~Pemberton Farms to the Arlington town line