Comment on There's a new toll I'll have to pay to drive anywhere.

• ArbitraryValue@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  I used to live in the Boston area, but out by I95. That’s actually where I learned how to drive. The Boston subway is a lot less gross than the New York subway, but I still only went to Boston about once a year. Frankly, there wasn’t anything in Boston that was worth getting on the subway. However, Cambridge and Somerville weren’t too bad to drive to, as long as I had a plan for where to park.

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  • Sergio@slrpnk.net ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    Fam, I felt kind of bad that your honest feedback about the new congestion toll has been downvoted so much. And if you truly found nothing in Boston (and presumably Cambridge, Somerville, Brookline, Allston, etc.) that interested you then… OK, I can respect people’s differences. And if you say walking to work through Manhattan would somehow be bad, and that the only reason you live there is to be close to work… sure, there are people like that, I get it.

    But I think your situation is kind of like living in Hawaii and then saying it’s unfair that you can’t just drive to the mainland.

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    • ArbitraryValue@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      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 go to Boston again, but that’s because I generally don’t enjoy the things that people do in cities rather than because of anything wrong with Boston in particular.

      I do see the irony in the fact that I live in a place that tens of millions of tourists visit every year but I really don’t like living here. 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 and after that, what’s left?

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      • Sergio@slrpnk.net ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

        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?

        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.

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