Before the end of rent control, Beacon Hill had some pretty skanky, cheap rentals shoulder-by-shoulder with luxurious townhouses. I definitely remember seeing a coin-op laundromat, but that's more than 10 years ago easily.
And that was back in the days when there was a condo parking garage, where you bought a space for more than most houses and paid a monthly fee. (It's still there, you could Google for the latest sale prices if you want to be boggled.)
You still saw a lot of beaters parked on the street, like most neighborhoods in Boston, there was permit-only parking but with pretty stiff street-cleaning schedules, and meter maids circling the blocks like vultures.
The local weather stations are beginning to talk about the average day of first snowfall. Deep sigh of contentment. I can so cope more easily with cold than with heat.
My own official Fall season started here when the furnace turned on the other night. Of course, I'd left the windows open, so that helped the temp inside get down to 50-ish, but still.
As soon as the Christmas assortment chocolate-covered JoJos come in, I'm buying at least six boxes.
Totally. Last year they ran out 3 weeks before Christmas, and I couldn't get any more! NEVER AGAIN.
The local weather stations are beginning to talk about the average day of first snowfall.
Meanwhile, just reading this gave me a moment of anxiety.
Before the end of rent control, Beacon Hill had some pretty skanky, cheap rentals shoulder-by-shoulder with luxurious townhouses. I definitely remember seeing a coin-op laundromat, but that's more than 10 years ago easily.
The back end of Beacon Hill (the side that intersects with Cambridge Street, as opposed to Charles Street) is filled with townhouses converted to apartments. At least, when I lived there in 1993. The place I lived in (on Grove Street) had enormous common area rooms, tiny bedrooms,and ENORMOUS COCKROACHES. HMOG. New Orleans sized. Not the size of New Orleans roaches, THE SIZE OF NEW ORLEANS.
Many of my friends also had apartments in the ass end of Beacon Hill, in similar carved up slumlord apartments.
Not the size of New Orleans roaches, THE SIZE OF NEW ORLEANS.
Heh.
When I was looking two years ago, I saw some of those places, mostly fixed up and not cheap, but still tiny and weird.
