Boston has a reputation of being a great college town. But my experience has been that the city and state make very little effort to accommodate students and recent graduates. Examples include the happy hour ban, the 2:00 a.m. closing time for bars, and the T’s lack of late-night service.
That said, the main issue I want to address in this post is about the lack of correlation between cab occupancy and the lights on top of Boston taxis. Lights on – empty cab. Lights off – occupied cab. New York City cabs never get this issue wrong. Boston cabs seem to make no effort to get it right.
I’ll be the first to admit that we have bigger fish to fry than fixing a broken taxi light system. It’s just one more in a series of quality of life issues that make the city less friendly to the going-out masses. And if it didn’t appear to be so simple, I wouldn’t be as perplexed. I want to open the floor to the resident policy wonks. What’s the deal?
i find your attempt to tie bar closing hours with being a great college town really funny. as if all college students are late nite bar flies. as if college is about getting soused in the wee hours. maybe for the shrub it was, but to try to draw a real connection is silly. and perhaps reveals more about you than you had intended.
Please come to Boston on any thursday friday or saturday night from september to may.
but 1) they’re not all college students, and 2) got any states on the percentage of college students you’re seeing out there?
Not sure if that was sarcasm or a generational chasm (Yeah, I said it.) The truth is that hundreds of thousands of students come to Boston for college, and recent grads just aren’t sticking around. Beyond the simple economics of the job market and cost of living, I think the city could address some of these cultural issues. Who wants to live in a town ruled by blue laws?
It is okay with me if the alchy college grads move back to NYC so they can drink all night in bars. We’ll keep the ones that get good jobs and are productive in the morning without hangovers. đŸ™‚
Who says you can’t be productive with a hangover?
Brilliant generalizations.
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p>There are plenty of star employees who embrace a “work hard, play hard” dynamic. Who are we to deny them that?
What does this have to do with Bush?
The majority of college students are under 21, so them not being able to use their fake ids for Happy Hour or after 2 am doesn’t seem like such a burden to me that needs addressing. You aren’t going to get much sympathy from me on the drinking issue.
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p>I do think that the T should run later in the evening…at least until 2:15 am. That would certainly make the city more user friendly. I can totally support that! They did try it for a while. They decided it wasn’t worth it or used enough I guess, but anytime I took the late night ride it was pretty full so I don’t understand that excuse. At minimum they should do this on Friday and Saturday nights.
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p>I guess you could call the Mayor’s office to complain about the Taxi Cab lights. The alternative is Wave at a cab. If it stops it is on duty and empty. If it doesn’t stop, wave at the next cab.
Large numbers of 21+ college students aside, this isn’t so much a “college student” issue as a “young Bostonian” issue.
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p>Besides, the under-21 set and their fake IDs are neither here nor there – Boston is probably the strictest city in the country as far as cracking down on IDs.
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p>And simply genius advice on the cabs, how did nobody think of that already?
Want to back that up?
Aren’t the lights supposed to be tied in to the meters? If the meter’s running, the lights go off, right?
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p>I didn’t think there was a separate mechanism that just controlled those lights like there is for the on-duty/off-duty light.
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p>One key difference between here and NYC is that every city and town in the metro Boston area seems to have their own taxi medallions and companies. There may not be any across-the-board rules as far as these things go, and when Cambridge or Brookline taxis are dropping people off in Boston I doubt the Boston enforcement agencies care if their lights are appropriately lit or not.
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p>I imagine that NYC, being a single municipal entity, has an easier time promulgating and enforcing across-the-board regulations.
I think everyone shouldn’t get caught up on the semantics of the use of the phrase “college town.” It seems that Paintitblue is really trying to say is that Boston isn’t a very hospitable environment for young professionals and recent graduates.
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p>On that point I agree 100%. I think people to often fixate on things like job creation and housing costs as the way to keep young people from leaving. We need to look at the fact that these little quality of life issues, while they seem silly, can be just as important in getting people to view Boston as a place they would like to call home during this part of their lives.
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p>I am 23. I grew up outside Boston and went to college there. I currently live and work in New York. I had job offers and a cheaper apartment in Boston but I ended up taking a job here. I am pretty much the poster child for youth fleeing the state.
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p>Keeping bars open later, lifting the ban on happy hours, increasing late night service for the T and reforming the cab system are a few direct steps that the state and local governments could take that could make the city more attractive. General talk about housing reform and life science grants are great, stupendous things, but they don’t effect me in the slightest or make me more inclined to come back to Boston.
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p>If you don’t think that these things matter, I can put you in touch with several million of my neighbors in New York who put up with an tough job market and an impossible housing market because they see the benefits of living in a young, vibrant city.
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p>Also, I hate to say this to people who are my elders, but grow up! People like to drink, sometimes they like to drink until 4 in the morning. It doesn’t make them bad people, unproductive or not worth trying to appeal to. That is exactly the kind of patronizing attitude that is one of the things I can’t stand about my home town and one of the things that drove me away.
but the city shouldn’t have to provide t service just to make your lifestyle more pleasant. if you can spend 10 bucks on a drink, you can spend 10 bucks on a cab. grow up, you entitled little crybabies! [ooh, what a weird feeling tp be posessed by ernie boch 3 for that brief moment]
All I was really trying to say is that if Boston wants to have a young, vibrant workforce it needs to provide for them. And that means more than just jobs and apartments.
A few years back I saw pavement through the rust hole in the floor. I now avoid them. It is amazing what a shoddy fleet the city has, and a shame that this is one of the first impressions made on many visitors from out of town.
I’m no economist, but I’m pretty sure that Massachusetts is making no tax revenue from ex-Bostonians like RevolutionsSon. Even on an entry-level salary, healthy young professionals probably generate more income for the state than the cost of extending the T service by a few hours on weekends.
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p>There are so many services the state provides that only benefit a few people. Take the regional transit authorities that send a bus around that takes seniors to their doctors’ appointments for only a nickel. I’m all for that.
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p>But I also think that the state could add incentives to encourage young folks to stick around.
providing transportation to health care appointments for senior citizens with providing transportation to healthy young adults who want to go bar hopping? lol!
What I’m saying is that if the state wants to have the tax revenue to support beloved programs like regional transit authorities, it could throw wage-earning young professionals some incentives to stay in Massachusetts.
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p>I don’t think you’re ready to listen to this argument. Let’s talk in a few years when the population decrease causes Massachusetts to lose, among other things, two Congressional seats.
your post is about taxi lights and late night t availability, and not written in a way that indicated to me that you were even taking the issues seriously yourself. now you’re talking about something completely different – retaining young talent in the state. if that is what you’re really interested in looking into, i suggest that you start over with a new diary and lay out the pros, cons and some ideas you might have for making things better. be sure to reflect upon the fact that not all valuable young adults in MA live in boston and ride the t or go/went to college or hold bar transportation as a high priority.
boo hoo you
they were too poor for lawns, they only had dirt.
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p>AND THEY LIKED IT!
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that we had no taxis. we walked 15 miles through the snow each way, in august! to get to school, where we were beat by the evil headmaster, who sent us through a trap door under his desk into the mines below, where we stomped grapes with our cold, filthy little feet.
but I definitely disagree with this point. First off, whether they can afford it or not, if it stops just a few people from drinking and driving late at night, then keeping the T open for late hours is a good thing. Secondly, cabs can go for way more than $10. Thirdly, this effects a whole lot more than drinkers – people working night shifts, people coming home from late night games, people visiting friends. I rarely drink, yet if I go into the city (which I do almost every weekend), I’m forced to drive because the T would close around when I’d be going home. If it stayed open until 2 or 3, I’d take the T.
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p>The MBTA does pretty much everything in its power to make it less appealing. It’s time they make a few changes – longer hours being one of them.
i just think that whiny “but mommy i wanna driiiink!” students shouldn’t be the driving force behind its revival. the author of this diary apparently could care less about the people you mention, or even the price of a cab. that is what i was responding to. but i agree completely that it is better for drunks to be on the t than on the road. unless you’re on the cleaning crew…
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p>”there’s a tear in my beer,
i’m cryin for ya dear…”
“Frustrated women…have to be in by twelve o’clock…that’s a shame, that’s a shame…”
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p>I’ve heard that Boston (implicitly including Cambridge) is a town of great colleges, but a great college town? Closing hours are tight, sports are outrageously expensive, public transit is iffy, and housing is through the roof.
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p>Boston has many great colleges, and many not-so-great colleges in the area, and the culture created by and serving those students gives Boston a college town feel. But Boston has never catered to that population…the Puritans were far too entrenched by the time colleges opened their doors. Heck, the most prominent college in the city proper is run by a Catholic Order! Let the good times roll?
I didn’t realize there were so many hardcore prohibitionists on BMG, but back to your original topic, I’ve said the same exact thing. I’m from here, but I spent most of my 20’s in LA and Chicago and I still have to go to NYC and DC quite regularly for work and this has always been one of my pet peeves.
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p>In most big cities, NY in particular, a taxi with a light on is available and a taxi with a light off is occupied or out of service. All the time. In Boston, there is absolutely no rhyme or reason. I don’t think it is quite driving young professionals out of state, but it’s definitely an annoyance.
i see none here. i do see strawmen though. pity you undermine your own comment with needless use of such a lame device.
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p>i lived in boston for 7 years, and had no idea there was this great problem with taxi lights. probably because i rarely could afford a taxi, so never noticed. i relied heavily on the bus.
but who is going to pay for it?