D&D General Hasbro leaving Rhode Island?

[Bedrockgames]

I live up in the Merrimack Valley (on the NH border) and my wife works in Cambridge (just under 30 miles away). Luckily she's been working from home since the pandemic because her commute used to be a nightmare. She decided last Tuesday to drive in for a meeting and it took her over an hour and a half to get there. And that was on a clear day with no precipitation.

And frankly that isn't bad time coming from Merrimack Valley either in recent years. Cambridge is so close to me on a map, but so far away if I drive there (at least an hour, usually more)

 

[Bedrockgames]

Count me among the people who had no idea that Hasbro was in Rhode Island. I have only been to Boston twice, but it gave off the vibes that you needed to be very wealthy to exist there. And I also found it very difficult to get anywhere. But I suppose the people who are moving the company make enough money to make this less of an issue.

The city itself can be very expensive to live in. The average rent when I looked it up was over 3,400 dollars a month. Now that is an average so you can get cheaper places if you are in the right neighborhood or in a town just outside the city. You can find places for 1,200-2,000 a month. It is getting harder and harder to find places for 1,200. Where I used to live in Lynn, it was often quite easy to get places for that amount. When I had to go looking again last year, so many apartments were in the 1,600-2,000 range. Just checking listings today, I don't even see anything under 1,800 in Lynn. Keep in mind wages are also generally a little higher here because the cost of living is higher than average. But to live in the city of Boston, my impression is you need money, roommates or you need to find a place in Mattapan or East Boston (not sure how up to date my sense of more affordable locations are). One reason people here aren't too excited about more businesses moving in is the demand for housing is high, while the supply of housing is low.

That said, I don't really know many people who live in the city itself, except for one or two folks who live in places like Chinatown and Dorchester. In Boston you have Boston proper which is actually quite small, but there is also greater boston that covers more cities and towns. And you need to keep in mind there are lots of working class and poor neighborhoods around here, there are lots of places where you have multigenerational homes (I lived in a property that spanned three to four generations for many years). So it isn't that people here have money, many of them are just getting by or have found a way to work around the high cost of living. And many towns have affordable housing units that people can apply for if they qualify.

 

[Bedrockgames]

Oh, and central London, the bit that everyone sees on TV, isn’t all that big. It just has sprawling suburbs. In War of the Worlds the Martians landed in Woking and marched to London. These days, London has marched to Woking.

Central Boston is kind of similar. I still get the impression London can accommodate more people but that is honestly just from seeing it on TV.

To give you an idea of how big Boston is it is something like less than 50 square miles of land

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Central Boston is kind of similar. I still get the impression London can accommodate more people but that is honestly just from seeing it on TV.

To give you an idea of how big Boston is it is something like less than 50 square miles of land

London has the oldest underground railway in the world. Which means it has the oldest underground railway in the world. Aside from from the overcrowding, it works quite well - when it works.

I wouldn’t even bother to try and drive into the city. I could walk their faster (it’s only 14 miles).

 

[Mad_Jack]

...I'm just sad that no one appreciates the Federal Hill reference.

Some jokes are too local, I guess.

Nah, just too easy, lol.

 

[Von Corellon]

Politicians in Rhode Island are terrified.