If you’re moving to Boston, Massachusetts, there’s one thing you absolutely need to know: the New York Yankees are about to become your sworn enemy no matter how you previously felt about sports. But if you have the bandwidth to absorb more details than that, please continue reading.
When I moved to Boston, there were a few more important things I wish someone had told me in advance.
No matter how much time you’ve spent on the east coast, or even in New England itself, Boston is undeniably its own beast. Whether you’re moving for school, work, family, or just curiosity, you’re about to experience Boston’s classic architecture, bitter winters, and city-specific personality quirks you have to experience to believe. Except, in this case, you don’t, because I experienced it for you and came up with this handy list of the five must-know things I wish someone had told me before I moved to Boston.
Storrow Drive is not high enough to accommodate your moving truck
Let me paint a picture for you: You’re an out-of-state college student looking forward to your freshman year. You gaze wistfully upon a map, deciding on the quickest driving route to campus. Along the banks of the Charles River, an east-to-west thoroughfare beckons: Storrow Drive. “Ah,” you’ll say to yourself, “What a perfect road to drive my U-Haul upon.”
But no. Stop. You must resist that siren song, and here’s why: the height limit of Storrow Drive is just ten feet, which is markedly shorter than the average moving truck. Attempt to drive your outsized vehicle along it anyway, and you’ll find yourself #Storrowed — wedged under an overpass in a destroyed truck, stopping traffic and blushing up to your eyebrows.
Thankfully, I didn’t have to screw this one up myself, but it happens so frequently that the City of Boston’s Twitter account has to put out a yearly reminder about it. So good company or not, do yourself a favor and don’t start out your school year with a mistake that’s as costly as it is humiliating.
You may need to pay to heat your apartment in advance
Boston was founded all the way back in 1838, and the architecture knows it. Some of the older buildings are still standing and absolutely habitable, but they also happen to be oil heated… which is a whole thing. Basically, if you do live in one of these older buildings, you need to pre-pay for your winter heating. This means someone literally comes at the beginning of the season and fills up a big tank in your building’s basement with enough oil to keep you warm all winter.
And since Boston winters are historically no freaking joke, this is something you’ll definitely want to be on top of. When you move into a new location, make sure to confirm with the landlord whether it’s gas or oil-heated, and if it’s oil, don’t waste time getting stocked up. Traditionally, it’s best to buy home heating oil during the off-season, which is April to September, but really the best time to get it is before you need it, so try not to be too precious about waiting for the right price.
When the home heating oil company arrives, they’re required by law to give you a written delivery ticket, which should include a bunch of information including:
- The amount of oil delivered
- Price per gallon
- Identity of the driver.
All of those details are designed to keep customers from getting scammed, so ask for the delivery ticket if it isn’t immediately provided, and call the city at (617) 635-5300 if any of the required information is missing.
Local movers in Boston book up quickly
Here is your yearly reminder that if you’re moving locally in the Boston area and still need a moving truck or someone to help you lift stuff, they book up fast — especially in the summer! You can use sites like HireAHelper to see all your options in one go, which is convenient. But the closer you are to your moving date, the harder it’ll be to nail down the schedule you’re hoping to stick to.
As a shortcut, you can use this quick search tool to avoid making a million phone calls:
Get Help Unloading Your Rental Truck
See prices for movers by the hour—instantly.
Read real customer reviews.
Easily book your help online.
There’s a secret parking language you need to learn
Parking is weird in Boston, but thankfully, it’s not too hard to learn. In my early days in the city, the plethora of lawn chairs I kept seeing out on the streets made me wonder whether there was a parade planned for the next day. But soon, someone enlightened me that these chairs actually serve as placeholders for returning cars.
It turns out, any ol’ object can be used to hold a reservation, including traffic cones, lawn chairs, buckets, and beyond. Are they welded permanently to the ground and impossible to move? No, they aren’t. But you really don’t want to find out what happens if you move someone’s item and park in “their” spot. Fair to you or not, these are the rules of the road, and as a recent arrival to Boston, you must obey them.
Oh and come wintertime, if someone goes to all the trouble to dig out the snow around a spot, we as Bostonians universally acknowledge their right to return and park there as many times as they can before snow blankets it again. If you want access to a shoveled-out parking spot of your own — you know what to do, buddy; roll up those shirt sleeves and get to work.
The city may take away access to your parking spot in the event of a big winter storm
Hope you aren’t tired of talking about winter stuff yet; during extreme winter weather in Boston, new city parking rules and regulations go into effect, transforming spots that were perfectly legal for most of the year — and even most of the winter — into ticket and tow zones.
During declared snow emergencies, it becomes illegal to park on major roads and arteries, so it’s important to have a backup location to stash your car if there are reports of an incoming nor’easter. (The only problem? A lot of other people might have the same idea.)
If you want to know if you live and park on an affected road, you can consult this Boston emergency parking map website. This government site also shows the locations of emergency lots that offer discount pricing to those uprooted by the parking restrictions, which begins two hours before the emergency order goes into effect. Just note that you might need to live in specific neighborhoods to qualify for certain garages, and if you don’t remove your car within two hours of the emergency ban being lifted, you’ll be stuck paying the regular rate.
Don’t plan on getting around on Marathon Day
On Marathon Day, not only will you have limited success driving around (let alone moving) due to all the road closures, but you’ll be missing out on one of the biggest Boston holidays of the year. So just don’t do it. Instead of sneaking your way through runners and wheedling through police barricades on your way to brunch, surrender to the glory of it all and celebrate the pure joy that is Marathon Day in Boston.
There’s nothing quite like watching lunatics — and I’m allowed to call them that, having run a marathon myself — plodding their way to 26.2 miles while you cheer them on, buoyed in the October chill with a mug of coffee. (I’m not recommending you bring a thermos of hot toddy, because that would be drinking in public, but I’m also not not recommending it.) Find yourself a nice spot along the route and just have fun. And then do it again on other inconvenient-but-glorious celebrations like St. Patrick’s Day and any time a Boston team wins… anything at all.