Quote: (07-14-2017 02:53 PM)The Beast1 Wrote:
Quote: (07-14-2017 01:57 PM)Naughty By Nature Wrote:
Another amazing perk about walkable cities is that you get to take the car out of the equation.
Cars are not only a massive rip-off ($6,000/year among the cost of the actual car, gas, insurance, and maintenance) but they're a huge liability (if you get into a crash or your car gets keyed...as matter of fact, my mediocre Hyundai got badly keyed twice within 8 months of living in phony ass Los Mangeles aka The LAnd of Snakes).
In a walkable city, you take public transit for a measly $1,000/year...or even $0 if you live in the heart of downtown.
Spoken like someone who has never commuted via public transit for a serious amount of time. Trust me, two years of the MBTA in Boston and you'll be crying for that crappy beater. It was always faster to commute via car in Boston and even Philly.
The money you save on a car is always eaten up by more expensive rents and more expensive groceries. Trust me, I lived in a sick "players pad" in Boston and ended up having nothing to show for it other than a few notches. Not worth it!
That's unfortunate, man. Boston can be a tough nut to crack. Never lived there but been there many times for Red Sox games and visiting my grandma. Pretty parochial place and now has the 3rd highest rent in America after NYC and San Francisco/San Jose.
By the way, you'd be surprised by the disparity in costs between a sprawling city and compact city.
I was living in Studio City, Los Angeles with a roommate. I was spending $920/month on rent and $500/month on my car/rent/insurance. That's $17,000/year. Let's say I had a studio apartment instead of splitting a 2 BR (it'll make sense in a second). That would've been $1,500/month on rent in that neighborhood (it's in the valley but it borders the Hollywood Hills). Now we're talking about $2,000/month on car + rent OR $24,000/year.
Let's pick the equivalent neighborhood in Chicago. We'll go with Lakeview. An unfurnished studio apartment there rents for about $850/month. Then the monthly CTA L train pass goes for $100/month. So now we're talking about $11,500/year on public transit + rent.
That's over $12,000 saved/year!!!!