Yeah. I wouldn't worry about it though, it's not a big college town.

Those who read this blog have probably already heard that Sage and I have decided to move to Massachusetts. I have accepted a job at America’s Test Kitchen in Brookline, MA, to be circulation director for their two magazines: Cooks Illustrated and Cooks Country. This was a very difficult decision, as there were lots of pros and cons both ways. What kind of pros and cons? Well, let’s line up both options with the ol’ Tale of the Tape – Durham vs. Boston.

The job
This is obviously the biggest issue in play. Here in Durham, I had been working at <company name deleted to protect the writer from lawsuits>, which has not been the best situation. I haven’t even been here a year, and here is only a SMALL sampling of what life has been like at this company: The owner hired a CEO, and then 3 months later fired him, stating he was overpaid (even though the owner was the one who decided to pay him that in the first place); also let go within 3 months of my starting were the CFO and VP of Finance (none of whose positions were ever filled); three other sets of layoffs, decreasing the number of employees here in NC from around 45 to about 25 today; firing the Marketing Director (who hired me) and telling people she was not laid off, that it was a “mutual agreement” (but I guess no one told the Marketing Director that, as she left immediately after the “mutual agreement”, and has told people afterwards that she was fired); and moving a huge chunk of the positions that were let go to India. I was hired to do New Business marketing, and within 4 months I was moved to doing Renewal and Book Marketing. Of course they didn’t ask me if I wanted to move, just “Okay, you’re now doing this. Deal with it.” Then 4 months later I was given back New Business marketing, but without any other work taken away. I could go on and on, discussing how poor their business practices are, but I try not to bad mouth (or even talk about) work in this blog. Meanwhile, at America’s Test Kitchen (ATK), I’ll be working for a company that has both feet firmly on the ground. Cooks Illustrated magazine has a circulation of close to 1 million, and Cooks Country has grown to almost 300,000 in only a few years. Neither publication has advertising, which cuts out a huge headache as well. And finally, I’ll be going back to doing consumer circulation, something I think I’m pretty good at, and definitely something I missed since working in business-to-business publishing for a year now. This one wasn’t even close.
Big Advantage: Boston

Weather
This one is a no-brainer as well. We’ve had 1 dusting of snow this winter in NC. Meanwhile Boston averages over 40 inches a year. (This year has been above average, and while I couldn’t find actual snowfall for Boston this winter, Concord, NH is having its 6^th heaviest snowfall EVER, and it’s only March 1. So on the plus side, at least we didn’t move up to New England last November.) Meanwhile, the summers in Boston aren’t horribly hot and humid, but that didn’t bother me too much down here in NC last summer.
Advantage: Durham

Outdoor Activities
Durham is centrally located in North Carolina, and we have the mountains to the west and the beach to the east. Unfortunately it’s a good 3 hours to either one, so it’s a bit far for day trips. However, the warm weather is around much more often, giving ample opportunity to play more golf per year, go for bike rides in January, etc. Boston is obviously on the shore, and plenty of beaches are within an hour’s drive. There are also plenty of mountains to hike in New England – some only an hour away, some up to 3 hours drive. However, outdoor skating on the ponds (at least in NH) is something we won’t ever have in NC. This one is too close to call.
Advantage: Push

Virginia Tech Hokies
In Durham we are only 3 hours from Blacksburg, making it just short enough to get to/from VT football games in one day. Also, with Duke, UNC and NC State all within 20 minutes from our house (and Wake Forest only an hour away), the opportunities to see not only the Hokie football team, but all of Virginia Tech sports teams play is huge. In Boston, we’ll be lucky to get down to Blacksburg for 2 games a year, and then they’ll play in Chestnut Hill every other year. Since 1999 we’ve only missed 1 home game. This one depresses me more than the weather.
Advantage: Durham

Housing
Another tough one to swallow. Housing prices in the Boston area are right up there with the DC area. When we moved from Rockville to Durham, we were able to get a bigger house for less money. Now we’re going to have to get less and pay more. Not fun.
Advantage: Durham

Things to Do
The Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill area does have things to do, but it doesn’t feel like a big city at all. This can be good and bad, but when it comes to find things to do, we’ve found ourselves bored a lot in Durham. Maybe we just didn’t know where to look, but besides a day trip to the NC Zoo (over 90 minutes away), we haven’t found too many interesting things around here. Boston, meanwhile, will have no shortage of activities to keep up busy (we hope!).
Advantage: Boston

Friends/Family
When we moved to Durham, one of the drawbacks was going to be that we didn’t know anyone. Unfortunately we haven’t met a lot of people since we’ve been here either, and I’ve missed the little things more than I thought I would (the weekly card games, watching soccer matches with the “United Nations”, giving Sluggy a hard time about his lawn). In Boston, we’ll be close to Sage’s family, and we both still have long-lost friends from our high school days in the area. So we’ll see.
Advantage: Boston

Sports
Not counting the Hokies, which I covered above, Raleigh/Durham doesn’t have a whole lot to choose from. The only professional teams are the Hurricanes (NHL) and the Bulls (AAA Baseball). True, there are plenty of college sports to follow, but down here basketball is king, and I just can’t get into it anymore. (Besides, I’d rather not pay $1,350 for the CHEAPEST seat available to see Duke play UNC.) In Boston, I’ll be working 1.2 miles from Fenway (and ATK has season tickets to the Red Sox, which they dole out to employees – score!). Also, our DirecTV won’t be blacking out all the NESN shows, like “The Best of Don and Remy”.
Advantage: Boston

The Movie Factor
This has been a big minus to living in Durham. They just don’t get as many movies, especially independent films, as bigger cities do. I missed Into the Wild because it never came to the area. We shouldn’t have that problem at all in Boston.
Advantage: Boston

Traffic and commuting
Ugh. I don’t even want to think about this one. My current commute in Durham takes me less than 10 minutes. I can come home at lunch without problems, and I never have to worry about traffic. Boston…well, that’ll be Boston. We need to find a place to live where I won’t be in another hellish commute like my old Rockville-to-Leesburg, and I’m hoping overall traffic will be better than DC (according to Texas Transportation Institute, DC traffic is 3^rd worst in the nation, and Boston isn’t even in the top 12).
Advantage: Durham

Ikea
Closest Ikea to Durham: Woodbridge, VA – 4 hours away. Closest to Boston: Stoughton, MA – 30 minutes away.
Advantage: Boston

Travel
As people of this blog know, we like to travel a lot. Living in Durham, the flights into/out of Raleigh-Durham International are limited. This means that not only is it difficult to find non-stop flights to where we want to go, the prices are usually a lot higher as well. Boston’s Logan has plenty of flights, and while it may not be the easiest to get to and from, we’ll also have the options of either Manchester or Providence only about an hour away, where flights are cheaper as well.
Advantage: Boston

Getting Around Town
One of the biggest complaints we had about Rockville was how annoying traffic was ALL THE TIME. Some of the worst traffic I hit around that town wasn’t at 5:30 pm on a Wednesday, but at 2:00 pm on a Saturday. We lived only 2 miles from a supermarket, but it would sometimes take us 10-15 minutes to get there. Durham has been great in that respect. Running to the market for some milk or dried prunes is always easy. I’m guessing Boston will be more like Rockville than Durham.
Advantage: Durham

Gorillas
This is Gorilla Blog, after all. The only gorillas in North Carolina (as far as I know) are at the NC Zoo in Asheboro, almost an hour and a half away. We went to see them last month, and there are only 3 of them in a relatively boring enclosure. The Franklin Park Zoo in Boston has one of the better gorilla habitats, especially their indoor habitat. We haven’t visited it in over 12 years (since we last lived in NH), so we’ll really be looking forward to visiting it often.
Advantage: Boston

Nicknames
North Carolina is the Tar Heel state, something I still don’t even get. Besides, I’m not a huge fan of being considered a tar heel, especially after the Feb. 16 massacre. Massachusetts is known as the Bay State, which doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to me either. Does anyone ever think of Massachusetts Bay when they think of the state? That would be a lot more apt for Maryland or California. And anyone who grew up in New Hampshire knows that if you live in Massachusetts, you’ll always be a Masshole.
Advantage: Push

Gardening
I love to have a garden when I can, even though all I really like to grow are tomatoes, peppers, and herbs, and I was really looking forward to using some of the great backyard at our place in Durham to plant a nice garden this spring. Also, just last summer I planted 2 blackberry bushes in the backyard, which take 1-2 years to start producing. By moving, we’re going to miss out on this year’s planting -- since we’re planning on renting in Massachusetts until we sell the Durham house, it probably won’t be until late 2008 until we find a permanent place to live. Even next year, the growing season will be shorter, and I’ll have to start the blackberries again from scratch.
Advantage: Durham

Recap
So there you have it. Boston 8, Durham 6, and 2 pushes. At the end of the day, it really boiled down to job stability. With Sage not working yet, the last thing I would want is if my NC company went under or had another round of layoffs, and we’d both be out of work. The timing isn’t perfect on this, but the opportunity is too good to pass up. If you had asked me in May 1995, when we moved from NH to Tampa, if we’d ever be living in New England again, I’d have told you not in a million years. Turns out it only took 13.