Honestly if you don't need the public schools I don't think Brookline makes a lot of sense in general. It's expensive relative to other areas close to the city and you're paying for the schools more than anything.

The Village does have some good restaurants though.

I'd consider 5-10 minutes to the Pike to be reasonably good access! I live in Mid-Cambridge, and am very pleased that I can get to the Pike or Storrow in 10 minutes.

BTW, I assume you mean Charles Street South, not "S Charles St." If I'm correct in my assumption, then you must live either at the condos at One Charles Street South, or on the other side of Stuart Street. That area has great access to the Pike. You cut over to Arlington Street on Park Plaza (the street on the south side of the Four Seasons that becomes St. James St. when it crosses Arlington), take a left on Arlington, and then take that right to the Pike. I don't know why that would ever take more than a couple of minutes.

Whenever I see that Pike entrance, I think "I could just hop on there and drive cross country to Seattle and never stop for a light or otherwise look back." Too chicken to ever do it though.

Wirelessly posted (Blackberry: BlackBerry9000/5.0.0.822 Profile/MIDP-2.1 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/102)

I've gone as far as chicago.

Wow you know the area quite well. Are you sure you aren't one of my neighbors? You're right about S Charles St. vs. Charles St. S. Since I moved in nearly two years ago there has always been trouble with USPS, UPS, Fedex, etc regarding the address format. It's not a big problem though. My point regarding the one way streets and highway access is that it's not quick and easy to come back as my garage entrance is on Park Plaza so coming back from Needham/Natick/points west requires me to get off the Pike at South Station/Kneeland St. Its also tough getting back from Storrow but again I was only mentioning this for the OPs benefit-Im reasonably satisfied with my highway accessibility since I generally don't leave the city more than 2-3x/week by car.

To get where you're going, I find it much faster to get off the Pike at Copley, stay in the right lane of the exit ramp, and go straight down Stuart St to Charles St So.

wideman is exactly right. It's a mistake to stay on the Pike to South Station, as Kneeland Street often crawls all the way from there to where you live. As wideman points out, you should get off at Copley and take Stuart Street -- which sometimes has moderate to heavy voulme, but rarely crawls like Kneeland St -- except you can take a left on Park Place (where Legal Sea Foods is) to avoid having to wait for the light at Charles St South. On those rare occasions when the traffic is really bad on Stuart St, I cut over to Columbus Ave by taking a right on Clarendon and a left on Columbus, and then take that into Park Square.

[OT: The street sign for Park Place actually reads "Park Plaice." I've always wondered if that was intentional or a typo!]

Access to and from Storrow is pretty darn easy, too. To Storrow eastbound, you take Charles Street to Beacon to Mugar Way. To Storrow westbound, you stay on Beacon an extra block to Berkley. From Storrow, you get off at the exit (I think it's marked "Downtown" when you're traveling eastbound, and perhaps "Back Bay" when you're traveling westbound) that allows you to jump right onto Arlington (by taking a left at the lights at the exit and a quick right on Arlington) and following that to Stuart.

No offense, but it's hard to ask for better highway access from where you live, or from anywhere else in the Back Bay/Beacon Hill/South End/Bay Village area for that matter.

Blumie almost surely meant to type: On those rare occasions when the traffic is really bad on Stuart St, I cut over to Columbus Ave by taking a right on Clarendon and a left on Columbus, and then take that into Park Square.

Thanks for pointing that out; I've corrected my post. If one were to take a right on Clarendon, it would be an awfully long time before they hit Marlborough Street!

I'm surprised Lower Allston hasn't come up. It's been a niche neighborhood for as long as I can remember (15+ years) and though never considered up and coming, it's a great place for those looking for a lot of bang for the buck, while not being too far off the T and super ultra close to the pike. Yes, there's no bars in the actual neighborhood; it's smack-dab between Harvard Square and all it has to offer and Allston's bar scene.

Is that the area bounded roughly by Cambridge St, the Mass Pike, Western Ave, Everett St, and No Harvard St? I lived on Mansfield St some time ago (a long time ago, akshally) and it was ultra convenient to everything by both auto and public transportation. Between the early 70s when I lioved there and the early 80s, the neighborhood was becoming sketchy -- way more than the usual nasty people and goings-on. Would be happy to hear that things have taken an up-tick.

I lived in LA in the late '80s. It was a bit sketchy at times, and like the rest of A/B, was home to students and some late-night parties. I agree with Blumie and others that Central/Inman/Mid-Cambridge offer the best access to highways and a vibrant city life. We have some amazing restaurants here, and proximity to the T and buses. The downside is the lack of parking and relative expensiveness of the real estate. Not a lot of bang for your buck. I live in Inman and can get to route 93, Mass Pike, Storrow and Rte. 1 in less than 10 minutes. Can't beat that. I also like Davis Square but as someone pointed out, it is a bit studently because of Tufts.

What about the suburbs outside of Boston?

Hi there, Frosty99! Welcome to FlyerTalk! :)

Can you give us a little more info to work on? For instance, are schools important to you? Access to public transportation/commuter rail/highways? Do you prefer a quiet or bustling neighborhood? Are you looking to buy or rent?

(As a sample, take a look at the info the original poster provided.)