Comment by Thriptic

Yet another data point showing why we need more housing and better public transportation in coastal cities. Boston's immediately adjacent suburbs like Cambridge and Somerville are filled with crappy run down houses converted to apartments serving 2-3 users or groups. No one likes them besides the landlords, they are generally of shitty quality / falling apart, and they are extremely expensive. If they were bulldozed and replaced with high rise apartments, costs would greatly fall. Similarly, if the T didn't suck so much and serviced outlying communities, people could more easily live farther away from the city proper, which would also reduce pressures on the city and proximal suburbs to support everyone.