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Author Topic: Where should the Boston Area end and the Massachusetts Area begin? Topic is locked Back to Topics
bugc

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Message Posted: Nov 11, 2005 6:20:27 PM

Boundaries between the Boston area and "outside" have some peculiar inconsistencies. I recently noticed a small (and welcome) correction; Reading and Tewksbury have been moved from MassachusettsGasPrices.com to BostonGasPrices.com

I think there are others that should also make this move. I'd include Concord, Lincoln, Dover(?), Hull, Nahant, Pinehurst (is it really useful?), Weymouth, and Winchester.

There are many communities in the Boston list that I think should be moved to Massachusetts, and a number that do not belong on any list.

Perhaps this will become a moot point when GasBuddy changes to a database context, but I think that will be a long way off.

Note that this is also posted in the Massachusetts discussion forum



[Edited by: bugc at 11/11/2005 6:24:06 PM EST]
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bugc
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Message Posted: Apr 21, 2007 3:34:11 PM

Thanks 1Visitor. The existing Boston area and also the "cleaned up version" generally extends one or two towns beyond the 128 belt, with the exception of a few towns in the North Shore / Cape Ann area.

You can see the current proposal by looking at

L=http://users.rcn.com/als62/GB/Boston2.gif] this map [/L]

this map

including the yellow band and adding Framingham and Sudbury.



[Edited by: bugc at 4/21/2007 3:39:20 PM EST]
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1Visitor
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Message Posted: Apr 21, 2007 10:45:54 AM

The Boston area should be any city/town within the 128 belt drawn right out to the coast. That includes approximately 500 gas stations. If all are posted to the Boston site, it would make one heck of a list!!
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nds
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Message Posted: Apr 6, 2007 7:24:52 PM

I'd think the yellow swath ought to run parallel to the green one, but a bit farther away from the center of Boston, just as it is in the places where it is present.
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jasilva
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Message Posted: Apr 6, 2007 11:13:00 AM

abgershaw writes:
> What the h*ll is "Assinippi"?

Well, according to the Unofficial Names of Massachusetts Communities it is a section of Hanover/Norwell.

However, it seems like we should NOT have ANY of these unofficial names on the Boston (or MA) site pull-downs, other than maybe the Boston neighborhoods. The problem with these names is that they are typically ONLY known to 'locals' so they do not help other folks using GB.com to find these locations! I believe that we should stick to the 351 communities defined on this Mass.gov web site


[Edited by: jasilva at 4/6/2007 11:15:10 AM EST]
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abgershaw
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Message Posted: Apr 6, 2007 12:13:35 AM

What the hell is "Assinippi"? That sounds pretty ass-inine.
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bugc
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Message Posted: Apr 5, 2007 9:22:14 PM

Thanks for your comment, nds.

When you say "I'd like to see the yellow swath completed.." do you mean FRramingham and Sudbury, or a full swath (like from Marshfield to perhaps Beverly or Manchester-by-the-sea?

Bringins the "yellow swarth" around to the south raises the question of including Brockton. What do you think?
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nds
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Message Posted: Apr 4, 2007 10:05:40 AM

I think the green swath around Boston is necessary but not sufficient. Much of the auto traffic around greater Boston is centered around major highways (e.g., 95/128), not around downtown Boston where mass transit is reasonably adequate. The green swath excludes many areas that are easily accessible to Boston area commuting highways. On that basis, I'd like to see the yellow swath completed to make a full circumference around Boston, and that would be a good basis for the list. I'm also OK with the idea that the government-defined NECTA would be a reasonable standard.
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bugc
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Message Posted: Apr 2, 2007 3:01:58 AM

I don't have any preference on Alston-Brighton, Alston/Brighton, or separate listings. What do others think?

Anyone for using the NECTA list. Perhaps I should color a map.....
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jasilva
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Message Posted: Apr 1, 2007 12:00:04 PM

bugc: Your Boston list looks fine (though I thought you were going to combine Alston/Brighton).

As far as which towns should be included --- I did a check against the towns in the NECTA Boston-Cambridge-Quincy Division and I found 38 towns that are not included on your green and yellow area of the map. These basically fall into four areas, the Gloucester peninsula towns (Essex, Rowley, Hamilton, etc.) the northwestern towns (Groton, Westford, etc.), the Plymouth area (Plymouth, Marshfield, Pembroke, etc.) and the southwestern towns (Franklin, Foxboro, etc.) Any consensus if we should include these towns or not? If we did, we would have a nice, well-defined (by the government not GBers) list of towns -- though it might be a bit too wide an area?
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bugc
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Message Posted: Apr 1, 2007 12:35:14 AM

The last list posted to replace all the current Boston designations was

Allston
BOSTON
Brighton
Charlestown
Dorchester
East Boston
Hyde Park
Jamaica Plain
Mattapan
Roslindale
Roxbury
South Boston
West Roxbury

Is this OK?
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bugc
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Message Posted: Apr 1, 2007 12:32:39 AM

OK, Let's get a consensus.

We want to include all the towns within the green circle on this map. We have discussed adding those in yellow and there seems to be support. We could move Framingham and Sudbury from the Massachusetts list to smooth the western boundary.

To move out even further, we could include a band of towns to the north.

I consider the south green boundary to be reasonable since Brockton is not in the Boston NECTA.

Are there any strong feelings?
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Ssmith1070
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Message Posted: Mar 31, 2007 12:27:00 PM

I agree with you regarding that. It is one thing to have a North Reading and Reading, since they are separate towns. I find it tedious to find some folks posting as you say with the same station in Arlington or East Arlington and Needham or Needham Heights. Keeping it simple will avoid so many duplications.
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jasilva
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Message Posted: Mar 30, 2007 9:23:51 AM

nds: On the question of which area the Boston site should cover ... bugc had a proposal on a map that showed which towns. I believe, so far, everyone was comfortable with the area marked in green, bugc's question was about the towns on the border marked in yellow. I had pointed out that the
NECTA's identify areas (the Boston subdivision) that might make sense -- especially because of the reasoning that these NECTAs are grouped together to begin with --- 'a common, linked economic and commuting region'.

At this point, I wouldn't care that much though I favor at least going out as far as the area bugc marked in yellow (or maybe further). Since I use FSL based price posting it doesn't matter to me where the towns are (since they are already not correct for me, e.g. North Reading). As bugc points out, it seems like JT is moving towards a more boundary-less GB.com anyway so the towns in the pull-down list becomes more of a convenience than a hard-fast rule about which towns end up on which GB sub-site. As mentioned before, I'm actually more concerned with REMOVING non-towns like those areas/sections (other than Boston neighborhoods) that are only known to 'locals' in those towns! [There isn't a town of North Cambridge or East Arlington or ... these are simply areas of these towns not separate municipalities.]
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Ssmith1070
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Message Posted: Mar 30, 2007 9:03:31 AM

I don't disagree with nds, or perhaps keep it within 128/95 or 495 even. Clearly, there aren't that many Massachusetts sites, Boston, Worcester, MA, and what does having Haverhill and Cape Cod on the same gas price site accomplish anyway? (Yes, I know, Haverhill is on Boston already, which is silly when Dover isn't)

Having Allston/Brighton as one "town" or area of Boston wouldn't really bother me, either. That is a minor issue, but I think trying to have both lumped into Boston - West is certainly not meeting our needs when pricing.

I'm just enjoying seeing others in Boston actually chatting here! What a welcome change!
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nds
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Message Posted: Mar 29, 2007 9:48:10 AM

It looks to me like we have two separate issues here: What geographic region should the BostonGasPrices.com site cover, and how should specific neighborhoods be identified. In terms of the former issue, it seems to me we should have some center point (say, Boston City Hall, for example) and some radius (12 miles seems reasonable to me), and draw a circle on the map. Any town which is at least 30% (or whatever is decided) within the circle should be included. At least this would avoid problems like having Winchester omitted from the list. (BTW, that has been fixed now.) It's better to have an objective criterion than to haggle over each town.
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bugc
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Message Posted: Mar 28, 2007 8:36:54 AM

I'm finding that I can post only one link per message.

Link didn't take. Here's the URL:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Boston2.svg


[Edited by: bugc at 3/28/2007 8:39:00 AM EST]
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bugc
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Message Posted: Mar 28, 2007 8:33:25 AM

Here's another map that divides Boston.


http://www.cityofboston.gov/police/district.asp

Allston and Brighton are combined. Just for info. I think we should keep it as simple as possible.

[Edited by: bugc at 3/28/2007 8:35:37 AM EST]
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bugc
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Message Posted: Mar 28, 2007 7:42:50 AM

I'd like to see a few more opinions.

Tuning the list:
I find lots of maps such as this one or that treat Allston-Brighton as one area. Do we do that?

Do we otherwise use the list as proposed by Ssmith1070 on 3/26?

We need to resolve the yellow/ expanded yellow/ green selection on this map.

I'd then post our proposal to the Massachusetts Forum and give people a little time to respond. Our change will also involve some shuffles on the Mass list.

After that we notify the admins that we want this change.
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jasilva
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Message Posted: Mar 28, 2007 7:20:28 AM

Ssmith1070:

Thanks for bringing your historical perspective about why these Boston towns NEED to be kept separate. bugc - so, it seems like either approach would work, either the 'Boston - Hyde Park' or simply 'Hyde Park'.

So --- how do we actually effect this change? How do we get the GB 'masters' to listen to our suggestion and actually change the Boston town list?

As was mentioned before, there are also quite a few other 'non-towns' on the list that really should be removed and a few others that are missing. The official 351 towns should be the basis, with the Boston neighborhoods as the 'only' deviation from this (IMHO).
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Ssmith1070
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Message Posted: Mar 27, 2007 6:32:02 PM

Likely no. I'm a RE Appraiser, and sometimes lenders from outside the area are baffled by things like this.

I once had a lender want me to put Boston on an appraisal and I had to put my foot down and give them a history lesson. Boston is a very old city, and at one time had tried to incorporate Brookline into Boston also. The Town of Brookline wouldn't be annexed, but at this point is probably the only town I know of which is not connected to the rest of the county it is in (Norfolk County). It is surrounded by Boston (Allston, Brighton, Kenmore Square, the Fenway, Jamaica Plain and West Roxbury) and Newton.

In any event, where most of these areas used to be their own towns, they really aren't Boston proper to this day even though they are now part of the City of Boston.

Those addresses along Washington in West Roxbury, Roslindale don't get repeated, but you had better believe that addresses in Hyde Park, Charlestown, or Brighton DO get repeated. They are completely different streets. Thus, I think we need to just give them different city names under Boston as I suggested.

Putting Boston - Brighton is fine with me. Just think it is easier to find that than writing Boston - West. I have always put Brighton when I price a station there.

[Edited by: Ssmith1070 at 3/27/2007 6:33:06 PM EST]
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jasilva
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Message Posted: Mar 27, 2007 4:31:46 PM

Ssmith1070:

I see your point --- doesn't this happen in other major cities too?

One question is: are the numbers on Washington St repeated in any other part of the city or in the neighboorhoods? This situation also happens across 'true' town boundaries, Mass Ave goes from Boston to Cambridge, to Arlington to Lexington --- but I guess that the street addresses are renumbered in each city?

Also, I would guess that the cross streets are not repeated in each neighborhood but it wouldn't surprise me if they are. In other areas of the coutry where streets go on for hundreds of miles (like CA, TX, etc) they are usually identified by which block, e.g. the 1700 block, of a common street. This really translates to be a unique street address which presumably identifies which city/town the address is in. This is why GPS location is so important for locating stations on the MSL and for price posting. Of course at some point you (we) actually have to drive to a gas station and, unless we have a GPS unit in our car, we do have to find the station by street names and town names! ;-) The point I made earlier though is that if I don't know where JP or HP or Roslindale begins it will not help me much to find a station in one of those towns if GB.com has it listed by that town name (of course having it just in Boston doesn't help either so I agree that the best 'comprimise' solution is to use neighborhoods for sections of Boston)

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Ssmith1070
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Message Posted: Mar 27, 2007 3:40:58 PM

Whatever you guys think, then. Neighbrohoods within the City of Boston are tough, because these neighborhoods are NOT Boston proper, and you can have the same street name in any section of Boston. Brighton has a Washington Street, as does Dorchster. There is no way that putting an address and calling one of these areas Boston will be helpful for a visitor or local. There is a Washington Street which runs from Downtowo Boston through the South End, Roxbury, through JP and Roslindale and into West Roxbury (same street) and there is a Washington Street in Charlestown and there is a Washington Street in Hyde Park. So essentially there are at least four different streets, just a for instance.

There are other examples but I won't bore you. I do most of my driving in and around Boston, and sadly I've probably been on every section of every Washington Street! lol...
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bugc
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Message Posted: Mar 27, 2007 8:32:23 AM

I don't see any perfect solution to this issue.

Should we consider combinations like:

Boston - Roxbury
Boston - Mattapan

How will this work with the MSL?
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jasilva
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Message Posted: Mar 27, 2007 7:19:02 AM

BostonC75 writes:
> There is one other point to this..a point of keeping it simple.

I agree!! There are at least two main users of this site; those that know an area and regularly post prices and those that do not (visitors, vacationers, etc.) The first group might actually KNOW the names of the neighborhoods but the second group will NOT! The first group, since they posted the prices will already know where each of the stations are anyway, so it really doesn't matter (in a sense) to them because they already KNOW how to find these stations. The second group, however, will need to use the town information to FIND the stations so the question becomes: "Will a visitor (for example) know the difference between Mattapan and Rosinldale or Hyde Park or Jamaica Plain?" Or, are there are there signs that tell someone 'now entering JP or HP'? If not, then these name will NOT really help them!! In the MSL-base GB-world, these names will NOT really matter, as long as they are positioned correctly on the MSL map ...

BTW, I happen to be driving through JP to HP to Roslindale this past weekend and I really couldn't tell the when I was in one 'neighboorhood' vs. another -- and I'm a 'local' from a city just north of Boston!! Though with that said, I agree with bugc's list for Boston, I just would prefer that this doesn't happen for any other city/town in MA like that section of Billerica or places that are named North X or East X that are NOT really separate municipalities!

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BostonC75
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Message Posted: Mar 26, 2007 10:10:53 PM

There is one other point to this..a point of keeping it simple.

Whatever way you guys decide to go with "neighborhoods of Boston" just keep it very simple. Looking at the "big board" on any given day will most likely give you at least duplicate pricing for Marbady's in Natick, as well as the Newton and Lexington Rt. 128 service stations.

Everyone uses different address..and in these cases, the address should be pretty simple. How are people going to fare with neighborhoods?
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Ssmith1070
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Message Posted: Mar 26, 2007 2:44:14 PM

Therefore, my proposed list for Boston:

Allston
BOSTON
Brighton
Charlestown
Dorchester
East Boston
Hyde Park
Jamaica Plain
Mattapan
Roslindale
Roxbury
South Boston
West Roxbury

Essentially, other than Chelsea, Revere and Winthrop, that is all of Suffolk County right there. The breakdown is pretty necessary in my opinion of all those areas. Can't call it all Boston and expect any cohesion.
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Ssmith1070
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Message Posted: Mar 26, 2007 2:39:48 PM

I like to use the Boston Assessors' records myself. Easiest. Massachusetts Avenue is the dividing line between South End and Roxbury, and areas like Dudley Square, Mission Hill and Fort Hill are all Roxbury.

One other area which should have its own name even within Boston is South Boston. South End is Boston proper, but South Boston, once known as Dorchester Heights, really isn't Downtown Boston at all. Mattapan is the toughest, as it, like Roslindale, is more of a post office address. Parts of Roslindale and Jamaica Plain going far enough back will be Roxbury or West Roxbury on the deed, as those areas were their own towns going way back. South Boston was Dorchester Heights, and Hyde Park or all places was its own town until 1912. Parts of Mattapan will say Hyde Park on the deed, but clearly Mattapan Square and those areas between Wood Avenue and all the way almost to Adams Village along the Neponset and basically from there all the way to Morton Street is basically Mattapan. Anything Assessors' records have a 02126 zip code for...lol.

[Edited by: Ssmith1070 at 3/26/2007 2:40:09 PM EST]
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bugc
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Message Posted: Mar 25, 2007 11:58:03 PM

Good points. What will the MSL require? The post office address?
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BostonC75
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Message Posted: Mar 25, 2007 11:42:20 PM

What's your definition of Roxbury? Where does Mattapan start and Dorchester end? Ask a Herald street photographer, and he'll give you one set of streets. Ask the BPD..and they'll give you a different set. Boston Fire or EMS--they have different definitions..same thing. Mayors Office? "Where we put those nice neighborhood signs up."
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Ssmith1070
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Message Posted: Mar 25, 2007 2:57:29 PM

If I'm not mistaken, there are still a few other areas of Boston which should be included separately and that really are NOT part of Downtown Boston.

These include Roxbury, Mattapan and Hyde Park. I don't think these areas should be lumped in under Boston at all. After all, you can't get further south outside Downtown Boston than Fairmount Hill in Hyde Park and still be within city limits.
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jasilva
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Message Posted: Mar 23, 2007 1:44:00 PM

bugc, BostonC75, Ssmith1070, and other Boston GBers:

Do you believe that we need to clean up, first of all, the entries on ALL the MA/Boston/Worchester/Springfield sites that are NOT 'real' towns as defined in on the Mass.gov site (of 351 towns):
[Something's broken with the Insert link feature!!]

There are quite a few 'North <town>' and 'East <town>' as well as sections of towns that are NOT really separate municipalities as defined on the Mass.gov web site. In most cases these should probably be removed from the MSL lists. [For example, North Cambridge is an area of Cambridge NOT a separate town with a separate town government yet North Reading IS a separate town but is NOT on the MSL pull-down!] This still leaves us the question that bugc raised, what do we do about Boston - XX, and Worchester - XX, and Springfield - XX ? When we were discussing this only for Boston it seems like we came to an agreement on removing all of the 'Boston - XX' names and repalcing them with the single 'Boston' and the neighborhoods bugc mentioned. Should the same be done on the Worchester and Springfield sites?

********* Mod Edit **********
Sorry jasilva but your link was stretching out the page.



[Edited by: TB at 3/29/2007 7:07:46 PM EST]
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bugc
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Message Posted: Mar 23, 2007 8:18:15 AM

Yet another change. JT has added metro choices to the MSL. Therefore our decision for Boston area content will also show up on the MSL page.
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bugc
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Message Posted: Mar 20, 2007 9:38:55 PM

jasilva wrote "It seems like JT has added new capability to the MSL page..."

Excellent. It certainly looks like we are heading for a for a boundary-less GB.com. This means that our decision on where to place the boundaries is not as important but the clean-up is VERY important.
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jasilva
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Message Posted: Mar 20, 2007 9:24:55 PM

FYI: It seems like JT has added new capability to the MSL page such that it now shows ALL towns in MA, i.e. all those listed on the MA, Boston, Worchester, and Springfield sites, on the MSL search pull-down. Unfortunately, JT and co didn't do a good job of filtering out the 'junk' like the sections of towns (Blackstone and 'Bliss Corner') that are NOT really towns!

Maybe this is JT preparing for a boundary-less GB.com but in the mean time it looks like there might be some 'glitches' ...
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jasilva
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Message Posted: Mar 20, 2007 9:03:28 AM

bugc:

I see your Lowell posting ... maybe they relaxed this to allow 'other' towns postings from the 'Map Gas Price' page!! I think it used to be that it would bounce you to the metro/state site where that town was listed. So, maybe JT is 'getting with the program' and really starting to make GB.com boundary-less ... we can only hope !!! (A good test would be to login to the Boston site and to pan the map to NH and post a price for a NH station!!) Now if we could only post prices from the MSL then we wouldn't have all of the confusion of how (seemingly) random the MSL to PMSL associations work (or don't work)!!

P.S. One other comment about adding NECTA towns to the Boston site --- you might want to post this intention in the MA forum (again) before doing this so MA folks who post to these towns will not be upset if these towns are moved!! I know I originally registered on the MA site and when the towns I posted prices for moved to the Boston site I switched to always logging in and posting on the Boston site --- but my point rankings didn't follow me to the Boston site (not that I really care but others might)!!


[Edited by: jasilva at 3/20/2007 9:04:19 AM EST]
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bugc
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Message Posted: Mar 20, 2007 8:01:02 AM

H'mm. I updated a couple of Lowell prices from the map and expected to be bounced to the MA site. I was surprised when they were posted to the Boston site. Is this a "special case"?
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jasilva
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Message Posted: Mar 20, 2007 7:11:00 AM

Well, there are NECTA Metros and NECTA divisions (sub-parts of a metro).
Using this logic, Beverly and Foxborough both belong to the Boston-Cambridge-Quincy NECTA division (as well as Manchester and others).
Brockton is in a separate division so I would be inclined NOT to include it, and the other towns in it's NECTA division.

All of the other towns you mention are in the Boston metro NECTA except for North Andover, which is in the Haverhill-North Andover-Amesbury NECTA division, another (sub)division of the Boston NECTA. This includes Amesbury, Georgetown, Groveland, Haverhill, Merrimac, North Andover, Salisbury, and West Newbury as well as towns in southern NH. Should we include this NECTA division -- I would suggest not. [In a way though, I almost "don't care" because I use the FSL to post and I can see the stations I'm interested in on the new 'Map Gas Prices' map page. I'm still hoping for a boundary-less GB.com so that this doesn't matter! The only downside for me is that when I try to post a price from the Map Gas Prices page and it bounces to the MA site, it requires me to re-authenticate.]

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bugc
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Message Posted: Mar 20, 2007 6:02:23 AM

If we are to include the yellow areas on this map, we could move Framingham and Sudbury from the Mass list for consistency.

And how about Foxboro[ugh]?

We could add another northern band:
North Andover, Boxford, Topsfield, Hamilton, Wenham, and Manchester-by-the-sea (or just Manchester).

We could go further to the south. I wonder about considering Brockton to be in the Boston area, but if we include Beverly to the north, maybe we should add a southern tier.

Do we want to include more of the NECTA area? Be more aligned with the NECTA?
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jasilva
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Message Posted: Mar 19, 2007 8:36:19 AM

bugc:

I vote for the green area with the included towns in the yellow area!

I was also trying to reconcile this with the NECTA areas which defines an even larger region that what you have on your map. I don't necessarily believe this is a 'bad thing' though folks in those towns that currently post on the MA site might have an issue with moving them to the Boston site. If you look at the definition of an MSA or NECTA :

"Each metro or micro area consists of one or more counties and includes the counties containing the core urban area, as well as any adjacent counties that have a high degree of social and economic integration (as measured by commuting to work) with the urban core." [The NECTA definition replaces counties with city/town ]

This is basically the key concept of why these need to be together on the Boston site -- because folks in this metro area have the 'high degree of economic integration' and 'commuting to work' is one of the key contributors to the prices on the Boston GB site. This is why it makes sense to have Andover on the Boston site --- because folks that commute from the North Shore communities like Andover and South Shore communities like Marshfield or Hanover, are probably the same folks that would most likely be posting prices for the closer to Boston towns on their commute!!
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BostonC75
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Message Posted: Mar 18, 2007 9:52:55 PM

My vote is for the yellow borders. I think Metro Boston does include Framingham and Sudbury (Even Millis.)

But I'll go with either. I think the green border looks good too. It makes a lot more sense.

Strong work BugC.
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bugc
Champion Author Boston

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Message Posted: Mar 18, 2007 11:26:00 AM

BostonC75 and jasilva-
Thanks for following up on this. Your questions (Concord and Millis) just show that I can't handle it without a map. I had intended to delete Medway (and Millis) and include Concord.

Therefore I have made a map and posted it at this link:Map of proposed "BostonGasPrices" area. Please check out the map.

I was trying to minimize changes and to avoid a jagged border. I have indicated a core boundary on the map in green. We could extend this boundary to areas in yellow, to pick up a number of existing "Boston area" towns. Do we want to? We could have a smoother western boundary by including Framingham and Sudbury, but that would require moving them from the Massachusetts list.

Other comments?

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jasilva
Champion Author Boston

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Message Posted: Mar 18, 2007 7:46:37 AM

BostonC75 writes:
> There are gas stations in the North End.

Your comment prompted me to look -- you're right, according to Google there is a 7_Eleven on the corner of (464) Hanover and Commercial St; the only other one that Google shows is near the New England Aquarium on East India Row (not sure if that would be considered the North End or not).

When I looked at the MSL there are ZERO stations posted there ... maybe I'll add the Hanover St. station but I don't know the details of what services it offers ...
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BostonC75
All-Star Author Boston

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Message Posted: Mar 18, 2007 3:02:51 AM

I would add Millis to the Boston list. Especially since Medway (to the west) Medfield (to the east) Sherborn, and Dover all border Millis and are in the Boston list.

There are gas stations in the North End. I think there is a mobil at Hanover at Commercial.
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bugc
Champion Author Boston

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Message Posted: Mar 17, 2007 4:17:31 PM

My list of differences is a little different from yours, jasilva, and may have some errors.

First, I started with the pulldown list from the bostongasprices.com entry page. I find different lists in different places. The [more cities] list is not the same (surprisingly).

My list of additions include:
Avon
North Reading
Norwell
Wayland


Dover, Hull, and Nahant were moved from Massachusetts to Boston.
I had originally moved Concord, but I changed my mind. That is why I added Carlyle. Carlyle and Concord should go together. Either Boston or Mass.

It gets very confusing. The best way to see what is going on would be to show the boundaries on a map. I haven't done that yet.

I tried to minimize changes and to make borders reasonably consistent. I tried to balance distances from Boston, but it is tough.
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jasilva
Champion Author Boston

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Message Posted: Mar 17, 2007 3:38:25 PM

bugc:
Just to clarify I went through your list and compared it to the current list to see the differences:

Deleted:
Assinippi
Beverly
Boston - XX
Franklin
North Billerica
North Cambridge
North Scituate
Nutting Lake
South Weymouth
West Concord
Whitman

Added:
Allston/Brighton
BOSTON
Carlisle
Charlestown
Dover
East Boston
Hanover
Hull
Norwell
Sherborn

The deleted ones all make sense to me because other than Beverly, Franklin and Whitman they are areas or local names of sections of towns, NOT truly separate municipalities. The added ones also make sense though when I see Carlisle I expected to see Concord. Thx for doing this!!
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bugc
Champion Author Boston

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Message Posted: Mar 17, 2007 2:50:45 PM

Here's my list:

For the city of Boston:
Allston/Brighton
BOSTON
Charlestown
Dorchester
East Boston
Jamaica Plain
Roslindale
West Roxbury

CITIES and Towns outside Boston:
Abington
Andover
Arlington
Avon
Bedford
Belmont
Billerica
Braintree
Brookline
Burlington
CAMBRIDGE
Canton
Carlisle
CHELSEA
Cohasset
Danvers
Dedham
Dover
EVERETT
Hanover
Hingham
Holbrook
Hull
Lexington
LYNN
Lynnfield
MALDEN
Marblehead
Medfield
MEDFORD
Medway
MELROSE
Middleton
Milton
Nahant
Natick
Needham
NEWTON
North Reading
Norwell
Norwood
PEABODY
Pembroke
QUINCY
Randolph
Reading
REVERE
Rockland
SALEM
Saugus
Scituate
Sharon
Sherbom
SOMERVILLE
Stoneham
Stoughton
Swampscott
Tewksbury
Wakefield
Walpole
WALTHAM
Watertown
Wayland
Wellesley
Weston
Westwood
Wilmington
Winchester
Winthrop
WOBURN

Andover and Tewksbury could be moved to the Mass list.
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bugc
Champion Author Boston

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Message Posted: Mar 17, 2007 2:01:14 PM

OK, I've been fiddling with my list loing enough. Here's what I propose for the Boston area:

Ooops.... I need to fix the list.

[Edited by: bugc at 3/17/2007 2:02:51 PM EST]
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jasilva
Champion Author Boston

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Message Posted: Mar 17, 2007 10:00:07 AM

Ssmith1070 writes:
> But confusion over what town a station ...

Good point! Besides GPS becoming more widely available in cell phones and portable GPS devices as well as built into more cars there is also the fact that ONCE we get to MSL-based price posting this will be less of an issue. This, of course, assumes that MSL stations are done with 'due diligence' and put in the correct 'neighborhoods' and verified by folks who reall know a particular area (like you knowing the difference between West Roxbury and Dedham).

I also agree with you -- I tend to think of Boston as only the downtown area including the area along the Charles River, the Back Bay, Government Center, Chinatown, the Fenway and South End --- basically the area that used to be an 'island' that was filled in to make Boston (proper)!! [I also tend to think of the North End as part of Boston proper since it is tied so closely to the history of Boston (proper) with the Old North Church and such. I don't know for sure but I'm guessing that there are
aren't but a few, if any, gas stations in the North End anyway!]
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Ssmith1070
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Message Posted: Mar 16, 2007 6:22:22 PM

I feel that the Boston prices should only be for Boston proper, including only Back Bay, Waterfront, Beacon Hill, The Fenway, The South End, etc. Keep the suburban areas separate, with Hyde Park, Mattapan, West Roxbury, Dorchester, Roxbury, East Boston, Allston, Brighton, Charlestown, etc. Mission Hill, Fort Hill, etc. are all actually part of Roxbury. If you don't know which area to throw your price into, price five stations that you do know.

I do agree that recently I've been a bit annoyed when there are folks that price a Hess Station in West Roxbury along Washington Street as Dedham, which it isn't. But confusion over what town a station is should eventually get worked out as the folks posting try to do a bit of research over time. GPS systems are slowly getting better and more folks will get them in time as well, and addresses of stations will be easier to obtain when using them.
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bugc
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Message Posted: Mar 16, 2007 10:56:17 AM

Sure. I agree it would be appropriate to add Allston/Brighton as one entry.
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jasilva
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Message Posted: Mar 15, 2007 8:19:29 PM

bugc:

I definitely agree with getting rid of the Boston-XX variants -- I just checked and there are ONLY 9 TOTAL gas prices posted today for ALL Boston-XX variants so it seems like GBers are NOT using them!! My guess is that this just makes things more confusing.

As far as the neighborhoods, that makes sense to me (the existing ones and adding East Boston and Charleston). What about Alston and Brighton (are they added, are they separate or just a single entry)?
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bugc
Champion Author Boston

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Message Posted: Mar 15, 2007 7:40:24 AM

I see that the Boston list already includes
Dorchester
Jamaica Plain
Roslindale
West Roxbury

I propose keeping them on the list.

I'd add
East Boston
Charlestown

Replace all the Boston variants with just "Boston"

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