Lots of people are moving out of Boston, making the city one of the top in the US in terms of percentage of residents lost, according to an article in today’s Boston Globe reporting on figures released from the US Census Bureau. Boston lost more than 30,000 people from 2000 to 2005, putting us on par in terms of percent lost with cities like Cleveland, Detroit and Flint, Michigan.
Some blame the high cost of housing (oh, by the way, rents are on the rise again, according to another Globe article.
I wonder how many of these people are researchers and scientists. I’ve been thinking of doing a story about whether there’s a major problem with large numbers of researchers (particularly younger ones) leaving Boston, despite all the great labs in the city, because they can’t get by on a postdoc stipend in this city of sky-high rents. Or maybe they’re staying in Boston, but fleeing academia for more high-paying jobs in industry, etc? Is the high cost of housing leading to a scientific brain drain in Boston? Is it a major problem? Please post a comment here.
YES! IT IS A PROBLEM! The cost of living here is murder. I have not only worked odd side jobs to be able to afford my rent here (I have a family) but have also seriously considered leaving academia to go where the money is. I don’t expect to be rich, but I honestly had a better standard of living as a graduate student in Portland, Oregon than I do in Boston as a post-doc. I dream of leaving for a land where I can both do science and have a home for my kids. That simply is very, very unlikely to happen here in Boston. If I get a chance to leave for a cheaper place, even though the scientific advantages may be fewer, then I will go like the geese in winter.
i’d be interested in seeing the data as to what types of people are leaving boston. i read the Globe article and i believe it said that new hampshire was soaking up a majority of people leaving the area. to me, this suggests that i) people are not leaving primarily because the winters here suck, and ii) there may be a willingness for boston-area scientists (and "civilians") to move to the drivable suburbs of NH to escape ludicrous city housing prices. given that southern NH is not a large biomedical research hub, and with the continued investment in boston/cambridge by big pharma (see corie lok’s previous news article), i conclude that most scientists are probably still living/working in the area, despite the cost of living. furthermore, as eastern MA makes more of an economic commitment to biotech (recent Globe article), i suspect that boston will have an unusually high ratio of scientist/non-scientist, and that the (academic) scientists will be broke.
I would be very surprised if significant numbers of scientists were leaving Boston. It seems that many of the great places to do science are large cities that are associated with high costs of living, so this is the tradeoff we make. And scientists are probably more inclined than many others to not care as much about their standard of living as they do about their work (although I don’t fall into this category). That being said, I’ve always thought that there should be a regional salary allowance for grad students and postdocs, since it is painfully obvious that trying to get by on a postdoc salary in Boston or San Francisco is much more difficult than say, North Carolina or Wisconsin.