There is indeed such a program. It's mentioned on the Street Cleaning website and is available here.

If the meal is "for a legitimate business purpose" and is being paid for by a Harvard employee using a Harvard corporate credit card (or by invoicing) then it is legit. Annoying but legit.

They do owe you both an ST-2 and ST-5, though.

It's not just Harvard btw. I've worked at multiple colleges where this is the official policy, but it's only enforced so much as individuals remember to do something about it, which isn't often.

Agreed, and with the new Green Line extension, I'd add Union Square as well!

You will be 100000% fine and happy living in Cambridge. My husband doesn't drive at all and we don't own a car; we've lived here for 10 years and about 7 jobs between us and have been just fine. You can do everything you listed and more without a car.

That said! It's nice that your household has a car, because you can explore a little more without being limited to transit, it's nice to get outside of the city sometimes, and it's helpful for grocery runs etc. I rent a car occasionally for errands, to visit friends who live in the 'burbs, etc.

If you look for in-person work your job search will be slightly limited by needing to be accessible to you by transit in a reasonable amount of time... but doesn't everybody limit their job search based on commute? To me that isn't that big a deal.

I think historically they'd sometimes get a rougher crowd at the Lizard Lounge downstairs (maybe they still do?) but the other 95% of the time it's a pretty chill place. Or maybe I'm just getting old and don't notice that anymore.

Cambridge Common! They have a lot of different table types, and you can definitely call and ask for them to reserve a particular area for you that will meet your needs. Decent menu, well lit, fairly accessible for people with mobility needs.

I've rented 3 places in Cambridge - 1 in a complex, 2 with local landlords - and all allowed cats but no dogs.

Not being snarky, but have you looked on Craigslist? The dog/cat filters are useful and pretty accurate. I've also seen listings specify no dogs, but not say anything about cats, and most ended up saying well-behaved cats are fine.

Attempting to start a sentence with # angers the Reddit markup gods.

That's great news, thanks for sharing!

That area is always so full of Harvard Square tourists looking for parking, thru drivers who are following Google Maps and not paying close attention, visitors to Harvard admissions or the ART scanning for parking, etc.

And there's so much visual stimuli that people don't pay attention to signage or even painted lanes sometimes!

I think there needs to be more physical infrastructure to force drivers to stay out of cyclists' way, they can't just provide guidance and hope for the best.

On a smaller scale, the furious rivalry between Justin McElroy the American podcaster and Justin McElroy the Canadian journalist rages on.