Young family moving from NYC to Boston - advice please

[holden125]

Originally Posted by wivenhoe

In addition to the places posted before, I'd suggest Arlington. The town is diverse and the Brackett school is a top elementary school. Arlington borders Cambridge and you can catch the red subway line. It's more middle class than the other places mentioned.

My alma mater, the Brackett school. It's in what I'd consider the nicest part of Arlington too.

[holden125]

Originally Posted by ues2010

A couple more questions....are any of the south shore (or north shore) towns easily commutable to south station?

Most of the towns south and due west have the train going to South Station and are thus a pretty easy commute to South Station, as long as you don't go too far out. I think I already mentioned the Greenbush train line doesn't run as often as others.

The North Shore commuter lines run into North Station, so they're not as direct a commute to the South Station/Chinatown area. But you can get the Orange or Green Lines at North Station and it's a quick ride from there to Chinatown. You'd have to add on an extra 10 mins or so. Because the trains don't have to cross the whole city of Boston, the commute to North Station tends to be quicker than the commute to South Station anyway, so it could be a wash. And there's no extra cost for the subway transfer; unlike NYC the subway is included in the monthly commuter rail pass.

[badluck]

We were LES...not UWS so we may be looking for different vibes but heres my take. but we do have little kids and yoga and eat out and all that crap so who knows. Swampscott is pretty nice and a surprisingly easy commute (25 minutes on the train 30 driving-and I do it everyday). Walking distance to the ocean. Great "public" beaches. Young and upper-middle class population. Hingham-"nouveau " with a hell commute. Wellesley-"I have arrived and my zip code vaildates me" with an OK commute. Lexington-too much "in ya bizness" type vibe with a medium commute. Newton...I like Newton so I dont have anything against it and a good commute from most areas-and on the subway. Brookline- Tough to beat overall but just a little self righteous-easy commute. Needham-pure suburb for better or worse-metro north from Southern Westchester type commute. Winchester-I got nothing on Winchester. My vote is for Swampscott PM me for any specific questions.