North shore advice?

[jim4170]

I think a good northshore city/town is "WEST PEABODY", although west peabody is not a seperate town from the city of peabody it does feel that way! West Peabody is a cheaper alternative to Lynnfield or Middleton, and you really feel you are part of either Lynnfield or Middleton. West Peabody school systems (elementry K-5) are very good! They have there own Little League (seperate from the rest of peabody), same with soccer! West Peabody has a lot of "McMansions" and its an area with people more on the wealthier side, 100k plus per household. Very little crime if any! It's your typical North Shore suburb, new construction homes on cul-de-sacs, manicured lawns, lot's of families with children, Caddillac, BMW, Mercedes in driveway's. Very nice area to raise a family!! Only if they would offically make west of route 1 ("West Peabody") it's own town! (only drawback is taxes would greatly go up!!)

[capecodcathy]

What about Danvers? I spent a lot of time there as a child and it seemed nice. I went there last Easter and it seemed to still retain that small town feel. Not sure about the schools, though. Thirty years ago, I recall them not having a great reputation but as was said earlier, thirty years is a long time.

[YoMikey617]

Pentucket is the best school district if you can afford a house in the three towns - Groveland, Merrimac or West Newbury. Even if you have to spend more money to live there you're getting your money's worth in the long run (think college admissions & scholarships).
Pentucket Regional School District Home Page

Newburyport is a REALLY NICE walking town and I've heard nothing but good things about the schools. You could potentially rent a good house /apt and have your kids walk to everything (you wouldn''t have to buy them cars or taxi them everywhere).
Newburyport Public Schools Home

[TheWereRabbit]

Okay, first off Parsec's first post is absolutely ridiculous. Manchester-by-the-sea has 3 black residents because it is small and ridiculously wealthy not because the people have some vendetta against minorities. Greater Boston is mostly white and unfortunately the wealthier the town the more uniform it usually is. And Mujo, ChunkMonkey wasn't saying that the towns aren't racist because they voted democrat, he's saying they aren't racist because they voted for an african-american democrat. Thought that was pretty obviously. Really, all this is ridiculous. There is no town in the area that is specifically more racist than any other of it's demographic.

All that aside, Marblehead, Swampscot, Reading are all nice towns as people said. It's hard to say without knowing your financial situation but I wouldn't write off Beverly, Peabody, Danvers or Salem, there are some nice areas (some extremely ritzy areas of Beverly), though the schools aren't quite as good. If you wan't a more rural setting look further north towards Georgetown, Topsfield, Boxfield, Hamilton, Wenham, Essex, etc. As CityGirl said, if you're going to be in Lowell a lot the area further up around Amesbury, Newbury is really nice too. Closer to the towns I just named before than to more developed towns like Marblehead, Swampscot, Beverly, Danvers, Peabody. I'm not so sure about Lynnfield being "clicky" but I guess I shouldn't argue with someone who lived there. Andover, North Andover, and Reading are all real nice too. A little bit further from the shore towns you need to get to but closer to Lowell. I've done the commute from Winchester to Salem and it's about 45 min in average traffic so it should be less than that from any town you are looking at, not too bad.

[AnnPedi614]

Originally Posted by TheWereRabbit

Okay, first off Parsec's first post is absolutely ridiculous. Manchester-by-the-sea has 3 black residents because it is small and ridiculously wealthy not because the people have some vendetta against minorities. Greater Boston is mostly white and unfortunately the wealthier the town the more uniform it usually is. And Mujo, ChunkMonkey wasn't saying that the towns aren't racist because they voted democrat, he's saying they aren't racist because they voted for an african-american democrat. Thought that was pretty obviously. Really, all this is ridiculous. There is no town in the area that is specifically more racist than any other of it's demographic.

All that aside, Marblehead, Swampscot, Reading are all nice towns as people said. It's hard to say without knowing your financial situation but I wouldn't write off Beverly, Peabody, Danvers or Salem, there are some nice areas (some extremely ritzy areas of Beverly), though the schools aren't quite as good. If you wan't a more rural setting look further north towards Georgetown, Topsfield, Boxfield, Hamilton, Wenham, Essex, etc. As CityGirl said, if you're going to be in Lowell a lot the area further up around Amesbury, Newbury is really nice too. Closer to the towns I just named before than to more developed towns like Marblehead, Swampscot, Beverly, Danvers, Peabody. I'm not so sure about Lynnfield being "clicky" but I guess I shouldn't argue with someone who lived there. Andover, North Andover, and Reading are all real nice too. A little bit further from the shore towns you need to get to but closer to Lowell. I've done the commute from Winchester to Salem and it's about 45 min in average traffic so it should be less than that from any town you are looking at, not too bad.

Lynnfield can be clicky in a way, more with the kids in school, but it seems as if some of my friends who have remained are still a bit that way. I will say I love the town and would move back there in a heartbeat if we were moving back to Mass.
Georgetown is a great town, actually most of the towns you mentioned are good. I have family in G'Town, W. Newbury, Byfield, Manchester-by-the-Sea, and friends all over the North Shore. I wish the OP good luck when figuring it, it won't be easy.