Moving to Boston (Cambridge, Newton, Arlington: hair salon, to rent, homes)

[gilsonteichholz]

My family and I will be moving to Boston in July and based on previous threads that I have read, Newton, Arlington, Winchester, Watertown, Concord and Lexington seem like interesting cities to live in. I guess my 4 main criteria in terms of priority would be the following (considering that I am more inclined to rent in the first year):
1) a strong elementary school system
2) a reasonable proximity to Boston, to satisfy the wife
3) a reasonable proximity to Lincoln which is where my office will be
4) a reasonable proximity to the ocean since my major hobby is windsurfing

Although it will be probably quite difficult to match a city to these 4 criteria, any suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

The other question I have concerns cars. Considering the harsh New England winters, is it advantageous to have a 4 wheel drive vehicle?

Thank you for the help.

[vendela]

Welcome to the Boston area!
I can highly recommend Lexington. We are newbies here too and have a couple of friends who followed us and love it as well. IF you absolutely windsurf all the time then you might want to look into the North Shore. The only trouble is that the commute from there would be very difficult unless you have off hours.

We chose Lexington particularly because it is good for newcomers, has really excellent schools, a nice, convenient, town center replete with restuarants, book store, cinema, hair salons, etc. We can walk to it in ten minutes which I do about three times a week to my surprise. When the realtor first mentioned that we would be only a ten minute walk away from the town center I immediately doubted that we would do it often. Turns out that now that it is warm out we walk into town regularly whether for ice cream, a movie, library what have you. Lexington also has many many recreational options which was high on our criteria list. We make frequent use of its fantastic bike path thru the town, playgrounds, and have joined the athletic center which has skating, nice pool, programs etc. We are signing our children up for swim classes at the Hayden and have heard great things about it there.

The town also has a very active preschool LPPTA if your children are young. The community is generally populated by very educated people.
It is a big enough town to have some diversity.
Lexington offers a number of good shopping options with whole foods nearby in Bedford and Woburn, a wonderful gourmet famer's market called Wilson's farm, a nice Stop & Shop, nearby Trader Joe's, and a great big shopping mall in Burlington that is only a few minutes away depending on which part of Lexington you live.

Lexington also has a very active thriving Newcomers Club which I recommend.

Lexington is also very very pretty with a few of the nicest neighborhoods that I have ever seen especially up around Meriam Hill and the Follen Hill area but there really isn't any bad looking parts.

When we were looking we wanted the quintesential New england look in a neighborhood and this is it. People tend to take great care of their homes and landscaping but it does not suffer from that cookie cutter look that you find in some parts of the country (not really in any of thown you're looking in though ).

Lexington does have a busline that hooks you up with the redline "T" but does not have a commuter rail. Since we were going to drive regardless due to our work locale we didn't mind but I would prefer that we have a commuter rail here. But for our day to day it has made no difference.

My biggest complaint so far has been that Lexington has meter pay parking at the library and also for the areas around the downtown. I think that that is a little overkill but I've been walking into town a lot lately so has not been a factor.

Our neighbors are all very nice with many of them having lived in the neighborhood for many years.

I enjoy our proximity to Cambridge where I went to school and often just take rt. 2 into Harvard square.

Hope this is helpful to you. As you can tell we are pleased with our choice, so much so that a couple of others we know have followed suit.

GOOD LUCK!

[vendela]

and about the 4 wheel drive vehicle? Yes you will be happy you got it.
You can get by as I did a couple winters but if you can swing it get the 4 wheel drive!

[gilsonteichholz]

Thank you so much for the detailed information concerning Lexington. Considering its proximity to Lincoln and your positive appraisal, I will definitely take a good look at it.

Thanks again.