Making sense of Massachusetts... (Boston, Springfield: home, living, manufacturing)

[brightdoglover]

I live one mile from I-495 (inside). I feel like I'm on the edge of central Mass. A lot of people who live on either side of 495 do so and get on the highway to various tech jobs along the highways. A ton of people come down from southern NH for same (you can walk across the cars on 93 south in the morning).
I think people become oriented to their own local area, whatever it is. I still sometimes think of myself as "25 miles northwest of Cambridge," but after 18 years, I rarely go into Cambridge. When I lived there, I only went to Boston if there was something I couldn't get in Cambridge. Etc.
My job is right outside of Cambridge, so I do feel sort of oriented in towards town.

[LexWest]

Originally Posted by Tiger Beer

So, making sense of Massachusetts. Let's see if any of this is right. (I've visited briefly, but don't really know your state at all)

I'd say several regions...you have Western Massachussets which seems to be another planet. (Well, compared to Eastern MA....) Thinking more pickup trucks, and a more generic America feel.

On the other side, you have BOSTON. Seems to me like one very MASSIVE college-oriented city with amazing architecture, old world feel, college students galore, etc. A world in its own, and always attracting more immigration groups....even with the other strong Irish and (I think Italian too?) other groups. Overall, I think of academia and college with fresh college graduates competing for desireable jobs. (Spot on!)

How about the REST OF MASSACHUSSETS. Seems like it would be WORKING CLASS, right? Typical New England in some ways. Yet, when I think of Connecticut I think of yuppies and plain and collar shirts. ( Western CT, perhaps.)When I think of Vermont, I think of green environmental folks. (And Ben & Jerry's!) When I think of New Hampshire, I think of gun-toting misfits of the region. (Isn't that Texas?) So, being that Massachussets is the CENTER of this area...and yet also between three very different states...seems like in my mind that Massachussets is just one big massive MIX of the extremes of the other three states? (Well, there aren't any major cities in the other three states...and they don't want any, either.)

Maine? Rhode Island?

Anyways...what's your take? I'm also curious what your typical Massachussets person is like...?

(Comments in Blue)

[soreknees]

Political power is concentrated within 128, and nowadays, maybe 495. Central and Western Mass always got the short end of the stick....or the last of the vast Porkbarrell enjoyed by the politicians (99.5% of the power is with the Democratic Party - no political point being made here, just fact). Although I come from the East, this imbalance of power never sat well with me - mostly because, coming from Boston, I knew the nasty backstabbing activities and misuse of public funds by the power brokers.

Gov. Patrick has his multi-million dollar mansion in the Bershires and has developed through the years, and before he became Governor, connections and relationships with the Western Mass folk. So, maybe they have some say that they never have had, with some minor exceptions (the short lived tenure of Gov. Swift).

Someone made a point about the radius of travel; you could drive 2.5 hrs from Boston to the Bershires, or the same amount of time to Franconia Notch and the lakes region in the White Mountains, to all the beaches of New Hampshire, and a good distance into the center of rural Maine, or to many places on the Maine Coast.

[Champ le monstre du lac]

Perhaps a visual and poll might help explain the different regions of Massachusetts and how people feel about them...

http://www.city-data.com/forum/massa...achusetts.html

[Gabe1972]

It's a small state so many of the regions overlap each other culturally. Central Mass is definitely a region but so is Metro West which Westborough and Shrewsbury are definitely a part of and you can even argue that Worcester is the very edge of Metro West but Leicester and Auburn are definitely not, you know?

Metro Springfield is miles away from the culture of North Adams and Shelburne Falls, yet Northampton is not but is regarded as part of the Pioneer Valley along with Springfield.

I guess what I am saying is to simply divide Massachusetts into 4 or 5 regions is selling many towns and cities short. I would say the best way to make sense of it is to take your major metro areas: Boston, Worcester, Springfield, Lowell/Lawrence/Haverhill/Methuen, The Mass part of the Providence metro. Then take the other regions: The Berkshires, The Lost Towns/Route 2 area, The North Shore, Seacoast, The South Shore, The South Coast, The Cape and the Islands.

It's a small state with many different cultures and regions. I would say the same for Connecticut too.

[MassBoy]

Though this thread may be a bit dated, I just came across it and I'd like to give my take on EASTERN massachusetts, which (obviously bias) is what I consider the best breakdown of the region.

Although some of the counties in each region I am going to describe overlap, the cities and towns in each region are the ones most closely tied together either geographically, socially, etc.

Boston proper, 'nuff said. (Although Boston is a "tale of two cities," more on that in a bit)

Inner ring towns: Any city or town that is (or nearly) adjacent to Boston proper, such as Newton, Needham, Brookline, Milton, Quincy, Chelsea, Everett, Somerville, etc. Although, not all these towns are closely linked (Somerville would not be close with Quincy, say) they are all mainly concerned and oriented with Boston proper.

South Shore: The towns and cities south of Boston that lie on or very near the coastline from Weymouth to Hingham, down to Marshfield and on to Plymouth, etc.

North Shore: The towns and cities north of Boston that lie on or very near the coastline from Lynn and Salem up to Gloucester and Rockport, etc.

Here's where I want to distinguish things: The next area I am going to call METRO SOUTH. These are cities and towns more directly south of the city in a corridor that would include Canton, Stoughton, Brockton, Easton, Randolph, the Bridgewaters, and towns in that area. Taunton is tricky because it is in this area, but many towns around it, especially to the south, are linked to Fall River. While Easton, (I live in South Easton) is the northernmost town in Bristol County, we are much more involved with Brockton and Boston.

METRO NORTH: Towns and cities more directly north of Boston, in a corridor that would include Woburn, Wakefield, Stoneham, Reading, Burlington, etc.

Metro West has been a defined region for some time, and would include the Framingham and Marlborough area and surrounding towns.

Southern: This is region typically known as the South Coast, and would include center around the Fall River/New Bedford area.

Northern: This region I believe is typically known as the Merrimack Valley, but I am going to say it is a region based around the Lowell/Lawrence area.

That is what I believe to be a pretty accurate grographical and social breakdown of Eastern Mass, and now I want to comment on something the OP said, about Boston and his/her perception about it being a college town, which it is in a large sense. However, what people do not understand is that, many, many, many, people who visit Boston, rarely go outside of the downtown area, where many of the universities, hospitals, etc., are. So what they see is often college kids (not that this is bad, but I often here people complaining about how snobby, preppy, blah blah Boston is) who themselves are often NOT FROM BOSTON.

This is one side of Boston. The other side of Boston, what I feel is it's true identity, is what you will find outside of downtown, not necessarily in the "hood," but places where born-and-bred Bostonians like my family grew up in working-class, tight-knit neighborhoods, some of which you can still see in places like Roslindale, parts of JP, parts of West Roxbury, parts of Charlestown and Southie. What's sad is even in these places the working class is being forced out. I went back to Pratt Street in Allston recently, the street which years ago a member of my family probably lived in every house on the block (lol), only to find that it was now overrun with college students from all over country, and it just didn't have that same feeling of community that it used to.

[seeriously]

Originally Posted by Tiger Beer

I'd say several regions...you have Western Massachussets which seems to be another planet. Thinking more pickup trucks, and a more generic America feel.

On the other side, you have BOSTON. Seems to me like one very MASSIVE college-oriented city with amazing architecture, old world feel, college students galore, etc. A world in its own, and always attracting more immigration groups....even with the other strong Irish and (I think Italian too?) other groups. Overall, I think of academia and college with fresh college graduates competing for desireable jobs.

How about the REST OF MASSACHUSSETS. Seems like it would be WORKING CLASS, right?

But is this any different than any other state? Illinois with savvy Chicago as opposed to rural southern Illinois? Virginia with sophisticated NOVA, the bedroom to D.C., Richmond which is still fighting the civil war, and the rest of rural VA? MA is no different than any other state.

[Justin Sparks]

In my activity on other internet forums with a national audience, it makes me chuckle when people think MA is Cambridge intellectual elites, Barney Frank is your congressman and you summer at the compound in Hyannis Port.

Out here in the Berkshire hills, my neighbors have snowmobiles on the lawn all summer, the F150 serves as the family sedan, cowboy hats and line dancing are popular, and the 'Don't Tread on Me' flags fly.

The Appalachians don't end in West Virgina, lol.

[lukec]

Its amazing how many people dont even know their own state. There is an official name for the belt that runs from Providence to Cape Cod and its called South Coast. Like another poster referenced about the Berkshires, its more diverse and different than what people just assume

Its densely populated and nothing like the Cape, South Shore, or Metro Boston.

Also, Boston so thouroughly dominates news, tourism and culture that people assume the burbs are burbs. But Mass is dotted with poor, historic, mill cities such as Brockton, Fall River, Fitchburg, Haverhill, Holyoke, Lawrence, Lowell, New Bedford, Pittsfield... Its hard to pigeonhole them as urban in the sense that most people think of Northeast urban cities. But they are not suburbs either.

[litlux]

It's interesting to read all the different takes on the regions of Massachusetts, but it only scratches the surface. The Berkshires, where I live, actually have the richer southern towns where the New York City folks keep their summer "cottages" and the hardscrabble north (except for Williamstown) struggles mightily to fill its old mills with other uses.

Both North Adams and Pittsfield are trying to develop a cultural economy in addition to the other types of employment, and it seems that the resident base is changing from factory workers to transplants. Like town and gown, they don't always mix that well.

Still there are few places in the world that are as varied and wonderful as Massachusetts. I love Boston, the Cape and Western Mass equally well. Have lived a decade in each place. The only places I love more are Manhattan and central Vermont.

City boy. Country boy. I guess I am both.