Communities west/northwest of Boston- What are they really like? (Cambridge: apartment, renting)

[BostonNewbie]

Thanks so much for all the input!

Re: towns north (e.g. Wakefield, Melrose, Reading, etc)- we ruled those out since my parents, whom we visit frequently (and we hope will come help with babysitting!) live in CT and we don't want to be farther from them than necessary.

By the same token, towns west closer to CT & 90 like Wayland have an added appeal (we head down 90 then get on 395 to get to my parent's). My husband had actually mentioned Wayland as he found some nice places in our price range and it looks like a lovely town. However, I pretty much ruled it out as I thought his commute would be especially nasty- I figured 90 must have horrendous traffic during rush hour (no?). Also, from what I know Wayland has no public transportation. How do people there commute to Boston? Do they all drive? This is a concern if I end up getting a job in Boston- I definitely would not want to drive.

Are there any thoughts on Natick? I understand that has a train to Boston.

Re:Lexington- I've also heard about the school environment being high pressure. This isn't too much of a concern as we feel that must ultimately start/stop in the home.

Thanks again!

[odinboy]

Relatively quiet has a couple of coffee house and dining places downtown-majority of shopping is easily accessable at Natick Mall-or a quick drive to Wellesley -trains directly to South Station. Schools are good and the new high school will be ready for the fall -a good community to raise kids. House prices are more reasonable than say Wayland as are the property taxes!

[ogre]

As Odinboy says, Natick is nice. The neighborhoods vary from upscale to '50's postwar suburban subdivisions that are all grown up and mature, to tree-lined streets of modest to somewhat large houses from sort of early in the 20th century, which are well kept up. The town's overall character is very suburban. And yes, there is commuter rail service.

Natick is a bit unusual in that a section with a lot of malls provides the town's major economic base, yet downtown is still pleasant, unlike so many places where the downtown areas have faded because they've lost business to malls and big chain stores on the edge of town.

The schools have the reputation of being a notch below the high-octane schools of, say, Lexington, Weston, Wayland, Newton, or Wellesley, but Natick's schools overall are regarded as good.

Regarding Wayland, you are correct that the town has no public transit. Some people likely drive to commuter rail stations in either Lincoln or Natick, depending on which side of Wayland they live in, but most of Wayland is rather spread out and not geared toward walking, either to local shopping or to public transit to other communities.

As for a driving commute from Wayland, how bad the traffic is depends a lot on your destination. The worst part of a commute to Somerville most days is likely to be just getting from Wayland to I-90 (known locally as rt. 128). The worst traffic on 90/128 generally is found in the directions feeding into the Mass. Turnpike in the morning, and leading away from the Pike in the PM. If you get onto 90/128 north of the Pike in the morning, the traffic for some distance should be relatively sane, because you're heading away from the Pike to reach roads toward Somerville. The next issue is leaving 90/128 and getting to Somerville, because then you're back into a situation where major roads leading to S'ville are leading in the same direction as inbound AM commuter traffic. I don't know enough about the back roads in the vicinity of S'ville to know whether there is a good back route that skirts the worst of the traffic. If so, this commute might be reasonable, depending on one's expectations for commuting. If not, it would be a fairly bad commute, though not the worst in the metro area.

If you're considering Wayland, you might want to take a second look at Bedford, which is a nice somewhat low-density suburban town, located in a spot which cuts out the part of the Wayland commute that involves getting to 90/128.

What kinds of commutes did you have in the NYC area? Were they really bad, so you're trying to avoid that in your new location, or did you have such good public transit access that driving to work was unnecessary? Just trying to get a feel for what you can handle in terms of commuting, and what you really want to avoid at all costs if possible. Knowing that, and likely workplace locations, could help people have a better idea which towns would work as far as the issue of commuting is concerned.

One other option that occurs to me is to consider towns south of Boston. This could be an especially good option if your husband's workplace is near the red line transit station in Somerville. The commuter trains from the south go to South Station, which has a direct connection to the red line. One quick transfer, and it's a straight shot by subway to S'ville. The caveat to that is that you'd probably really very much want public transit access from many areas south of Boston. There may be some exceptions, but generally the worst commutes in the Boston area are into Boston from the north and south.

[BostonNewbie]

Huge thanks for the great insights into Wayland and Natick.

My husband's office is located in the industrial park in Somerville, which unfortunately is really awkward to get to without a car. The nearest T stop is Sullivan Square, one mile away- my husband would be okay with that walk (which is not a particularly pleasant one through the industrial park), but when you tack in onto subway/trains/transfers, etc. the commutes seem to get substantial (well over an hour)

For comparison, in NYC I had a commute on the subway of 35 or 40 minutes door to door. I think an hour door to door is really the most either of us would want to commute via public transportation, and less in a car.

I'm wondering if I was too quick to discount towns to the north as suggested, e.g. my husband's commute from Reading would be 20 minutes according to google maps. Some added time to CT might be worth it for a nice community and reasonable daily commutes.

How is traffic on 93 during rush hour?

I think we should also revisit Bedford, as suggested. We just realized the minuteman bikeway extends that far, which is a good option for my husband (not sure about me, however; I would perhaps need to drive to a train station if I commuted to Boston, which might take me beyond an hour commute time?)

[Christina311]

How about Waltham?

[Boston_Burbs]

Originally Posted by Bostonmania

And that makes melrose more attractive how?

The way Liberals would like to live in Cambridge.

[Bostonmania]

Originally Posted by Morris Wanchuk

The way Liberals would like to live in Cambridge.

So basically melrose is where rich evil people live? You assuming she's conservative? thats not really something i think anyone should be proud of. if you want to get away from liberals boston is not the place to go, its one of the more liberal areas in the us. And she is coming from NYC, which definitely takes a liberal state of mind.

[ogre]

BostonNewbie, I'm guessing from your last post that you lived right in NYC. In that case, this commuting from the 'burbs thing will be a new experience for you. And I agree that a distance you'd be comfortable walking if you were just out for a stroll can add too much to a commute, if the walk is more than a couple of blocks, so I guess public transit is out for your husband.

If you can do a combination of driving to a train station, then parking and using public transit, it's possible, maybe, that you could live in Bedford and keep your commute to Boston within an hour. That's tricky, because it would depend on where you lived in Bedford and where you worked in Boston. If you lived more toward the east in Bedford, it's possible that you could catch the commuter train in Waltham, and make it either to areas very close to North Station in Boston, or transfer from commuter rail to the red line in Cambridge and make it to areas right in downtown Boston, with a total commute of an hour. You'd probably be cutting it close, though, and any workplace location very far from either North Station or the red line would really extend the commute.

Another suggestion: If your housing budget makes Wayland a possibility, you might look for a lower-end or mid-priced property in Newton. That could make for a reasonably convenient commute to much of Boston, including really all of the downtown and the central city area, and a do-able commute to Somerville. Newton's nice. Older, sort of inner-suburban, well-kept older homes, tree-shaded streets, community feel, local shopping districts scattered all over town instead of one large central downtown (walk to shopping in many neighborhoods), and public transit from many neighborhoods.

Regarding the suggestion of Waltham, the main point I can see being a possible issue with Waltham would be schools. This is going strictly by reputation, but if the rep is accurate, the schools there are probably decent enough but not really, really good. The same is probably true of Watertown, which otherwise might be another town for you to consider, provided a bit of a mix of suburban and some urban character would work for you.

[evergrn]

You should look into Acton. Acton's more affordable than Concord, Lexington or Belmont. It's got great schools, a fair amount of shopping/dining options (including things like Trader Joe's), and people there are well-educated suburbanite types, even though Acton itself feels semi-rural. It's a bit farther out than you might like, but the commute from Acton to Somerville should be no more than from Wayland. Plus there's the potential of taking Commuter Rail straight into Porter Square from Acton.

[SoFresh99]

You should absolutely rule out anything west. Working in that industrial park is a completely untenable commute from most places, esp. if you want to keep it down to and hour door to door. I would try to minimize my daily commute and not worry about adding a half an hour to grandma's commute. Maybe a folding bike that he can take on the orange line for the last mile's commute.

So I vote Winchester (excellent schools wealthy community, has commuter rail to Boston), Melrose (middling schools, commuter rail to boston, v. near Orange line to Sullivan with many buses to the orange line stop called Oak Grove), Arlington (2nd tier schools, no rail, buses to red line subway in cambridge) or Cambridge itself.

You could also move to West Medford for the Brooks elementary school and commit to moving before the kids hit middle school. West Medford has commuter rail to boston and husband's drive to Somerville won't kill him.

Another good thing to do is to have him talk to his future co-workers or the HR department and they can give him the low-down on the actual commute he will be faced with. That is near the most congested interchange in Boston (rt.93/rt.1/rt.99) which has some of the worst traffic in the country and he could sit in traffic for a LONG time unless his schedule is offset regular commuting hours or he takes the train.

You could also look at the google live traffic maps and see where the red is at what time of day. I think it may only show major routes in you look at past conditions but if you take a look some day at 830am and see it live you will get an idea. There are also MassDOT traffic cameras you could look at MassDOT Traffic Webcams .