Beautiful, comfy place to read/write in Newton/Dedham/Brookline area?

[tikaram]

Originally Posted by mikeandikes77

I remember going to their library required going on the highway, or at least my GPS said it did.

you can reprogram your GPS to avoid highways, and it will show you alternative routes. (for example, my gps has "shortest distance", "fastest travel time", "avoid tolls" etc) You can find this option in settings. Unfortunately, GPS will not show you several alternative routes at the same time - but google maps and iPhone will.
Check it all out on google map first. Then you could also give us better idea where would be your preferred area to find the spot (say, Newton lower Falls, but not in West Newton)

[jayrandom]

Originally Posted by mikeandikes77

I think there's only a tiny part that you can get to from the Dedham/Newton area before having to go on the i-95.

I love Wellesley, but I think you definitely need to go on the highway to get there.

It's strange because you've put constraints on your question that I don't understand. Anywhere in Needham or Wellesley can be reached from Dedham only via surface streets without adding significant travel time. In fact, the most direct route from Dedham Center to Wellesley Center doesn't involve the freeway at all (Norfolk County Engineering Office to Davis Museum & Cultural Center - Google Maps. If my response was condescending I apologize--I just don't understand what it is about freeways you are trying to avoid.

I live very close to Dedham (I can and have walked there) but the most optimal route involves a short amount of freeway travel. I was going to recommend the Whole Foods coffee shop/cafeteria in Legacy Place (other parts of Legacy Place could work, too, but Whole Foods is big enough they'll leave you be). This wouldn't involve freeway travel from most parts of Dedham (but the best route depending on where you live) but is essentially right on 95. If driving on the freeway is what you want to avoid, that would be a fine option; if getting near the freeway is what you want to avoid, you shouldn't consider it. If it's only driving on the freeway that you want to avoid, though, you shouldn't exclude yourself from Needham or Wellesely, though.

Originally Posted by mikeandikes77

Well that was a slightly condescending way of putting it.

Dedham and Newton are incredibly close. You can go from Dedham to Newton along the Veterans for Foreign Wars Pkway which turns into Providence with only a little Boston in the way. So is it really so wrong to think of them as one big area? I also included Brookline because it's also close by. I was just wondering about places that weren't out of the way and/or required travel on the 95. Sure it's possible to get to places by not going on the highway but going around it would generally make the place you're trying to get to "out of the way."

I think Dedham more often gets lumped in with Westwood and Norwood than it gets lumped in with Newton and Brookline. It's not far from either, but for around here its not that close, either. Probably depends on where in Dedham you are.