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Moving to MA and looking for a decent-size city commutable to Metrowest. Currently live in Asheville NC and interested in a city that size (about the size of Albany, NY perhaps). Is Framingham the only option outside of Boston or is Franklin or Westborough an option? Two small children so we are looking for good schools to boot! Thanks
Westborough would be a good bet. If you don't mind my asking, why are you looking for a city of that size? Are you looking for particular amenities that a smaller town wouldn't offer? Just curious. If there are specifics you'd like in your community that would be helpful for folks on the forum to chime in & provide good advice. :-)
We prefer living in a small-size city vs. a town. We don't care about having a yard or living in a county setting, particularly. We like all our ammenitites compact as opposed to driving from town to town for shopping and kids activities. We like sidewalks and buses and corner coffee shops. We are from the north (lived in NY and NH seacoast) so I am pretty sure what I am looking for doesn't exist but it doesn't hurt to ask, since we are not familiar with the Boston Metro area. Thanks!
Maybe Waltham? I don't think Framingham has the feel you are looking for. Westborough (downtown area) maybe slightly, but it's not that large (maybe for a town it is, but nowhere near like the places you described).
It doesn't hurt to ask but you're right, very little meets that description outside the immediate Boston area. You could consider Watertown or Waltham or Arlington or Belmont, all close to the Turnpike and commutable to Metro-West. In those places you're on the bus lines into Cambridge and Boston and have lots of things close at hand. The most Asheville-like town in Massachusetts is Northampton, which is too far west. Framingham and Marlborough are the two city-sized communities right in Metro West. The city center in Framingham is more of an immigrant area; it wouldn't remind you of Asheville, but Framingham generally has nice neighborhoods and good schools. The shopping is in malls along the strip highway Route 9. I don't have much of an impression of Marlboro. Lowell and Haverhill, on the Merrimack River, have some things going on. I don't know whether the schools are any good.
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