North Shore - Young Professionals? (Boston, Cambridge: living in, restaurants, safe)

[UnLearnYourself]

I might have a great job opportunity that would require me to move to the North Shore or just north of Boston...or rather just north of the 95/93 junction between Methuen/Andover area and Lynn/Beverly area.

I just want to make sure its a place I'd be happy living in.

Are there any towns/cities up that way that are a good fit for young professionals? I'm 30 yr old single male and still want to be able to go out and have fun, meet women, afford rent, etc.

It's a stepping stone opportunity so I'm flexible, but coming from a small town now I was hoping to find a safe place with a decent set of options for a social life within a relative stones throw.

ANY advice is much appreciated, as I'll probably have to make a quick decision over the next few weeks.

[brightdoglover]

Offhand, I can't think of anyplace that offers the social life. Which town are you actually going to be working in? It might make sense to live close to the job to avoid commuting/traffic, and maybe go into Cambridge/Boston for social life.
Maybe someone else has a more helpful suggestion.

[Bruins_Fan]

Salem has a pretty lively downtown area. It's certainly not Boston, but you have plenty of active bars, with some that will have live music. There are also quite a few good restaurants.

[donewithpretty]

Between Methuen/Andover and Lynn/Beverly is 30 miles. Would you need access to all of those towns for your job, or do you not know the exact town where you'd be working?

If you need to access all of them, you might as well pick an area like Medford Hillside/Tufts or Malden (either Malden Center or Oak Grove) and do the reverse commute. At the end of the day, you'd have easy access to places like Davis Square, Cambridge, and Boston proper. Just make sure to choose a place that has good access to 93, and you should be fine.

[konfetka]

You have to look at Salem, that's where people from the North Shore go out for food and nightlife, when they don't feel like driving to Boston.

[Bruins_Fan]

Originally Posted by konfetka

You have to look at Salem, that's where people from the North Shore go out for food and nightlife, when they don't feel like driving to Boston.

Yep, that's what we do!

[UnLearnYourself]

Originally Posted by konfetka

You have to look at Salem, that's where people from the North Shore go out for food and nightlife, when they don't feel like driving to Boston.

Can anybody comment on the commute out of Salem to a place like Methuen or Haverhill?

Google maps says 45 minutes, but I'm wondering if it gets much stickier than that during rush hours.

[Bruins_Fan]

Not exactly the same, but close...I used to do Swampscott to North Andover daily and it was a consistent 35-40 minutes. Only snow/bad weather added much commute time.

[UnLearnYourself]

Originally Posted by Bruins_Fan

Not exactly the same, but close...I used to do Swampscott to North Andover daily and it was a consistent 35-40 minutes. Only snow/bad weather added much commute time.

Sweet. That's really not all that bad. That would be the far end of my commute and I'm doing an hour + daily right now...so that would be a relative breeze.

So far I've got my eyes on Salem and Newburyport as top 2 choices, but I really want to make a well educated move, particularly since I may have to make some quick decisions over the next few weeks.

Can anybody comment on life living in Haverhill? Or some other towns in the area like Danvers, Peabody, Beverly? What about some further north like Ipswich, Georgetown, Topsfield, etc?

[brightdoglover]

Skip Haverhill. Nothing there for you.
The further north towns you name are gorgeous, but not much on social life, especially if you're not a family. My generalization.
I am not much focused on Peabody, etc., but those are suburban towns, mall, highway access, more than town-towns. I think Salem or close to it sounds like a very good idea for everything.