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I live and own a building lot in Leverett, MA and I absolutely LOVE it! We have a good, small school, plenty of recreation opportunities, quaint meandering roads, 15-24 min commute to Amherst, and fiber-optic internet connectivity. I am curious to hear about what drives motivation to settle down in a place like this or drives one away. Is it taxes, septic systems, connectivity, town feel, work, commutes or what? Thanks for your thoughts!
Location: RI, MA, VT, WI, IL, CA, IN (that one sucked), KY
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I could do it if coupled, and wealthy enough not to need to work.
Other than that, I prefer urban areas, even though nature photography, hiking, kayaking, etc are my main passions/recreations.
1) Jobs
2) Not waiting to drive whenever possible
3) arts/music/creative energy... wanting to be able to go out on the town, bars, restaurants, clubs, meet people, talk, have fun... no driving so one can have some drinks
4) dating and socializing, I'm often contacted on OLD from women in more rural places (whitman, uxbridge, stow??) and I'm like, thanks, but no thanks... we talk and they just say they just say there is zero dating pool out there
Last edited by timberline742; 09-21-2016 at 08:42 AM..
I live and own a building lot in Leverett, MA and I absolutely LOVE it! We have a good, small school, plenty of recreation opportunities, quaint meandering roads, 15-24 min commute to Amherst, and fiber-optic internet connectivity. I am curious to hear about what drives motivation to settle down in a place like this or drives one away. Is it taxes, septic systems, connectivity, town feel, work, commutes or what? Thanks for your thoughts!
I love visiting places like that, but wouldn't want to live there. Lack of access to jobs in my line of work; lack of access to a big city; sparsely populated with a lack of diversity
Leverett would be great if I had a lot of money for a house there. Isn't most of the population college professors?
I'm from the Pioneer Valley originally so it feels right to me. I have never, could never, hope I will never, live in a city. Gives me claustrophobia because there are tall buildings instead of open space, too many people, too hectic, too much concrete and not enough natural beauty, and too much traffic. If I visit a city, I can't wait to get out. A place like Boston, I will grin and bear it every few years in order to see a museum but cannot wait to leave. They are city mice; I'm a country mouse.
Septic systems aren't usually a problem, town feel would only be an issue if the people are unfriendly or snooty, work could be an issue because if you can't get a job at one of the colleges, you probably couldn't get a job at all, commute wouldn't be bad because you would have normal roads instead of highways. I had a 45 minute commute on country roads in WMass and didn't mind it. Connectivity was left for last because if I had to use dial up internet, I wouldn't live there. On the North Shore where I live now, it's so rural that we don't have good internet, not dial up, but just slow. It's more rural here than in WMass and if I want more genuine rural, NH is a short drive away.
Leverett is beautiful and I used to drive around there, dreaming, feeling jealous of people who actually got to live there. What's not to like? If it has good internet and if you can afford to live there, it would be heaven. I house sat for several months out in the middle of the woods on a dirt road in Shutesbury and loved it. It's mostly a matter of having the funds to live in a town like that.
I'd prefer it. When I was in my 20's I liked to be near/in Boston for the bar/club scene, but in my 30's I'm kinda over that. My interests have changed, and I prefer to use my car for transportation and like to drive. I'd just rather be away from people as I hate congestion.
With that said, career opportunities keep me from going as far as I'd like. And I have family in the area I'd like to be. I'm happy in the sense that I can walk out into my backyard, and sit in my hammock at 5PM and not hear a damn thing. It's great. But at the same time, a 10 min drive gets me into several town centers and areas where I can shop and buy things.
When I hit retirement age, I want to go to the boonies.
I go where my job/other personal circumstances lead me, and make the best of it.
When I retire, I'd like to split my time three ways between a semi-remote camp in Maine; a smaller city like Portsmouth, NH/Plymouth, MA or Newport, RI; then maybe a condo near the beach in the Carolinas.
Leverett negatives:
No ocean
100 miles/2 hours from Boston cultural attractions
20 minutes to a grocery store
If I'm a ZooMass prof, sure. I'm not. I have no desire to live somewhere that remote.
No ocean, yes, that's true. But you can get to Hammonasset in CT when you need an ocean fix, although no ocean is the major disadvantage of living in that area, it's true.
Boston? Yuck. People in that area don't relate to Boston anyway; they relate more to NYC. (Boston ignores our very existence.) Also, NYC has better museums and Broadway shows for the few times that you want to visit a city. There is culture right there in nearby Amherst and Northampton. FIVE colleges worth of culture.
You stock up on food and you have a garden. Not much grocery store shopping during the growing season. Stock up for the winter and even order groceries online. Twenty minute drive to the grocery store is a hardship, lol? Chances are you'll drive past a grocery store on the way home from work anyway. Combine your trips.
Sorry, I'm not trying to be rude but the sense of entitlement of city dwellers is just strange sometimes.
Location: RI, MA, VT, WI, IL, CA, IN (that one sucked), KY
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Great, so drive to NYC instead of drive to Boston, big whoop, still a couple of hours drive in either situation, at least. Few times I want to visit a city? I've been in NYC more than that this year and I live in the Boston area. Weekly is more like it, or multiple times a week.
Amherst/Northampton a big towns / teensy tiny little cities, there is some nice stuff (Easthampton's Flywheel has some good stuff at times), but really, its not a cultural destination. It just isn't.
I live and own a building lot in Leverett, MA and I absolutely LOVE it! We have a good, small school, plenty of recreation opportunities, quaint meandering roads, 15-24 min commute to Amherst, and fiber-optic internet connectivity. I am curious to hear about what drives motivation to settle down in a place like this or drives one away. Is it taxes, septic systems, connectivity, town feel, work, commutes or what? Thanks for your thoughts!
I love that kind of location, had it where I used to live (not in MA) but not now, and I miss the rurality (if that is even a word).
That part of MA is beautiful and I remember great bicycling, hiking, swimming, and other outdoor activities there. IF I wanted to move back to MA I would put it on my list. And IF I did and needed to work, the commute would factor into my choices.
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