fitchburg area

[holden125]

I don't know Fitchburg well enough but Princeton is very nice, as is Groton. It might be good to think about access to Boston as well for those times when you need it. I don't know about SW New Hampshire but over by 93 in Salem and Derry the property taxes are very high due to no NH state income tax and you'd still pay Mass. income tax if working in Mass.

The new mayor in Fitchburg hopes to make big changes:
Believing in the future - The Boston Globe

[lodovico1984]

Move to Leominster, I did Pizza Delivery in both Cities for a while and Leominster is the better area to live. There are some very nice areas of Fitchburg and also some very ****ty areas just like any city.

[brightdoglover]

Actually, I think Fitchburg's "baseline" is a lot lower than "any other city," and its downsides are quite significant. There is a large chronic welfare population and a lot of drug addicts and substance abuse/psychiatric disability people. Yes, there are some pleasant corners of Fitchburg, but you have to live and drive around the rest of it. I do think virtually any town or area out that way would be a better choice, no matter what.

[Davenport7]

If you would like to live in MA but close to the NH border, I would suggest that you check out North Fitchburg near Rindge Road/Ashby Road. I consider this area to be the 'suburbs' of Fitchburg, it has nice houses (15 yrs old or less) and conservation land. Fitchburg's best kept secrets are the child friendly & pet friendly communities such as Stoneybrook Village...there are other communities in that area but I only know about Stoneybrook.

Good luck!

[brightdoglover]

To the poster who mentioned Salem and Derry, NH, I think they'd both be awful drives to work in Fitchburg. No need to try and live in them when there are so many nice towns around.
Actually, I think any town in southern NH convenient to roads to Fitchburg would be great.
If you're willing to go over the little mountain to get to Mass., Peterborough is a most lovely town, an archetypical New England town. Tons of culture/classical music, very progressive.

[NCTrog]

Originally Posted by brightdoglover

Then forget about Fitchburg. Really.
It has a large welfare population, and a lot of drugs and people with substance abuse/psychiatric disability. It's a fairly crappy town without the manufacturing base that made it a better place in the past.
Of course, there are nicer areas and less-nice and very much less-nice, but I wouldn't live there on a bet.
There are certainly many other towns in that area that far better for living. And I don't know how close Fitchburg is to "the mountains." I guess it's all perspective.
Good luck. You can live in many lovely areas without ever going to Fitchburg.

I feel this post would have been very true of the city 10 years ago. Recently there have been large strides made throughout the city to improve the quality of living and decrease crime (espcially drugs).

Right now Fitchburg is a respectable place to live with a number of great sub-communities. The bad rep that fitchburg gets is largely based on it's racial make-up which consits of a larger minority population (particularly hispanic) than the surrounding area.

Having said that I can not honestly recommend the city over others such as Leominster or Ayer.

Basicaly I just wanted to say that it's not as bad as this thread depicts.