South central Mass. (Boston, Worcester, Springfield: low crime, schools, income)

[western mass and love it]

What is up with Southbridge and the surrounding area. It makes Fitchburg look good.

[FCMA]

Nah, Southbridge and Webster at least retain their local businesses. The Twin Cities traded local intelligence for corporate crap decades ago. Visually your assessment is true though (crumbling triple deckers and generally visible blight) but look under the surface and compare the downtowns. Southbridge and Webster have restaurant variety, a bookstore, a brewery, an established music venue, some ethnic delis and such, coffee shops, some local quirk and passion. North Central Mass (particularly Fitchburg and Leominster) strangely lack in basic local entrepreneurship that most other places its size and smaller take for granted. Exhibit- Panera is packed at the local hell mall because hardly anybody understands that there could be another way, so therefore there is not really much option for a simple stupid deli sandwich in town, basic lack of civilized things. The per capita income is probably lower in South Central so maybe the job prospects are worse, but it's probably a more engaging place to live, with a healthier density of third places to get folks out of their box and talking to each other and building community connections.

[western mass and love it]

I tend to disagree , the Fitchburg area at least has proximity to Boston going for it. The Southbridge , Dudley , Webster area seems so far removed from everything. It feels like no mans land.

At least in Western Mass we have Northampton and Amherst. There is some redeeming qualities of Springfield. Definitely more academia in the Springfield area which brings in things to do. We also have the Hartford area 25 minutes south. It definitely doesn't have the soul sucking vibe of South central Mass.

[Parsec]

I don't consider Worcester to be very far from South Central Mass - probably about the same distance as Longmeadow is to either Northampton or Hartford.

[KellyCrash]

I live in the area and want to respond, but I have no idea what you're talking about. I don't really see any huge differences in this area and of other areas of New England. It's no better and no worse than anywhere else generally speaking. Southbridge and Webster are not on anyone's top places to live. Crime and poor schools.

[thenewtexan]

Originally Posted by western mass and love it

I tend to disagree , the Fitchburg area at least has proximity to Boston going for it. The Southbridge , Dudley , Webster area seems so far removed from everything. It feels like no mans land.

At least in Western Mass we have Northampton and Amherst. There is some redeeming qualities of Springfield. Definitely more academia in the Springfield area which brings in things to do. We also have the Hartford area 25 minutes south. It definitely doesn't have the soul sucking vibe of South central Mass.

There's nothing to agree or disagree with here. Webster is slightly closer to Boston than Fitchburg, and is only about 15 minutes from Worcester down 395. Fitchburg is nearly half an hour form Worcester. Southbridge is about the same distance from both compared to Fitchburg, but it's also about 5 minutes from I84, and maybe 10 minutes (tops) from the Mass Pike. So, if anything, Fitchburg is actually the most "isolated." As for Dudley, it might "feel" more isolated because it doesn't have an interstate highway running through it. It's quiet, has low crime, and the schools are great. What does Fitchburg have? More people, more crime. I'd live in Southbridge or Webster any day before living in Fitchburg.

Northampton and Amherst are pretty cool, but you seem to forget that Worcester is a very short drive from "south central Mass". It has many more "redeeming qualities" than Springfield (...Really? bragging about Springfield? Wanna talk about a "soul sucking vibe"? ). If you want to brag about your proximity to Hartford, you are 10 minutes closer than people in Southbridge. So, congrats on that. That's about it.

[FCMA]

Yeah I'm confused about this one too. The bigger towns down there aren't thriving, but most places are doing alright compared to Fitchburg. As someone who considers local enterprise that provide civilized creature comforts like good food, books, coffee, beer, local retail, and the arts to be some key factors in how I view a place, south Central Mass has some momentum in those areas while the twin cities continue to be a strangely overpopulated virtual dead zone (that's changing but sloooowly). On the other hand, some people value access to corporate retail and lunch at Panera, so if that's your thing Fitchburg and Leominster are more equipped and would feel like thriving civilization. If you want to talk about real isolation and milltown blight, Ware and my area up here in Athol/Orange are some better candidates.