Northampton MA or Manchester NH (Boston, Springfield: sales, real estate, condo)

[Dave120]

My career path may end up taking me to one of these two cities. The job itself will be the biggest deciding factor, but I'm also considering the city I'll be working and living in, so I'd be curious about others' thoughts, since I have little experience in these places.

To give some background, I'm a guy in his early-mid 30's, and single. Given that, I'd favor a city that has some kind of potential dating pool (and maybe more mature than just the college crowd) and some nightlife (moreso for things like live music and Latin dancing than bars). I'm not huge on restaurants, but I do enjoy having decent options when it comes to ethnic foods. Also, in general, I value ethnic diversity and meeting people of different backgrounds - not sure which city is better in this regard either. So how do these two cities stack up on these aspects?

[GeoffD]

Northampton is a medium-sized college town (a bit less than 30,000), not a city. Early-mid 30's is a bit old to troll for Smith girls. Your visible dating pool of 30 year old women is mostly coffee house baristas, waitresses, and store clerks. It would take some engagement with the community to find women on more of a career track. It's easily the best place to live as a 30-something in Western Mass but "ethnic diversity" isn't what springs to mind. It's 80% white with a bit of Asian and Hispanic and one of the more affluent towns in Western Massachusetts. Very liberal. A big lesbian vibe which could actually work to your advantage.

Manchester, NH is a decaying blue collar ex-mill city that has gentrified some due to the proximity of the booming I-93, Route 3, and I-495 job market and the outrageous housing prices to the south. Manchester is also mostly white with a bit of hispanic and immigrants from everywhere. It's affluent by decaying mill town standards but has some poverty and crime issues. If you pick Manchester, you have to pay attention to what neighborhood you pick.

They are wildly different places. I think most would pick Northampton.

[EasternMassREGal]

I vote for NoHo as well. (omg, "NoHo"? I can't believe I just said that. I sound like a total western mass snob.) In any event, as a former resident of Amherst, I can confirm everything GeoffD just said. The only thing I would add is that saying the dating pool for a mid 30s age group would mostly consist of barristas is very unfair. There are 5 colleges within a half hour drive of Northampton with solid graduate programs. Between PhD students seeking "stress relief" from dealing with undergrads and adjunct professors trying to decide if academia is right for them, you'll find way more than waitresses to feel up (bada-bing!) your dating pool.

[in_newengland]

I'd vote for Northampton too. It's a lively place and while it's not exactly a great choice for someone your age, it's probably better than Manchester. There's a lot to do in Northampton and it's grown so much that rte 9 now has just about every store you can think of.

My family is from Northampton and having lived there for many years, I can say that people in their 30s often felt left out because the area is so student oriented. There are A LOT of college kids. You can still find some people your own age but when I lived there, I got sick of it being like kiddie land. It's fine for a while but I noticed that when people got older they tended to move to eastern MA.

As a previous poster stated, there isn't that much of a dating pool at your age and that's because there aren't many decent jobs. People graduate from the colleges and a lot of them want to stay around. For that reason you'll find a lot of women with master's degrees working at drudge jobs at the colleges or working retail. UMass is the largest employer. Then you've got the stores and the restaurants. It's a fun and interesting place --for a while.

[GeoffD]

Originally Posted by EasternMassREGal

I vote for NoHo as well. (omg, "NoHo"? I can't believe I just said that. I sound like a total western mass snob.) In any event, as a former resident of Amherst, I can confirm everything GeoffD just said. The only thing I would add is that saying the dating pool for a mid 30s age group would mostly consist of barristas is very unfair. There are 5 colleges within a half hour drive of Northampton with solid graduate programs. Between PhD students seeking "stress relief" from dealing with undergrads and adjunct professors trying to decide if academia is right for them, you'll find way more than waitresses to feel up (bada-bing!) your dating pool.

I said "the visible dating pool". It's tough to find that 30 year old adjunct professor. They're socializing with their college prof buddies. The PhD students are usually too poor to be found very frequently in the Northampton coffee shops, restaurants, and bars. You have to integrate with the community and join things where there are common interest activities to meet most of those. It's not like inside the 128 belt where there are tons of young professional hangouts.

[StAcKhOuSe]

Originally Posted by Dave120

My career path may end up taking me to one of these two cities. The job itself will be the biggest deciding factor, but I'm also considering the city I'll be working and living in, so I'd be curious about others' thoughts, since I have little experience in these places.

To give some background, I'm a guy in his early-mid 30's, and single. Given that, I'd favor a city that has some kind of potential dating pool (and maybe more mature than just the college crowd) and some nightlife (moreso for things like live music and Latin dancing than bars). I'm not huge on restaurants, but I do enjoy having decent options when it comes to ethnic foods. Also, in general, I value ethnic diversity and meeting people of different backgrounds - not sure which city is better in this regard either. So how do these two cities stack up on these aspects?

new Hampshire checking in for perspective

Manchester has some good nightlife, but it is ruined by mostly 20 something toolbags, ditzy stuck-up women, and hipsters. shaskeen & strange brew are hipster hangouts but they tend to mingle more with people of all ages, so I choose them over everything else. mcgarveys is good too. you do have lots of nightlife packed into one street, elm street. I live just north of everything and it is like a 10 minute walk to like 10 different pubs/clubs/dive bars. for "ethnic" food, they got the Taj India on elm, dunno about the reviews of that place, then they have mint bistro. it is essentially Japanese/American sushi fusion but they've got rave reviews. the red sox roll at mint is bomb. best Chinese food in the area is north garden and wa toy. I have a love/hate relationship with the elm street area, lots to do, but lots of panhandlers and junkies trying to shake you down. most of them aren't aggressive but you gotta be assertive right off the bat and say no.


for places to live in manch, stay away from the "west side" on the western bank of the Merrimack river, it is quickly becoming a crime infested cesspool full of welfare scum and drug addicts. rents are cheap and run in the $700-$900 area, but for those prices, you will get wall to wall bedbugs and drug dealers that call themselves the "neighborhood watch". when you go east over the bridge, generally stay north of the bridge street area. anything south of that is bad neighborhoods, mostly due to the fact that they have a prison in the middle of the city on valley street. anything north is generally considered the "north end" which is a better area. not sure what line of work you're in, but there is a fairly diverse job market here, although it will not pay better than mass. but then again you can get a decent place for about $1000 a month, or $900 for a one bedroom. there is also no state income or sales tax here.

[lrfox]

I would actually lean towards Manch. If it was better connected to Boston via rail, I'd consider living at a condo in the Gaslight District and commuting to work (I'm near North Station) given the cost of real estate.

I think Manchester has better access to Boston (for work or entertainment). Both are equally close to good skiing and the mountains, but Manchester has better access to the coast. It's also closer to more job opportunities (Boston and suburbs) in case you wanted to switch jobs without moving. I agree that Northampton is definitely cuter, there are definitely better restaurants and it's more "lively" in general. But Manchester isn't Holoyoke and it has a decent amount going on itself. That's just my take. Devil's Advocate I guess. Nobody would say Manchester is "nicer," but it's not bad enough to be prohibitive and it might actually be better for some people and some situations.

[Dave120]

Originally Posted by lrfox

I would actually lean towards Manch. If it was better connected to Boston via rail, I'd consider living at a condo in the Gaslight District and commuting to work (I'm near North Station) given the cost of real estate.

I think Manchester has better access to Boston (for work or entertainment). Both are equally close to good skiing and the mountains, but Manchester has better access to the coast. It's also closer to more job opportunities (Boston and suburbs) in case you wanted to switch jobs without moving. I agree that Northampton is definitely cuter, there are definitely better restaurants and it's more "lively" in general. But Manchester isn't Holoyoke and it has a decent amount going on itself. That's just my take. Devil's Advocate I guess. Nobody would say Manchester is "nicer," but it's not bad enough to be prohibitive and it might actually be better for some people and some situations.

Thanks for you input on that. Manchester's better access to Boston is definitely something I'm taking into account. The thing is, realistically, I'm not sure if I'd end up making the almost 2 hour round trip very often on a weeknight anyway. Chances are, most of my trips to Boston will be reserved for weekends and days off, and from that standpoint, I think a day trip in from Northampton wouldn't be much more prohibitive than Manchester. That's why I'm more focused on comparing the cities themselves. Still, you're right, and it's definitely a consideration for me.

[Dave120]

Thanks everyone for all the replies and insight. So it seems like they're pretty comparable in terms of diversity (with both being mediocre in this regard), is that everyone else's take? With respect to Northampton and its shortcomings (diversity and dating pool of mostly college aged), I'm wondering if Springfield, only about 20 minutes away, could serve as a complement to Northampton's shortcomings; on paper, it seems pretty diverse - does it have any sort of a more mature young professionals scene (maybe comparable to Manchester?), live music/comedy events, etc that would make it worth checking out on a weeknight?

[mwbms28]

I would do some research on Springfield on this board. While there is some nightlife and stuff to do, it's not a nice area. At all.