Taunton MA? (Boston, Lowell, Brockton: crime, house, neighborhoods)

[accord2008]

The thing that i like about is is the lower cost of living. i have not physically been to Taunton but i want to know from someone who has lived in Taunton. how is it like? i want to be within 40 miles of Boston and i can work from home so a commute is not an issue. How is the crime and schools? i looked at it on but sometimes those can be misleading, i'm better off getting info from a resident.


what should i expect there and i am not into nightlife or walking everywhere as i have a car.


thanks

[CaseyB]

Schools aren't great. You could find some areas on the outskirts of the city that would be safer, but there is crime there. Largely drug crime.

[lrfox]

As CaseyB said, the schools aren't great (might be an understatement) and there is crime in town (largely drug related).

The good news with Taunton is that it covers a large area and the urban portion is relatively small. If schools aren't an issue, you can find some really nice, quite suburban (and almost rural) neighborhoods that are just as nice and safe as those in surrounding towns. I'd suggest looking in East Taunton, near the airport and close to Massassoit SP and the Lakeville Line, or looking on the Western side of town off of Rt. 44 and Tremont Street toward the Rehoboth and Norton lines.

[Dm84]

I'm not sure what your budget is but if the most important thing is to be within 40 miles of Boston you can probably do better than Taunton. As others have said the schools are below average and crime is above average. I wouldn't call Taunton dangerous but it's also far from the safest place to live.

[Bruins3445]

Originally Posted by Dm84

I'm not sure what your budget is but if the most important thing is to be within 40 miles of Boston you can probably do better than Taunton. As others have said the schools are below average and crime is above average. I wouldn't call Taunton dangerous but it's also far from the safest place to live.

Agree with this.


I'd like to add that the low low low cost of housing (in comparison to surrounding towns) is very appealing. However if resale value or schools and safety (depending upon where you live in the town) are a concern, then I'd steer clear. We did see a few homes on the Taunton/Norton line that were so peaceful and quiet, you'd never know you were in Taunton! However a friend explained it nicely to me- even though you'd live in the nice part of Taunton, most of what you'd need to utilize (schools, stores, etc) would be in the dumpier areas. Aside from that one quiet neighborhood, when we drove through and explored Taunton we just didn't like the vibe of it. Ask yourself this, if you'd feel as though you need to put your kids in private school, why pay that premium? Why not spend a little more in house and go to a town with decent schools?

If you really like the Taunton area I'd recommend Norton, Raynham, West Bridgewater. You may not get as much house as you would in taunton, but you could put your kids in those school systems and likely have better resale value. Private school would be the way to go with taunton, but then if your kids ever need special accommodations (learning disability or physical disability), private schools don't have to accommodate. So it's nice to have a solid public school system to fall back on.

[mdovell]

I don't exactly think of crime when I think of Taunton. But I think it's probably the largest city in the state that's being bypassed.

The state senator Pachco is a top canadiate for a job at Bridgewater State University. He's jumping ship due to some of the cancelled or nearly cancelled projects.

South Coast rail is too expensive and frankly if they go to new bedford and fall river they CANNOT physically go to Taunton via Middleboro.

MBTA Commuter Rail > Middleborough / Lakeville Lines Schedules and Maps
https://www.google.com/maps/@41.8803751,-70.9597268,14z

There's three golf courses and a state park. How exactly is the train to bypass those and then go further down? Would it be rerouted at Bridgewater and then across? I highly doubt a train will go across a state park. Anything of park land has to be made up somewhere else.

The other part is frankly the Taunton Casino is questionable at best. There's two court decisions saying different things which means that this has to be taken up by the supreme court. In a nutshell is the interpretation of when a tribe was recognized as being independent.

Delays Continue To Plague Massachusetts Casino Developers

So if the casino work stops (which could under theory cause Brockton to be rebid/reconsidered) and the train is not going there then what exactly *is* there?

I'm not even saying it's a bad place I'm just saying that you have to develop and when projects get cancelled it hurts. If you don't have a waterfront, if you don't have much to really redevelop... Fall River has the Amazon warehouse, New Bedford has Cape wind starting again, springfield the casino, Lowell UMass Lowell etc.

[lrfox]

^But if you're looking for an affordable home (not an investment), aren't concerned about schools, and look for places outside of the center of the city, most of that doesn't really matter. It's not Fall River/New Bedford/Brockton, etc. where most of the city is either urban or semi-urban/ old suburban. Taunton has many, many secluded/ nearly rural pockets. If schools and resale value aren't a major concern, it makes perfect sense for many folks. The casino over by the mall isn't a major issue whether it happens or not.

Also, the Middleboro Alternative for South Coast Rail would still incorporate Taunton Depot (here's a diagram). There are meetings across the region over the next few weeks that are worth attending if you're interested.

There's also decent bus service via Bloom (in the city center) and Dattco (at the mall) to Boston for commuters.

[Shrewsburried]

Trends I'm seeing: upwardly mobile working class families are leaving Taunton for towns like West Bridgewater, Raynham, Middleboro, etc. The city is not on a path to "revival" and anyone with children should seriously consider other options if their budget allows.

[mdovell]

Originally Posted by lrfox

^But if you're looking for an affordable home (not an investment), aren't concerned about schools, and look for places outside of the center of the city, most of that doesn't really matter. It's not Fall River/New Bedford/Brockton, etc. where most of the city is either urban or semi-urban/ old suburban. Taunton has many, many secluded/ nearly rural pockets. If schools and resale value aren't a major concern, it makes perfect sense for many folks. The casino over by the mall isn't a major issue whether it happens or not.

Also, the Middleboro Alternative for South Coast Rail would still incorporate Taunton Depot (here's a diagram). There are meetings across the region over the next few weeks that are worth attending if you're interested.

There's also decent bus service via Bloom (in the city center) and Dattco (at the mall) to Boston for commuters.

Yeah that diagram kinda doesn't illustrate the environmental impact studies that would have to be done to try to avoid going though though three golf courses and a state park.

I actually had a planning class last year and the professor did work at SRPDD. I've been there a few times and know some there as well as OCPC and I actually was a town MAPC rep. The professor said this just isn't happening. There's too many variables and frankly if someone wants to stay in a urban area with rail access they might as well just move to Brockton.

Analysis: Stoughton route vs. Middleboro plan - News - The Enterprise, Brockton, MA - Brockton, MA

"Both routes provide the same opportunities in Fall River and New Bedford (albeit with more trains associated with Stoughton), but Middleboro replaces the downtown Taunton stop with one in Middleboro and also bypasses the current Lakeville station where there has been considerable train-related investment."

Downtown Taunton gets eliminated with the Middleborough plan.

Fall river and new bedford just want this done. I can't see the state somehow having a billion extra just for this. The feds won't really chip in another billion either. Maybe if it was somehow out of providence I could see it.

Fall River already has the amazon facility opening up this month and new bedford has the cape wind project coming back. Growth is still happening.

[lrfox]

Originally Posted by mdovell

Yeah that diagram kinda doesn't illustrate the environmental impact studies that would have to be done to try to avoid going though though three golf courses and a state park.

I actually had a planning class last year and the professor did work at SRPDD. I've been there a few times and know some there as well as OCPC and I actually was a town MAPC rep. The professor said this just isn't happening. There's too many variables and frankly if someone wants to stay in a urban area with rail access they might as well just move to Brockton.

Analysis: Stoughton route vs. Middleboro plan - News - The Enterprise, Brockton, MA - Brockton, MA

"Both routes provide the same opportunities in Fall River and New Bedford (albeit with more trains associated with Stoughton), but Middleboro replaces the downtown Taunton stop with one in Middleboro and also bypasses the current Lakeville station where there has been considerable train-related investment."

Downtown Taunton gets eliminated with the Middleborough plan.

Fall river and new bedford just want this done. I can't see the state somehow having a billion extra just for this. The feds won't really chip in another billion either. Maybe if it was somehow out of providence I could see it.

Fall River already has the amazon facility opening up this month and new bedford has the cape wind project coming back. Growth is still happening.

There's a lot to discuss with South Coast Rail, but I actually know some of the players on SCR pretty well too (probably including your professor - is it S.S.?). In short, the funding, not the environmental impact studies, are the big hurdle. The EIS drag the process out (The Army Corps took years to give the Stoughton Alternative the OK). They'll likely OK the Middleborough alternative too (keep in mind, this isn't a new proposal- it was on the table before and they selected the Stoughton alternative as the preferred route), it's a matter of how long that will take. The tracks are currently used by freight rail, and the environmental impact studies would focus on the impact of frequencies, not whether or not trains in general will negatively impact the area. Frequencies are much easier to work with/adjust. They're not starting from scratch.

You bring up a good point about Taunton. While it's considered Fall River/New Bedford commuter rail, Taunton really stands to gain the most (especially from the Stoughton proposal) as it's closer to Boston and would have double the frequencies (both the FR and NB trains would stop in Taunton). The Taunton Depot station would be the busier station regardless (Mass commuters drive to MBTA Commuter Rail in greater force than they walk and Taunton Depot is designed to be the bigger station), but not having the downtown stop is a huge blow to the community that could benefit most from having it. In a perfect world, you do a phased approach where you extend the rail to Taunton from Stoughton and run buses that are coordinated with the rail schedule from Fall River and New Bedford to Taunton and continue to monitor and study demand for rail from both of those cites. You only extend to FR and NB if the demand is there (and I think there is, but that's another topic entirely). The issue is that the local delegation won't stand for that. They feel that FR/NB will never get rail if that's the approach taken, so there is pressure to build it all at once.

This may never get built because the price tag is just so big. But it's huge regardless. Middleborough is a political move by the Baker administration and a good bit of evidence that he's certainly running for re-election. This benefits the administration because it fits his "middle ground" philosophy without alienating voters. He looks like a good fiscal conservative because the estimated price tag is lower and it appears to the fiscally conservative that he's doing his due diligence. For the rail supporters in the Southeast (a large and influential voting group), it looks like he's making the effort to get rail to FR/NB as quickly as possible. The talking points are all about how this is the quickest way to serve the region by rail. That's debatable, but that's what's being sold. So that's why we're where we are.