Young professional working in northern Westfield, where to live? (Boston: sublets, apartments)

[huckc]

I'm a 25 year old single male who is relocating to northern Westfield for work (mile south of I-90).

Where would be some ideal places to live? Coming from a large midwestern city, I'm looking for culture and walkability. I was thinking of downtown Northampton but the commute is quite long according to google at 20mi and 25min. Can anyone comment on how it really is?

Also, any suggestions on websites for sublets and apartments besides craigslist and rentnoho.com?

Thanks

[holden125]

Northampton really is the best game in town for what you describe. 25 minutes is not that bad of a commute and it should be pretty close to that. The traffic is nowhere near as bad in that area as in Boston.

The rest of the Pioneer Valley is largely (1) urban in a bad way; (2) suburban; (3) rural. The only fun walkable urban-style downtown area is Northampton. There are nice parts of Springfield, but they don't have a ton of places to go out. Westfield itself has something of a downtown that I like well enough, but it's not as interesting as Northampton.