Melrose?

[mal7014]

If you can afford the East side of Melrose, that's where you want to be. That is mostly the area surrounded by Upham Street, Lebanon Street and the Lynn Fells Parkway. In general, Melrose is an excellent community with great commuting options. The schools are excellent and the area is becoming more diverse (slowly). The downtown is very nice and walkable. I grew up in Melrose and went to school with the current mayor who has done a fantastic job making sure Melrose continues on a positive path. As for the "townie" comment. That can be taken as a positive comment. Most people who grew up in Melrose, choose to stay there and raise their family. Most people are college educated professionals who care about the future of the city as well as the school system.

[spartans]

I have to say I agree with everything Mal says except that most people who grew up in Melrose are not choosing to stay in Melrose, the chief reason being they cannot afford to do so. Must do your research by checking out the Globe North Thursdays for deed transfers, spot check a few on cambridgedeeds.com, and see who's moving to Melrose. Re: single family homes it's by and large people who rented or owned condos in Arlington, Somerville, JP, etc. The untold story of Massachusetts' stagnating population is the massive turnover of people represented by in- and out-migration numbers. At the risk of over-generalizing, the pattern inside 128 is townies (white blue collar) move to the sunbelt or way out in the exurbs, they are partially replaced by blue collar immigrants, while a certain amount of Townie homes are bought by out-of-state-born white collar workers (incl immigrants), as the white collars "gentrify" these Townie homes (think neglected Victorian), much as they gentrified condos in multi-family houses in JP and Somerville before they decided to have kids. This shifting nature of the Boston economy towards white collar jobs largely does not affect the class situation in places like Chelsea or Winchester, but the shift is on in the middling places like Arlington (advanced shift), Melrose and Swampscott (middle stages of shift), and Wakefield and Watertown (early stages of shift- too far of a commute right now) as downtown white collar workers who are having kids looks for affordable homes in easy-commute towns with acceptable schools. In short, true Townies, the ones who look at you like you are slow if you don't know that Foodmaster is really "Johnny's" or where The Knoll is, are on the slow way out. But they won't be gone tomorrow. Especially those who leech on as City employees- those salaries/benefits are out of hand, but that's the case everywhere in E. Mass. Even Boston Townies are still present, but nearly all work for city government.

[Beantown_mama]

I have lived in Melrose for 10 years now and it has definitely gotten more upscale with young families moving from Boston or Charlestown looking for parks and yards. It is a great town for families. My neighbors are all very well educated and involved with their kids and the town. I don't see a lot of "townies" where I live, and I agree that it means that people love to stay in the town. It is a great place to live.