Nice Towns off the redline- Relocating from Detroit (Boston, Cambridge: apartment, home)

[move2boston]

I got a job right by the south station and am prefering to move to an apartment off the red line... any suggestions.

It is just me and my husband, not worried about good schools.

We are looking for a town with good access to shopping and a gym.

Thanks

[ogre]

You can find shopping and access to a gym in many places along the red line. A lot of this depends on what you'd prefer in the character, look, and feel of a community, and what you can afford (it costs a lot to live in Boston).

There are four municipalities served directly by the red line: Cambridge, Quincy, Braintree, and the city of Boston itself. Unless you would like a very upscale central city neighborhood, and have big $, you probably want to forget about Boston itself. The other areas the red line passes through are either commercial areas without a lot in the way of residential options or some really bad areas.

As for the other three places, Cambridge is directly across the river from Boston, and has a pretty urban feel--it seems a lot like an outer part of the city of Boston itself. Lots of shops, small restaurants, etc. Cambridge is the home of MIT and Harvard. With the colleges there, you get some parts of town that have a lively, somewhat Bohemian feel. Other areas are like any affluent urban residential neighborhood, with some commercial districts as well.

Quincy is an older small city. Should have the gym and the shopping, and is fairly densely populated and urban. Braintree is the farthest from the city of any of the red-line towns outside of Boston, and has more of a suburban character. I'm not highly familiar with Braintree, but it's a fairly good-sized town (30,000-plus population), which would lead me to guess that it's got the shopping and gym, but that's only a guess.

Again, a lot depends on your budget and the type of neighborhood you want. This is a basic look at communities along the red line. Depending on the budget and preferred neighborhood character, you might look at some other places along other public transit lines, which would get you to work just as quickly as you could get there from Braintree, Quincy, or the more outlying parts of Cambridge. Hope this gets you started, though. Good luck.

[pjscdn]

Quincy has a good-sized YMCA near the center of town. It's a pretty good facility, with a couple of pools and the rest of the usual features. It does have shopping nearby in the center of town, and a mall on the edge of town with Braintree. Since schools don't matter, this wouldn't be a factor. It's considered pretty safe for a small city.