Northshore vs. Southshore vs. Metrowest (Boston, Lynn: houses, neighborhoods, living)

[New Englander]

So I was discussing Boston suburbs with a friend and we wanted to see the "differences" between the NS/SS/MWST Suburbs of Boston. Sure North Shore and South Shore have many beautiful towns on the water, while Metrowest has charming communities, I am not sure if we can classify each section as having a particular "feel."

I know that some people have mentioned North Shore attitudes etc., but what is your take?

Personally, I have spent more time in the North Shore so I might be biased in liking that part of Mass.

[boston mark]

I grew up on the NS (Saugus, then moved to Marblehead) so I am a little biased to the NS as well. I couldn't begin to discuss the differences though because SS and MW are so foreign to me.

It is funny how separate the North and South Shores are, and how not many residents are willing to relocate to one or the other. Myself being one of them. The Pike is sort of a local Mason-Dixon line.

[New Englander]

^

Thanks buddy!

I just spent an excellent afternoon in Marblehead/Beverly. The nice trip up on Lynn Shore Drive, going through Salem into M'head.

Some parts of Salem are looking pretty gritty (for NS).

Hopefully others might want to weigh in?

[jake786]

north shore is great!

i love beverly, ipswich, essex, hamilton, marblehead, manchester, and newburyport.
salem isnt the same as it used to be 1 generation ago, and lynn clearly isnt the same as it was 3 generations ago. swampscott has nice parts too.
peabody and danvers are ok, but not as nice as the others

the south shore is another world!!

[New Englander]

Absolutely. Also throw in Rockport and Nahant to that list.

Its weird that South Shore seems like a separate world altogether, although I am sure there are plenty of nice areas down there.

Would love to hear from SShore, MWest folks

[jake786]

oh yea, forgot all about rockport, nahant AND gloucester!

[ogre]

Originally Posted by New Englander

Absolutely. Also throw in Rockport and Nahant to that list.

Its weird that South Shore seems like a separate world altogether, although I am sure there are plenty of nice areas down there.

Would love to hear from SShore, MWest folks

Okay, well, I grew up in the western 'burbs, and have lived there for the greater part of adulthood. It seems that many north shore towns are older and more densely populated than south shore towns. The upside is that the north shore has more towns that fit the quintessential image of a quaint coastal town (with Rockport, Ipswich, Newburyport, and Marblehead as prime examples). The downside is that the north shore has more run down urban areas (e.g., Lynn). More rocky coastline to the north, mostly broad sandy beaches to the south.

As for the west . . . Keep in mind that historically the population centers in MA were on the coast. I'm assuming that this is because the economy of two centuries ago favored seaports as the most prosperous towns. The area west of Boston was made up largely of small rural farm towns until suburbanization began with streetcar suburbs a century ago, and really took off after WWII. Suburban sprawl started in towns that had been rural for the most part. There was room for larger yards than you could have in the more densely populated areas on the coasts, which likely made the western 'burbs an especially popular destination in the post-war suburbanization, with its auto-driven nature that made low-density living feasible.

The result? The more outlying sections of the western metro area have a lot more exurban land than you find north or south, especially north. Lots of suburban development mixed in with orchard country. Clusters of suburban-looking housing, office parks, and the like, scattered across countryside that is still fairly rural in many areas. Also, the western exurbs have quite a bit of strip mall development along some of the major routes.

Closer in, you find a lot of woodsy suburbs, too densely populated to be considered exurban, but still with a lot of winding roads, fairly large yards, and woods and fields scattered among the houses. There are exceptions. Wellesley, and even moreso Newton, appear to be early railroad suburbs that grew before the auto-driven development of the mid 20th century. They are very uspcale towns, more characterized by grid-pattern streets, sidewalks, and substantial shopping areas than by the winding roads and small town centers found in much of the area. Framingham is an older town that is fairly urban in its older neighborhoods. And Maynard is a former mill town that is now a densely populated node surrounded by orchard country. Inside of 128, much of the area to the west of Boston has the same urban character you find in the urban core north of the city. Overall, though, in the western 'burbs, towns with a look similar to Hamilton, Wenham, Tewksbury, Lynnfield, and the less dense parts of Beverly on the north shore, and to Sharon toward the south, are more typical than the more dense and urban feel of Marblehead, Salem, or Weymouth.