Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I'll be visiting the New England area in a couple weeks to hopefully find a town I'd like to move to, but some help would be appreciated! I have been doing some research online, but everything I google is unfortunately geared towards families, except for one or two site that say Boston is the top U.S. city for singles.
I'm a 24-year old civil engineer/recent college grad; most of my work is in land development. What I'm looking for in a new location is the following:
-Young, vibrant, catering to college grads and young professionals; a good nightlife is a must. Where I live now there are 3 age groups: children, their parents, and the retired. The only people my age got married and had kids straight out of high school, and the entire county shuts down at 9:00PM. This is not the type of community I want to live in at this point in my life.
-Nearby places to enjoy the outdoors (hiking, biking, skiing, etc.)
-Educated.
-If I get bored, I'm probably doing something wrong there.
-Not a major city - so not Boston itself, but perhaps one of the many towns surrounding it. I'm not a big city kind of guy, but I'm not ready for small town life either. Having access to the city is appealing though, especially for events like St. Patrick's Day.
-Low crime. I lived north of Philly for a couple months interning. In that time my roommate's car was stolen and the SWAT team raided our Apartment complex. This was horrible.
-Not Hot & Humid (South Carolina weather is too hot for me).
Could anyone provide me with the name of some areas I should look into? I've been told Arlington and Quincy are nice, and Cambridge is young. However, looking at satellite images of Cambridge makes me think there is little opportunity for someone providing land development services.
I've been tossing around the idea of Orange County in Southern California also, but I've got a feeling crime would be a bit too high for my liking, no friends or family would be difficult, and the move would cost allot... so if there ideas outside of Mass. they would help too!
You might like Amherst, MA in the western part of the state: young, educated, good nightlife, low crime. I'm not really sure what someone in land development does, so you'd need to do the research to find if it's a good fit.
Arlington would give you easy access to both Boston and more rural areas to the west, down Rt 2.
Portsmouth, NH would be another smaller city that might work.
Another vote for Arlington. If Amherst works, also consider Northampton.
One piece of info you have not provided is what your housing budget would be, and that could make a difference. Housing costs in the Boston area are pretty steep. Based on the criteria you do list, Arlington sounds good. Its character is somewhere between urban and suburban, so it should have some of the activities you're looking for locally. It's also close enough to Boston so you have ready access to city nightlife without actually living in the city, and is a fairly quick drive out to more open, suburban areas, if you need to go there for your work.
Like Drouhin, I'm not familiar with the work you'll be doing. It sounds as if it would require open land. Since you don't want to live in Cambridge, it also sounds as if you want to live very close to your work. If you don't mind a bit of a commute, Cambridge might be within convenient range of more open, suburban land. From what you say about wanting to avoid being right in the city, I have my doubts about Cambridge for that reason. It's pretty urban, and seems in effect to be almost like a section of Boston. Another area that's pretty urban, but maybe a little less so than Cambridge is Somerville. Like Cambridge, it doesn't have a lot of open space, so if you want that really close to where you live, Somerville's probably out. But, if you don't mind commuting to the open land, Somerville seems like a possibility. It has some activities locally that could appeal to young adults, but is still not quite like being in the heart of the city.
I like Drouhin's suggestion of Portsmouth, if you don't mind a drive of an hour or so to Boston (more if you travelled during commuting hours). Amherst could be okay, though you said you'd like to be fairly close to a city. From Amherst you'd be looking at a drive of a couple of hours to Boston, which is the closest large city. Worcester is closer, and does have some concerts and basic nightlife, but you'd have to go to Boston for more big-city activities. If this sounds okay, another town near Amherst you might check out is Northampton. It's a bigger town than Amherst, so it has more locally in the way of nightlife. With both of these towns, however, be aware that the area in general is pretty rural. There's nothing at all in the way of nightlife outside of these two towns. There is some good local outdoor recreation, though, and some gorgeous natural scenery.
However, looking at satellite images of Cambridge makes me think there is little opportunity for someone providing land development services.
What kind of land development are you thinking about? If you look at NYC, do you have the same impression? Do you need to walk to work or work within the city limit (7sq mile)?
Thanks for the suggestions! I suppose I should clear up a couple items to let people have a bit better idea of what I'm after.
1. Budget. I'm not too concerned about budget or buying a house, I prefer to rent and fully expect to pay around $1,200/month for a 1BR 1 Bath wherever I end up... supposing its what I'm looking for anyway. Most places it seams to be the case that you get what you pay for. Sure, for $700/month where I currently live I could afford a very nice apt or even a townhouse, but there's squat to do beyond just owning a house and all the responsibility/hassle that comes with one.
2. Needing to drive 1.5 hours to the wilderness is better than needing to drive even 45 minutes to nightlife, especially considering nightlife involves drinking... heavily. Hopping a train to the city (and not needing to worry about getting mugged) so I'm not on a 2-drink limit (DUI=bad) would also be nice.
3. Civil engineering in land development involves many different things, but most people have no idea what it is we do despite the fact they use our designs and services every day. A very cut down explanation is anything involving stormwater management, water resources, wastewater design, traffic analysis, environmental crap (literally and figuratively), and whatever else it is you need to live your daily "normal" life. In the private industry, its mostly working for private agencies as a consultant by fighting through whatever red tape public agencies come up with. In an already heavily developed area like Cambridge the opportunities, although undoubtedly present, may not be as abundant... then again maybe they're more abundant heh. An even more cut down explanation is this: Mechanical engineers build weapons, Civil engineers build targets. Moral of story: ignore this; in all likelihood I can get a job doing this so long as the area fits my other criteria.
Walking to work would be convenient, but I could never live in NYC for more than like... 2 weeks. NYC is not for me.
3. Civil engineering in land development involves many different things, but most people have no idea what it is we do despite the fact they use our designs and services every day. A very cut down explanation is anything involving stormwater management, water resources, wastewater design, traffic analysis, environmental crap (literally and figuratively), and whatever else it is you need to live your daily "normal" life. In the private industry, its mostly working for private agencies as a consultant by fighting through whatever red tape public agencies come up with. In an already heavily developed area like Cambridge the opportunities, although undoubtedly present, may not be as abundant... then again maybe they're more abundant heh. An even more cut down explanation is this: Mechanical engineers build weapons, Civil engineers build targets. Moral of story: ignore this; in all likelihood I can get a job doing this so long as the area fits my other criteria.
Walking to work would be convenient, but I could never live in NYC for more than like... 2 weeks. NYC is not for me.
There are a lot of urban renew since Boston is an old city. Many developers buy parcels of land, tear down the buildings and put up condo, cinema, shopping or office space. Here's an example NorthPoint Cambridge Real Estate Development
I think you should investigate where the money is going for development. You are coming into Boston at a time when many projects just finished. However, the state is increasing taxes for new and repair roads/bridges. Good luck.
Someone's always looking to build, rebuild, expand, start a new business, or whatever. Getting a job as what I do isn't difficult, and unfortunately I think people are focusing too hard on this (although thank you for the thoughtfulness). Making sure the other aspects I'm looking for is 100 time more important - Young, lots to do, low crime, somewhere in between rural farmland/backwoods and urban maniacal craze, educated, tolerable weather, etc.
Johnny, I'm currently relocating to the area with my family and don't know the area as well as the others on this board, BUT, I will say that if you don't need to be near Boston, Amherst or Northampton are great. You mentioned you like the mountains, so stick to north shore. Newburyport is like a miniature Boston and going through an urban renewal. Newburyport has a commuter rail stop, so you can go into the city. It's also 20 minutes from Portsmouth, NH which is a REALLY COOL place for young professionals. Newburyport is on the water and has fantastic kayaking opportunities, fishing, beach and is less expensive than allot of towns closer to Boston. I haven't been to Arlington but have heard it's great too.
Check out the Newburyport chamber of commerce website for pictures and there is a realtor (who I do not know) that has some gorgeous rollover images of the city (which aren't as nice as in person) - it's on his homepage - Newburyport, Newbury, and Salisbury, MA Real Estate – Sean Perkins
Finally, there is a very nice converted mill apartment complex in Amesbury (just outside Newburyport). The link is under Real Estate in the directory section of the Nbpt chamber site. My brother is single and very much into the outdoors. He loves that area.
PS. I'm moving from North Carolina - that area is nowhere near as hot and humid and has ALLOT more to offer for those of us who don't want to spend our weekends in the mall.
Arlington. East Arlington.
Did I remember to tell you East Arlington?
East Arlington is across a 4-lane road from the Cambridge line. A bus straight to Harvard Square and plenty of night life all along Mass. Ave.- just get off the bus wherever you want. A train ride and you're downtown Boston, and no, you won't get mugged. Fortunately, the muggier areas (so to speak) are further away from Boston towards the south- there are no nightlife reasons for you to be there.
Virtually no crime in East Arlington. For that matter, I'm from Philly (a long time ago) and there's nothing in all of New England as burnt and blasted as any of North Philly. As a friend of mine from Center City said, "It's Disneyworld up here" (after his fourth-floor penthouse was broken into via the roof deck. He gave up and moved to Cherry Hill...)
Somerville is quite expensive and rather unattractive, and would be a traffic mess to get out of to drive to outlying work. Cambridge is delightful, but traffic/parking are again a problem, and a good rental is quite pricey.
Arlington is right on Rt.2, so you could get out of town to "land" for work quite easily, and be into Cambridge/Boston for nightlife in minutes. It's a great place to be under 30, or under 25.
Good luck. I'm sure you'll find a great place.
Brightdoglover, how about Arlington for a 50 year old? Or the general boston area? Would a 50 year old have a hard time (getting a job, making friends) in Arlington, or Boston? Is the whole city that young?
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Another vote for Arlington. If Amherst works, also consider Northampton.
