good place to live around Springfield (Amherst, Northampton: best town, apartment, rentals)

[fjehani]

Hello everyone

I'm moving from Harrison,NJ to MA next in July .

I'm still looking for a nice place less than 30 min by the car to Springfield, MA where i gonna work at BMC.

I'm married without children and i dont have plan to have any in the near future , so i dont care too much about good school >

My perfect place would be:
-safe (most imp thing )
-Restaurants , cafes , Gyms , shoping ,in walkable distance or with public transport since my wife don't drive.
-30 or less by car to Springfield.
-Controlled access building with gym

I was considering :
Northampton + Amherst, MA.
West Hartford , CT + Enfield

Any suggestion ??

[btownboss4]

You may want to consider the Forest Park section of Springfield if you want PT. It is urban, and safe It is within 30 minutes of BMC.

[fjehani]

Originally Posted by btownboss4

You may want to consider the Forest Park section of Springfield if you want PT. It is urban, and safe It is within 30 minutes of BMC.

THank you for your respone ..

guys any idea about Longmeadow , East Longmeadow , Agawam??

[in_newengland]

East Longmeadow is nice, residential, sort of boring but a good family town. Longmeadow is expensive and has an excellent school system. I'd take East Longmeadow as more down to earth and friendly. Neither one has walkable shopping or public transport to any degree. Both towns are composed mostly of houses, not apartment buildings and there isn't much else there as they are bedroom communities.

Agawam is on the other side of the river and I know very little about it.

[Gracehappens]

What kind of budget do you have? My first choice given your criteria is Northampton which is artsy with a diverse selection of restaurants and unique shops; lots of rentals; and college students . . . Amherst is smaller and 15 minutes farther from Springfield. Downtown W. Hartford is more upscale and expensive; 40 minute drive from downtown Springfield, without traffic (lots of traffic and congestion on route 84); it has a professional and family-oriented vibe. Longmeadow, E. Longmeadow, etc. are very suburban; good schools, clean, safe, not much else. I would skip the other towns around Springfield, such as Agawam, if you would like a vibrant area with a walkable downtown area (ditto for Enfield, although it has a large rental complex, Biggelow Commons with the ammenities you referenced.) Possibly look at S. Hadley, but it's smaller and more remote than Northampton.

[raveabouttoast]

Northampton meets all your requirements. Do a search for more info on it. Being over in Amherst will add about 15 minutes to the commute. Route 9 gets clogged up very quickly.

[Homer12]

Be aware in Northhampton you will be dealing with all the College kids and traffic, to me it would get old fast. Great place to visit, not live. Then again I do not know if that might be something your into. Have you come up here to visit yet, Public Transportation in Western MA is nothing like Harrison, NJ. Compared to Harrison we do not really have Public Transportation. Considering you were near Newark you may find Springfield to be a Nice City, it has its nice parts, but its crime rate is very high. I would consider changing your lifestyle and looking at Agawan/Southwick area, it is beautiful. Your not going to be able to walk to anything though.

[western mass and love it]

I really don't find Northampton to be over run with college kids. Amherst takes the prize for that, Besides Smith is the only college in Hamp and women in general are a lot less rowdy than men.

Hamp is the best town for walkability in the Springfield area with Amherst a close 2nd. But there is more housing around the center of Hamp than Amherst.

As far as public transport we only have busses in the area with Amtrak service out of Springfield. The PVTA actually covers a large swath of the pioneer valley, with more coverage in the lower valley(Springfield area). Although the busses in the Hamp area cover it pretty well and it is an easy bus ride to the malls and Amherst center from Hamp. As well as in Hamp as well.

I actually will use my bike in conjunction with the bus to get around when I don't feel like using my car. All the busses have bike racks and I have never had an issue going this route.

[raveabouttoast]

Originally Posted by Homer12

Be aware in Northhampton you will be dealing with all the College kids and traffic, to me it would get old fast. Great place to visit, not live. Then again I do not know if that might be something your into. Have you come up here to visit yet, Public Transportation in Western MA is nothing like Harrison, NJ. Compared to Harrison we do not really have Public Transportation. Considering you were near Newark you may find Springfield to be a Nice City, it has its nice parts, but its crime rate is very high. I would consider changing your lifestyle and looking at Agawan/Southwick area, it is beautiful. Your not going to be able to walk to anything though.

I think Northampton has more recent liberal arts graduates than college kids. You don't see an extremely noticeable difference between summer and when school is in session. You might see a few less cars around Smith college, but they even have a summer program. I would not consider Northampton a "college town". There are more younger people there, but there's still a good mix through the age groups along with singles and couples/families. It definitely is a liberal town though.

Amherst, on the other hand, is almost the definition of "college town". It is noticeably quieter in the summer.

And I never found traffic to be bad at all. Bridge Rd between exits 19 and 20 (of route 91) can get bad, but that's mostly an extension of the Rte 9 traffic.

[fjehani]

Thank you guys , I will keep what u all said in mind