desirability of Burlington vs Natick

[panchilly]

Originally Posted by matrix5k

Back to the OP... what a weird comparison as others have said. If someone is interested in Burlington, they would look at surrounding towns like Reading, Lynnfield, Bedford. What's so great about Natick? It's out of the way. You either have to pay a toll on the pike or hit every stop light on route 9 to get there. Route 9 is one of the worst places to drive in the state, if you miss your turn you have to drive like 3 miles roundtrip to circle back. The mall is a PITA to get to, you have to go on Speen St then loop around 5 stoplights before you can turn into the full parking lot. No one shops at the overpriced Collection.

When I lived in the city, my friends and I would go to Burlington all the time cause it was so close. The mall, restaurants and shops are easy to get to and a pleasant experience. No one ever wanted to go all the way to Natick.

I find your argument to be a bit ridiculous. The same can be said about the following towns: (that you have to either take the pike or hit stoplights on route 9 to get to boston):

Wellesley, Newton, Needham, Weston, Wayland. Are these towns worse than Burlington? Obviously no.

The bottom line is its nice to have the pike access and the tolls are worth it. Route 9 simply isn't a road designed to travel long distances on - it isn't an interstate highway. It's a commercial road intended for shorter trips where you connect to a larger road and it can be incredibly useful to have route 9 access for those situations.

[johngolf]

Originally Posted by RBThescot

Concord never was a suburb of Boston. I grew up in the west suburbs 60 to 70 years ago. We were keenly aware of Paul Revere's Ride down Massachusetts Avenue from Concord to Lexington, Arlington, to the Old North Church and that history connected us to our awareness of our location. Beyond that, we thought of the town we lived in relative to our ethnic group or religion. For example, Bedford and Burlington were side-by-side but Bedford was a blue collar wasp town, largely Republican and didn't have a Catholic Church. By the early 60s when Burlington was becoming suburbanized it already had one Catholic Church and then built the new St. Malachy's across from McCarthy's pig farm. So that's where the Irish and Italian Catholics moved to. When McCarthy's pig farm was forced out it was the seminal event marking Burlington's transition to a suburb of post World War Two white collar upwardly mobile residents and people like the Grahams were building stick built 3 bed/2 bath colonials for $18,900.

I think you reversed Revere's ride........LOL

[RBThescot]

Yes I did but my subject was Concord and the west suburbs, so shoot me.