New job in Worcester - recommended towns to commute? (Boston: crime, loan)

[H2ohLibrary]

My husband and I will be moving to the Worcester area next summer as he starts a new job. We're coming from the north suburbs of Chicago, so the weather will not be an issue. We are not familiar with the area around Worcester. Things we look for are variety of ethnic foods (not just Chinese and Mexican), well-run public library, indoor running track, indoor/outdoor pool for lap swimming, access to the train for Boston. We will be empty-nesters, but our kids are still in college - so need at least 3BR and 2 car garage. We'd like access to Target and Costco as well (no more than 20 minute drive) and good grocery store.

Any help much appreciated.

[yesmaybe]

Chicago, eh... better ask what your budget is.

[massnative71]

Originally Posted by H2ohLibrary

My husband and I will be moving to the Worcester area next summer as he starts a new job. We're coming from the north suburbs of Chicago, so the weather will not be an issue. We are not familiar with the area around Worcester. Things we look for are variety of ethnic foods (not just Chinese and Mexican), well-run public library, indoor running track, indoor/outdoor pool for lap swimming, access to the train for Boston. We will be empty-nesters, but our kids are still in college - so need at least 3BR and 2 car garage. We'd like access to Target and Costco as well (no more than 20 minute drive) and good grocery store.

Any help much appreciated.

LOL I think you will need to lower your expectations a little. For one, there are no Costcos in Central Mass. Most of your ethnic food will be in the city of Worcester, other than the regular suburban Japanese, Thai, Indian places (and of course Chinese and Mexican). Not sure about any fancier health clubs like you are seeking, the one comparable place I know of is up in Leominster (where I can tell right now you wouldn't care for), and one larger gym in Worcester that has a pool and track but the place itself isn't the greatest maintained and also in kind of a ratty area.

[MMS02760]

I would suggest due east along the Route 90/Route 9 corridor and Worcester to Boston commuter rail if you can afford it. Generally prices will rise as you get closer to Boston.

[Taffee72]

Look at Westborough. It has a YMCA with pool and indoor track, commuter rail, Target and is considered a good town. There is a Wegmans grocery store in nearby Northborough.

[magicshark]

It really depends on your budget. For the most bang for your buck I would look on the west side of Worcester in the Salisbury Street District.

This area has large houses in a beautiful neighborhood. It is more suburban then one would think. Crime is low in that area.

The library system is pretty good in Worcester. I use it all the time and am quite happy.

Close grocery stores include Big Y, Shaws, Stop and Shop, Price Rite, Price Chopper and Market 32. There is a Whole Foods and Trader Joes very close by in Shrewsbury and Wegmans is right past Shrewsbury. No Costco anywhere but plenty of Targets. One here in the city and one in Millbury. I am sure there are more close by but I am not a big shopper.

The Greendale YMCA has two pools, one is for laps. It has an indoor track and is right on the lake. No it is not a sketchy area at all. It is across from The Bancroft School.

There is also access to the train to Boston at Union Station.

Last but not least is the variety of ethnic restaurants. We have almost everything. Let's see we have East African, Afghani, Jamaican, Salvadoran, Brazilian, Puerto Rican and Dominican. We have different middle eastern restaurants and grocers. This is just off the top of my head. There are many more.

[scorpio516]

The north, south, and west suburbs of Worcester don't have what you are looking for, but maybe within a 20 minute drive. Eastern suburbs would - Shrewsbury, Northborough, and Westborough are pretty Indian with Indian grocers and restaurants. Sometimes it can take a whole lot longer than 20 minutes to commute to Worcester though: Route 9 can back up a lot and 290 can back up downtown.
Worcester is the end of the commuter rail line (MBTA https://www.mbta.com/schedules/CR-Worcester/timetable ), so further N, S, or W will add a drive to Union Station to take a train - but for going into Boston on the weekend it's better to drive! Cost, time, and timetable makes it bad on the weekend.

Mexican kinda sucks in all of New England. Chicago is miles better! There are some good places, but you've got to find the right place.
In addition to magics' list, there are Japanese, Korean, Thai, soul food, Vietnamese. A couple good Asian grocers - one Vietnamese and one pan-Asia.

Worcester Public Library is the largest part of C/W MARS. Central and Western Massachusetts Resource Sharing, the largest of the 9 library consortia in the state and covers basically all the libraries west of 495 (and Boxborough, Hudson, Southborough, and Marlborough inside 495). At any of the members you can interlibrary loan from any other members really easily. Shrewsbury has a very nice library building too, it's recently remodeled. Worcester Main library is getting a renovation right now.

There are no good public indoor tracks around. Holy Cross has a 200m indoor track, but unless you've got a connection (i.e. student, staff, maybe alumni) you aren't getting in. Worcester State has a 200m indoor track, but again staff, student or alumni. I think Central Mass Striders ( https://cmsrun.org/ ) does winter workouts there.
There are some crappy indoor tracks - YMCA central, YMCA Boroughs branch, YMCA greendale all have small little tracks with sharp corners.

The city of Worcester has pools. And there are tonnes of lakes and ponds for open water swimming. All the YMCA and YWCA and Worcester Fitness all have indoor pools.

There are Targets in Millbury (on MA-146 just south of Worcester), Worcester, and Westborough. There are no Costcos, instead we have BJ's ( https://www.bjs.com/ ). Inside you'd be hard pressed to find much a difference between Costco and BJ's, except that BJ's has a ton of checkout lanes that are open and the lines don't reach the back of the store. There's a BJ's in Northborough next to Wegmans, a quarter mile from the Westborough Target, and a BJ's in Auburn (SW of Worcester, next to Millbury).
From Worcester you can get to any of those in 20 minutes. From one of the BJ's to the other is just 20 minutes.

But with everything you want, my list would be, depending on your budget:

1. NW Worcester (Tatnuck, Sailsbury Street)
2. Shrewsbury
3. Northborough/Westborough
4. Grafton

[massnative71]

Originally Posted by magicshark

The Greendale YMCA has two pools, one is for laps. It has an indoor track and is right on the lake. No it is not a sketchy area at all. It is across from The Bancroft School.

OK I wasn't really familiar with that one. I was referring to the gym over in Lincoln Plaza. That IS a sketchy area, with some iffy cliental. OK just for the regular gym (and track is decent), but no way would I use the pool there.

[Shrewsburried]

Originally Posted by scorpio516

The city of Worcester has pools. And there are tonnes of lakes and ponds for open water swimming. All the YMCA and YWCA and Worcester Fitness all have indoor pools.

The JCC has a pool as well. However, no indoor track.

[scorpio516]

Originally Posted by massnative71

OK I wasn't really familiar with that one. I was referring to the gym over in Lincoln Plaza. That IS a sketchy area, with some iffy cliental. OK just for the regular gym (and track is decent), but no way would I use the pool there.

The W Fitness in front of Lowe's/Target? That's closed.