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.
Alright folks. I think we need a BIG timeout here. There is an abundance of beautiful and top notch places within 2.5 hours from Boston to choose from if one is semi-remote and commuting there 1-2 days a week. No (and I repeat) NO young professional is going to pick SPRINGFIELD of all places to live, if they are semi-remote and are OK being 2.5 hours from Boston. I totally get that everybody has their own version of paradise and some might not be so conventional, but will go right out and say that you need your head examined if you draw a wide circle around Boston and that filthy cesspool of a city is the best you can do as one with any means.
But what's the cost if you are looking for a more urban environment?
I have a few friends (all professionals, all with at least a master's degree) who have moved to Springfield to buy since already sky-high housing prices took off. One commutes to the Worcester area twice a week, others are either fully remote or work in the Hartford-Amherst corridor. If you want a more urban environment for very little money, there are few places in the state better to do it. For what I could buy a 2 bed/1 bath condo in Marlborough, one of these friends bought a gorgeous 3 bed/2 bath + office + den+ basement single family with a yard in an OK neighborhood. Yes, her kid will likely go to private school as a result of their choice to move, but low COL with Massachusetts amenities more than makes up for it. If you want/need more space, want to live in a city, and want to stay in Mass, somewhere like this is hard to turn your nose up at: https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/1...56202677_zpid/
Worcester, Lowell and Haverhill have a 6 figure income barrier to entry if you're running off of the old 3 times your income for mortgage rule of thumb. Even Providence, Brockton, and Fall River has gotten pricey. Lawrence has very limited inventory under 300K. Give me Springfield any day over most of the more rural towns in between!
It's sort of a chicken and the egg problem: Springfield is not a high-priority location for Boston commuters because no one is going to make the drive or take a once-a-day 2 1/2 hour train. But if there were two express trains in the morning and two in the evening, it would suddenly become a lot more doable for some and it may attract earlier career folks who want to get on the property ladder out. Without current demand, there's no real move for investment.
But what's the cost if you are looking for a more urban environment?
I have a few friends (all professionals, all with at least a master's degree) who have moved to Springfield to buy since already sky-high housing prices took off. One commutes to the Worcester area twice a week, others are either fully remote or work in the Hartford-Amherst corridor. If you want a more urban environment for very little money, there are few places in the state better to do it. For what I could buy a 2 bed/1 bath condo in Marlborough, one of these friends bought a gorgeous 3 bed/2 bath + office + den+ basement single family with a yard in an OK neighborhood. Yes, her kid will likely go to private school as a result of their choice to move, but low COL with Massachusetts amenities more than makes up for it. If you want/need more space, want to live in a city, and want to stay in Mass, somewhere like this is hard to turn your nose up at: https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/1...56202677_zpid/
Worcester, Lowell and Haverhill have a 6 figure income barrier to entry if you're running off of the old 3 times your income for mortgage rule of thumb. Even Providence, Brockton, and Fall River has gotten pricey. Lawrence has very limited inventory under 300K. Give me Springfield any day over most of the more rural towns in between!
It's sort of a chicken and the egg problem: Springfield is not a high-priority location for Boston commuters because no one is going to make the drive or take a once-a-day 2 1/2 hour train. But if there were two express trains in the morning and two in the evening, it would suddenly become a lot more doable for some and it may attract earlier career folks who want to get on the property ladder out. Without current demand, there's no real move for investment.
This all has nothing to do with the OP of course.
This particular side topic is about semi-remote workers from Boston. These professionals who want "urban living"...they might say "urban" but that generally comes with limitations. If one is priced out of 128, and then priced out of the other desirable urban areas of Providence, Worcester, Lowell, Portsmouth, Nashua, Manchester, Portland, etc....there's usually a limit on how ghetto they will settle for. At that point they typically don't move on to Brockton, Lawrence, or Fall River (never mind SPRINGFIELD). Those cities are just too far gone and offer zero appeal to anybody. At that point they will settle for a non-urban place, before a bottom of the barrel 3rd world cesspool city. Priced out of Boston, then the East Side of Providence...it's not on to Central Falls, but Warren or Cranston instead. Priced out of the West Side of Worcester, Springfield will not be on the radar (at that point they just go to Clinton or Sturbridge). You get the drift. Springfield is not a desirable city. It just doesn't offer what people have in mind when seeking "urban amenities". Even if a miracle happens, and they get an "express train" to Boston.
Here we see a disabled man in a bad situation. It looks like he's about to get robbed and attacked by some hooligans in broad daylight, and his little dog isn't going to prevent it from happening. The housing prices are low in Springfield because it's an unsafe city.
And there is also prostitution in that neighborhood:
Well, the OPs whole project is ambitious and challenging. OTOH, she would like access to Boston for the classical music scene so the possibility of passenger rail from Springfield in a few years would sweeten the prospect.
It's sort of a chicken and the egg problem: Springfield is not a high-priority location for Boston commuters because no one is going to make the drive or take a once-a-day 2 1/2 hour train. But if there were two express trains in the morning and two in the evening, it would suddenly become a lot more doable for some and it may attract earlier career folks who want to get on the property ladder out. Without current demand, there's no real move for investment.
This all has nothing to do with the OP of course.
Boston commuters aren't moving to Springfield because it's 81 miles away. About the same distance as Philadelphia from New York City (also about 81 miles).
I'm not saying express rail to Springfield is a bad idea, just that there are a lot better ways to alleviate overcrowding in Boston than focusing resources on a city so far away. Springfield is too far away to be a Boston satellite given current transportation technology.
I wouldn't assume that that woman is a prostitute. I grew up in a small town on the South Shore of Massachusetts and there was a prostitute. Just one mind you but used to walk up and down and basically was doing it for drugs. She was arrested multiple times and pretty much everyone knew what she was. She did find clients but it was just one of those things that was just hardly reported.
You can find drugs and crime and prostitution in any place in the country and Surly the state if you look hard enough. We don't have that much in the way of local media that does honest-to-god reporting outside of urban areas. At the same point the responses of police is often limited because they have less resources as resources go to go to schools in more affluent areas, not police.
Gateway cities in Massachusetts are interesting and I think most of them are turning around. I expect to see Fall River in New Bedford to turn around significantly when The Rail to Boston starts another 18 months. Brockton has some issues but I think that they are keeping the float. Lawrence and fortunately is just been dealt a hard deck because most poor people tend to go further north in New Hampshire where there's no sales tax or income tax and Lowell isn't that far off which is had significant Redevelopment.
I'm not saying that we're going to wake up one day and they'll be a high-speed rail from Springfield to Boston that gets there within an hour. But at the same point as we've seen the continuance of working from home which is not going back to the office it's simply makes it more of a choice. Ask yourself this if corporate brass wants people to go back to the office I would then ask if it wanting for direct face-to-face Communications with every aspect of their life and operations then *why* are they living in the suburbs? Do-as-i-say-not-as-i-do.
A fair amount of the Berkshires as well as central and even eastern Mass at a fair amount of Connecticut is dealing with bad foundations just read the report here.
They've been dealing with this in Connecticut for years now but if we start to see houses in Mass with the same crumbling lo and behold guess what nothing in Springfield is affected so what do you think happened to house values are their communities around it are gone. You can't buy a house if you can't live in it and you can't tax it if you can't live in it either. I passed by a few houses every day that I've had to deal with this problem. With interest rates that might go up to 7% if not higher would you take a chance and a bad Foundation? Again I'm not saying that you should like Springfield but the fact of the matter remains is that is much worse things going on surrounding it that have significant impacts and development and it's causing a huge consolidation to the area.
Boston commuters aren't moving to Springfield because it's 81 miles away. About the same distance as Philadelphia from New York City (also about 81 miles).
I'm not saying express rail to Springfield is a bad idea,
I think it’s a horrible idea based on the availability of resources in the state. You could run free bus service for 100 years and it would cost far less than the massive spending and ongoing subsidies for rail.
Express rail should be at 495. Hub bus service to a multi mode transit station with infinite parking. Spend the expensive train money making 495 to Boston a 15 minute ride.
The trouble with the shuttle buses under FDA rules the amount of time it takes to overhaul a bus system is much more frequent than that of rail a bus should be able to laugh with an overhaul about 10 years with rails about 25. We could initially start with boss and then go to rail. Maybe something on the lines of a silver line going to Western and Central Mass. Eventually I think we're just going to have self-driving cars be the norm with some quasi Authority running them Nationwide in about 20 or 30 years. After that most arguments about Transit will be mood because it'll all be on demand
I think it’s a horrible idea based on the availability of resources in the state. You could run free bus service for 100 years and it would cost far less than the massive spending and ongoing subsidies for rail.
Express rail should be at 495. Hub bus service to a multi mode transit station with infinite parking. Spend the expensive train money making 495 to Boston a 15 minute ride.
I think express rail to Springfield makes sense as part of a national high speed rail transport system. I don't think it's inevitable, but it is one possible future scenario for future zero carbon intercontinental travel. It's something my unborn grandkids might take with their grandkids.
I totally agree on fleshing out rail within 495. That combined with electrification and higher frequency within the 128 loop where there is a surprising amount of lower density housing combined with relative poor transit service. Throwing money at a Springfield commuter program doesn't make sense to me.
Hi, all. I posted in my Upstate NY topic, but I should post it here, too.
I have a little bit of a life change. I went to a doctor and got my ears checked and was told that they have no damage and that they're fine aside from some allergies. What this means is that I can - and do want to - shift my focus back toward music, and that includes returning to college.
I had substantially downplayed that angle earlier in this topic. I was worried about my ears and my ability to play music anymore, so I had buried that dream. I am now going all out in returning to music as well as working on any limitation I have felt have squandered my potential as a musician.
This means, as I said, that I'm setting a goal in my future to go back to college. My degree is Musicology, and I'd be going grad school, Master's.
This opens up better opportunities for moving, I think...? Even if only temporarily. I've compiled a list of universities in MA that have my degree:
University of Massachusetts Amherst
Boston University
Brandeis University
Tufts University
(Not sure about Harvard or New England Conservatory, they were listed on the American Musicological Society website. Well, either way... I'm not getting into Harvard, so that's neither here nor there).
Not even sure I could get into any of these universities, but I'm throwing it out here, and am going to research them. Otherwise in New England, there is University of Connecticut and University of New Hampshire.
I think it’s a horrible idea based on the availability of resources in the state. You could run free bus service for 100 years and it would cost far less than the massive spending and ongoing subsidies for rail.
Express rail should be at 495. Hub bus service to a multi mode transit station with infinite parking. Spend the expensive train money making 495 to Boston a 15 minute ride.
It would not be if things could be built without massive amount of grift and corruption. Expansive high-speed rail network similar to what Spain has would be great but we all know what would allow Spain to re-build everything three times over will pay for about five miles of track 'round these parts
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.
