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Old 08-17-2008, 08:19 AM
 
Location: Boston
102 posts, read 446,634 times
Reputation: 167

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CNN/Money.com recently named Franklin, MA, as the 10th best place to live in its Top 100 Places to Live in the United States. That's a tall order, given there are so many great places to live in the U.S.!

We live a few towns over from Franklin and know it as a very nice town with a great sense of history. It's got a true small town feel, but so do many other towns around here like Wrentham, Walpole, Norfolk, Medway, Medfield and Millis. What do you like, or don't like about Franklin and do you feel its top ranking as a best place to live is accurate?

Last edited by CaseyB; 08-17-2008 at 08:48 AM.. Reason: no links to blogs outside of C-D, please
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Old 08-17-2008, 08:30 AM
 
Location: Westwood, MA
5,037 posts, read 6,867,112 times
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This does not appear to be the case:

Best Places to Live 2008 - from Money Magazine

Franklin isn't even the top 100. I'm really confused by your post.
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Old 08-17-2008, 10:12 AM
 
Location: Boston
102 posts, read 446,634 times
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Default Franklin MA Link

Here is the CNN/Money.com Link on Franklin being a top 10 place to live: 100 best places to live and launch - 10. Franklin, Mass. (10) - FORTUNE Small Business
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Old 08-17-2008, 10:55 AM
 
278 posts, read 1,059,756 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Eric H. View Post
CNN/Money.com recently named Franklin, MA, as the 10th best place to live in its Top 100 Places to Live in the United States. That's a tall order, given there are so many great places to live in the U.S.!

We live a few towns over from Franklin and know it as a very nice town with a great sense of history. It's got a true small town feel, but so do many other towns around here like Wrentham, Walpole, Norfolk, Medway, Medfield and Millis. What do you like, or don't like about Franklin and do you feel its top ranking as a best place to live is accurate?
My family lives in Franklin, and we love it here. It appears that this particular CNN poll names it as a Top 10 place to "live & launch". Several years ago, Family magazine (I think that was it?) listed Franklin as a Top Ten to raise a family. Having said that, "Top Ten" might be a bit of a stretch in some regards. The schools here are decent, but massively underfunded, in my opinion. Recently the town failed to pass an override, which resulted in approx. 45 teachers losing their jobs...and other losses of service. But, to be honest, I see similar actions happening in many towns across MA, so it's not just a Franklin thing.
On the other hand, I will say that Franklin is such a friendly, welcoming town. There are some amazing people here, and I am not just saying that. I have experienced it first-hand, since moving here a year & 1/2 ago. The library is great, nice restaurants & shopping, local delis and pizza shops, a downtown that is trying to expand for the community, farmer's markets on the common, Franklin Newcomer's Club (awesome way to make new friends), great gyms, state parks with walking/biking trails, ponds for fishing and birdwatching, 2 train stations, Dean College...it's all here. Still, the greatest asset of Franklin is the population of fun, social, civic-minded residents...my neighbors.
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Old 08-17-2008, 11:03 AM
 
Location: Beautiful New England
2,412 posts, read 7,155,178 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Eric H. View Post
What do you like, or don't like about Franklin and do you feel its top ranking as a best place to live is accurate?
"Best place to live" is always subjective, but look at it this way: Massachusetts is a very nice state to live in (ever been to Oklahoma? West Virginia? Wyoming?). Franklin is a nice town with a nice downtown, good schools, and proximate to a world-class city. Bottom line: there are lots and lots of places in the U.S. that are not as good as Franklin, MA
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Old 08-17-2008, 12:06 PM
 
Location: Westwood, MA
5,037 posts, read 6,867,112 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Eric H. View Post
Here is the CNN/Money.com Link on Franklin being a top 10 place to live: 100 best places to live and launch - 10. Franklin, Mass. (10) - FORTUNE Small Business

Thanks!
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Old 08-28-2008, 08:09 PM
 
47 posts, read 302,062 times
Reputation: 21
Franklin is nice but I can think of towns in MA with way "better" schools, library, town center, retaurants, etc. Lots of things about Franklin are good but not great. Schools are good but not in the top decile. The library is housed in a wonderful old historic building but the collection is weak and the interior is in terrible need of updating (my standard is the Cary Memorial Library in Lexington which reminds me of a college library). The town center is really trying to bring more small retail in so that it offers a lot more but it's having trouble making it happen (big new EMPTY building was just built). And the reaturants - while slowly adding more choice like In Contro and Three - are pretty much all red sauce Italian places (it's no Arlington, Waltham, Wellesley, etc when it comes to dining here!)

But here's what I LOVE about Franklin - the people are so friendly, the proximity to Providence, Boston and the Cape is just wonderful and there is an amazing school for the performing arts that is building a new campus that will expand it's already amazing programs. It's a big (30,000 residents over 27 square miles) town that feels like a small town. It's safe, clean and parts of it are very pretty.

It's a special place - but by most conventional measures (schools, retsurants, library, etc) I think it can't hold a candle to towns like Wellesley, Lexington, Belmont, etc.
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Old 08-29-2008, 10:03 AM
 
2 posts, read 7,920 times
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I would NEVER want to live in Franklin or any of the suburbs. All it is is trees and woods and rich people and the suburbs are 99.9% white so I would never fit in either. Its boring too cause everyone is the same there is no diversity at all.
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Old 08-29-2008, 12:22 PM
 
49 posts, read 253,485 times
Reputation: 60
Quote:
Originally Posted by professorsenator View Post
"Best place to live" is always subjective, but look at it this way: Massachusetts is a very nice state to live in (ever been to Oklahoma? West Virginia? Wyoming?). Franklin is a nice town with a nice downtown, good schools, and proximate to a world-class city. Bottom line: there are lots and lots of places in the U.S. that are not as good as Franklin, MA
It is very subjective. I've lived in in Massachusetts and Oklahoma, and I'll take Oklahoma any day of the week over Massachusetts
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Old 08-29-2008, 02:03 PM
 
Location: Metrowest, MA
1,810 posts, read 10,459,284 times
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With all these reports... key is look very carefully at the criteria.

Have you noticed that every single amusement park has something about their roller coaster? .... "biggest", "tallest", fastest", "highest", ....
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