moving from maine (Boston, Cambridge, Newton: rent, houses, neighborhoods)

[vincent500]

Husband and wife, mid 50, no kids, she will go to work at Beth Israel Hospital and myself will look for work in sales, building materials. Want to use train for commute, will rent, not buy and have looked at a lot of places on line. Have read a lot of posts here and has provided great info.

Now, the hard part is to pick one, Walpole, Norwood, Wakefield, Sharon, Revere, Peabody, Arlington, Canton. We want a nice quiet area, we don't party, like to walk ,will travel for other things to do. So, please put your two cents in, good and bad.

[brightdoglover]

Arlington. Easy commute to BI, easy access to Rt.2/Pike to get outta town. Quiet, no crime, but urbane (at least East Arlington). Very very walkable and pretty (Spy Pond in East Arlington is the area's best-kept secret- you'd think you're in Vermont!)
To be honest, I don't know much about the walkability or public transport to BI from the other towns, or how suburban they are vs. walkable. But I do know and love Arlington. Best wishes on your move. And the BI is really one of the most coveted places to work. There was a time where RNs read the obits to see if a job had opened up. I'm not kidding.

[ogre]

The best choice would depend on several factors:

Housing budget. Generally, the closer you are to Boston, the more expensive the housing, including rent if you're renting, for a similar property in a similar neighborhood.

Length of commute you can handle. For example, it would be a fairly long commute from Walpole to Beth Israel, especially if you consider the time it would take to get to Beth Israel once your wife arrived in Boston on the commuter train. At least one town you said you're considering, Arlington, has no train service, although from the east side of Arlington you're pretty close to the subway station at Alewife in Cambridge.

The kind of neighborhood you'd want to live in: Revere has an urban character, not like right downtown, but like outlying sections of a city. Revere also generally has a reputation for being kind of faded and run down. I don't know the town well enough to know whether there are some nice neighborhoods mixed in, but Revere's overall reputation is that it's old and faded. Arlington is a nice clean town in the transitional zone between urban and suburban, while the other towns you're considering are more suburban. Even the suburban towns vary in character. For example, Wakefield has a typically suburban level of population density, with a nice little downtown area, while Sharon is a bit more low-density and woodsy.

[holden125]

Originally Posted by ogre

Length of commute you can handle. For example, it would be a fairly long commute from Walpole to Beth Israel, especially if you consider the time it would take to get to Beth Israel once your wife arrived in Boston on the commuter train. At least one town you said you're considering, Arlington, has no train service, although from the east side of Arlington you're pretty close to the subway station at Alewife in Cambridge.

Walpole is about 40-45 mins to Back Bay station. From there, it's probably easiest to walk about 2 blocks to Copley and take the outbound E branch of the Green Line. It's at least an hour door to door. Norwood is 10 mins closer to Boston on the train. Canton and Sharon are on a faster train line to Back Bay and would shorten the commute as well.

Arlington is a great town and is closer on the map, but actually wouldn't take that much less time to get to BI. You first need to get to the Red Line, then take it downtown and change to the Green. All that takes a while.

[RiverBird]

Originally Posted by vincent500

Husband and wife, mid 50, no kids, she will go to work at Beth Israel Hospital and myself will look for work in sales, building materials. Want to use train for commute, will rent, not buy and have looked at a lot of places on line. Have read a lot of posts here and has provided great info.

Now, the hard part is to pick one, Walpole, Norwood, Wakefield, Sharon, Revere, Peabody, Arlington, Canton. We want a nice quiet area, we don't party, like to walk ,will travel for other things to do. So, please put your two cents in, good and bad.

If you can afford Brookline or Newton, look into those areas. Upscale but nice, and easy access to city. Older towns that were once modest with triple-decker houses like Wakefield etc are now becoming a bit upscale, no longer cheap to live, but check them out. I would also look at the Riverway apts where I once lived, lovely old brownstone with huge rooms and high ceilings, fireplaces, build-ins-- and lots of med folks. A stone's throw from Brookline, nice walk along the Muddy River and all over. As I mention it I miss it!