I’ve been doing trainings at Stonehill this month. It’s nice, and I think that the proximity to major roads is actually pretty good. You could consider Dedham if you are looking for a nice town that has commuter options. They don’t, however, go straight from here to there. Not as pricey (or ritzy) as Sharon or Canton, but really convenient to 93, 95, and hip places like Roslindale and Jamaica Plain.
Roslindale is hip now? I have been away for awhile, haven’t I?
Just a general note about commuting and planning one’s commute, as long as i’m thinking about it:
The entire MBTA system is essentially designed to get one from the outlying areas into the city and then back out again. There are some bus routes that connect outlying areas, but they are the exception rather than the rule. Hence the Regional Transit Authorities.
So when you get the typical “you can’t get there from here” line from us current and former New Englanders, it means that, well, you could get from Quincy to Easton via public trans, but the most direct routes may involve a lot of transferring and waiting, unless you want to take the Red Line into the city and then the Commuter Rail back out again.
The best guide to commuting around Eastern Massachusetts is the booklet Car-Free in Boston, a lifesaver.
I lived in Brighton and Cambridge for 6 years without a car. It can be done!
This is just personal opinion but it seems like you are trying to hybridize things so much that none of it is going to work very well. I used to work in Brockton (in a nice corporate center but still Brockton :eek:). I know the area somewhat well. I even work in Norwood now and commute through the same general area.
Quincy isn’t especially bad but it is like one of the original city suburbs. These are towns that get packed in with houses in the old style. Quincy isn’t quite high-brow or low-brow. It inhabits a few spaces and isn’t especially good at any of them.
The Easton area is either nice or generally fine depending on what you do with it. If you would give up on the public transport idea, you could pick a large number of very nice suburbs ranging from semi-urban to semi-rural. I live in one that isn’t exactly in the area but it isn’t that far either but it is great and there are similar ones all over once you get down that far. Having a car is the key there though.
Assuming that you have a car, you can do whatever you want in Boston whenever you want. Commuting could be as easy as you want it to be although your planned public transportation route is going to be harder than most anything you could come reasonably come up with given a car just by its very nature.
If you have lots of money, you could even get a place in the Brighton/Brookline area and still have a car. That is where the good city type living starts. I had a car when we lived in Brighton and I commuted to about where you are. The public transportation idea would have been totally unworkable but I got to live in the city and commute to more quiet places.
I don’t know about that. I’ve lived on the North Shore for most of my adult life, and I’ve always been under the (distant) impression that Roslindale and Jamaica Plain were kind of lousy places to live.
There is some really useful information in this thread. Thanks! One consideration is money–we are a single-income family with a child, and the sole wage-earner (me) is an academic (and worse, in the humanities!). So we can only afford one car, which my wife will need to ferry our daughter around. Ergo, we need to either live in Easton or Brockton, where my wife can drive me to work (or I can take a bus), or live somewhere with public transportation to Easton/Brockton. Some people mentioned buses that go to Easton; I will look into that. I was sort of under the impression that the only commuter option for Brockton/Easton was the Old Colony line, meaning I would have to live somewhere on that line (e.g., Quincy, Braintree, etc.). Easton is very expensive, and everyone has told me not to live in Brockton, so I think commuting via public transportation is the best option.
Well, JP is really run down looking, but I know a lot of funky artists and musicians who make it their home to this day. I know people in Roslindale too, but the neighborhood always struck me as very meat-and-potatoes blue collar to me. Hip to me would mean Roslindale seems more like JP, which would be an eye-opener.
Well as I mentioned, Stoughton Station (which is on a branch of the Attleboro-Providence Line) is less than a mile further away from Stonehill than Brockton Station as the crow flies. It’s just that there’s a bus from Brockton Station that goes to Stonehill, whereas from Stoughton you’d have to take two buses to Brockton to catch that one.
I just think the living options on the Attleboro line (Stoughton, Canton, Dedham, or if you’re willing to go inbound a little and then outbound, Sharon and Mansfield) are more appealing than those on the Old Colony Line (Brockton, Bridgewater, Middleborough), although Quincy and Braintree are on the latter line as well.
By the way, for community comparison, my favorite site is E-Podunk.
In my 30-something crowd, a lot of homes in JP are getting too expensive, and even rents are no different from what you would find in Cambridge. A lot of people are looking towards Roslindale as a slightly less expensive proposition yet one which still offers some nightlife options in the form of bars and restaurants, some funky clothing boutiques, a few nice winestores and a cheese shop to appeal to the foodies.
By “hip”, I do mean a place with a lot of ethnic diversity and a lively feel, which some people translate to mean “wouldn’t want to live there”. But this is IMHO and that’s what I am hearing and seeing go on in those communities.
Total hijack for the soon-to-be Stonehill prof, sorry.
In further news, Stonehill seems to offer some kind of shuttle bus service, but details are sketchy on their website except they say they connect with the T.
I would contact the college and ask for details.
I grew up in Wollaston. The best thing about Quincy is that it is on the Red Line and easy to get into Boston Commons, Harvard Square, etc. There is not much in the way of culture or shopping (the downtown stores were hurt by the malls). There is a huge Chinese population now, so the there are some really good restaurants. The old A&P in Wollaston is now a Lucky 88 market with live fish, Chinese greens, roast pork and all sorts of things I would have died for when I was growing up.
I would not be tempted to move back, but I can see it as a nice place to raise a family. I think it would be pretty boring if you were single and wanted to do more than hang out in the local Irish bars.
Some Quincy trivia: the first Howard Johnson’s store was in Wollaston right next to my father’s sporting goods store. Both building are now torn down.
JP has been gentrified (at least parts of it).
I haven’t read all the answers, but one of them said something very important – I don’t think it’s a good idea to live on one side of Boston and commute to the other side. I would really and truly recommend that you live on the same side of town as where you work, because going through the city is prone to trouble, especially if you have to do it twice a day. I am wondering why you chose Quincy and why you think you can’t find anyplace interesting north of Boston. I live north of Boston (almost in NH). I don’t know where your job is, but Salem is very affordable and is on the train line to Boston. I’ve never lived there, but have visited it often and it seems like a nice, affordable, not boring, and close enough to Boston kind of place.
Another place to look at would be North Plymouth. On the map that looks like a good commute. Plymouth is really nice with lots of recreation opportunities; good beaches, fishing, etc.
Just curious, what’s your impression of Salem State? I’m considering going there in the fall…it’s between Salem and UMass Boston. I’ve heard mixed reviews about Salem, but it’d be a hell of a lot closer to my house (I live in Peabody). What’s your thoughts?
Pamipoo, what course of study are you considering? I know that Salem State has a great MSW program, but don’t know a whole heck of a lot about their other tracks.
I think it’s a fine school. I’ve heard some mixed reviews, too, but I think that stems from SSC being a commuter college with a high proportion of continuing ed (i.e. night) students. The classes are challenging, and we use the same books as those high-falutin’ colleges in town. 
The campus is a little run down in places, but I’m a business student, and now that I’ve completed all the pre-reqs I’m taking all business classes in the new Bertolon School of Business. They built it with a huge grant they got a few years ago, the classrooms are state of the art, and they’re attracting better profs. Some of the old acedemic buildings should have been condemned a hundred years ago, but I think they’re trying to find funds to do something about them, too.
Gee, I was going to suggest Marblehead, too, until I saw that he confused north with south. I used to live there, very near the yellow 1727 Town House shown in the website. How long have you lived there? <hijack> Do you know if the Giclé repros of the Spirit of '76 are still available at Arnould’s Gallery, across from the Town House? I just watched Midnight Mile again to see the building I used to work/shop in.
As for Quincy, I haven’t been there for many years, but I watched them rebuild some of the Old Colony rail line when the MBTA took it over. The city’s downtown had the first major parking area surrounding and integrated into the historic downtown businesses. It was called the Parkingway, probably long gone.
Nope, the Parkingway is still there. The parking area itself was converted into two multi-level lots a few years ago.
I’m a business major…I’m currently at Northshore Comm College (Danvers), graduating in August with a business transfer degree. Because of the joint admissions program, I can go to either school with guranteed acceptance, and a 33 % tuition reduction. I’ve heard that Salem is decent, but classes are really limited, and the administration flakes out occasionally (which I’ve noticed slightly-they accepted me, and then came back and said I never submitted an application). As it stands right now, my decision will most likely be based on who will give me more scholarships, and take more of my transfer credits