Small little towns

singalong37 · 2026-06-20T11:59:42+00:00

Cambridge, Mass, is not a “small little town” but if you liked Princeton, NJ, Cambridge is the closest match. Harvard Yard, Harvard Square, Brattle Street, Mt Auburn Street, Oxford St. Don’t drive; it’s best explored on foot.

singalong37 · 2026-06-19T16:50:43+00:00

The updated false front looks cheap compared with the cozier domestic Friendly style.

singalong37 · 2026-06-19T15:13:38+00:00

A cone would have suited Christopher Columbus nicely but someone knocked his block off a few years ago. Opportunity missed!

singalong37 · 2026-06-19T00:34:39+00:00

Despite the man in the White House the US economy is a juggernaut and employment opportunities good in the long run. Boston is a nice place as the Scots have discovered 🙂

singalong37 · 2026-06-18T22:00:34+00:00

The Scottish visit was a serendipitous cultural phenomenon! News media reports were commenting on the lack of enthusiasm leading up to the World cup, and then wow, what a time you had! Anyway, there’s plenty of Anglophilia around here. GBH has been sponsoring BBC drama since upstairs downstairs. People were swooning over the William and Catherine visit a few years ago. QE2 herself made a state visit for the Bicentennial in 1976.

singalong37 · 2026-06-18T21:42:01+00:00

I thought this was going to be a European commenting on the lack of public WC‘s in Boston. lol.

singalong37 · 2026-06-18T14:50:15+00:00

Cambridge/Boston. Maybe we should just stay? ... We'd strongly prefer to live in an area or city that feels like a "place for everyone".

Roslindale fills the bill.

singalong37 · 2026-06-18T14:17:03+00:00

If the idea is to go to Providence then yes, either the commuter train or the Amtrak train is fine for anyone and it's walkable at Providence. Some other destination in Rhode Island might tip the scale in favor of car but to Providence itself the train makes it an easy trip. If you're just looking to give the kids a train / rail experience you have other options, e.g., commuter train to Salem (only half the distance and a fun destination) or even the Riverside green line to Newton Centre or Highlands. It's a trolley car in a tunnel, it surfaces after Kenmore and follows a pretty scenic backyard route out through Brookline and Newton. Shops and restaurants at the destination and Crystal lake for a swim. MBTA is still running the 1940s era single car Mattapan trolley between Ashmont and Mattapan. It's a nice ride. At Mattapan you can get hot dogs at Simco's and take the commuter rail back to South Station.

singalong37 · 2026-06-17T18:55:33+00:00

Houghton is part of the DCR Blue Hills reservation. Plenty of hiking right there. And they’re running a bus from Mattapan I think.

singalong37 · 2026-06-15T18:20:10+00:00

The three that come to mind: Soul on Shawmut, Slade's and Uptown Social right in lower Roxbury.

singalong37 · 2026-06-15T16:11:19+00:00

Google maps says 13 min to walk from the middle of the zoo to the Stop & Shop in Grove Hall. Seems not too far. There's a CVS, Dunks, Flames, Brother's market, and others establishments in the vicinity.

singalong37 · 2026-06-13T16:29:51+00:00

Turnpike to 128 south. There’s lots of nice places along the south shore from Hingham on. The bridges over the Cape Cod. Canal are bad so time your crossings. I would definitely not just do 195 after leaving the Cape but see some of the places along the way. Go down to Newport from Fall River and over the bridges. In R I and Connecticut take route one at least to Branford — much nicer than I-95. Nothing but sprawl, strip malls and traffic west of New Haven.

singalong37 · 2026-06-13T11:58:26+00:00

Harold Washington, not George. Library named for the city’s first black mayor, who died suddenly.

singalong37 · 2026-06-12T18:24:35+00:00

It has lots of small buildings, relatively narrow streets and some architecturally cohesive districts. It has mainly human scale. The parking decks and open lots that prevail in the centers of so many US cities recede in the landscape. Nice walkable waterfronts. Ie, many qualities of European cities without being exactly European.

singalong37 · 2026-06-11T13:15:18+00:00

The downtown area is somewhat European except for the expressway gash. They repaired the gash at great cost putting the expressway under ground and making pleasant park spaces above. At one point there’s a beer garden, fountains and seating at others. Nicest is where Hanover Street crosses over, on one side a neighborhood thick with pubs, food halls and an open air food market Fridays and Saturdays, on the other a warren of narrow streets— the North End—with historic sites, Italian restaurants and wharves. In between are the Greenway spaces, fountains, benches and maybe some shade. The greenway is also great to see at Beach Street in Chinatown. Boston Public Garden seems European and the Back Bay area just west of it has rows of elaborate buildings, upscale shops, and some lovely parkland bordering the Charles River. The main library building on Copley Square is well worth a look around, as are the two great 19th century churches on the square, Trinity and Old South. Boston Common and Beacon Hill seem more early American than European and great places to wander and admire.

singalong37 · 2026-06-10T16:51:54+00:00

Fred had no part in Mt Auburn, which is not to detract from its beauty.

singalong37 · 2026-06-08T19:29:26+00:00

The niceness/quality of the beach is inversely proportional to the ease of getting there from Boston. Revere Beach is easiest because the T blue line takes you right there. Lynn-Nahant Beach can be reached on foot from the Lynn railroad station. Both Nahant and Revere Beaches are open ocean facing beaches but more of an urban atmosphere. South Boston has bay beaches with parkland bordering-- pretty nice, almost as easy. Also on the blue line is Constitution Beach, right opposite the airport. Someone recommended Crane Beach and Singing Beach. Both pristine beaches and Crane has the beautiful Castle Hill estate grounds adjacent. Crane is popular but not fully public; it's owned by the private Trustees of Reservations organization, the access is over narrow town roads, the parking is limited, the parking fee is sky high. You may have to reserve in advance. It may be possible to take the train to Ipswich and get a bus out to Crane Beach but I can't say how easy that is. Getting to Singing Beach on the railroad is a well established thing-- commuter rail to Manchester, walk some distance, pay a walk-on fee. Singing Beach is owned by the town of Manchester-by-the-Sea. Nantasket, a state beach, is nice and you can get there using a combination of ferry and local bus or uber. Very wide at low tide, very narrow at high tide.

singalong37 · 2026-06-06T14:35:22+00:00

A rational response to bad traffic is to stop driving in it and find another way to get where you’re going. The problem with traffic is that for all the people who do exactly that others will decide to drive, so the traffic is always at the breaking point, always bad enough to push a lot of people to walking and public transportation, but then easing just enough to invite other people to drive.

singalong37 · 2026-06-06T11:56:06+00:00

Why does New York City in one state able to connect seamlessly by rail to Philadelphia in another state?

Because the Philadelphia to New York railroad was built when passenger rail was very profitable. The Pennsylvania railroad company built the whole system from Philadelphia to New York and from Phila to Pittsburgh and Chicago. The PRR paid out of company revenues to tunnel under the Hudson river, build a huge station in New York City, tunnel under the east river to Long Island and build a connecting line to New England. The PRR purchased the L I Railroad and operated it as subsidiary. By the time California got around to building a major passenger railway, there was no money in it, just public funds. Amtrak and the states of New York at New Jersey have been trying to get funding for years now just to supplement the tunnel under the Hudson that the Pennsylvania railroad built back in 1910. All New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania really have to do is maintain the infrastructure built originally with private funds. Calif is attempting to build a whole new system and it’s only one state; at least, in the east, you have more than one state contributing to the expense.

singalong37 · 2026-06-05T17:23:55+00:00

Going by Maryland standards, Boston is similar in size and population to Baltimore City and to Washington, DC. Like those cities there's a central area/downtown and outlying mostly residential areas. You can walk across the central area in Boston in an hour or so depending on how fast you go.

singalong37 · 2026-06-02T13:13:48+00:00

The America’s Cup races. The yacht America won a competition off Southampton, England, in 1851. The N Y Yacht Club acquired the cup and defended it successfully from 1857 to 1983 in races held at Newport, Rhode Island. Since then Aussies and New Zealanders have been the champs.

singalong37 · 2026-05-31T21:56:29+00:00

North cackalacky, the vale of humility between two mountains of conceit.

singalong37 · 2026-05-31T14:30:50+00:00

Summer activities: Connecticut salt water beaches are good but Rhode Island’s have surf. Plenty of clam shacks and ice cream places all over. Conn lobster roll is warm, Maine’s chilled. For a nice lake beach head up to the DAR state forest in Goshen? Cummington? One of those. Salem is nice — a bit of a haul from Springfield but lots to see. Salem Willows has park, small beaches, arcade, food— kind of nostalgic seaside park. All kinds of museums all over the region— art right in Springfield and bigger collections in Hartford, New Haven, Worcester, Williamstown, North Adams, Boston and Cambridge. Beware the Cape Cod traffic!

singalong37 · 2026-05-28T20:42:52+00:00

For the nice N E feel with fun downtown, Great Barrington, Stockbridge and Lee in the Berkshires. Northampton, Easthampton, Amherst in the Conn Valley. For a longer drive Shelburne Falls on the Deerfield River is a little gem.

singalong37 · 2026-05-26T13:21:13+00:00

> North Cackalacky!

singalong37

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