You need to drive through downtown Newburyport, Salem, and Manchester-by-the-Sea. Nothing else compares. Pick one, others will be near enough to enjoy.

I would appeal the tax penalty, they might give you an exemption as you really have no choice but to enroll in your company plan. I had to appeal a penalty a couple years ago and the process was actually not that bad to navigate.

Thanks

There really aren't that many North Shore cities/towns where the downtown is "decrepit and falling apart."

I live in a coastal community on the North Shore. It’s a small town that’s rich in history and friendly people. We have the annual Memorial Day Parade, The Horribles Parade/Fireworks for the 4th, tree lighting and Christmas Walk each December, Festival of the Arts etc. Numerous movies have filmed here, too.

Politically, it’s blue. People have USA flags and Ukrainian flags up. When the presidential election ended the few Trump flags were taken down and put away. I’ve never seen a MAGA red hat in my community.

Local politics is a mix- with no extremes on either side. We are able to meet in the middle. We have Town Meeting with elected Selectmen and town administration. Voting is easy.

Property taxes are lower, housing costs are 600k and up. We have our own electric, harbor, recycle/dump, locally owned movie theater that was recently redone, and all of our schools are completely rehabbed or built in the past 20 years.

It’s a big boating community, beaches and docks, shopping, stand up paddle boarding and kayak rentals, restaurants, walkable, and historical. It’s about 15 min to the highway and 30-40 minutes from Boston.

The only gas station in town is for boats. But the surrounding towns have plenty of them.

Thanks, very excited to go there

In what demographic or statistic does more open carriers lead to more ‘issues’ period? Genuine question.

South coast

ok. Well you are right that it's very expensive to live here. If you get a job at any one of the universities many of them will waive tuition for you. Gun control and red flag laws are popular across MA but especially popular in eastern MA

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This could describe pretty much every north shore city/town.

The Quabbin Ocean would like a word.

General work / life

I like the east coast and New York but want to live in other east coast states for bussiness / job opprotunites and maybe uni

Also variation of east coast politics / new england

I like it here but want to visit other states where politics would lean in different directions

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The west coast is kinda dry.

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Nailed it

Well done!

While I would usually agree with a statement like this, unfortunately it has not been my experience. Our micro business is currently paying around $30k year to cover five people (four adults, one child) with a plan that only uses doctors in the BID network. This doesn’t sound too bad, until you realize that there is no way to know that this plan is so restrictive until you are enrolled in the plan. The carrier could not even be bothered to send out a welcome package or proof of insurance cards. The whole thing is a disaster.

We are changing plans to another carrier and to a plan that is more widely excepted, though the new plan is going to cost us another $538/month! It’s awful. It makes me feel like I’m Larry David living in some bizarro world. This new plan still has a $2k/$5k deductable too! Is g odamn crazy. The out of pocket max is like $20k.

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I think to say local politics are "very conservative" is pretty misleading. It is true that local politics are very NIMBY in many Massachusetts communities (not all, the city I live in is building quite a bit, though there is a vocally opposed minority), but it's not like there are widespread local movements to ban acknowledging the existence of LBGTQ people in schools or things like that. Which are unfortunately things happening in some parts of the country.

The sort of "conservatism"/resistance to change you are talking about is primarily a housing/development thing (and I don't like that this resistance exists myself), it largely doesn't extend to other aspects politically.

Hey OP. I read your post history. Are you thinking about MA as an option for healthcare access? What would bring you here?

Shouldn't it be Medicaid/MassHealth for All if it's a Massachusetts bill?

Medicare is federal, the state has no control over it.

2A open carry BS isn’t a thing. We started the revolution to live in a commonwealth and free from being scared little ammosexuals with a pew pew.

When is the last time a twelve-year-old told you they were almost there? Never mind, "officer this guy right here!"