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Northampton works from southcoasttoday.com Lessons to learn from Northampton | SouthCoastToday.comPage 1 of 2 New All Access Subscription Offer Welcome to SouthCoastToday.com. Get StartedLog In | Register | Subscribe Sign up for Off the Clock - Your FREE Monthly Email Newsletter Search SouthCoastToday.com 63° Forecasts | Radar Mon, September 27, 2010 NEWSSPORTSOPINIONENTERTAINMENTLIVINGSPECIAL REPORTSSIGHTS & SOUNDSYOUR TOWNMARKETPLACESERVICES Lessons to learn from Northampton September 23, 2010 11:43 AM A A Text Size: | | A Bumpkin family vacations are normally on the Cape or in New Print this Article Email this Article Hampshire. I've been wanting to get out to western Mass. to see what this area has to offer. Despite being a native Bay Stater, the MOST VIEWED STORIES area west of Rte. 495 is a complete mystery to me. If this was 500 Pair arrested after drive-by shooting in years ago, my map of Massachusetts would have a western area that Wareham was blank and peppered with the occasional sea monster or dragon. Sharon M. Arguin Now part of that white space has been filled in — the area of the Connecticut River Valley around Northampton. I was extremely Catherine Walker, designer to Princess impressed and came home wishing that Middleboro would emulate Diana, dies some of the things I saw. Marion residents organize against 40B project CPA Southcoast switches health insurers The first thing that struck me when we drove into downtown was the Katherine L. Eddy number of "Your CPA dollars at work" signs. I'm a big proponent of DEAL OF THE WEEK Star power: Former President Clinton the Community Preservation Act — it will be on the ballot this stumps for Frank at Taunton rally 10% OFF TURMAN HARDWOOD November and I urge you to research it and vote in favor of it. It Premium pellets. With This coupon $259 per provides dedicated money for preserving open space, historic assets, ton. Prepare now for the home... and creation of recreational facilities and community housing. This money would be matched at some level by the Mahoney's Building Supply Inc. state and controlled by town meeting. Northampton has preserved open space, repaired church roofs, built Habitat for Humanity housing, built sports fields, preserved historic records, built bicycle trails, and so much more. 139 DEALS ONLINE TODAYMORE >> Please check out their CPA web site - http://bit.ly/azZGCU. $5.00 Off Gold Package Minit Man Auto Wash It's never easy to set money aside as we lurch from one budget deficit to the next. Preservation of our assets is our responsibility to future generations - and CPA is a tool that will help us do that. 30 lbs of TASTE OF THE WILD - GRAIN FREE PET FOOD - ONLY $39.95! Trails, trails, trails Freetown Pet Food Outlet The next thing that struck me about the Northampton area were the paved trails built on old rail lines. They are $5.00 OFF a $50.00 meal purchase heavily used by bikers, walkers, runners and rollerbladers. Near our cottage the trail ran four miles through woods Danny's Seafood and towns right into downtown Northampton. About a mile outside of town it connected to another trail - the Norwottuck Rail Trail. Near the beginning is a spectacular quarter mile stretch that runs over the Connecticut Free Registration with coupons River. Again, this is a rail trail — no cars — about as wide as a driveway. It runs for 11 miles through scenic Christine's Studio of Performing Arts farmland to Hadley and Amherst. Another trail from downtown runs toward Easthampton and is under active 15% OFF the regular price on any single construction. It was really these bike trails that sold me on the area. Riding along I could see which people were item of your choice natives and which were tourists. The natives had this healthy glow and contented smile. I could tell that they were Regal House thinking, "Man it's so awesome living here." The tourists like me, on the other hand, all had this sort of sickly pasty Bath only $25 pallor and knew that their stay in paradise was short and soon they would be back home riding their bikes past Nightingale Doggie Lodge discarded fast food wrappers and dodging trucks on roads that weren't built with bikers or walkers in mind. MORE >> Imagine a paved trail that ran along the Nemasket River, through Pratt farm, and maybe even to Plymouth or Bridgewater. Towns like Northampton didn't just imagine these sorts of things — they did them. LOCAL REVIEW Shops and more Love Life Lens Photography We Had family photos done at buttonwood park The area has a lot of small shops and doesn't have a Dunkin Donuts, McDonald's, and Wal-Mart on every corner. and they were awesome. My girls loved them, Ashley and Colleen... Big stores and chain stores exist — just in moderation. The downtown is absolutely thriving and is loaded with moreposted on 8/19/2010 restaurants, theaters, cafes, clothing stores, and shops of every description. Anchored by five large colleges, the area has an educated, dynamic, and diverse population. The next time a downtown killer department store or chain store wants to come here and get a huge tax break from us, maybe we should consider the actual benefit to our budget and the effect on our existing local TOP JOBSTOP HOMESTOP CARS businesses. The Sustainability Plan After vacation, I started reading up on the area to see what sort of things make it so remarkable. Every city and town in the state is required to create a master plan to guide future development and policy. I liked the sentiment behind Northampton's version called the Sustainable Northampton Plan: It is "a comprehensive plan that seeks to ensure the city can continue to meet its current and ongoing environmental, social and economic needs without compromising the future for succeeding generations. .... We have the option of letting momentum and inertia shape our future, resting on our laurels and our numerous "Best Of" rankings. We also have the option of critically examining what works about Northampton and what could be improved, consciously shaping a future that takes into account the reality of a world of resources — energy resources, environmental resources, financial resources — under growing strain." I'm not commenting on Middleboro's master plan because I didn't get a copy of it in time for this column. I like the mindset in the Northampton plan and the apparent consistency they have shown in sticking with the principals in http://www.southcoasttoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100923/PUB04/92304709/27/2010 Lessons to learn from Northampton | SouthCoastToday.comPage 2 of 2 $459,000 it. I'll close by saying that we had a great vacation and highly recommend the area. I'll definitely be visiting there 5 again. HOME Mattapoisett, MA Reader Reaction Dawson Real Estate ... More Details $545,900 Login Login required, click here to begin Share This Page 5 5 Rochester, MA Conway - Mattapoisett ... More Details $499,900 6 6 CancelPost Follow Post 6 Echo  Admin 0 Items We reserve the right to remove any content at any time from this Community, including without limitation if it violates the Community Rules. 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