Lowell

I've lived in Southern New England for almost 15 years now and I've been by Lowell plenty of times, but I've never actually been there. So, I'm sure I'm not the best person to comment, but from what I understand, like many cities, it has it's rough spots, but I don't think it deserves to be labeled "a really bad place to live." From what I understand, UMass Lowell is a decent school, plus they have the minor league sports teams (hockey & baseball), and plenty of nice towns near by.

It was a pretty tough place in the 1980's and early 1990's (the period covered by the movie), but it got cleaned up quite bit and was a decent city since the mid 1990s and into the 2000s. Today it has some tough spots and some gang activity like any good size city but has a reasonable night scene, a very good university (UMass Lowell), a Single-A baseball team (The Spinners), some great restaurants, and has an awesome Folk Festival every summer. We've lived nearby it for a while and as cities go it is a pretty good place and mostly safe if you stay out of The Acre and some other parts near Middlesex St.

i lived in lowell a couple years ago and now i live about a quarter mile from lowell, and i also went to umass lowell for 6 years. but yeah it has its rough neighborhoods, which are easily avoidable for the most part unless you happen to live in one of them. the belvidere part of lowell is extremely nice and has million dollar mansions. theres definitely a lot of characters in lowell, in the downtown area you cant walk down the street without someone asking you for a cigarette or a dollar, but those people are harmless and theyre usually pretty nice. stay out of the bad neighborhoods and youll have a pretty good experience there.

North of the river close to NH is quite nice. The rest is an absolute shîthole.