Does Massachusetts still have rural settings? Last time I drove through a couple decades ago, it seemed to be all cities, towns, and traffic circles. Maybe Vermont is still green.
Outside the I-495 Belt and aside from the major cities outside that (i.e. Worcester; Springfield; etc.), the rest of the state is quite rural. I live up near the NH border and I am surrounded by uncountable acres of pristine woodlands and farms. In fact, I was out for a snowy hike with my dog this morning along the Nashua river in the Harry Rich forest in Dunstable where deer hunting is going on in earnest.
If you ever have the occasion to fly out of Logan Airport headed to a westbound destination, look out your window and you will be amazed how quickly everything turns green once you clear the city and the suburbs. Away from the coastline and aside from a few cities, all of New England is pretty much a vast forest.
Oh yes, Vermont is very "green" these days: It has been infiltrated and colonized by New York City types for decades by now. (Increasingly, Maine too.) If anything, the intellectual and moral climate in Vermont is even worse than in Massachusetts....
Outside of the Metrowest complex organized around Boston, Massachusetts is still pretty "rural" in most areas. Out in the western part of the state, the wealthy "upscale" raise Alpacas so as to qualify for Massachusetts and federal income tax credits/deductions. Evidently these magnificent wool-bearing critturs are all the fashion in elite circles these days.
The self-appointed "elite" of our society are the greatest exploiters of federal tax policy known to man. And then with their next breath, they tell us how concerned they are about the well-being of the Middle Class — which when you boil it all down is the class that pays all the freight in our society.
So it's okay, you see, for wealthy intellectuals living upscale lives in western Massachusetts [like Gov. Patrick] to let Middle Class taxpayers (1) reduce their tax burdens; (2) thereby to subsidize their "lifestyles."