Melville-Park in Dorchester: What's the latest?

[Bubs McGee]

I’ve lived here for only three years, and these comments are much older.. but as they still show up in search results I felt an update was helpful. Perhaps the neighborhood flipped really fast, or perhaps the posters didn’t live here... but either way here’s some thoughts.

I live directly on Town Field—one of the “unsavory” spots noted below—and it’s usually full of nice kids, dog walkers, baseball players. Perfectly safe day or night... some homeless people pass through but nowhere near what I saw when I lived in Cambridge. And even they’ll say hi to you.

Fields Corner AND Shawmut stations are average, boring, safe city stations.. I use both, any time of day or night, and have never had a moment’s trouble or concern. The note about avoiding Fields Corner “after school hours” was funny. There are teenagers, yeah, because families still live here, and teens can get loud and a little obnoxious—but they’re KIDS, on their way home for school—why on earth would they bother you? Honestly, the breathless warnings about dot neighborhoods in after school hours drives me nuts.

I’ll acknowledge the shopping center is not totally awesome. It’s the neighborhood magnet for panhandling and not very nicely landscaped. But unless you feel personally victimized by someone asking you gently for a dollar (rarely, and you can say no, easily) you’ll be glad to have a grocery, dry cleaners, liquor store, etc, within a few minutes walk.

[BostonBornMassMade]

https://www.universalhub.com/2018/gu...ion-dorchester

Guy breaking in houses but not taking. Anything. Sometimes people dress as city workers and fool old people into letting them into their homes, they’re kind of targets for certain crafty criminals-methinks. Dude might have been casing the spots..

[DCO96]

I appreciate this conversation.... Though for those of us new to the area, if you can be more explicit that would be great. If you had to suggest to someone visiting the little pockets to go to get a sense of the area and that are accessible to the red line but also secure in the Dot/Roxbury areas. I do hear a lot, you have to know what you are doing so... I Hope to glean insight from you more knowledgeable folks

[GeePee]

Originally Posted by DCO96

I appreciate this conversation.... Though for those of us new to the area, if you can be more explicit that would be great. If you had to suggest to someone visiting the little pockets to go to get a sense of the area and that are accessible to the red line but also secure in the Dot/Roxbury areas. I do hear a lot, you have to know what you are doing so... I Hope to glean insight from you more knowledgeable folks

Are you looking to explore the bad parts? or suggestions on what is livable off the red line?

[DCO96]

No. I am not not looking to explore "bad parts". I am asking what is livable.

[GeePee]

The prices of RE will generally dictate which are the more livable. I would say Savin Hill, Ashmont, Gallavin area. If you watch the news and read where the constant shootings are you will see it is fairly concentrated to certain areas.

[DCO96]

When I read about it. It seems like they are doing a lot of development in Dorchester. Seems folks in Boston are skeptical?

[GeePee]

Dorchester is big. there are very desirable parts. Seems that the notorious offender areas are immune to the changes around it. There are some heavy gang pockets. Usually surrounded by housing projects.

[missionhill]

If you’re exploring by car or bike you can go anywhere. If on foot then caution needed. Melville-Park is strictly speaking Melville Ave, Park St and the streets in between those like Wellesley Park and Tremlett St. Also nice streets south of Melville— Lyndhurst, Mather, Moultrie. Larchmont, Lindsey and Tonawanda are ok — Tonawanda used to be lined with Gingko, or Tonawanda trees, but the city hasn’t maintained the planting so not many gingkos left. This is all accessible from either Fields Corner or Shawmut, mainly Shawmut.

Washington Street at Centre and Talbot is Codman Square with the big yellow brick hulk of the former Girls Latin School. This is a major shopping area but the more ‘comfortable’ people in the nice houses of Melville-Park don’t seem to patronize the shops there. Not sure where they go. It’s not like, say, Somerville where a node like Union Square or Ball Square draws people from the surrounding streets. Instead there’s an odd disconnect between Codman Sq and the streets west of it. That’s why someone upthread said you’d need a car to live in the area. It’s walkable on paper — Codman Sq and Fields Corner both have food markets but the gentrifiers the professionals in the area do not patronize them. Happy to be wrong about that if someone knows better.

Around Ashmont Station you want to explore Carruth St and streets off it like Beaumont. East of Dot Ave look around between Welles Ave and Ashmont St. Some very nice streets in there, called Ashmont Hill.

The area around the Savin Hill and Columbia stops has seen a lot of change— students, younger professionals, many of the three deckers turned into condominiums. The part of Savin Hill east of the I-93 expressway is a real gem with some beautiful streets and a little park in the middle on the hill. West of the expressway its very dense with housing built for the working class—nothing like Melville-Park—but safe and full of young professional types. This is true also of the triangle area north of Columbia Road between Dot Ave and Boston Street. Another really nice little area is Jones Hill, right next to Upham’s Corner. Cushing Ave, Downer, Sawyer, Peverell— all nice streets and a very quiet GLBTQ scene there.

[bgrasser]

The age old problem will never go away; where are you going to put the subsidized/ low income folks.
Unfortunately, subsidized housing + low / zero income =
problems.
Born and raised in DOT, lived there for 35 years before throwing in the towel back in the 80s, and lived through a couple of gentrification attempts that weren't very fruitful