Question on Lower Mills/Adams Street (Boston, Milton: appointed, apartments, lofts)

[bakgwailo]

I was wondering if anyone had any opinions on Lower Mills/Adams Street. My wife and I are looking into buying a house on Adams Street near Richmond Street. The area and surrounding streets seem very nice, with well kept houses. It also seems like Lower Mills is much nicer than I remember it being, with the new lofts/apartments and it looks like the store fronts have been cleaned up. I also noticed a new restaurant and a few new business that look nice. I myself grew up in Boston (West Roxbury/Roslindale), and my mother grew up in Dorchester (Mt. Ida Rd). I know that the area around there including Cedar Grove and up into Neponset have seemed to keep their value and have been relatively safe - I am off in this assumption? Am I correct that this is a pretty safe/quiet neighbourhood to buy in? It also seems like the area is really starting to revitalize/gentrify - anyone have thoughts on this?

I also had a question on the transportation there. It seems very convient to downtown via the Butler/Cedar Grove Street stations, and I think the "highspeed" trolley and those stations are pretty safe. Should I be worried about the connection at Ashmont, or is the crime there really outside the station? I grew up taking the Orange Line to/from Forest Hills (not once mugged!), so I don't think it could be any more dangerous than that, I am just worried about my wife taking it if she has to. Also, what do people think about taking it home late at night and doing the trolley connection ? Should I be worried about that, or the ~5 minute walk from either stations late at night? Checking the crime maps, there seems to have been none in the past 2 years - but maybe that is because no one actually does that trip, heh.

Overall it just seems like a really nice part of town with a lot of cool things including Dorchester Park, the bike trail, Neponset River access, Lower Mills/square in Milton, the trolleys have supposedly been all rebuilt/restored, and the home prices seem decent for the amount of land/square footage. So yeah, sorry for being all over the place, just really wanted to get a sense of what people thought of that area and where it might be going in the future. Also, first post, please to flame me too badly

[goyguy]

Not to quibble (too much), but Lower Mills is centered more between Dorchester Ave and Washington St. The area surrounding the intersection of Adams St and Gallivan Blvd is known, fittingly enough, as Adams Corner.

All of the 1930's "PCC" trolleys have indeed been made over, no "supposedly" about it. By now most if not all of them should even be painted in the original cream/orange color scheme. Rail nerds aka "railfans" love 'em, and so do the passengers. With an absolute max acceleration to 40 MPH they're not high-speed in reality. But since they have their own right-of-way (no shared streets) there are stretches where it does feel like they're zipping along at a good clip. For reaching Ashmont Station from the Adams Corner neighborhood, though, I've always just hoofed it. You can escape the traffic noise of Gallivan Blvd and "Dot Ave" easily by taking your pick of side streets leading west from Adams and then using the Bushnell St (east) side of the station.

Realistically, Ashmont is fine by day but sketchy at night (and during the after-school hours when buses converge seemingly from all directions and drop off dozens and dozens of kids "being kids.") The shaded quietness surrounding the Bushnell St exit has at times proven irresistible to evildoers after dark. Occasionally there have even been incidents right in the station in the middle of the day, on the enclosed overpass between the platforms. Those are anomalies, however, and it should go without saying that the brazenness of the perpetrators led to their being quickly apprehended. Lately with all the new businesses going in pedestrian traffic has only increased in the main station area and along Dot Ave. And with restaurants like A Tavola (sp?) and Ashmont Grill doing well this guarantees more people out and about later.

My approach (were I to be moving into the Richmond St, Adams Corner vicinity) would be to walk to Ashmont in the AM, on good-weather days, then use the high-speed line at night.

Gentrification in southern Dorchester has actually been far more gradual than it might appear. "Urban pioneers" were paying bargain-basement prices for 3-deckas and Victorian houses during the Irish stampede brought on by the school busing disaster that began way back in 1974. It accelerated with gay and lesbian singles' and couples' "discovery" of the area as the '80s moved along. Then - following the classic pattern - it only gained momentum later in the century when childless straight couples and suburban refugee families got on the bandwagon. A year ago in April one of the neighborhood's "jewels," Carruth St, gained substantial unwanted publicity due to the child victim of the Marathon bombing's having lived there. Millions of TV viewers and newspaper readers got a good look at the amazing, beautifully renovated homes set among flourishing trees, and saw an ethnically varied group of people being good neighbors. It wouldn't surprise me if all the coverage brought a spike in inquiries to realtors. Farther south in Adams Corner, there's a similar feeling of reinvigorated energy in the air.
The main impediments to even further progress are the same as in cities all over North America: crime rates higher than they ought to be, and mediocre public schools. Common street sense (which the OP seems to definitely possess) takes care of the former, and not having kids under 14 - when they could be in an "exam" high school - makes the latter a non-issue.

[bakgwailo]

Hey goyguy, thanks for the reply. I was really talking about this area:

https://www.google.com/maps/@42.2747385,-71.0636128,18z

This seems much closer to Lower Mills than Adams Corner? Isn't Adam's corner way up by Gallivan? Dunno, just seems much further away. I figured Ashmont station itself (especially staying inside) would be safe, especially with the redesign and new cameras/etc - thinking it will be really nice if the MBTA ever actually orders new rolling stock for it. Anyways, I do think the crime rate seems to be much lower in that part of Dorchester (compared to other neighbourhood sections) - but it seems to have come a long way very quickly in the past maybe 7 years. A friend of mine worked at Chinese restaurant in Lower Mills that I used to stop by to visit, and the area wasn't nearly as nice as it is now. As for the schools - yes, no kids yet, so not too concerned there. Will be very disappointed in them if they didn't make it into Latin given that my entire family went there at one point in time, heh.

So I guess it seems like you think it is a nice area? Walking around over there with the trees/parks/well kept houses felt kind of like West Roxbury to me - I don't know, maybe I am crazy, lol. I also can't figure out if you can actually park on Adams Street or not - there are not signs saying not to (except for snow emergencies), but there really isn't room to park, either.

[pennyone]

"Will be very disappointed in them if they didn't make it into Latin given that my entire family went there at one point in time, heh."...

It's not the end of the world, but it's also not a guarantee. There are lots of very smart and hardworking kids in Boston.

[bakgwailo]

Originally Posted by pennyone

"Will be very disappointed in them if they didn't make it into Latin given that my entire family went there at one point in time, heh."...

It's not the end of the world, but it's also not a guarantee. There are lots of very smart and hardworking kids in Boston.

I was kind of kidding. I had lots of friends at BLA & OB, both seemed to be pretty good schools. There also seems to be a ton of really, really good charter schools nowadays, too.

[Urban Peasant]

Goyguy pretty much nailed it but Richmond Street and Lower Mills in General are very safe. As for Ashmont Station, it has gotten better since the 1990's (the station itself got refurbished and looks MUCH nicer than before). As with any public transit in any major city, you just have to be alert and streetwise as always. I live near Ashmont Station and take the Red Line at all hours even close to end of service and haven't had any problems. If you can handle the Orange Line from Forest Hills, you can handle the Ashmont Line and Mattapan Trolley.

And no, not getting into BLS (which also happens to be my alma mater) is not the end of the world. I worked briefly at BLA and was surprised to see how similar the two schools are, only that BLS is stricter and more disciplinary than BLA IMHO. The number of charter schools and small pilot high schools such as Another Course to College have grown over the years as well. Getting into the good elementary schools may be more of an issue because everything is by lottery at that level.