Jackson Square Discussion (Boston, Dedham, Orange: apartments, neighborhoods, new construction)

[greasechops]

Hey everyone, I'm wondering if we can discuss the current state of Jackson Square as it pertains to safety, crime, and general improvement with the addition of some brand new housing, namely 225 Centre Apartments.

I'll be moving to Boston in April (made another post asking for housing advice), and I'm very curious about this area in particular. I've learned Roxbury is not-so safe, but West Roxbury is decent. I've read about Bromley Heath Projects.

What can you guys say about Jackson Square?

[yaeger07]

I don't know anything about Jackson Square, but just wanted to chime in to say West Roxbury is not near Roxbury.

[missionhill]

Jackson Square isn't so much a square as a void of overly wide streets built over the railroad and orange line subway. They tore everything down for a highway project which was later cancelled. There's a subway station there and I guess the 225 Centre apartments recently built on a vacant lot. The southwest corridor, as it's called, is only beginning to fill in. Centre Street quickly becomes a lively walkable shopping street on the Jamaica Plain side of Jackson Sq. and is a pretty nice residential street on the Roxbury side going toward John Eliot Square. The Bromley Heath housing project lies along Centre Street behind a newish shopping center very close to Jackson Sq. and the subway line. It's been a pretty bad project over the years but there's new construction and fixing up of older buildings going on all around the project so it seems more benign to me than it once did. Still, no promises you won't get mugged around there. It's a poor to working class neighborhood. The better parts of JP begin several blocks up from Jackson, say around Hyde Square and continuing down Centre to the Monument and beyond.

West Roxbury is a more than decent suburban part of the city but it's a few miles away and not really relevant to a discussion of Jackson Square, which marks the boundary between Jamaica Plain and Roxbury. Technically speaking West Roxbury once included Jamaica Plain and Roslindale but what's considered WR today is the area between West Roxbury Parkway and the Dedham town line.

[greasechops]

I'm confused on what exactly Hyde Square is. A Google Maps search tells me this whole area is considered Hyde Square:

http://i.imgur.com/5tyOyi7.png

This, of course, includes a much larger area than what I'm getting form you (namely, Jackson Square itself and much of Centre Street).

[Space_League]

Originally Posted by greasechops

I'm confused on what exactly Hyde Square is. A Google Maps search tells me this whole area is considered Hyde Square:

http://i.imgur.com/5tyOyi7.png

This, of course, includes a much larger area than what I'm getting form you (namely, Jackson Square itself and much of Centre Street).

that map is wrong. hyde square is the triangular area near whole foods on that map. jackson square is over by the jackson square t stop and their surrounding neighborhoods meet somewhere in the middle. the hyde square area does not extend all the way to jackson square and IMO extends further on the west by a bit more.


jackson square is a shady t stop but the neighborhood is getting a lot better really fast. i know a guy who lives in 225 centre. he's a european college student from a wealthy family and he's perfectly comfortable there. i don't think you would have many problems but it's not an area i'd want to wander around at night

[greasechops]

My concern is riding the orange line back at night to Jackson Square. 225 Centre is practically on top of the stop, but still...

[Mr. Joshua]

Move further up Centre St (west) to the Jamaica Plain area, its a wicked cool area and it has access to the Orange Line at Green St. Safer than Jackson Sq.

[snatale1]

Originally Posted by greasechops

Hey everyone, I'm wondering if we can discuss the current state of Jackson Square as it pertains to safety, crime, and general improvement with the addition of some brand new housing, namely 225 Centre Apartments.

I'll be moving to Boston in April (made another post asking for housing advice), and I'm very curious about this area in particular. I've learned Roxbury is not-so safe, but West Roxbury is decent. I've read about Bromley Heath Projects.

What can you guys say about Jackson Square?

Jackson Square is ghetto as hell and I wouldn't move their if my life depended on it. I was cable guy for a long time and worked that area for years. West Roxbury (where I lived at the time) is no where near there. It's on the opposite end of the city. It has that name because WAY back, Jamaica Plain and Roslindale (the two neighborhoods separating them) used to be part of Roxbury, so back then they were next to each other.

Originally Posted by greasechops

I'm confused on what exactly Hyde Square is. A Google Maps search tells me this whole area is considered Hyde Square:

Hyde Square is a very small section (pretty much one block) in Jamaica Plain not too far from Jackson Square. Draw a 2 block circle around Whole Foods and that's pretty much it.

[David223]

Originally Posted by snatale1

Jackson Square is ghetto as hell and I wouldn't move their if my life depended on it.

I agree 100%

[bigfatdude]

225 (and Jackson Square T stop, for that matter) are in the no man's land between two feuding housing projects.