Areas of downtown Boston or Inner Burbs with Small Town Vibe (Cambridge: apartments, neighborhoods)

[495neighbor]

I like a small town vibe where business owners recognize you and know your name when you come into their local business a second or third time, people are considerate and generally take pride in their community, local business dominates chains. Any areas of Boston or inner suburbs this might fit?

[BostonBornMassMade]

Most of Bostons southern neighborhoods fit this bill IMO. And in neighborhoods of Everett Malden Revere and Lynn. Multigenerational folks who live near a "square"

[BosYuppie]

Nonantum Village in Newton (aka "The Lake") is like this. It was the italian neighborhood (the old timers won't let you forget how "it used to be different")

[495neighbor]

Originally Posted by BostonBornMassMade

Most of Bostons southern neighborhoods fit this bill IMO. And in neighborhoods of Everett Malden Revere and Lynn. Multigenerational folks who live near a "square"

Are South Boston and Quincy southern neighborhoods or would this be West Roxbury, Dedham, etc.

[id77]

Originally Posted by 495neighbor

I like a small town vibe where business owners recognize you and know your name when you come into their local business a second or third time, people are considerate and generally take pride in their community, local business dominates chains. Any areas of Boston or inner suburbs this might fit?

I'm in the South End and get recognized at places my SO and I tend to frequent. It's going to take more than 2-3 times at some places because the traffic volume and turnover they see is a lot higher than in a small town, but it still happens.

Other than the invasion of coffee shops and spas, SE tends to be either local businesses or small/local chains. Places like Flour are starting to skirt the line between local and franchise, and there's maybe 10-20 groups who own most of the restaurants, but each individual one is still unique with its own staff and aura. You can certainly get to know the staff at a Blackbird, Giacomo's, MIDA, or any of a number of other locales. You can see the same people at the same table on different days in some places. The local greasy pizza joints far outnumber the national chains, too.

Having said all that, it's not a small town vibe, it's an urban neighborhood vibe. People sit on steps, not porches, and you're going to hear traffic just about anywhere you go, but that doesn't make it any less friendly to people who call it home.

[BostonBornMassMade]

Originally Posted by 495neighbor

Are South Boston and Quincy southern neighborhoods or would this be West Roxbury, Dedham, etc.

South Boston is actually in northern Boston. Quincy and Dedham are separate cities. IM talking Hyde Park West Roxbury Roslindale Mattapan neighborhoods of Dorchester, Roxbury, but also smaller cities like Everett Malden Revere and a few neighborhoods within Cambridge. Somerville and Quincy are sort of in that odd spot where I doubt theres as many neighborhoods like that but I could be wrong. Lynn is similar in size but much less transient than Somerville nd more neighborhood-oriented in layout than Quincy.

Im most confident in saying downtown Boston doesn't have places where everyone knows residents by name. Maybe withing buildings of Chinatown apartments

[johngolf]

Originally Posted by BosYuppie

Nonantum Village in Newton (aka "The Lake") is like this. It was the italian neighborhood (the old timers won't let you forget how "it used to be different")

Do you mean Silver Lake?

[BosYuppie]

Originally Posted by johngolf

Do you mean Silver Lake?

Yes, the townies call it "The Lake" -

https://www.facebook.com/groups/86518526100/
https://www.urbandictionary.com/defi...ton%2C%20MA%29
TheLakeLingo
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nonantum,_Massachusetts

The actual body of water is filled in/paved over now.