The Fens - How dangerous? (2014, college, closing)

[charolastra00]

Ugh, Tombstoner. I am so sorry about your mugging.

My coworker and I were working an event near Fenway, but parked on the other side of the Fens at one of her friend's house. We passed by the much more convenient footpath, but she insisted on walking way out of our way to one of the more major streets that cuts through the Fens. She went to BU and insisted that the second it got dusky, she and her friends would refuse to walk anywhere but one of the bigger roads through the Fens -and even then, they'd try to get a cab if it made sense.

I don't think the Fens is particularly unsafe - but it is unsafe for Boston. There are few other places that make me so uneasy after dark.

Groceries are tricky. Before I got a car, I used to have to walk through Somerville to go to the grocery store. Rather than carry bags, I'd make more frequent stops and carry them in a backpack. Not convenient, but it felt a smidge safer.

[dravogadro]

I think the urban planning fix (and challenging local design groups) is a great idea. Does the city acknowledge this area as a problem for peds at night? It would be helpful to have data on assaults in the area to illustrate it as a problem hotspot.

[bostonguy1960]

Could the weeky Boston Vourant do a story on this? Or the monthly Fenway News?

So many newcomers each year walk along different parts of the Fens perhaps unaware, especially if they don't keep up with the news or have any people they talk to about this. Any chance to remind people about this in the local media is wise.

I follow the news rather closely, and had not heard about this incident, though I'm aware of problems in the past. But I usually associate the problems more in the reeds area, perhaps hiding criminals who wait for passersby. This is the area in the Victory Gardens across the street from the gas stations. On the other side of Agassiz Road, near the veterans' memorial and rose garden is where this happened, if I remember correctly. Lights were installed years go along Agassiz Rd. near the abandoned duck house, whereas before it was a very dark walk, if I recall.

[Tombstoner]

Yes, I was going to approach the Fenway News and maybe the college newspapers about doing a story precisely for this reason: newcomers by definition don't have a history of the area and, when people do hear about the dangers, it is usually in regards to the reeds and it's easy enough to stay away from the the reeds. I don't think my story is amazing, but perhaps that's exactly why people need to know about it--terrible things can happen to unremarkable people in mundane circumstances.

[bostonguy1960]

Tombstoner: Boston University's Daily Free Press could be approached as well as the Northeastern News. Is the Fenway Cvic Association still around? Maybe they have an online website, perhaps with a comments section. Even the Mission Hill News may be interested. It's a monthly, but many of that area's citizens need to cross into the Fens in their daily lives.

[Tombstoner]

Originally Posted by bostonguy1960

Tombstoner: Boston University's Daily Free Press could be approached as well as the Northeastern News. Is the Fenway Cvic Association still around? Maybe they have an online website, perhaps with a comments section. Even the Mission Hill News may be interested. It's a monthly, but many of that area's citizens need to cross into the Fens in their daily lives.

good suggestions. thanks.

[bostonguy1960]

Wow, I left the Back Bay-South End station tonight, and before stepping onto Dartmouth St., I noticed a flyer taped to a lightpole. Normally, I don't like these typically outdated and often dirty and ugly flyers, so I glance at them, then rip them down, as long as it's not a "lost pet" flyer... Weird of me, I know, but want to keep the city looking reasonably clean.

This flyer, and another nearby, warned of more recent trouble in the Fens. I was a bit confused by the description of events, but one person was killed recently, and another stabbed, I believe, very seriously. Not sure if the murder was via gun or knife.

One incident occurred near the fire station on Fenway Road, not far from Whole Foods, the other perhaps inside the Fens.

The attacker apparently was the same for each incdent, a black male, tall and thin...

He distracts people with questions or asks for something, sometimes even making a pass at an older male. Not sure if he's only targeting gay males.

The flyer seemed to be generated by a gay patrol group of some sort, with an invitation to join or contact police.

Wow, sickening.

I follow local news pretty well, but must have missed any reports of these. Maybe it was in the "Metro" which I don't get to scan regularly.

[Cliff Clavin]

Originally Posted by bostonguy1960

I follow local news pretty well, but must have missed any reports of these. Maybe it was in the "Metro" which I don't get to scan regularly.

Man found dead on Fenway bench was murdered | Universal Hub

One reason I like the Universal HUB is they do an excellent job with neighborhood crime. If it wasn't a BU student, The Globe and local news channels don't give a sh**.

[goyguy]

...or a student from any school, or any well-known person. And don'cha love how extremely vague descriptions of perpetrators are given? People wonder why police "profiling" occurs, well there ya go.

I'm idly curious about what this "patrol group" might be, because one (re)surfaces sporadically which probably causes more problems than it solves. The self-proclaimed leader is a convicted sex offender who may or may not be "registered" as such. He's been observed walking through areas like the Fens shouting out your everyday homophobic slurs. Exactly how does that reduce or prevent bias crime?

[RossiRules]

When I arrived in Boston a young Buck in the early 80's from NYC I considered the Fens a bad neighborhood by Boston standards, by 70's and 80's NYC standards it was like Park Avenue to me.

However, as I lived in Boston for nearly 25 years 7 of them in the FENS as an undergraduate at Northeastern and later as a grad student at Boston University I will say that the neighborhood is far safer today than it had been historically.

It was a fine neighborhood for nearly 70 years consisting of working class and middle class families until the blight of the 1960's, however, there was really very little crime through the 1950's, although it is the home geographically to 2 of the Boston Strangler murders of the 1960's.

In the late 60's, 70's, 80's and into the early 1990's there were a few murders in the area but most were domestic altercations, a clerk at the Store 24 Jersey Street was murdered during that time and the crime remains unsolved.

Swedish nanny Karina Holmer (1/2 her torso) was found dumped in a dumpster in that neighborhood behind the McDonalds on Boylston Street in a famous unsolved murder in the mid 1990's, after a night out at Zanzibar in the Theater District, likely the work of a serial killer, police are fairly certain the crime scene was not in the FENS.

There was an occasional shooting during gang violence escalations from various gangs that sought to control that turf from across Huntington Ave in Mission Hill, Jamaica Plan and Roxbury during the 25 year period I mention. However, these were generally one off, few and far between skirmishes of rival gangs and some members did wind up dead. Although, that was happening all over the city in those years and was not exclusive to the FENS.

Aside from that, many will attest that a portion of all the crime waves during this period could in some way be associated with relocation of a halfway house by the Mass Dept. of Corrections from Lynn to corner of Park Drive and Jersey Street in the late 1960's. The neighborhood also had a few public housing units at that time and generally was not considered safe after dark for neatly 2.5 decades and had a higher than avg. rate petty theft. Westland Avenue had both street walkers (hookers) and crack dealers on the street after dark near the bridge at Boylston Street near Berklee College of Music when I arrived in 1983.

I worked as a museum guard at the MFA for 3 years at night and would return home at 1am after my shift with a short walk to my Park Drive condo, I only had one issue in 1990 I was mugged at knife point but the very young teenage suspect, who was swiftly apprehended 20 minutes after he mugged me as I called it in on my guard radio seconds after it occurred,all of my belongs were returned that night. I followed up and found out that it was a neighborhood kid of 12 or 13 who mugged me and he was doing so for a gang initiation. Ironically I befriended him in adulthood and wrote a letter in his behalf. He later served 12 months in the Concord correctional youth facility farm school later moved to Western MA became a Marine and was killed by an IED in IRAQ about a decade ago.

There were frequent muggings in the 1980's usually in the wee hours to drunken victims exiting the Kenmore square nightlife. However 75% of the reported crimes were break ins to college apartments that were generally left unattended during the day and or school breaks. The neighborhood was also known for a high incidence of drug busts, not uncommon in a college atmosphere of the 70's 80's and early 90's. However for the most part the neighborhood went gay and condo in the late 80's and with that change came an end to the petty crime and drug dealings. There were rock music clubs and nightclubs on Peterborough Kilmarnock and Queensbury Street in the 70's and 80's including Jumping Jack Flash and , Lynnwood and the Church and the 1st gay bar in the city the ram rod was on Boylston street. Once the Back Bay Fens Civic and Homeowners associations formed in the early 1990's the neighborhood got cleaned up significantly the halfway house closed and or relocated and today it is a pretty safe place. Today, the back side on Fenway on Boylston street is home to 4k to 5k a month modern hi rise apartment rentals.

So its a vastly different safer and more gentrified place than the neighborhood that you here about when you listen to older people with Boston roots.