Looking for a home in a nice middle class BOSTON neighborhood. (Somerville: middle-class, apartment)

[spmaker]

I'm looking for a nice middle class home in Boston in a middle class safe hood. I'm Italian and my wife is mexican if that helps. Needs to be safe, affordable, for my wife and kids on the way. parks and schools are a plus. Anywhere in Bos. I'm not from Bos. Help me please!!! Looking to buy a home with a middle class income.

[scarletfire]

Welcome. Are you looking to live in Boston itself or a suburb? Also budget info would be helpful to know. Prices are fairly high here but it depends on how much flexibility you have in terms of distance from the city and what you're looking for in a community.

[eevee]

agree, what's the budget? if you're looking for an area IN Boston, as opposed to a suburb, some recommendations I can toss out are areas like Roslindale Sq, Jamaica Plain, South Boston, parts of Dorchester, maybe even the South End. again, it depends of budget, and also what you want from a neighborhood besides safety and parks. night life? walking distance to a shopping center/supermarket?

[DreamworksSKG]

How about Medford or Arlington?

Good middle-class towns

with fairly affordable housing

Close to transit and Boston

[goyguy]

What ever happened to reading comprehension? Guy puts "Boston" in caps in the subject line and re-emphasizes that he wants a city neighborhood in the post. Then all the replies name suburbs.
Anyway...what's tricky about finding the area that'd work best for you is, just like in every city there are sections of town which have good parts bumping up against parts to steer clear of. I think your best bet could well be Hyde Park. Much of this neighborhood has seen better days. In fact, thanks to gang nastiness in recent years I now have the once-nice portion adjoining Mattapan on my steer-clear list. The areas which are still good - if not better than good - are Fairmount, Readville, and the section near Turtle Pond Reservation. Fairmount in particular has some modest Victorians (if that's not a contradiction, lol), and all three of those communities offer scads of economically-priced ranch and Cape Cod houses from the mid-20th Century. Hyde Park has its own commuter-rail "shuttle" into South Station; other than that, without a car it can be a bit of a haul to go downtown. Bus service is OK - but after sometimes 20-30 minutes you'd still only be at a rapid-transit terminal with the whole train ride still ahead. There's decent small-scale shopping close at hand in Cleary and Wolcott Squares, with supermarkets and big-box stores minutes away in neighboring Dedham. For the kids, there are good neighborhood playgrounds to go along with the woods of Turtle Pond Reservation for "exploring."
Roslindale should be high on your list for places to check out too. Even its steer-clear section (between Forest Hills Station and Beech St, along and east of Washington) is noticeably on the rebound from decades of deterioration. The Archdale and Washington-Beech public housing "developments" have been a drag on the vicinity since they were built. However, the latter "project" is in the middle of a radical overhaul and makeover to transform it into lower-density and mixed-income housing. Many of the three-decka apartment buildings thereabouts have been solidly refurbished after years of looking ready to collapse. Small businesses such as a hugely popular BBQ joint are taking root. Farther south, Roslindale Square (semi-successfully renamed Roslindale Village) has been enjoying a renaissance since the turn of the (21st) Century. The neighborhoods west of Washington St - from next to the Arnold Arboretum down South St to the square, and then out Belgrade Ave - never went through an up-down-up cycle. They stayed desirable, with the sectors north of the square tangibly Irish and a substantial Greek population to the south. East of Washington and south of Beech, the same holds true along such streets as Kittredge, Metropolitan Ave, and Hyde Park Ave. A lot of the housing stock is similar to that of Hyde Park, with "Rozzi's" counterpart to Fairmount being the enclave next to the Arboretum. There are also some large Colonials and appealing 1920's cottages in the mix, along with numerous 2 1/2-story duplexes. The Needham commuter-rail line stops at Roslindale Square, er, Village and there are plenty of bus routes that with a few exceptions are all going from Forest Hills to more distant points. Complementing the usual playgrounds and tot lots are the arboretum, and the aforementioned Turtle Pond Reservation, for green space. Also, much as is the scenario in Hyde Park, Rozzi has a decent quantity and quality of local stores with larger-scale shopping not far away.
Within the city limits, and also on the southern tier, lie West Roxbury and Dorchester. I put this pair of communities last (and omitted Mattapan entirely) because of their issues. Westie has a firm grip on its reputation as an upscale "in-city suburb." A considerable number of its streets are named for birds. There are well-maintained middle- to upper-middle-class homes galore once you leave the thoroughfares with their conglomeration of cheesy apartment/condo complexes. There are even some glimmers of night life along Centre St. Similarly in Dorchester - a mixed bag of communities if ever there was one - the Cedar Grove, Lower Mills, Neponset, and Ashmont Hill sections have retained an excellent quality of life. But in both of these chunks of the city, Boston's far from unearned reputation as a racist bastion is upheld to this day as a rule. Violent "ugliness" is rare in current times; however, suspicious stares and neighborly shunning are sadly still common when a non-White person appears. There's no good reason to put the wife & kids through that aggravation when so much of Beantown has moved on from the tensions stirred up during the '70s. Hyde Park and Roslindale are way farther along in terms of accepting diversity as a positive fact of life.
For the seemingly obligatory addition of suburban areas worth investigating, I suggest Malden + Randolph + Waltham.

[clevedark]

West Roxbury and Jamaica Plain and Hyde Park would be good places to start.

[holden125]

Suggestions above are good, and as usual goyguy is very thorough and informative.

I'm not sure I follow the reading comprehension thing though. The OP did not specifically say he wanted a "city" neighborhood. I don't read anywhere near as much into his putting BOSTON in caps and vague references to an area "in Boston." The OP is from California and said he isn't familiar with the area. To a lot of people in California the whole Boston area is "Boston." I think the BOSTON being distinct from suburbs thing is a nuance more likely to resonate with locals. In any event, only one post mentioned any places in the suburbs. The others mentioned city neighborhoods and asked for clarification.

[DreamworksSKG]

What about Davis Square? in Somerville?

a good mix of middle class people

[DreamworksSKG]

I consider arlington and medford to be transitional cities---close to city but not quite---a mix of both city and suburban so thats why I suggested Arlington Or Medford you're close enough to the city but not quite IN the city