Safe areas around Boston (Cambridge, Newton: house, buying, best school)

[Jimmy10m10]

Thank you all for your help. I am not a racist, however do live in a pretty racist city. Doesn't matter what anyone says, South Philadelphia (My area) has a lot of racial tension, even in the mixed areas. I live in a predominately white area and it seems that racist african americans, some how find a way to cause racial tension and problems in my area. It is not only Black people neither, i must admit the White people can start some problems too. Like I said i am not racist, however I am tired of hearing about because I'm white I ... or because I'm black I... and there is a lot of that stereotyping in all of the Philadelphia areas. Anyway thank you for all of your help. I will also be visiting the Boston area around february. Any suggestions if places, or areas i should check? Not only areas to live in, but areas with things to do? Thanks again I appreciate all of your help.

[snatale1]

Originally Posted by heyho

How far is West Roxbury removed from the Roxbury in safety and any racial tension?

West Roxbury is not part of Roxbury, or near it. It is the furthest out neighborhood still part of the city (on this side). Jamaica Plain and Roslindale are in between the two. Very safe mostly White / Irish Middle to upper middle class. Mostly single family homes and 2 familys. It borders Dedham, Brookline, Newton. It's were I live and having lived in many other neighborhoods this is were I'm staying. An all around great place to live.

[HenryAlan]

Originally Posted by Vermolas

Good neighborhoods: Jamaica Plain, West Roxbury, Downtown, North End, Back Bay, Beacon Hill, East Boston, Allston, Brighton, South Boston

Bad Neighborhoods: Roxbury, Dorchester, Mattapan, Hyde Park, Roslindale.

Where do you get your info, the '70s? Mattapan is poor, but mostly safe, Roxbury is very up and coming, Dorchester has some problem areas but also some of the nicest residential neighborhoods in the city. Roslindale is very diverse, very safe, and becoming quite trendy, Hyde Park is fairly suburban and quiet.

[CityGirl52]

If I were you I'd check north of Boston. You can head to downtown Boston via the MBTA or the commuter rail in no time. It's actually nicer too by the way! For starters, if you want to be closer to the City, then check Arlington out. It's always had a good reputation thru the years, check along Mass Ave near the Stop & Shop, that's ideal thru there. Go to the Boston site:

Boston.com

Click on Real Estate and Rentals to see what's available.

Bedford, Cambridge are ideal with the MBTA and red line; also right on the orange line is the town of Melrose. Try to see if you can get something in this lovely town. Further north see if you can get something in one of the suburbs like Stoneham, Woburn, Tewksbury or No. Andover, even Andover as high as it is, has some great rentals for less than what you mentioned. I've seen them quite a bit on rental sites. GO to Yahoo's rentals and local area newspapers online for rentals.

Go in to the Eagle Tribune newspaper online:

Home - EagleTribune.com, North Andover, MA

Click on Classifieds, then Real Estate Rentals. You can put in the various towns, I put in Andover and found a few really good ones. Two of them have HEAT INCLUDED, which is a plus in New England and you rarely see that too much these days. That's what you need to do for practical reasons. Andover's only about 25 minutes from Boston if that. It's a piece of cake by car and only minutes on the commuter rail, as long as you don't have to go during rush hour in the early morning. Even at that, it's not a bad commute at all, just leave early that's all.

If you really really wanted to be closer to the city then check out Arlington or even parts of Brookline are really nice with the trolley connection right there. Good luck, wherever you decide to live! Hey, keep us posted on what happens! Best of luck!

[bostonguy1960]

Is the $1,800 for your rental budget targeting as small as a 1 BR apt? Will you be sharing with your girlfriend? If so, Quincy would get you a very nice 1 BR for that price.

It's only 9 miles to Fenway Park and the hospital mecca. Logan airport is 20 minutes or less if light traffic (even a commuter boat to downtown...and I think the airport). But most in Quincy take the red line subway to town from 3 diffeent stops. It's only 20 minutes to PARK st. station (Boston Common) from N. Quincy.

Lots of Chinese and now some Indians in parts of Quincy, along with many whites (many Irish) and now some yuppies. Some housing projects in the city of 90,000, but not overwhelming.

A basic 1 BR rents for $850 to $1100 monthly.

Plus, parts of Quincy are near city beaches...and it's the city of Presidents (Adams and Quincy Adams). John Hancock is buried here.

Some (many?) consider Quincy to be full of low-class whites, but I've been here for 5 years and like it for its convenience and relative safety.

South Boston, also on the red line, has lots of yuppies now, in addition to the diminishing long-term Irish as well as some housing projects. Nice city beaches and Castle Island are its plusses. Plane noise, at times, however.

[Jimmy10m10]

OK i am thinking about the Reading area in MA. Is this a nice, safe area? I would like to here about the Reading Woburn and Stoneham areas if you do not mind. is this a nice area to look or would you prefer somewhere else?

[CityGirl52]

Jimmy10M10,

If you don't mind being further out of the City, it's suburbia at it's best. The beauty of it is you'd have the commuter rail right in Reading & Woburn, plus the Anderson Regional Transportation center is right on Commerce Way in Woburn for parking purposes. It's ideal that way. To me it makes sense and as long as you don't mind being a little further out of the City, it's great that way, just think you'd only be a few exits further from downtown Boston up I-93 or you could go up rte 128, either way. Also for you the rents would be lower than they are in the City and that's a fact with that one! Like I said to you before, a lot of times you'll luck out and get heat included, so watch for that while you're researching places, it's a BIG savings if you ask me.

There's parts of Reading that are really nice, you would be right beside Wakefield which has a really nice lake to jog and run around. It's not far from Reading at all. One of my relatives lives in Reading and it was always expensive as far as their taxes are concerned out of all the towns you mentioned, but it's convenient. There's also no riff raff living there if you know what I mean as a result of their taxes being like that because they can't afford it there! I think you might luck out finding a place there, Woburn or Stoneham and you know, you would love Wakefield speaking of an urban-suburban type vibe to it,

Here's info on their beautiful Lake!

http://www.visitingnewengland.com/wakefield.html

With their lake, it's awesome thru there, plus they have the MBTA orange line right there, it's the Oak Grove station on the MBTA train system that would zip you right in to Boston in minutes. So that's a town that you should look at too. It's actually where one of my cousins is moving TO from Reading believe it or not and it's due to the taxes, they'd be more reasonable in Wakefield than Reading when you own down the road....you start realizing that thought process as you're going along thru life with kids.

With you it's a different story right now, school is your top priority, so you want to make sure you're not breaking the bank on housing, so living in the suburbs might work out better in the long run for you.

Good luck!

[tcrackly]

Originally Posted by Vermolas

Good neighborhoods: Jamaica Plain, West Roxbury, Downtown, North End, Back Bay, Beacon Hill, East Boston, Allston, Brighton, South Boston

Bad Neighborhoods: Roxbury, Dorchester, Mattapan, Hyde Park, Roslindale.

Geez, I grew up in middle class home owning blue collar Roxbury. My neighbors were mostly Black, like myself, and they didn't shoot rob and attack each other as you would have everyone beleive. My 87 year old mother still lives there. There are parts that I avoid and there are highly gentrified parts. There are parrts of all your proclaimed "good neighborhoods " I know to be trully hazardous and there are many upscale parts of the so-called "bad neighborhoods" I suggest the OP cross reference a few sites of interest like the Museum of Fine Arts and Mission church where Ted Kennedy's funeral was held(in Roxbury) with a virtual tour via Google Earth. If the homes look congested, littered and shabby then by all means avoid that area.

Top Rated Tourist Attractions in Boston

Google Earth

[IDASpaceman]

Please take a look at Watertown, Waltham, and Belmont...can be a bit expensive in some areas...but if you get lucky, you will find the perfect little gem, and I believe the perfect location between suburbia and city.

Best of luck!

[ogre]

Originally Posted by tcrackly

Geez, I grew up in middle class home owning blue collar Roxbury. My neighbors were mostly Black, like myself, and they didn't shoot rob and attack each other as you would have everyone beleive. My 87 year old mother still lives there. There are parts that I avoid and there are highly gentrified parts. There are parrts of all your proclaimed "good neighborhoods " I know to be trully hazardous and there are many upscale parts of the so-called "bad neighborhoods" I suggest the OP cross reference a few sites of interest like the Museum of Fine Arts and Mission church where Ted Kennedy's funeral was held(in Roxbury) with a virtual tour via Google Earth. If the homes look congested, littered and shabby then by all means avoid that area.

Top Rated Tourist Attractions in Boston

Google Earth

Good to see someone point this out. The term "neighborhood" is used somewhat loosely in Boston. In some cases it refers to small areas like Beacon Hill, which really are very local neighborhoods, but in some cases the so-called neighborhoods really are entire large sections of the city, which could stand alone as independent small cities, and are divided into their own small local neighborhoods.

All of the "bad" areas Vermolas listed, and several of the "good" areas, are these larger sections that have their own neighborhoods, some good, some bad. From what people intimately familiar with life in the city tell me, sometimes it's only one or two individual side streets that are bad, while the surrounding neighborhood will be the kind of solid blue-collar area TCrackly describes. I used to do work that took me to Roxbury on occasion. From what I saw, MOST of Rox. was more the kind of place TCrackly describes.

Jimmy10, I think that the helpful responses you're getting show that people understand your preferences in a neighborhood. Some mixed neighborhoods seem to do better than others with how well the residents of various races get along, but if you've had bad experiences in areas with a lot of tension between races, it's understandable if you want to avoid that whole scene. Actually, I think your observations about stereotyping going both ways relate to the issue of labeling large swaths of the city as bad areas. Too often it seems that there is an automatic assumption that a largely black section must be a bad area. The reality is that there is a lot of variation, not a uniform ghetto character to all the black areas.

Anyway, Reading, Woburn, Stoneham = pleasant but quiet, and boring to some, suburbia. If this sounds right for you, another town to check out in that general area would be Wakefield.

IDASpaceman makes some good suggestions on finding a mix between urban and suburban living. I would add Arlington to that list as well. The main disadvantage with Arlington would be that it's not heavily covered by public transit, but it does have bus service, and the east side of Arl. is close to the Alewife red line station in Cambridge.