Is Boston Crime Infested? How Many Houses Have Jail Bars On Windows? (Newton: city hall, low crime)

[bostonguy1960]

I certainly see bars on some doors (security gates) as well as the windows,, even in some of the better South End streets. You'll see a window flower box sometimes, hidden behind bars. Basement apts. are often covered with bars.

Of course, many businesses in some Boston neighborhoods, including Chinatown, Southie, Roslindale, Hyde Park, Eastie, Mission Hill, plus more dangerous areas, have graffiti-infested security grates pulled over their facade during closing time. Very ugly, and not in the normal charming Boston image.

[bostonguy1960]

This was a 2008 post recently dug up, so I'll continue, for others wondering about bars (on windows & doors) in Boston.

I checked out my old 1985-1990 street, St. Botolph St, a charming street as I mentioned above. Wow, lots of units have bars on their windows -- even those with fancy lighted wreaths decorating windows!

Seems that the charm blinds one to the urban area and its need for bars on a surprising number of units!

Bars: Not just for urban ghettos anymore.

[miu]

I don't find security bars depressing if they are done in wrought iron and executed in a decorative fashion. It's just city life, living in a densely populated area. And if you are going to leave your shades up so that outsiders can see the nice items you have inside, of course you have to secure your apartment. At least in Boston, I've never seen those bracing security bars behind the apartment doors that I've often seen in apartments in NYC. Securing a first floor apartment from being an easy mark of a burglar is just using commonsense. Just like not leaving electronics or money in full view of passersby in ones car. Why on earth would anyone leave an expensive GPS or radar detector unit in a car full view of potential thieves? Especially in this time of economic recession.

If you don't want to see security bars, go hang out in the suburbs instead. However, even there commonsense security is being practiced with the installation of alarm systems.

[buryborn2010]

The northeastern, and mission hill area stopped being the "inner-city" in the mid 90's. When I was a kid, no northeastern student would ever walk down parker st after dark. Mission hill had the third largest open air drug market on the east coast. When they raided it I happened to be waiting for the 66 bus. It was impressive, 12 police agencies led by the DEA and FBI. That was a few years after the charles stuart incident. Whenever they remake projects like mission or academies, guess where a lot of the former tenants end up. Brocton, New Bedford etc. The NU area is still Roxbury, but it's not hood. In fifteen years all of Roxbury will be like mission hill, and the former residents will be in Brocton, New Bedford. That is city planning and HUD working hand in hand. p.s. I am not trying to make my neighborhood (grove hall) out to be compton, but you do need to watch yourself.
As for the post to take pride and fix your community. This type of comment never ceases to annoy me. Most people who make statements like that either lack an understanding of inner city problems, or don't care. Either weay, they probably watch too much t.v. (especially the news). The street I grew up on Had a the deputy superintendent of bpd, chief of probation in a district court, wbz cameraman and several other professionals. That didn't matter when the exxon station left the lot at the end of my street. for fifteen years that lot stood empty of legitimate business. drug dealers, users, muggers and the like made good use of it. You would be suprised how much boston residents pay to remove trash dumped by out-of-towners who don't want to pay for trash pick-up. The lot owner was listed as living in florida, it my took my family and my dedicated neighbors years of meetings and lawyers etc to find him and get that lot leased to a business. The main problem with the inner-city is the residents own next to nothing. So if a absentee landlord ( which most are) decide to let a building fall into disrepair, get boarded up, or leave a lot vacant for trash to pile up, so be it.

[missionhill]

Buryborn, I'm sure you're right. I lived on Alleghany Street in 1974-75 as a young white guy, if not a college student, and Parker Street between Ruggles and Tremont was no man's land for me as a pedestrian. I drove it but never dared walk down that stretch. I knew it would have been much faster than taking the Arborway T line up to Brigham and walking all the way back to Parker St but it was way too scary to walk past the Mission Main and Extension projects. The racial atmosphere in the city then was ratcheted up by the busing so people were more scared then.

I agree about inner city residents not owning much except I like what the Dudley St Neighborhood Initiative has done and in their core area (Dudley, Cottage, Blue Hill Ave) people really do seem to have control (collectively) over the whole territory. Seems like a great inner city redevelopment model.

[rranger]

Originally Posted by Jstine103

You wouldnt want to go to Mattapan or Roxbury or the JP projects.

Hmmm. Funny, I've gone to bed each night and awakened each morning for the past 15+ years in Roxbury and, in a pinch, shop at the Stop and Shop next to one of those JP projects. I must be missin' somethin'.

[Urban Peasant]

Originally Posted by rranger

Hmmm. Funny, I've gone to bed each night and awakened each morning for the past 15+ years in Roxbury and, in a pinch, shop at the Stop and Shop next to one of those JP projects. I must be missin' somethin'.

Heh heh, I have a funny story to tell. I once was at that Stop and Shop and wanted to find a short cut through the Bromley Heath Projects to Jackson Square Station. I asked the cart collector at S&S if there was such a short cut and he promptly told me to get back on Centre Street and walk around the projects because they were dangerous.

As a near lifelong resident, the bad parts of Dorchester, Roxbury, and Mattapan, etc don't really scare me. I worked at places like Dudley Commons, Uphams Corner, and as a substitute teacher and teacher, over a dozen inner city Boston public middle and high schools that few outsiders would even dream of being near. Many of my students were residents of these neighborhoods.

Still, I understand that such neighborhoods may be unsettling for newcomers to move into, which is why I don't often direct them to these neighborhoods. Believe me, many of my former students said they'd rather live somewhere else if they can afford it because even their own neighborhoods creep them out. Boston is much improved but not entirely.

[ogre]

If it hasn't been pointed out on this thread, it has been pointed out plenty of times on this forum that you can't accurately characterize all of Mattapan, Dorchester, or Rox. as dangerous. Still, from time to time you're going to keep getting posts like the one Rranger quoted. I guess people in the know just need to keep jumping in with the correct info when this happens. There's a user on here named Eevee who's good at getting the accurate info out there. Others too, but I've especially noticed that Eevee will frequently respond to the broad characterizations of whole large sections of Boston as dangerous, and go into some detail about the more local neighborhoods and streets where most of the worst crime is concentrated. The more of that kind of accurate, detailed picture of what's really going on, the better.

[xS☺B☺s]

Originally Posted by buryborn2010

The northeastern, and mission hill area stopped being the "inner-city" in the mid 90's. When I was a kid, no northeastern student would ever walk down parker st after dark. Mission hill had the third largest open air drug market on the east coast. When they raided it I happened to be waiting for the 66 bus. It was impressive, 12 police agencies led by the DEA and FBI. That was a few years after the charles stuart incident. Whenever they remake projects like mission or academies, guess where a lot of the former tenants end up. Brocton, New Bedford etc. The NU area is still Roxbury, but it's not hood. In fifteen years all of Roxbury will be like mission hill, and the former residents will be in Brocton, New Bedford. That is city planning and HUD working hand in hand. p.s. I am not trying to make my neighborhood (grove hall) out to be compton, but you do need to watch yourself.
As for the post to take pride and fix your community. This type of comment never ceases to annoy me. Most people who make statements like that either lack an understanding of inner city problems, or don't care. Either weay, they probably watch too much t.v. (especially the news). The street I grew up on Had a the deputy superintendent of bpd, chief of probation in a district court, wbz cameraman and several other professionals. That didn't matter when the exxon station left the lot at the end of my street. for fifteen years that lot stood empty of legitimate business. drug dealers, users, muggers and the like made good use of it. You would be suprised how much boston residents pay to remove trash dumped by out-of-towners who don't want to pay for trash pick-up. The lot owner was listed as living in florida, it my took my family and my dedicated neighbors years of meetings and lawyers etc to find him and get that lot leased to a business. The main problem with the inner-city is the residents own next to nothing. So if a absentee landlord ( which most are) decide to let a building fall into disrepair, get boarded up, or leave a lot vacant for trash to pile up, so be it.

Bravo! A truly content-rich 1st post! Hope you stay around the forum for a while BB.

[KittenKats]

Living in Been town all my life i will say a lot of people in this thread do not know what there talking about.

First of all the reason Boston crime is not seen as bad is because the cops do not take any crap an will an do call swat often so things do not stay going long.

The size of boston is another reason with the number of collages an collage students those areas are montiored highly.

Yes there are boarded up crack houses an bars on houses in certain areas.

There are parts just as bad as boston though like lynn an lowell.

Yes we have bloods an crypts an Kings an many other gangs through out boston an the other citys i mentioned.

Any one who is street smart knows how to handle them selfs.

Most of the time people will not see the bad parts because there well hidden.

Boston also has programs setup to prevent crime like schools for peolpe who have been in trouble with the law.

Which take them out of public school system an place them in a school for troubled teens.