Boston my entire life, MS for 5 yrs but coming back.... (Cambridge: middle-class, rentals)

[tracyalexa]

Hi all - I lived in Boston for 30 yrs. Moved to Southaven MS 5 yrs ago and am now planning on coming home. The issue I am having is, I lived in Dorchester MA. Moving to Southaven MS, I have become used to a slower pace, more grass and nature, just a different way of life. I know for sure I don't want to move back to Dorchester (although I love my "hood" ) but my entire huge family is there, so I would commute often. Now, if you know anything about Dot Rats, you know we stick to our little world most of the time! That said, I spent most of my time in Dorchester. I don't know a lot about the other areas in Mass that might meet my new needs. Here is what I am looking for....any help is greatly appreciated!

- Affordable! House rentals maybe? I don't think I'd be buying due to the plan to stay for about 5 yrs. Daycare - I pay $100 a week now. Lucky me.

- Dog (pitbull) friendly. I know, I know...but while living here in MS, I fell in love with the breed.

- Trees / grass / if possible WATER! Ocean. There really isn't anything like that here and I truly miss that.

- Diversity - We are a mixed couple - I know for sure that is a lot more accepted in Mass than in MS! I am white, he is mixed. But with a smaller town, maybe there is less diversity?

- Distance to Boston. Commuter rail is great but I am trying to keep the max commute at 1 hour if possible.

[goyguy]

Randolph, Milton, parts of Brockton, Stoughton, and even Sharon would fit the bill south of Boston. To the north, Everett and Malden. Greater Boston's "issues" around race/ethnicity get less harsh all the time. Even so, these areas are the most "tolerant" and are all within an hour's commute.

Talk is heating up in Beantown about a pit bull ban, and it only intensifies each time there's an incident. To me it'd be like banning 12-year-old kids from the city because a few of them mouth off and shoplift and bully other people their age. But no one consulted, me, LOL. The would be ban-ners also haven't met "Scrappy," a neighbor's two-year-old pit who launches himself into the air with all four feet when he meets a human friend. It's not the breed that's the problem, it's the people who own them for the wrong reasons and train them to be vicious.

Why not look right in Dahhchesta? 25 years after an AA man was killed after being struck by a Red Line train while trying to flee a mob of neighborhood Irish-American punks, Savin Hill has evolved into a diverse and "accepting" community. A Shaw's has opened next door to the JFK/UMass (formerly Columbia) T station. The "OTB" section is still the most sought after, since it's soooooo quiet over there. And you can't beat the harbor views from the park.

[ogre]

North of Boston, take a look at Salem and Gloucester. They're pushing the limits on your one-hour commute time, and will most likely be well over the limit if you drive rather than taking the train, but they have most of what you're looking for, including proximity to the ocean. You might also take a look at Winthrop. Winthrop may be pricey in general, but it's possible that some digging may turn up something relatively affordable. Anywhere in the Boston area you do need to be realistic about the cost of living. You're unlikely to find anything decent, if at all, for the 100/wk. you're paying now. If you don't feel the need to be right on the coast, to the west of Boston you might look at Arlington or Waltham. Especially Arlington, as Waltham has some sections that are very urban, and would remind you a lot of Dorchester, and other areas that are quite suburban, but not much of an in-between. Waltham might at least be a possibility, though.

The one issue I'm really not sure about is which towns might have pit bull bans. Here's the website for a MA-based pit bull rescue shelter. Maybe they could provide this info. http://www.pittieloverescue.com/

[baystater]

Originally Posted by goyguy

Randolph, Milton, parts of Brockton, Stoughton, and even Sharon would fit the bill south of Boston. To the north, Everett and Malden. Greater Boston's "issues" around race/ethnicity get less harsh all the time. Even so, these areas are the most "tolerant" and are all within an hour's commute.

Talk is heating up in Beantown about a pit bull ban, and it only intensifies each time there's an incident. To me it'd be like banning 12-year-old kids from the city because a few of them mouth off and shoplift and bully other people their age. But no one consulted, me, LOL. The would be ban-ners also haven't met "Scrappy," a neighbor's two-year-old pit who launches himself into the air with all four feet when he meets a human friend. It's not the breed that's the problem, it's the people who own them for the wrong reasons and train them to be vicious.

Why not look right in Dahhchesta? 25 years after an AA man was killed after being struck by a Red Line train while trying to flee a mob of neighborhood Irish-American punks, Savin Hill has evolved into a diverse and "accepting" community. A Shaw's has opened next door to the JFK/UMass (formerly Columbia) T station. The "OTB" section is still the most sought after, since it's soooooo quiet over there. And you can't beat the harbor views from the park.

Brockton?! Dude, don't tell anyone to go to brockton. Unless their hiding from the law.

[meltinjohn]

Billerica is the right place for this guy. Why doesn't anyone ever mention Billerica as a desirable place to move?

[jad79]

JP is very dog friendly, very diverse and accepting, lots of parks / greenspace, some areas are relatively affordable, not too far from Dorchester.

[tracyalexa]

Thanks for the feedback guys. For the record - I am female. JP used to have a pretty rough rep. Is it safer now? I can recall rapes / murders around the parks there?? Maybe I am confusing it with something else? I did think about Dot again, but I would have to try to find a really quiet area. My sister lives on Tremont St and I stay w/ her for about 2 weeks. If I heard one siren I heard 200. It was overwhelming. The traffic is horrible and the streets - wow. That's another topic. My mom lives about 3 mins from JFK and initially I will be staying there while shopping around for a place. It's where I lived for about 6 yrs before moving to MS. I loved it there but I have to say, I go back to visit twice a year and it's changed, quiet still for the most part but so congested!

My aunt lives in Milton - VERY pricey. Out of my league I think.

Randolph, Stoughton and Salem might be good areas to look at though. I've always loved Salem. Ideally, as crazy as it sounds, I'd love to live in Cambridge near Harvard. It doesn't fit everything I am looking for but it's one of my very fav places to go and just watch people.

I also have read up on Glouster. Sounds beautiful. The only issue I think would be the freezing wind during the winter....uggh. I am used to 50 degrees in the winter now!

[Martha Anne]

I lived in Dorchester, as a young professional (in what was known as the "white" areas: I lived in Field's Corner, then Ashmont Hill, then Carruth St (Adams Village) then St. Mark's area.

I used to drive up to Salem for a day trip on Sundays - it was about a 1/2 hour. Just to tell you that, no problem.

Cambridge is fabulous but you must have $$ to rent or buy.

Milton: only would I live in East Milton nowadays but if you are a bi-racial couple parts of Milton would be good for the acceptance issue as there are black families there now, too. I like East Milton because it is much more convenient and there is a bus to the Quincy Red line.

And Milton is not far from the south shore.

Weymouth: I had a friend who is of black and white (Obama style) heritage and she bought in Weymouth and loves it. It's a good commute and has the ocean.

[jad79]

"JP used to have a pretty rough rep. Is it safer now?"

Like most cities near Boston, JP has many neighborhoods with vastly different housing costs, crime, housing styles, etc. Some areas of full of near-million dollar homes (near JP Pond and all along the Brookline border) and some are not so nice (south of the Orange Line, near Franklin Park) In general, the areas of JP that border Roxbury and Dorchester have some of the same problems that those areas have. However, most areas of JP North of the Orange Line is safe. It's a little dated, but here is a map of Boston murders in 2005 from the Boston Police Dept:
http://www.bpdnews.com/BPD_Jan_DEC05.pdf

It looks like there was one murder in the core of JP (E-13) in 2005.

Of course places like Cambridge and JP are different in about every way than Gloucester / Salem. You'll get more for your money in Gloucester and Salem and you're near the ocean. Commute time from Gloucester to the Financial District or Back Bay is at least an hour via train or car, commute from Cambridge or JP is 15 minutes via subway which runs every 4 minutes at peak times. Gloucester and Salem are not very diverse and have very few ethic restaurants while JP and Cambridge are full of ethic eateries, etc.

[goyguy]

No need to hate on Brockton. Just as in Lynn and Waltham, there are sections "to be avoided" but there are lots of OK areas too. The nicer parts of town are west of Route 24, bordering Easton; the Montello section north of downtown; surrounding the fairgrounds; and the eastern/northeastern corner toward Holbrook and Abington. I'm not going to be a knee-jerk progressive/liberal and read racism into that poster's remark which might not be there. All the same, writing off an entire city which happens to have a growing AA and Hispanic population has a certain tone to it. The gang/crime problems being faced by downtown and its vicinity (especially along South Main St and immediately west) might as well be 100 miles away from Montello and the other locales I mentioned. People "of" and "without" color coexist peacefully in Brockton, sometimes under the same roof (lol.) The income demographic is heavily blue-collar to middle-class, poverty definitely is no stranger to a fair number of folks there, and some monied precincts can be found around what else but a golf course. It's your fairly typical middle-sized city, in other words.

I for one don't think Billerica is any place special. Cheesy subdivisions dating back to the late '40s and no more recently than the '70s, strip malls, a jail, zero public transportation save for one commuter rail stop, so-so schools, essentially all White...I'll bite. What's the appeal? Ditto for Reading and Framingham (which does have a good bit of "diversity" south of Route 9), Tewksbury and Bellingham, Hanson and Wilmington, and many other 'burbs.

Good to know someone non-Caucasian has found a good life in Weymouth. A "mixed" (Italian-American/native Japanese) couple of longstanding acquaintance has fared OK with their neighbors there, and their kids had a good experience in the schools (they went on to UMich and Middlebury.) But they get stares and worse at times when they venture outside their neighborhood: "Go back to your own country" and such.

Jamaica Plain's sketchy vibe has shrunk considerably, to the point where townhouse condos can be built backing up against Bromley-Heath and folks are willing to buy them. Hyde Square is no longer a place to flee after dark, and has gone from nearly all "minority" to "integrated." When an old friend unwillingly sold his house on Edge Hill St ("the other woman" necessitated the sale, let's leave it at that) he found a buyer who paid over his asking price, which in turn was 12 times what he'd paid in the late '70s. The only reliably sketchy/scary part of JP is around Egleston Square now. While the area surrounding South St looks less than well-kept in places, it's a decent neighborhood and less costly to dwell in than on Sumner and Moss Hills or "pondside."

Milton? Ehhhhhh... <wavering hand gesture> White flight on the Blue Hill Ave side, siege mentality developing in East Milton and in the "estate" area, not so good.

Consider Hyde Park and Roslindale, both far more welcoming than as recently as 15 years ago. And stroll around Savin Hill "OTB" on a sunny afternoon.