Working in Cambridge, best place for Black family to live in boston (Quincy: renting, home)

[kcarter1913]

Hello, I will be relocating to the Boston area from NC and working in Cambridge on Landsdowne St. and is looking for a diverse, safe area to live. I would like to live near public transportation, but I do have a car. I have 2 kids, one high schooler and a 4th grader so I need to be near good schools, and of course safety is important. I'm looking at renting a 3 bd room and looking to pay no more than 2200 a month in rent...Any suggestions? Thanks for the help!

[dorock99]

Originally Posted by kcarter1913

Hello, I will be relocating to the Boston area from NC and working in Cambridge on Landsdowne St. and is looking for a diverse, safe area to live. I would like to live near public transportation, but I do have a car. I have 2 kids, one high schooler and a 4th grader so I need to be near good schools, and of course safety is important. I'm looking at renting a 3 bd room and looking to pay no more than 2200 a month in rent...Any suggestions? Thanks for the help!

OK, looks like I'm the first one willing to tackle this question. Yay me lol! For simplicities sake, I'm just going to list some nice towns, that are close to Cambridge with good school systems. I'm guessing you put "Black" family for a particular reason. Perhaps trying to steer clear of towns that may not be accepting of racial diversity? Or maybe you're looking for towns with high racial diversity? Not sure, but for the most part regardless of income there are not many towns in MA with very much diversity in terms of race. It does not matter whether they are rich suburbs or poor former industrial towns almost 95% of all town are predominately white. However, that does not mean they are all predominately racist either. To the other extent the handful of towns close to Cambridge that do have relatively high levels of diversity are inner city areas and would not be considered the safest. Nor do they have high performing schools. It does not necessarily mean you and your kids will be dodging bullets, but if you can afford to live elsewhere you should.

Belmont
Arlington
Newton
Waltham
Watertown

These are the closest places to Cambridge i could think of that i would assume are racially friendly areas that meet your other requirements for safety and nice schools. The towns offer as much diversity as should be expected from a state with a very small percentages of minorities.

There are perhaps sections of the North Shore that would be welcoming as well, but i have no clue.

For what you named Newton or Arlington would seem like a good choice. Assuming you can afford to live there.

Newton is heavily Jewish and a well to do suburb with perhaps the best schools in the state. Heavy Obama supporters (donated the most to his campaign in the country) very well educated town, so i'd assume they'd be less focused on the color of your skin.

Arlington and Belmont are middle class areas with good performing schools. I think Belmont is a bit more upscale than Arlington, but both areas are nice and safe.

Waltham and Watertown are the blue collar neighboring towns to each of the above affluent towns. I'm not sure whether you're a white collar worker or blue collar, but each of these locations are close to Cambridge.

As previously mentioned there are towns on the North Shore, that are in close proximity to Cambridge, but i do not think they carry the same desirable reputations as the places listed above. Hopefully this helps.

Enjoy MA!

[davis18]

Nice response by Dorock99. We are an interracial couple temporarily living in Belmont while we try to find the right town to purchase something. The description of towns being predominantly white appears to be true. Instead of encountering intolerance we seem to be more of a curiosity in Belmont and the towns we have walked around in. Mostly we encounter second looks. Given that, our search is based on proximity to Boston and finding the neighborhood with the right economic mix.

[jad79]

If you can find a place in your price range, I would consider Cambridge itself. It is certainly diverse and safe and many think the schools are pretty good. Of course test scores will be higher in Belmont, Arlington, Newton, etc. but it is worth looking into.

[Urban Peasant]

Most of the very diverse communities in metro Boston do not have as good schools as the affluent communities but they are not entirely bad either and the communities themselves are more affordable. Malden, Medford, Somerville, and Cambridge itself come to mind. Quincy down on the South Shore is a good choice too but a little further away.

I would like to recommend my home city of Boston because we are one of the most diverse if not the most diverse communities around but most of our public schools are terrible and the few good schools are very competitive to get into. Scratch that idea then.

[kcarter1913]

Dorock 99, thank you so much!!! the information you provided was so helpful

[Beantown_mama]

Are you working for a biotech company? There are several on Landsdowne Street. I think Cambridge would be a great choice as there is a lot of diversity in Cambridge and the schools are very good. Also, Brookline would be a great choice. Are you looking for the suburbs? I think any suburb would not have as much ethnic diversity as you may wish (or occur in other towns), but probably the most culturally diverse would be Lexington as it pretty multicultural (I have Indian, Asian, Pakastani, black friends all that live there). Unfortunately, there are no train lines in Lexington though. Melrose might also be a nice place to look - not very ethnically diverse but a great commute to Cambridge and a lot of cultural diversity. West Roxbury is also nice - I think it has 3 commuter rails - but I have no idea what the schools are like.

[bgrasser]

I would give Milton a long and hard look.
All the best.

[DreamworksSKG]

I'd Say Arlington

it has a good mix of people, would be an easy commute to Cambridge

nice downtown with events throughout the year...and services, bus routes to the "T" --an old movie theater---and a bike path

[relocationg10]

Boston is not the safest place to live , cambridge areas are not too bad and have good schools and diversity with good transportation.