Does Brookline represent the best combination of safety and convenience? (Boston: apartments, rent)

[Wallop the Spot]

When I was in my 20s, I lived on Beacon Hill and in the South End. Those neighborhoods were exciting places to be for that stage of my life and were so convenient to all the attractions of Boston. I'm now in my late 50s and am thinking of returning to the Boston area for retirement. I would like to find a neighborhood that has some of the convenience of Beacon Hill and the South End but that might be more suitable for an aging baby boomer. I'm unfamiliar with Brookline, but have the impression that it is both convenient and a safe location. Any thoughts on Brookline or similar areas?

[bostonguy1960]

I would still consider Beacon Hill and the South End appropriate for someone in their late 50s as well as their 20s. As well, Brookline would be nice also. Unsure why you don't seem to want to live in Beacon Hill or the South End if you return.

Brookline's neighborhoods are overall still safer than the now mostly-gentrified South End.

In Brookline, a nice senior community center was built on Winchester St. off Beacon St. within the past 10 years.

Brookline seemed to have a solid senior citizen presence when I lived there from 1993-2004. There's a senior apt. building on Pleasant St. across from the Coolidge Corner library.

Don't forget the Farmers' Market on Thursdays on Centre St.

[Wallop the Spot]

I'm sure Beacon Hill and the South End are very much different today than what they were thirty years ago. Back then, my apartment on Beacon Hill (off Revere St.) was rather squalid, and the South End was just starting to gentrify.

For retirement, I would be looking for a two or three bedroom condo with at least two baths in a safe neighborhood but convenient to public transit. I thought Brookline might offer more choices.

[kmann-sherborn]

There are some very nice 2bd+ condos in Coolidge Corner. You'd probably be starting in the 400s for 2bd 2bath.

[missionhill]

Wallop-- Me too! Well, not the return part, at least not yet, but the Beacon Hill and South End in the '70s part. It all seems so different. I had a rent-controlled apt for $155 on Anderson St and soon moved to the other unit on the same floor, which was exactly twice as big and $5 less a month thanks to the inconsistencies of rent control. Still too much, but splitting $85/month with a friend on Mission Hill was a steal. A year or two later, I went to the South End. I think you're right about Brookline--probably more convenient and safe, overall, and more of a mix of ages.

[Wallop the Spot]

Missionhill: In the late 70s I paid $300 a month for a 4th-floor walkup on Goodwin Place (an alley off Revere St.). I had a lovely view of the Charles, but the living room was smaller than my present bathroom and the kitchen ceiling and wall were crumbling from a leak in the roof. In those days, it seemed that many of the houses on Beacon Hill's north slope had been cut up into tiny apartments that were not particularly well maintained. I suppose that, since then, many have been converted to nice condominiums. My South End apartment was in a nicely restored house, and had working gas lights! But the neighborhood was dicey (I was mugged on the street just a block away). No doubt the South End has changed greatly as well.

I'd like to visit Boston next spring to see what has become of my favorite neighborhoods -- the North End, Harvard Square, Beacon Hill -- over the past 30 years, as well as explore Brookline and the parts of Cambridge I have never seen.

Back to my original post: If anyone has an opinion on which neighborhoods they might choose for retirement, I'd like to hear them.

[xS☺B☺s]

Originally Posted by Wallop the Spot

I'd like to visit Boston next spring to see what has become of my favorite neighborhoods -- the North End, Harvard Square, Beacon Hill -- over the past 30 years, as well as explore Brookline and the parts of Cambridge I have never seen.

Back to my original post: If anyone has an opinion on which neighborhoods they might choose for retirement, I'd like to hear them.

What's become of them is they are all significantly better than they were back then. Boston has really come up in the past 20 years. The Big Dig removed a giant mess and replaced it with a big pretty park at the waterfront. Every neighborhood has come up. In fact whereas from the 50's to the 80's 300000 people left BOS, since then the population has INCREASED from 550K to 680K. BOS is a boomtown now.

Brookline most definitely fits for safety and convenience. Price is the issue. Figure over $1K for anything.

[missionhill]

Wallop-- I was mugged in the S. E. too, on Mass Avenue. Another time I came very close, managing to outrun a gang of kids who pursued me from the little park on West Newton Street by the railroad tracks across Columbus, then across Tremont (where I lost them dodging the traffic.) As I remember it was on the same night that one of the characters in Anthony Lukas's Common Ground got mugged (July 4, 1977?) Not sure. Anyway, I was very lucky that time.

I return to Boston often for visits and agree with '08 that all these neighborhoods have come up a lot. I briefly lived in a dump on Monument Square (Charlestown), an old fashioned rooming house where lonely older men lived in rooms so squalid that even the hallways reeked. The South End was filled with rooming houses like that. Even on Marlborough Street, sometime in the '70s a young woman fell to her death trying to escape a fire in a rooming house when the fire escape gave way. People often ask, Where did all the poor people go? I don't know, but all these intown and inner neighborhoods are very different now.
People often say Harvard Square has gone downhill since then, and it surely doesn't have the counterculture edge it had 40 years ago. It's nice enough but a lot more homogenized.

[K-Luv]

Originally Posted by Wallop the Spot

Back to my original post: If anyone has an opinion on which neighborhoods they might choose for retirement, I'd like to hear them.

Even though I am a newbie to the Boston area (as a resident, visited plenty of times in the past), Brookline is one area that I would consider if I was to buy a home and/or plan on living in Boston for the long haul. The area is quiet, safe, and pretty much has the amenities that you (I) would want/need within a short distance.

However, if I was to retire in this area, I would prefer something with a view of the ocean, which, as you may be aware of, is $$$$.