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Rich neighborhoods like Beacon Hill and Back Bay near downtown have crime too, especially robberies and assaults. Just look at the crime map for Boston. Since the 1950's and 60's, the city center just hasn't been a safe family oriented place to live. This is unlike West Roxbury and most of Jamaica Plain except the Jackson Square, Hyde Sqaure Corridor.
Parts of East Boston are sketchy. Parts of Hyde Park are sketchy. Parts of Mattapan are sketchy. Parts of Dorchester are sketchy. Parts of Roxbury are sketchy. The Old Colony area of South Boston is a little rough. The Theater District gets sketchy at night.
Be aware of your surroundings, don't play with your iPhone at midnight, and you'll be fine. I lived in Boston for 3 years, and the worst thing that happened to me was some wannabe tough guy yuppie tried to push me out of a bus seat.
I left Boston after living there for 25 years. I was never mugged or assaulted. I grew up in Roxbury and I used to use the T at night to go to the movies and social functions. A lot can be said for walking confidently and being alert to your surroundings. I even thwarted a couple robberies of my neighbors. Of course there are a lot more guns on the streets since 1983.
The closest I came to being a victim was witnessing a handgun wielding would-be robber on the North street...and that was when I was visiting in the 90's!
I have to say that I think the people who condemn large swaths of the city as sketchy or dangerous probably haven't spent much time in them and wouldn't recognize criminal activity before it hit them. The vast majority of Boston neighborhoods have a low incidence of crime, especially violent crime. Most violent crime, by the way, is committed between people who know each other. It is rarely random. Aside from that, the crime that might affect joe q public is mostly the kind that is preventable with a small amount of precaution and preparation.
There are very few parts of Dorchester that don't feel safe to me, very few parts of Mattapan, etc. Crime is going to happen in crowded urban areas. That's inescapable, but some of the statements in this thread have been fairly ridiculous.
It's interesting how many people are apologists for unsafe neighborhoods. It's fine to say that you'll do OK as long as you're alert to surroundings, walk confidently, etc. (all true), but some people don't want to live in a place where they have to be on guard all the time. Yes, crime can happen anywhere, but statistically it's more likely to happen in certain places than others, and there's no getting around that. To argue that Back Bay is no safer than Roxbury because there's crime in both places is absurd. Yes, there's crime in both places, but the level of incidence is vastly different, and your odds of actually being a victim are much in Roxbury than Back Bay, especially if you don't 'fit in' to the neighborhood (which many of us don't).
Different people have different levels of tolerance for this sort of thing.
Last edited by dazzleman; 10-31-2009 at 05:35 AM..
See, you are making the basic mistake of thinking that less frequent means more safe. You may be less likely to be mugged in the back bay, but you'd be a fool not to be just as vigilant. The fact is, mugging isn't that common anywhere in Boston, but it does happen in every neighborhood. It's simplistic to think in terms of the neighborhood without regard to personal behavior. Take precautions, and you will be pretty safe in most sections of Boston.
See, you are making the basic mistake of thinking that less frequent means more safe. You may be less likely to be mugged in the back bay, but you'd be a fool not to be just as vigilant. The fact is, mugging isn't that common anywhere in Boston, but it does happen in every neighborhood. It's simplistic to think in terms of the neighborhood without regard to personal behavior. Take precautions, and you will be pretty safe in most sections of Boston.
exactly. frankly, as a woman, I stay 100% vigilant 100% of the time REGARDLESS of where I am at night. whether I'm walking through Beacon Hill or Fort Hill, whether I'm walking down Harvard Ave in Coolidge Corner or Harvard St in Dorchester. sadly, the folks, especially women, who think it's okay to drop their vigilance b/c they are in a "safe" neighborhood are typically the ones to become victims, ie, female joggers who get assaulted in Beacon Hill or the Esplanade late at night. it's a sad fact of life that all women need to maintain vigilance at all times while living in the city, regardless of what part of the city you're living in. there may be more crimes in some areas of Boston, but NO part of Boston is crime free. period. if you don't want to keep up that level of vigilance, be prepared to be victimized or move to a super safe or very rural area
Agreed that no area is totally safe. Agreed too that it's also true that the "nice" areas are safer in general than the "bad" areas. However, Dazzleman and Henry Alan, I'm guessing that posts like Urban Peasant's are not meant to make apologies for the less upscale neighborhoods, or to gloss over the concerns about crime there. There have been a few threads circulating on this forum recently in which there have been a number of posts where people have generalized quite a bit about entire large sections of Boston, advising people to avoid all of Roxbury, Dorchester, Mattapan, etc. This is an inaccurate characterization, as it really comes down to specific neighborhoods within these larger areas which are especially unsafe, while other neighborhoods have a more typical urban crime risk. It seems most likely that some posts pointing out that the upscale neighborhoods have their hazards are simply meant to make the point that it's inaccurate to characterize neighborhoods as either/or, totally crime-ridden or completely safe.
Agreed that no area is totally safe. Agreed too that it's also true that the "nice" areas are safer in general than the "bad" areas. However, Dazzleman and Henry Alan, I'm guessing that posts like Urban Peasant's are not meant to make apologies for the less upscale neighborhoods, or to gloss over the concerns about crime there. There have been a few threads circulating on this forum recently in which there have been a number of posts where people have generalized quite a bit about entire large sections of Boston, advising people to avoid all of Roxbury, Dorchester, Mattapan, etc. This is an inaccurate characterization, as it really comes down to specific neighborhoods within these larger areas which are especially unsafe, while other neighborhoods have a more typical urban crime risk. It seems most likely that some posts pointing out that the upscale neighborhoods have their hazards are simply meant to make the point that it's inaccurate to characterize neighborhoods as either/or, totally crime-ridden or completely safe.
That makes sense.
I've been to Boston a number of times, but the areas I've visited are relatively limited. I've been to Charlestown, the North End, the Financial District, Downtown Crossing, Back Bay, Beacon Hill, and parts of the South End. I've driven through South Boston and Dorchester.
I went jogging at night and felt only slightly unsafe in a deserted part of the Financial District/Downtown Crossing area.
See, you are making the basic mistake of thinking that less frequent means more safe. You may be less likely to be mugged in the back bay, but you'd be a fool not to be just as vigilant. The fact is, mugging isn't that common anywhere in Boston, but it does happen in every neighborhood. It's simplistic to think in terms of the neighborhood without regard to personal behavior. Take precautions, and you will be pretty safe in most sections of Boston.
I completely disagree. The frequency of crime in a neighborhood or area determines the behavior you need for that area and not the other way around. People in rural parts of the country can leave their houses unlocked and their keys in their car and not fear anything whereas people in truly dangerous areas can take every foreseeable precaution and still be worried about a crime.
I'd certainly agree that wherever you are being smart about your surroundings decreases your likelihood of attack but it doesn't make all the difference. For some, there is a considerable benefit of living somewhere where you don't need to be constantly vigilant. That is a safe neighborhood.
Coincidentally I just received an email about a crime that just happened last night around 8 PM in South Boston, right near where I lived for years. This is NEW to me seeing this type of assault. In all the years living there I never had a thing happen and believe me, I was out late at night with my friends back then! We'd stroll home all hours of the day and night with our little key rings to get in to our apartments and not one single solitary thing ever happened in all those years living there. One time, a raccoon skurried up the middle of "K & 6th" Street and it spooked us to no end! That's about IT!
IN any case, this is the email I received about an hour ago, my friends and I obviously can't believe this going on over there. We're assuming it's a desperate drug addict to pull this nonsense because when I was young, guys would never raise their hands and punch, hit or whack a woman, ever, it just is not and was not in their vocabulary or life styles, but now it's another story with Oxycontin and Heroin addicts running rampant out there now...
Subject: another pocketbook stolen in the neighborhood of South Boston
FYI - Thursday night November 5th, 2009 at about 8 PM a woman's purse was stolen. She had just gotten her hair done at the shop at "P & 4th." She tried to fight him off, but he punched her in the face pretty bad & took off. She wasn't hurt but decided to go the hospital because she was really shaken up. The cop said this woman was from Waltham, MA. That's the second attack at this location, "P & 4th Street."
This particular crime happened in the nicer part of the neighborhood near the "Point" part of Southie. It's such a shame, it's really getting pretty bad now in our society. Something definitely needs to be done about these type of attacks. One thing that needs to happen with women is NO carrying purses, especially if you're alone. I use my pockets and haven't used a purse in years. Once you're attacked like this you usually won't carry one ever again. I was assaulted at the Downtown Crossing MBTA stop for my purse a long time ago and ever since then I absolutely refuse to carry a purse or a shoulder bag. Just leave the thing at home especially when out in public, it's not worth it and believe me I was upset because it was during the days of the real "Gucci" & "Louis Vuitton" days of carrying purses!
SERIOUSLY, BE VERY CAREFUL, AND IT DOESN'T MATTER WHERE YOU LIVE. I KNOW WITHIN THE CITY OF BOSTON, THIS PARTICULAR TYPE OF CRIME IS RUNNING RAMPANT THESE DAYS, THIS ISN'T THE FIRST EMAIL I RECEIVED ABOUT THIS TYPE OF THING GOING ON. IT NEVER EVER WAS THIS BAD THRU THE YEARS AS IT IS RIGHT NOW. PLEASE, WATCH YOUR BACK AND DO NOT EVER EVER WALK ALONE AT NIGHT ANY WHERE. I'LL TELL YOU, THIS IS WHEN HAVING GOOD FRIENDS AND BUDDIES COME IN HANDY, I WAS BLESSED THRU THE YEARS WITH THEM! IF YOU'RE ALONE, HOP IN A TAXI OR GET A RIDE FROM A FRIEND, ANYTHING, BUT DO NOT WALK ALONE AT NIGHT ANY WHERE.
In southern NH at UNH, there was a couple of assaults on students. They can't even walk from one building to another without something happening. Just recently a student was just walking out of Stokes Hall and got beaten by a few kids. This is an issue that never ever in all the years I've been on this earth, it never happened at the UNH in Durham campus. This type of violance is just outrageous now, going on. There's even UNH security crawling all over the campus and this type of crime is STILL going on??? What gives with that?? I know this student is a really great kid too & very well liked and a well known family in southern NH, it was uncalled for and totally out of character. What ever is going on in peoples minds now it's just so absurd and unnecessary. It's not just within the City of Boston either as you can see by this incident. It seems to be happening every where and it's really got to stop, don't you agree? There's got to be an answer for these terrible random acts of such vicious violence toward our fellow man, ya think?
Last edited by CityGirl52; 11-06-2009 at 03:36 PM..
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