Mostly white zip codes with decent 3+ bed housing around $400K? (Quincy: best neighborhood, brokers)

[bigfatdude]

Originally Posted by massnative71

I apologize for pushing this OT, but this goes to show how far we have lost our minds as a society. It is ABSOLUTELY NOT OK to deny some child a mother and father, regardless of the financial situation. I know stuff happens, but good grief...

Mother? You mean that social worker who shows up every week to count the bruises, reports it to DCF and they don't do jack? And father? What father?

[chicagoliz]

Originally Posted by sal1181

They took their children out of Needham schools to go to Randolph?? They should of researched Needham in advance. I live in a mostly caucasian town and I'm not white. I knew that prior to moving here.

Originally Posted by MikePRU

That's shocking. How is anyone in this day and age shocked about the diversity of a town. It's incredibly easy to see US census data online. It's right here on City Data. One quick glance will tell you the vast majority of Boston burbs are incredibly Caucasian.

Personally, I grew up in Framingham which is a much more diverse place than Needham and I value diversity. This being said, here in Needham I have a rainbow of friends of all different races, religions, and sexual orientations. My friends percentage wise are probably a reflection of the town's population but we all get along no matter our backgrounds. The bottom line here:

A place is not going to get MORE diverse if you avoid it as a minority because of it's lack of diversity

I'm absolutely shocked by this story though. A good education is a good education. I would think there would be a better solution for your friend than moving to Randolph.

This is not someone that I know well, so I don't know all of the details of everything that she may have experienced. She and her husband are white and her two children are black. In a group that we are both in, there is a lot of discussion regarding providing racial mirrors for children of color, particularly when the children are in a family that is all white. So, many people decide that diversity is THE top priority. Often, people have discovered, after moving to a diverse area that allegedly has schools that are not so great, that they actually have great experiences at the school, and there are a multitude of explanations for the underperformance. But being around many adults who are the same race as the children has been an important factor for them.

This family knew Needham's population, and their position was that the schools weren't good enough to a higher extent to warrant the lack of diversity. That is, they do believe that the schools were good, but that the lack of diversity was a bigger drawback.

I probably would not have made the same decision, but I'm not in the exact same position as she is. I can say that I was looking for a more diverse community and we ended up in Newton, which is orders of magnitude more diverse than my previous community, which shocks people I've talked to in Newton who don't believe the town is particularly diverse.

My bigger point was that there are people who don't just want to live in diverse areas, but actually do make it the priority.

[timberline742]

Originally Posted by massnative71

I apologize for pushing this OT, but this goes to show how far we have lost our minds as a society. It is ABSOLUTELY NOT OK to deny some child a mother and father, regardless of the financial situation. I know stuff happens, but good grief...

The situations I mentioned no one was denied anything, and stuff just didn't happened, it was 100% planned.

And, there are many many many situations where people would be better off with one parent. My life wasn't like that, but loads of people I know had that life.

[timberline742]

Originally Posted by bigfatdude

Nothing wrong with having a kid out of wedlock if you can afford to do so. Now, do you really think all the out of wedlock kids you see in poorer parts of town are NOT being raised on our dime? I don't know about you, but I highly doubt anyone would be too happy paying to raise someone else's kid when they can barely afford to raise their own.

I don't see that as any different from the non out of wedlock kids in the poorer parts of town. They're disadvantaged children. The end.

[sal1181]

Originally Posted by massnative71

I did, which I why I am currently scratching my head. Based on your post, your experience in North Andover sounds a lot better than many whites who attended BPS.

I graduated from BPS and there was a few Caucasian kids. Never heard of them
having issues with being bullied. What I'm just trying to explain is that minorities in general experience a lot
more discrimination. As you can read from a previous poster regarding Milton is that the agent steers people away from a certain section of town because of the minorities that live there.

[sal1181]

Originally Posted by bigfatdude

Sorry to burst your bubble, but it has EVERYTHING to do with looking and acting like a thug.

Actually not all situation have to do with them looking like thugs. Like it or not there are some racist people out there that hate minorities just because they are minorities.

[bigfatdude]

Originally Posted by timberline742

I don't see that as any different from the non out of wedlock kids in the poorer parts of town. They're disadvantaged children. The end.

Not quite - more like human ATMs. You never hear about middle class couples, or, worse yet, single mothers of any color having 5 or 6 kids (simply because they can't afford to, even if they really wanted to,) yet that doesn't sound like anything out of ordinary at your favorite 'hood or trailer park. I don't know about you, but I'm sure everyone else sees a great many things that are very wrong with that picture.

[sal1181]

Originally Posted by bigfatdude

Not quite - more like human ATMs. You never hear about middle class couples, or, worse yet, single mothers of any color having 5 or 6 kids (simply because they can't afford to, even if they really wanted to,) yet that doesn't sound like anything out of ordinary at your favorite 'hood or trailer park. I don't know about you, but I'm sure everyone else sees a great many things that are very wrong with that picture.

I do agree that if you can't afford to support yourself it is very selfish to bring children into this world to suffer.

[sal1181]

Originally Posted by pennyone

Milton is only "diverse" in one corner of the town....the part closest to mattapan. It's also the part of town that Milton real estate agents have been known to steer non-black folks away from when they are looking for houses. That section of town is also the joke among Milton kids who make fun of those who live on the 'wrong' part of town.

What these agents are doing is illegal! Hopefully they will get caught.

[such sweet thunder]

Originally Posted by jayrandom

Is there a reason you've ruled out Milton?

Originally Posted by pennyone

Milton is only "diverse" in one corner of the town....the part closest to mattapan. It's also the part of town that Milton real estate agents have been known to steer non-black folks away from when they are looking for houses. That section of town is also the joke among Milton kids who make fun of those who live on the 'wrong' part of town.

Thanks for the tip jayrandom. My wife and I toured open houses in Milton one weekend but may be giving it short shrift. We looked at a couple houses around Milton Academy and then ate at a restaurant that just reeked of the suburbs in the little downtown area on Adams St. We didn't really check out North Milton, which probably aligns much closer with our aims anyway. We really liked Lower Mills during our last pre-child housing search and work downtown, so T access is important.

pennyone, I get a kick out of how many realtors seem to steer their clients to areas of town with poor long-term value prospects. I don't know the first thing about Milton, but I'd be willing to bet that the area bordering the T is going to be more expensive in ten years, if it isn't already, than the "right" part of town.