Fairmount Grille in Hyde Park Abruptly Closes; lack of restaurants in outer neighborhoods (Boston: low income, section 8)

[BostonBornMassMade]

https://www.universalhub.com/2019/up...nt-shuts-doors

This leaves Hyde Park with 2 sit downs restaurants located about 15 feet from each other as they are directly across the street. And about a quarter mile from the Milton border. Those restaurants are Rincon Caribeno (Dominican) and Antonio Bacaros (Italian).
Hyde park is 4 square miles with 35-40k people in it.

Neighboring Mattapan has no restaurants at all.

So for 75k people in 7 square miles (over 1/7th of the city) there are exactly two full service restaurants located within 15 feet of each other near the city’s borders.

I believe there is 1-2 bars in Hyde Park. One is a dive called Master McGrath’s and I’m blanking on the other.

How can Boston seriously call itself world class? When there are very few world-class amenities throughout much of the city,. The institutions are world class but amenities and cultural offerings are sorely lacking in much of Boston. Too much of the city operates as a sleepy small town. Is this a thing in other cities? None I’ve been to I’m curious as to other who’ve lived elsewhere would this much of an area an population be unserved in any other major city?

[Highlander617]

Is the other bar.

[GeePee]

I will always scratch my head at why Hyde Park has such a hard time turning around. There are some wonderful properties there. Fairmont is such a good looking little square too. It can't just be because of public transit?

[BostonBornMassMade]

Originally Posted by GeePee

I will always scratch my head at why Hyde Park has such a hard time turning around. There are some wonderful properties there. Fairmont is such a good looking little square too. It can't just be because of public transit?

Agreed. Hyde Park seems to have been stagnant for such a long time. HP and Mattapan and to a lesser extent Westie, are juts too far removed from the' hub' and the action.

Westie seems to be on a decline in terms of desirability because of housing preferences among younger buyers.

Mattapan seems on the up and up because crime has come down a lot over the past 15 years.

Hyde Park seems to not be bad enough for gentrification but not good enough to attract new development or energy. The demographic is not transient and is not what people think of whenthey think of the Boston lifestyle. People dont move to the Boston area for Hyde Park like environs really-Dorchester Roxbury Everett Chelsea Somerville etc are all more what people envision or desire physically when they mvoe to an urban Boston area. Its just too far from any schools of note other than Curry College. Which isnt saying much.

I think HP says it offers the 'best of both worlds'suburban and urban but in reality it offers the worst )or worse parts) of both worlds. Bad urban schools like a city, lack of transit like a suburb, expensive old homes that are hard to maintain like a suburb, poor build quality and small lots like a city. Close to the city for traffic but far from the city like a suburb. Walkable like a city but even fewer entertainment and dining options than a suburb. Town Square like a suburb but lack a sense of community like a city.

[Bridge781]

I heard about this too. I live in Milton so I’m pretty familiar with HP and I have a cousin who has lived in HP right on the Milton line for a while. Her neighborhood is really nice, you’d think you were in Milton. Other parts are not great. It seems like there are a lot of low income people living there and not many young or even not so young professionals. The area is not good. People want to blame the city or the mayor but they’re not responsible for who lives there. What’s the point of putting up nice restaurants and shops if no one is going to go them? And yes the people of Hyde park clearly aren’t going to them. That rincon place is not going to attract young professionals. There was a stabbing between two women there a few months ago. There are frequent fights at that Cavan place too.

It amazes me that Dorchester has become what it is in the past few years. It still has bad areas for sure but the Adams village, lower mills area and ashmont area are booming with nice places. Dorchester already had the gay men there though which has helped and they also have a lot of cops and fire fighters who are happy to not have to go to southie anymore for a beer or food. These folks got the places going and the young professionals came. Hyde park does have cops and firefighters but not many these days.

The prices in HP are not cheap either. I am not sure what is going on. I’m guessing large families are buying homes and living in them together. Or landlords are buying them and renting them or they become section 8.

It is kind of amazing because HP is right next to Milton which is very desirable, it’s also near roslindale which seems to be much more appealing.

The T situation is not good either. There’s fairmount but it only runs every hour and it just takes you to south station really.

Does anyone know what is the point of having the Hyde park commuter stop on pingree st? It seems like there are hardly any stops made at it during the week.

[BostonBornMassMade]

Originally Posted by Bridge781

I heard about this too. I live in Milton so I’m pretty familiar with HP and I have a cousin who has lived in HP right on the Milton line for a while. Her neighborhood is really nice, you’d think you were in Milton. Other parts are not great. It seems like there are a lot of low income people living there and not many young or even not so young professionals. The area is not good. People want to blame the city or the mayor but they’re not responsible for who lives there. What’s the point of putting up nice restaurants and shops if no one is going to go them? And yes the people of Hyde park clearly aren’t going to them. That rincon place is not going to attract young professionals. There was a stabbing between two women there a few months ago. There are frequent fights at that Cavan place too.

It amazes me that Dorchester has become what it is in the past few years. It still has bad areas for sure but the Adams village, lower mills area and ashmont area are booming with nice places. Dorchester already had the gay men there though which has helped and they also have a lot of cops and fire fighters who are happy to not have to go to southie anymore for a beer or food. These folks got the places going and the young professionals came. Hyde park does have cops and firefighters but not many these days.

The prices in HP are not cheap either. I am not sure what is going on. I’m guessing large families are buying homes and living in them together. Or landlords are buying them and renting them or they become section 8.

It is kind of amazing because HP is right next to Milton which is very desirable, it’s also near roslindale which seems to be much more appealing.

The T situation is not good either. There’s fairmount but it only runs every hour and it just takes you to south station really.

Does anyone know what is the point of having the Hyde park commuter stop on pingree st? It seems like there are hardly any stops made at it during the week.

I think there are a good number of young professionals but their semi professional or lowly paid professional. Not the typical sort. I certainly wouldn’t say it’s a bad area. Rincon Caribeno is the exact type of restaurant that would attract “young professionals” if it weren’t in Everett Square. I ate their and it was lovely.

Also, why does every neighborhood need young professionals in the first place?? Young professionals are like 10% of the population of the country if that. And at most 30% of Boston. Maybe work on making the neighborhood interesting and vibrant for the people who already live there?

[Bridge781]

I got take out from rincon once the mofongo because guy fieri said it was great. It was ok. I just looked at the menu and they have things like cow feet stew. You really think that even if that place was in the seaport it would be a good place to go? I’m all for trying new things but Hyde park needs more than rincon to get things shaking if that’s what they want. I’d like to see the area nicer. It’s filled with dollar stores and barber shops. Not sure why many of them are so needed.

The one nice place left IMO is Bacaros but it’s pretty small, not sure how they’ll do. HP needs a Starbucks.

I don’t think a place needs young professionals but clearly HP isn’t able to survive very nicely with the current inhabitants. They are not spending their money in HP. Fairmount grill was not expensive either. I belong to HP group on Facebook and people are up in arms about this place closing. I went twice and it wasn’t crowded. The food was decent.

The people that live there must eat in or go to McDonald’s.

[yesmaybe]

Originally Posted by Bridge781

Does anyone know what is the point of having the Hyde park commuter stop on pingree st? It seems like there are hardly any stops made at it during the week.

It stops enough for commuting purposes, at least for first shift workers.

[massnative71]

Originally Posted by BostonBornMassMade

I think HP says it offers the 'best of both worlds'suburban and urban but in reality it offers the worst )or worse parts) of both worlds. Bad urban schools like a city, lack of transit like a suburb, expensive old homes that are hard to maintain like a suburb, poor build quality and small lots like a city. Close to the city for traffic but far from the city like a suburb. Walkable like a city but even fewer entertainment and dining options than a suburb. Town Square like a suburb but lack a sense of community like a city.

This says a lot of it right here. And despite its affordability relative to other Boston neighborhoods, it still seems overpriced for what it is. Last I looked, it didn't seem to offer any cost advantage over Dedham, Quincy, Braintree...most people I know wouldn't choose HP over any of those suburbs unless they are forced to live in the city.


So you have the demographics that don't really support sit-down restaurants, but I think when people there DO go out they are so accustomed to going to Dedham, West Roxbury, and Roslindale. Always has been that way. But 2 restaurants for a neighborhood of 35K, that is still crazy!

[Bridge781]

Originally Posted by yesmaybe

It stops enough for commuting purposes, at least for first shift workers.

I just looked and saw that if you want to get from that stop to ruggles at 620am then the next time is 920. It goes to back bay every hour. But it’s also zone 1 which is quite a bit more than fairmounts zone 1a. Readville is zone 2. Makes no sense!!