Two men shot near Central Square Cambridge (Boston, Somerville: real estate, house)

[bostongymjunkie]

Originally Posted by bostonguy1960

Fair enough. I value your opinion and experiences you describe on different topics over the years. Good to read your views on this post.

But to me, Cambridge can be gritty/ dumpy. More than some would expect, perhaps, as I think its image to some is of widespread prosperity and charm -- if one never visits or just goes to Brattle Street or Harvard Square or other select sections.

Sure, the desirable areas are appealing, and I enjoy strolling or driving through them. But some of the side streets off of Columbia, from Main Street to the Broadway and the Hampshire Street intersections aren't too nice. (Maybe with some exceptions.) Toss in a section of nearby Harvard Street in there, near Whole Foods Market on Prospect Street, plus parts of Cambridge Street as well as streets off of Hampshire Street (maybe Elm, Prospect?) adjoining Somerville, and those parts aren't appealing visually. And Bishop Allen Drive, not far from Whole Foods Market on Prospect, has many junky dwellings.

Even parts of Cambridge off Belmont Street near the Mt. Auburn Street Star market as it approaches Belmont, Massachusetts, don't seem too fancy. Seems there's a housing project tucked back there among recent homes? Also, aren't some of the streets off of the Mass. Ave.and Rindge Avenue area, especially heading up to those (subsidized?) towers at Rindge and Alewife Brook Parkway, a bit junky?


Even those streets off of Brookline Street between Memorial Drive and Massachusetts Avenue are crowded and in some or many cases seem a bit rundown? But yes, all of these areas noted in this post are still expensive, and I couldn't afford a 1 BR rental.

Meanwhile, I have lived in a dumpy accomodation in North Quincy on a dumpy street for 16 plus years after leaving Brookline, after 11 years where housemates made it relatively cheap but the landlord decided to sell, so we vacated with a couple months notice. I have a good deal, so won't leave for now. Plus I like Quincy in general, and it's gotten much more appealing, I think, since my arrival. But of course it has its share of gritty, run down streets I stroll through. But most would expect that more in Quincy, Revere, Everettt or Lynn versus Cambridge. So that's why I seem to be picking on Cambridge...maybe unfairly.

...

Maybe I should stay out of parts of Central Square, where I sometimes go to eateries or transfer on the 70 bus to Waltham to visit a friend. Some real mentally and visually unstable creeps meandering around there. As if that's news to anyone! Recently, I was fat shamed there by a 40 year-old or so black male passing by as I was stuffing my face and minding my own business at the bus stop. ("You fat piece of $##&5*!!!!!"'...Porky Piiigggggg!!!!" ) Yes, he must have had mental illness, as too many around there do. So maybe that part of town has always tainted my view of Cambridge a bit. Heck, I don't like being overweight or seeing others so unfit, so I don't blame him, but at least most mentally fit people don't fat shame while passing through a neighborhood or in a store, thankfully.

So what's your solution, outlaw mentally ill people who say things you don't like? You're here sort of shaming mentally ill people. You're not doing it to their face, but you're doing it nonetheless.

[massnative71]

Originally Posted by bostonguy1960

Maybe I should stay out of parts of Central Square, where I sometimes go to eateries or transfer on the 70 bus to Waltham to visit a friend. Some real mentally and visually unstable creeps meandering around there. As if that's news to anyone! Recently, I was fat shamed there by a 40 year-old or so black male passing by as I was stuffing my face and minding my own business at the bus stop. ("You fat piece of $##&5*!!!!!"'...Porky Piiigggggg!!!!" ) Yes, he must have had mental illness, as too many around there do. So maybe that part of town has always tainted my view of Cambridge a bit. Heck, I don't like being overweight or seeing others so unfit, so I don't blame him, but at least most mentally fit people don't fat shame while passing through a neighborhood or in a store, thankfully.

Originally Posted by bostongymjunkie

In my view gritty sections = real city. Clean and sanitized = boring densely populated suburbs. We have enough of the latter.

I'm all about gritty, but on Central Square I can't disagree with Bostonguy's synopsis. Unless it changed dramatically in recent years, it's always been a weird creepy place. Can't find any appealing qualities there whatsoever.

[GeePee]

Originally Posted by massnative71

Ya got it buddy, I'm on an "agenda" to take your e-cigs away.

I quit those. But I do still live in Boston. It was an honest question because based on all the threads you start about a place you do not live in one would think this place is the Gaza Strip. What exactly is your intention?

[massnative71]

Originally Posted by GeePee

What exactly is your intention?

To discuss topics of interest, that are related to this City-"Data" forum. 2020 saw a 54% increase in murders for the city of Boston, you don't think that's an issue???

[GeePee]

Originally Posted by massnative71

To discuss topics of interest, that are related to this City-"Data" forum. 2020 saw a 54% increase in murders for the city of Boston, you don't think that's an issue???

I think it is an issue of concern for the residence yes. But it seems there are a couple of posters that do not live here that constantly post these type of things.

[massnative71]

Originally Posted by GeePee

I think it is an issue of concern for the residence yes. But it seems there are a couple of posters that do not live here that constantly post these type of things.

Can I live somewhere else and still have ties/family/visits to the area, where it might be on my radar? That permitted by your book?

[GeePee]

Originally Posted by massnative71

Can I live somewhere else and still have ties/family/visits to the area, where it might be on my radar? That permitted by your book?

Oh by all means. But it maybe more helpful to hear peoples prospective from the inside rather than someone from afar just constantly posting news clippings of crime. A lot of these things happen close by to me and my family and for some reason we are not scared to leave our homes.

[id77]

Originally Posted by massnative71

To discuss topics of interest, that are related to this City-"Data" forum. 2020 saw a 54% increase in murders for the city of Boston, you don't think that's an issue???

Yes, it's an issue...a national one. 2020 was not a good year for not dying. Milwaukee 2020 murder rate was up 94.9% from 2019. Minneapolis 72.3%. New Orleans 61.7%.

[timberline742]

Originally Posted by id77

Yes, it's an issue...a national one. 2020 was not a good year for not dying. Milwaukee 2020 murder rate was up 94.9% from 2019. Minneapolis 72.3%. New Orleans 61.7%.

And an issue that was completely predicted by those that study crime trends and made projections due to covid without the influx of a massive government economic response for the most vulnerable, something we didn't see. They are also predicting (per several journal articles I've read) for this to subsist awhile even though the indices so often touted as bellweathers of the economy return to "normal" (unemployment rate, dow level, etc) as those indices have perpetually failed to capture the economic wellbeing of those in the bottom rungs of the economy.

[msRB311]

Boston has really become a city of people who are wealthy and then people who are poor and barely getting by. There's no more in between.

The housing market everywhere seems out of control, not just in Greater Boston.