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One end of that street is close to Upham's Corner and the other end is in Meeting House Hill, both problematic neighborhoods. I would not consider that entire area to be safe at all. At one time, our city government tried to promote that area as a coming up area for newcomers but after a slew of incidents including break-ins, car thefts, and even murders, all the gentrified people moved out and the whole place has fallen back to its old ways.
Your son is better off looking closer to the Savin Hill rapid transit station, or the Ashmont, Neponset, Port Norfolk, Shawmut, or Adam's Village sections of Dorchester. Stay as close to the Southeast Expressway and east of Dorchester Avenue for the best neighborhoods. The only good neighborhoods west of Dorchester Avenue are Shawmut (including the quiet Melville Park Area), Ashmont Hill, and the Lower Mills District which is the area directly south of Gallivan Blvd.
I second that emotion. Hopefully "finding" an apartment doesn't mean a lease has been signed. All too often there's a good, negative, reason for ready availability of rental units in this city.
To the list supplied by UP, I'd like to add Jones Hill. Though it abuts the stubbornly sketchy Uphams Corner section, the neighborhood has fared better as a "discovered" community for urban pioneers. Also worth considering would be the so-called Polish Triangle along Boston St on the Dorchester/South Boston line.
As a general guideline for home-hunting in Dorchester, the main streets to always steer clear of living on or near are Blue Hill Ave, Morton St (except in Lower Mills), Bowdoin St, Geneva Ave, and Columbia Rd (except in Edward Everett Square - maybe - and the old St Margaret's Parish surrounding the intersection with "Dot Ave.")
For anyone looking at this post in 2013, it's interesting to see how the gentrification in Dorchester eventually DID kick in - while the dangerous parts remain Blue Hill Ave area and all surrounding streets, Savin Hill (formerly called Stabin' Hill) is now almost entirely populated by UMas students, while Jones Hill and parts of Uphams Corner east of Columbia road literally transformed into a gay Mecca. (census tract 911 in 2013 shows 6% of unmarried same-sex couples in 2013, highest percentage of gay households in Boston, along with Jamaica Plain and the South End). Mapping America ? Census Bureau 2005-9 American Community Survey - NYTimes.com
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Originally Posted by Urban Peasant
Your son is better off looking closer to the Savin Hill rapid transit station, or the Ashmont, Neponset, Port Norfolk, Shawmut, or Adam's Village sections of Dorchester. Stay as close to the Southeast Expressway and east of Dorchester Avenue for the best neighborhoods. The only good neighborhoods west of Dorchester Avenue are Shawmut (including the quiet Melville Park Area), Ashmont Hill, and the Lower Mills District which is the area directly south of Gallivan Blvd.
For anyone looking at this post in 2013, it's interesting to see how the gentrification in Dorchester eventually DID kick in - while the dangerous parts remain Blue Hill Ave area and all surrounding streets, Savin Hill (formerly called Stabin' Hill) is now almost entirely populated by UMas students, while Jones Hill and parts of Uphams Corner east of Columbia road literally transformed into a gay Mecca. (census tract 911 in 2013 shows 6% of unmarried same-sex couples in 2013, highest percentage of gay households in Boston, along with Jamaica Plain and the South End). Mapping America ? Census Bureau 2005-9 American Community Survey - NYTimes.com
I wouldn't entirely pass off all of Savin Hill just yet. The part that's the Hill (right by Morrissey Blvd) is very safe but the part to the west of the Red Line station not so much even though it's definitely not "Stab n Kill" any longer. Same goes with Uphams Corner where occasional flare-ups of gun violence still do happen. As for gentrification, I do see changes every year done to my neighborhood but it's still comparatively slow compared to what happened to South Boston, Brighton, Jamaica Plain, etc. Dorchester still remains a gritty working class neighborhood to me. Riding the Ashmont Line at night gives you that feeling, while the Cambridge side is full of young energetic people, the Dorchester side has half empty cars with tired looking older individuals - individuals who have seen a day's hard work year after year.
I used to live on Newport and Crescent in the shadow of the JFK/UMASS stop (a mile or so away), so in my opinion the area by Dot ave is much safer than the area by Bowdoin (even though they are only a 1/4 to a 1/2 mile apart). I think that Hancock and Columbia is better than the Bowdoin intersection. I haven't lived there for a while though. It's Dorchester........so you have to use common sense, but there are worse parts of town.
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Dorchester in 2013 - safe vs. dangerous areas
