How is Downtown Crossing at night? (Boston, Orange: crime, hotel, houses)

[Caymon83]

I am going up to Boston in a couple of weeks and I was looking at a hotel (Hyatt Regency) near DT Crossing.

I was reading some reviews of the hotel and they were talking about how empty and unsafe the area is at night. (You don't want to walk around alone, etc).

I have been to that area during the day and it always seems perfectly fine.


I expect it to be relativity quiet, but I assume the "unsafe" part is just people exaggerating?

Any advice from anyone familiar with the area at night?

Thanks!

[Cantabridgienne]

How late are you talking?

[Caymon83]

I don't really have a time in mind. Say between 9pm and midnight on a Fri and Sat night.

[RemiJP]

Over the past few years, I have witnessed some scary things at night, usually after 8pm in the Downtown Crossing T station. Never personally threatened, but I've encountered fights, people being chased/threatened by others with weapons, and just some generally creepy characters. On the street level, Downtown Crossing is rather empty at night, but filled with teenagers hanging out in the late afternoon. There just aren't many businesses open in the immediate area very late at night and that keeps people away. But the frightening experiences I had weren't enough to scare me away from the area completely at night. Often after babysitting late at night in Beacon Hill, I would walk down Winter St to catch the Orange Line home. I think it depends on your personal comfort level. If what I've describe worries you, I would recommend taking a cab back to your hotel at night and you'll be just fine!

[Cliff Clavin]

I work in the office bldg next to the Hyatt. You'll be fine during those hours. There are a few bars and restaurants in the area, as well as the Suffolk dorms. People we be out and about, esp during the weekend.

[Cantabridgienne]

Honestly, that doesn't bother me at all. That's not that late, and there are enough bars/restaurants around there that are on a weekend.

I wouldn't walk there alone at say, 3am on a Tuesday, but weekends, fairly early? Sure.

[Jstine103]

i think your perfectly find from those hours and even much later on the weekends. I went to school at Suffolk and lived in the dorms on Tremont. we were out at all hours of the night and never witnessed anything but some bums/drud users. Alot of people are around there going to and from work or from parties in the northe end or beacon hill, from resturants and bars. you'll be fine. i think it's sometimes exaggerated the crime around there but does it happen? sure, like anywhere.

[xS☺B☺s]

It does seem kinda bleak on that block at night but it's getting better. That is smack dab in the middle of what once was Boston's notorious "Combat Zone". Originally it was called that as a double entendre. On one hand it was where the soldiers shipping out to Europe during WW1/2 would congregate. One the other hand, it also represented all the seedy services that serviced the GI's at the time, including ladies of the night, speakeasies, burlesque houses etc.

Sally Keith

After the wars, the soldiers and sailors disappeared but the underworld remained. The neighborhood degenerated a lot to the point they began demolishing it - Scollay Sq, the East side of Washington at Downtown Crossing, the whole West End. We're lucky there's anything left.

Combat Zone in the eighties

The Liberty Tree building was the first building restored when the wrecking mood finally ended about 1994. At that time next door to that building was a filthy peep show house of legend - complete with the peep window, sticky wooden benches, and toothless hag stripper. At that time, the Opera House, the Paramount, all those beautiful old theatres were boarded up and looked like death. It wasn't Downtown Crossing, it was the Combat Zone, but not a good one.

You will still find a few hustlers hanging on Kneeland Street between Wash and Tremont usually trying to sell pot or something. The ghosts of the old Combat Zone still haunt the area, I can feel 'em. But they are being priced out day by day. The whole history of the Combat Zone very nearly parallels Times Sq with its ups and downs.

[Cliff Clavin]

Originally Posted by Bostonian08

It does seem kinda bleak on that block at night but it's getting better. That is smack dab in the middle of what once was Boston's notorious "Combat Zone". Originally it was called that as a double entendre. On one hand it was where the soldiers shipping out to Europe during WW1/2 would congregate. One the other hand, it also represented all the seedy services that serviced the GI's at the time, including ladies of the night, speakeasies, burlesque houses etc.

Sally Keith

After the wars, the soldiers and sailors disappeared but the underworld remained. The neighborhood degenerated a lot to the point they began demolishing it - Scollay Sq, the East side of Washington at Downtown Crossing, the whole West End. We're lucky there's anything left.

Combat Zone in the eighties

The Liberty Tree building was the first building restored when the wrecking mood finally ended about 1994. At that time next door to that building was a filthy peep show house of legend - complete with the peep window, sticky wooden benches, and toothless hag stripper. At that time, the Opera House, the Paramount, all those beautiful old theatres were boarded up and looked like death. It wasn't Downtown Crossing, it was the Combat Zone, but not a good one.

You will still find a few hustlers hanging on Kneeland Street between Wash and Tremont usually trying to sell pot or something. The ghosts of the old Combat Zone still haunt the area, I can feel 'em. But they are being priced out day by day. The whole history of the Combat Zone very nearly parallels Times Sq with its ups and downs.

There's a convenience store on Boylston St across from the St Francis House that sells "Combat Zone - Boston" tee shirts. I keep meaning to pick one up.

[Caymon83]

Thanks for the advice. I went ahead and booked the hotel. The opinions are basically what I expected. It is an urban environment and crime can happen, but it nothing to lose sleep over.

Thanks again!