Waltham bad areas (Newton, Watertown, Lexington: apartment, condo, houses)

[Almost RedSox Nation]

What are the bad areas of Waltham? My husband and I are looking at houses near Hardy Pond. There are a couple new construction homes on Trapelo Rd, Mokema Ave, and Hillcrest St. We will be moving from Alexandria, VA to Mass and haven't looked at the area yet.

[scarletfire]

Mokema and Hillcrest are nice. I don't personally know about Trapelo Rd but hopefully someone local to that area can chime in.

[goyguy]

You're "golden" no matter where in northern Waltham you end up. I love it out there. The streets are every bit as nice as those in more "prestigious" communities. Once you're off the main drags such as Trapelo Rd and Lexington St, and away from the apartment/condo complexes and strip malls along them, you could just as easily be in Lexington or Wayland or any of the other suburbs with more lustrous reputations. The mania for "teardowns" hasn't gotten out of hand, so there are still plenty of nice homes in various styles that date from the early to mid-20th century interspersed with the occasional McMansion or Colonial of telltale recent vintage. Shade, and bird songs, abound thanks to all the mature trees and lack of traffic.
The socioeconomic dividing line in Waltham runs from east to west a few blocks north of Main St, then along Main St itself between the common and the Watertown line. There's another pleasant and stable pocket of the city along the Newton boundary, and also in the Cedarwood area out toward Weston as well as along South St past the Brandeis campus. Because of its "destination stores" such as Woodstuff and The Compleat Gamester, to say nothing of Restaurant Row, Moody St - the street traversing southern Waltham - is also safe at any hour. It's the side streets off Moody, and south of Main St, that can be sketchy at times with their abundance of rooming houses and faded apartment buildings. The city's onetime reputation as a haven for "vice" is still borne out in this vicinity, no need to say more.
Good choice!