Living in Winter Hill?

[enochs-fable.livejournal.com]

Apologies if this is too far from the Square, but I figure people would have some good opinions.

I'm looking at condos in the Winter Hill area (between Medford and Broadway) and wondering how safe it is? I know it was a lot rougher a decade or two ago, but I don't know what it's like now.

Any people living in that area want to chime in on their experiences? Any advice where to look for crime statistics? Anything else I should know?

Comments

[frederic.livejournal.com]

I live on Medford St in that area. It's pretty safe. The only problem we've had is when my downstairs neighbor left his car door unlocked one too many times and someone rifled through it (once in 6 years). Otherwise, no problems with crime.

I live there too...

[winterhill.livejournal.com]

On a street running one way from Broadway to Medford St. In general it's quite safe, but find the crime/safety varies by block. There is regularly petty crime (fights, vandalism) around the convenience store at the intersection of Central and Medford -- but I don't know why. Lately there was a stabbing in or around the Winter Hill community school but I don't have add'l details.

On my street it's quiet but we've had flowers stolen off the porch and one home break-in that I'm aware of.

Re: I live there too...

[kalimba21.livejournal.com]

all of these recent crimes are related to one house near that corner and their newest tenants who moved in last fall.

[chaiya.livejournal.com]

My cousin lives in Winter Hill. There was a shooting and drug bust down her street within the past month or two. The police blockaded her street and everything. It really freaked me out. But that's just one incident.

For crime stats, you can talk to the city of Somerville for each zone. They can provide specific stats based on type of crime, number of incidents in the past X amount of time, etc. We did that, too, as prep for buying our house in Porter Square. No area is perfect, particularly since Somerville is the capitol of carjacking. But there are definitely safer and less-safe areas of Somerville, according to the research we did 4 years ago.

[enochs-fable.livejournal.com]

Where would be the best place to start in talking to the city?

[chaiya.livejournal.com]

Somerville PD's non-emergency line is 617-625-1600. That's where we got the stats 4 years ago, and if they're not still the providers, they can at least tell you where to go from there. It might help if you have specific street addresses you want to check out -- they can even go to the level of noise complaints called in, if you want that.

[hakamadare.livejournal.com]

the Winter Hill East ResiStat (http://www.somervillema.gov/section.cfm?org=somstat&page=1016) group should be a good source of information. join the Yahoo! group (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Winter-Hill-East/) for discussion, and come to the meetings!

if you look through the notes from the previous meetings (http://www.somervillema.gov/section.cfm?org=somstat&page=1046), you'll find some examples of the crime data that the city collects; the best way to get lots of detailed information would probably be to post your requests on the Yahoo! group with sufficient lead time that the ResiStat representative will be able to answer them at the next meeting.

in addition, contacting the relevant alderman (http://www.somervillema.gov/Section.cfm?org=aldermen&page=76) would probably also be a good idea.

-steve

[ron_newman]

Somerville is the capitol of carjacking.

What ?! Car theft or car breakins I can believe, but carjacking?

[chaiya.livejournal.com]

Oops, sorry, yes, car theft and chop shop remakes. I had a less-than-brain morning. :P

[ron_newman]

Whew. Somerville has its problems, but we tend not to have many violent crimes like carjacking.

[enochs-fable.livejournal.com]

Phew.

[pushupstairs.livejournal.com]

I lived on Fenwick St. for about a year and a half. The neighborhood was great.

[rmd.livejournal.com]

i live over between school and marshall streets and haven't had any problems. once in a while the kids get a little bit loud, but that's the worst i've run into.

[progressnerd.livejournal.com]

I live on Broadway between Magoun and Winter Hill, and I haven't experienced any problems with crime and find it very safe. As for property crime, that reaches every part of Somerville and might be more common in more affluent areas like Davis Square, where there's a greater chance of stealing expensive electronics (I have no stats to confirm that this is true). Anecdotally, a friend's apt building in Davis was broken into twice in the same month.

Some people mentioned, anecdotally, some violent and drug-related crimes in Winter Hill. My understanding is that violent crime is very low throughout the city, but the extent to which it happens, it will likely happen from people you know. So unless you're involved with the "wrong" crowd, I wouldn't be more concerned in the Winter Hill area than anywhere else.

[ukelele.livejournal.com]

My understanding is that violent crime is very low throughout the city, but the extent to which it happens, it will likely happen from people you know

I read the police blotter intermittently, and it seems to confirm this.

[mderidder.livejournal.com]

I live on Central between Medford and Broadway. We find the area to be pretty safe. We walk around at all times of day and night without a problem.

The convenience store on the corner of Central and Medford seems to be a teen hang-out, so this comes with the usual problems. That store has also been broken into/robbed a number of times - with the latest incident (over a year ago) ending with the robber dumping the cash register in our backyard while trying to escape the cops.

We've had no problems with home/car break-ins and in general the neighbors really seem to watch our for each other. We really like the neighbor hood and the central location to a number of places.

[ron_newman]

And if you live there, you're a neighbor to Congressman Mike Capuano.

[mderidder.livejournal.com]

indeed, pretty much across the street

[tisana.livejournal.com]

I lived near Magoun Sq for a few years, and I think it can vary quite a bit from street to street.

Mostly, it was safe. But there were some teenagers that liked to cause a bit of trouble, and we saw the cops there on a pretty regular basis. My windshield got cracked, probably by their habit of throwing rocks at houses. I found a crackpipe while walking to the bus one morning.

But, y'know...no assaults or shootings or (noticeable) drug problems, or stuff like that. So relatively safe. My friend who lived just a couple blocks away had a really nice area...it just varies.

[mamajoan.livejournal.com]

I live on Lowell Street not far down from Medford. It's fairly safe although Lowell is a pretty busy street, especially since they re-opened the bridge, so we do get a lot of cars roaring through too fast for a residential street. But not much in the way of major crime. I did have a boom-box stolen off my front porch, but to be fair, it was dumb of me to leave a boom-box sitting on my front porch, I guess.

There are a fair number of teenagers who roam the area and can be noisy, especially on a summer night when you have your windows open, but I haven't had any actual trouble from them. (knock wood)

[shana-lyons.livejournal.com]

I lived on Central Street for 3 years around 2000-2003 about three houses down from the convenience store everyone keeps mentioning. I was a single woman living alone and was in my early-mid 20's at the time. I never felt the neighborhood was sketchy, but I will say that it's a bit loud right on Central Street. My bedroom faced the front of our building and there were trucks clunking up and down the street at all hours of the night. So, just beware of that. I slept much better once I moved to a less busy street. There was also a posse of teenagers who used to hang around our area who liked playing salsa/reggae/rap music loudly and we occasionally had to shoo them off our steps.

I can't imagine it's gotten alot worse.

[dystocia.livejournal.com]

we just moved to the Bartlett street/medford st area, and it's been pretty good. The downstairs apt. got broken into just over a month ago, and someone tagged the for sale sign on the building once, but other than that, not much. Ocassionally you overhear some really weird arguments tho...

"I didn't take your money, ma....I didn't go through your purse..." (from a 30ish looking guy!)

[aquaflame16.livejournal.com]

Not that this necessarily means anything, but here's my anecdotal expereince:

I used to live up on Broadway at the corner with Main st and had my car stolen from being parked on the street on Broadway. It was recovered quickly with not too much damage, but still. stolen -- a beat-up '98 minivan no less! (I got out there and was all ready to be pissed at the city for towing my car for no apparent reason, called the police dept and they're like "uh, nope, wasn't towed. so, uh, you wanna come in and fill out a report?")

Also there were definitely sometimes issues with (I think) some teenagers down Main st, zipping around on noisy mini-bikes in the middle of the night, police action, etc. (they once administered a sobriety test in my building's accessway/driveway, fun!).

[tt02144.livejournal.com]

FYI - a family member just almost-bought a condo in the Winter Hill area. Make sure you get a good home inspector if you decide to buy. The house was 'flipped' and the inspector found SERIOUS electrical violations. Buyer beware!!

[cos]

I lived on Winter Hill in 1990, and it felt safe and I never had problems.