somerville - pro's and con's
Jul. 25th, 2003 11:57 am![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
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davis_squareDear Somervillians,
I am looking at real estate in the Somerville area specifically, and I was wondering if anyone could give me a list of 3-5 pro's and con's about S'ville.
Also, are there any sections I should specifically avoid due to "safety issues" (i.e., gangs, crackhouses, landlords who enjoy setting fires to collect insurance $, etc.)
Thanks in advance!
I am looking at real estate in the Somerville area specifically, and I was wondering if anyone could give me a list of 3-5 pro's and con's about S'ville.
Also, are there any sections I should specifically avoid due to "safety issues" (i.e., gangs, crackhouses, landlords who enjoy setting fires to collect insurance $, etc.)
Thanks in advance!
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Date: 2003-07-25 08:59 am (UTC)-Dan
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Date: 2003-07-25 09:14 am (UTC)Does it have to be Somerville? Medford also has some nicely affordable areas on bus-lines worth considering. I moved from Highland Ave to Medford, and overall I think my new location is safer, cleaner and quieter - if a bit further from Davis (but near at least 4 bus-lines). Cheaper too.
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Date: 2003-07-25 09:20 am (UTC)I've never felt unsafe living here. And I mainly walk, night and day.
But keep in mind, I rarely go north of Highland Ave., and my Somerville is pretty much the area within lines drawn from Davis to Union to Inman to Porter Squares. I rarely go as far as Teele Square, I have a vague idea where Ball Square is, and Assembly Square mall is vaguely "over there" in the same way that New Hampshire is.
But my Somerville? Safe as eggs and I love it.
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Date: 2003-07-25 09:25 am (UTC)-Dan
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Date: 2003-07-25 09:28 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-07-25 09:31 am (UTC)I love living in Davis, it's a great quirky neighborhood, and I've never felt unsafe anywhere. The rent's higher, but that's the price you pay for location. Plus if you want breakfast, you can choose from Soundbites, Johnny D's, Kelly's Diner, Rosebud... some excellent options. :)
Winter Hill seems like it alternates between really nice neighborhoods and really sketchy neighborhoods, like, every two streets. It's bizarre.
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Date: 2003-07-25 10:36 am (UTC)careful now
Date: 2003-07-25 09:36 am (UTC)But since I've moved here (Cedar St, between Highland and Broadway), my girlfriend has had her car broken into and she was assaulted on the bike path (which terminates on Cedar between our house and Highland). A couple times, kids on my street have tried to start shit with me (I look like a yuppie much of the time!).
The neighborhood I lived in before this was closer to Porter and was a little safer, though two kids died of OC overdose in my neighborhood while I was there.
I think we live in a gray area between the safe, gentrified somerville, and the marginalized working-class, immigrant part of somerville, and that means friction and occasional confrontation. Keep in mind that up until a very short time ago, ALL of Somerville was dicey, and had more in common with Lynn than with Cambridge. The mayor is simply amazing, but there's only so much she can do. I think there are problems in the police force, and I think that how quickly the mayor can clean up those problems will determine how much the growing gang problem in northeast somerville is allowed to spread.
There's recently been two rapes of handicapped children in Foss Park, and a brothel was busted a few weeks ago on Broadway.
I think all the other people who have spoken out here are dead on: around Davis and Porter it's completely perfectly safe, but as you go east, you might start running into problems. There's basically a buffer zone (and I think I and fiancee live in it), and that buffer is apt to change over time, depending on governance, community involvement, and the state of the economy. All in all though, I think this friction of two very different cultures is kind of exciting and promising. If the poor and educated and the semi-affluent-to-affluent and educated can find a way to get along...well, I think that would make Somerville just one of the most fertile and amazing places to live in the entire country.
Re: careful now
Date: 2003-07-25 09:39 am (UTC)Re: careful now
Date: 2003-07-25 11:30 pm (UTC)Of course, it's been $950 since I moved in in 2000. And I can have cats. So...it's a tossup.
Re: careful now
Date: 2003-07-26 06:06 am (UTC)Re: careful now
Date: 2003-07-30 11:29 am (UTC)wasn't that a while ago? last summer? i remember you posted an entry about it.
Re: careful now
Date: 2003-07-25 09:48 am (UTC)-Dan
Re: careful now
Date: 2003-07-25 09:49 am (UTC)Let's not kid ourselves, crime happens, and feeling safe is no excuse for behaving obliviously. Even when I was a university student, there was friction between the townies and the students - ranging from epithets and eggs thrown at students, and on the other hand, appalling lack of consideration by said students in throwing loud disruptive parties in what were essentially residential areas.
(btw, quite a lot of West Medford is on the Red Line - if you count the buses.)
Re: careful now
Date: 2003-07-25 10:02 am (UTC)but i feel very safe.
but compared to what?
Date: 2003-07-27 07:10 pm (UTC)I grew up in Lynn then Swampscott, and recently moved from Somerville to Arlington. In many ways, Lynn:Swampscott::Somerville:Arlington. By which I mean people in the second town think, on the whole, that they're in safe suburbs, and not in the nasty unsafe city, and they're wrong on both counts. That is Lynn/Somerville aren't nearly as unsafe as perceived, and the little burbs around them aren't nearly as safe. Crime happens everywhere, and the convenience store in my Arlington neighborhood got robbed at gunpoint 4 times in 3 months. Use city common sense, and you're as likely to be safe in Somerville as anywhere.
I also disagree with people's comments about Davis/Porter safety. Many of the crimes mentioned (even here on this thread) are smack in Davis and Porter. Lord knows I always feel unsafe on the section of Beacon closest to Porter, and I don't feel safe until past Beacon Star Market. Er, Shaw's. People get beat up right in Davis Square; I got my bike vandalised in Davis Square. But then, people get murdered in the wealthiest parts of cambridge, too. And probably in Wellesley, or Weston, or Marblehead.
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Date: 2003-07-25 09:44 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-07-25 09:58 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-07-25 09:59 am (UTC)You're required to move your car for streetcleaning (twice a month), and for declared snow emergencies in the winter. But I assume the same is true for Medford.
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Date: 2003-07-25 10:12 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-07-25 10:43 am (UTC)I've lived on the Cambridge/Somerville line for 11 years this fall. I've never had any problems. Of course, I have always lived below Highland Street. Also, I've been here so long that, while I am a student, I might have moved into townie status.
but but but
Date: 2003-07-25 12:11 pm (UTC)Re: but but but
Date: 2003-07-25 10:33 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-07-25 12:55 pm (UTC)We bought a house recently on the north side of Highland, south of the commuter rail line, between Lowell and Central, which I gather puts us a bit further into "townie" areas than
Does "queer-friendliness" tell you anything? There's a fair number of rainbow stickers on cars on our block and nobody seems bent out of shape. Nice for us, since only one member of our household is straight.
Pros for Somerville: 1. good public transit in most areas, 2. good arts and culture scene, especially Davis Square but elsewhere too, 3. has kept some of the good/energetic diversity while gentrifying in decent ways, 4. has many areas where it feels okay to be non-straight, non-white, or "different" in other ways.
Cons for Somerville: 1. hideously expensive, 2. eventually, the gentrification will probably be a bad thing too, (are you familiar with the history of Harvard or Central Squares, for example?) 3. many houses are in serious need of work despite their high price tags, 4. any kids? watch out for lead paint issues, 5. hideously expensive.
Overall, we like it.
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Date: 2003-07-25 01:24 pm (UTC)I'm aware of what has happened to Harvard Square - less sure what you mean about Central Square?
Having worked in Central off-and-on, it feels much safer than, say, five years ago, but it's still struggling, and there are still a number of areas I wouldn't feel safe walking by myself at night.
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Date: 2003-07-25 02:20 pm (UTC)We're aware that, with our purchasing power and whiteness, we represent potential loss of diversity in our neighborhood, even as we are fixing up a house that needed it. The balance is tough.
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Date: 2003-07-25 01:34 pm (UTC)Culture, arts, and acceptance of diversity very important to me. (I'm "one of those goths" that hangs out at Diesel every Thursday).
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Date: 2003-07-25 02:22 pm (UTC)I didn't realize the South Shore was pricier than Somerville, though. Egads.
Best of luck. I think Somerville is well worth a look.
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Date: 2003-07-25 02:18 pm (UTC)Admittedly, I'm moving to the Davis Square area (this Sunday! eep!), which I love too, but I know I'm going to miss Union Square and Prospect Hill.
throwing some facts into the mix
Date: 2003-07-25 07:55 pm (UTC)here's a link to the log (http://www.townonline.com/somerville/news/police_logs.html)
two cents
Date: 2003-07-26 09:39 pm (UTC)1. A good number of neighborhoods are close to a T subway station. Nearly all are near T bus lines.
2. Some neighborhoods are very nice to live in. Maybe it's just me but there seems to be more trees on Somerville's streets than most cities a similar distance from Boston.
3. The squares are pretty vibrant -- movies, coffee shops, art galleries, good inexpensive restaurants, etc.
Cons:
1. The nice areas tend to be pricy for renting apartments. If you're looking to buy a house, be rich or very lucky. I know a dual-income couple who's rented here for ten years and still doesn't have enough to finance a house in this city. And I know another family that did manage to score a house, but it was a pretty heavy "fixer-upper".
2. There are some sketch neighborhoods (East Somerville near Sullivan Square, some parts of Winter Hill, etc.)
3. ...can't think of any more. :)
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Date: 2003-07-30 03:53 am (UTC)I lived in East Somerville for 2.5 years and the worst that ever happened is that Taco Loco screwed up my order.
Since I moved to Davis Square in 1999, my apartment has been broken into twice (imagine hearing a noise, getting up to see what it is, and finding someone's hand reaching in) my plants have been smashed three out of four summers, and my front yard gets puked in nearly every weekend during the school year.
I do enjoy the neighborhood, I'm not complaining (nobody makes me live here), and that's my take.
no subject
Date: 2003-07-31 09:56 am (UTC)We're in Medford, right across the border from somerville, a couple blocks from tufts. It's a geat neighborhood, our street is about 90% owner occupied and fairly quiet. There is a police station between us and medford square, we've never had any problems.
For investment purposes you might also consider just outside the square. You pay a premium for proximity but there is only so much growth that can happen. Eventually people just won't pay more than a certain amount for a condo and if resale is an issue you might consider that our house has grown in value at a much higher rate than smaller places closer to davis. There is a threshold.
It all depends on your priorities. Either way, west is best!
good luck
Date: 2003-08-04 08:26 pm (UTC)I'd suggest you try walking around a lot and talking with people living in the area....it really worked for me. Best of luck!