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I'm in the process of buying a condo at 35 Jamaica way, on the border of Brookline/Mission Hill/Longwood. It is very close to back of the hill stop, but it is on the jamaicaway and fairly quiet area facing the Leverette pond. I was wondering
1) how safe is this area? I havent been back to boston in about 5 yrs, but I remember the heath street/mission hill project area on huntington ave was a little sketchy, though I didn't have the sense of impending doom I had in North Philly or even Dorchester. Does being on the jamaciaway side help things out? are there many property crimes in the area against cars and homes?
2) how easy is parking with a res. permit?
3) is it safe to walk along the jamaciaway at say 3am in the morning to and from the longwood hospitals?
4) how safe is the area of brookline (brookline village?) across the emerald necklace from jamaicaway?
The area is fairly safe although it isn't without its problem areas. I wouldn't recommend buying anything around there. It's not going to get any better any time soon and will always be a filthy student ghetto and even if that changes there will always be the housing projects and shady unlit side streets that drag down property values. Find someplace else.
35 Jamaicaway. Boston, MA 02130 is a borderline area. It certainly looks nice (lots of trees, the pond, the Emerald Necklace) but borders and is in proximity to the underclass populations of the greater Mission Hill/Jamaica Plain area (who can & do sometimes wander around the greater area looking to foment trouble). You may go for years and years and never have anything happen (by sheer luck) but it only takes one time to be victimized (mugged or robbed or assaulted or raped or modestly to seriously injured or killed) or have your property taken or damaged or have your car or home or whatever vandalized or have unsavory or nuisance elements hanging around or traversing through the area (to engage in whatever illicit or criminal or social nuisance behaviors that they are prone to historically). One might conjecture that, over time, the whole area will become completely gentrified (for all the more-monied peoples want places to live and near to amenities such as this area has to offer) and hence the land & neighborhoods will be "cleared" for them. Yet these areas (the greater Heath Street/Mission Hill area and where Huntington Ave. going southbound from Longwood Medical Center, becomes South Huntington Ave. & makes a sharp turn to the left) have long been variably blighted or questionable areas in their population. Who knows how long it will remain this way? (NOTE: This is not meant in any ways as a judgement of said persons for being lower-income [for I am or have been lower-income as well, and so have many other good people of all races, creeds, ethnicities, et al] but for being prone to criminal or antisocial behavior patterns.)
(1) I probably wouldn't BUY a home/condo in this area (maybe I'd consider RENTING an apartment perhaps and then, if the area is & remains problematic over the years in terms of overall safety and moving about the neighborhood), I could just stop renting there & move elsewhere. There's no predicatability as to whether the questionable parts of the area will ever be cleaned up in the foreseeable future and if the surrounding population will be cleared of the assorted miscreants that occasion the greater area.
(2) I wouldn't say it is assuredly safeto walk along the Jamaicaway in the middle of the night and then to & from the Longwood Medical Area. You may go without incident for an undetermined stretch of time and think that all is OK, but it only takes one time to be victimized (mugged or robbed or assaulted or raped or modestly to seriously injured or killed) and the population that is willing to do this aren't just strangers from afar traveling to this area but people who LIVE &/or HANG OUT REGULARLY in the greater area on a day-to-day basis. They are looking for victims.
(3) Brookline Village itself is very decent safety-wise & reasonably safe enough to live there, shop there, hang out there, walk around there at nearly all hours, et al . . . by virtue of the overall population that lives there and hangs out there. If you can afford it, THIS is an area to buy within (compared to the Mission Hill/Jamaica Plain axis mentioned by you).
In summary, don't be fooled by all the trees and lush scenery of your mentioned area. Danger lurks there. Not all the time but it has a history and the populations that would commit said deeds live and regularly hang out in the greater area.
You could do better. All else aside, the first thing you'll hear whenever you walk out the door of any building on the J-Way is traffic noise.
It's taken a long long time, but the Huntington/South Huntington vicinity is taking a turn for the better. (SH is a separate street than Huntington, by the way; Huntington continues west and becomes Washington St when it crosses into Brookline.) What was once a sketchy Irish pub evolved into an Ethiopian restaurant and is now an eatery offering "Asian fusion." The retail space on the southeast corner of "the Huntingtons" alternated between a liquor store and a vacancy for many years. One of the "Q" chains of sandwich shops (Quiznos? Qdoba?) took over, only to be vanquished by the beloved and long-lived Joseph's pizza/sub shop right down the block. At present a Subway is there - and I doubt Joseph's owners are too worried about them either.
Convenience is a definite plus in that neighborhood, with its being within easy walking distance to Brigham Circle as well as Brookline Village. You have the "E" trolley for getting into town, and the 39 bus, right at the Huntingtons corner as well as the 66 bus to Allston and Harvard Square. (A bonus on the 66 is that it has stops right beneath the J-Way overpass over Huntington Ave, a real asset on rainy/snowy days. ) One "minus" is that major food shopping isn't close at hand. You'd have to go to the Stop & Shop between Brookline Village and Coolidge Corner, or the one at Brigham Circle, or the Whole Foods about a mile down South Huntington.
I'd classify that vicinity as safer than Allston but far from crime-free. Since it's sandwiched in between the affluence of Brookline and the poverty of Bromley-Heath you definitely have occurrences of people up to no good seizing upon opportunities: a GPS on a dashboard here, someone texting while cranking an iPod there. Taking the usual precautions and staying on alert should keep trouble at bay.
Having said all that - I'd keep the neighborhood on the list for rental possibilities. But buying there for the short term isn't a gamble I'd take.
You could do better. All else aside, the first thing you'll hear whenever you walk out the door of any building on the J-Way is traffic noise.
It's taken a long long time, but the Huntington/South Huntington vicinity is taking a turn for the better. (SH is a separate street than Huntington, by the way; Huntington continues west and becomes Washington St when it crosses into Brookline.) What was once a sketchy Irish pub evolved into an Ethiopian restaurant and is now an eatery offering "Asian fusion." The retail space on the southeast corner of "the Huntingtons" alternated between a liquor store and a vacancy for many years. One of the "Q" chains of sandwich shops (Quiznos? Qdoba?) took over, only to be vanquished by the beloved and long-lived Joseph's pizza/sub shop right down the block. At present a Subway is there - and I doubt Joseph's owners are too worried about them either.
Convenience is a definite plus in that neighborhood, with its being within easy walking distance to Brigham Circle as well as Brookline Village. You have the "E" trolley for getting into town, and the 39 bus, right at the Huntingtons corner as well as the 66 bus to Allston and Harvard Square. (A bonus on the 66 is that it has stops right beneath the J-Way overpass over Huntington Ave, a real asset on rainy/snowy days. ) One "minus" is that major food shopping isn't close at hand. You'd have to go to the Stop & Shop between Brookline Village and Coolidge Corner, or the one at Brigham Circle, or the Whole Foods about a mile down South Huntington.
I'd classify that vicinity as safer than Allston but far from crime-free. Since it's sandwiched in between the affluence of Brookline and the poverty of Bromley-Heath you definitely have occurrences of people up to no good seizing upon opportunities: a GPS on a dashboard here, someone texting while cranking an iPod there. Taking the usual precautions and staying on alert should keep trouble at bay.
Having said all that - I'd keep the neighborhood on the list for rental possibilities. But buying there for the short term isn't a gamble I'd take.
really? safer than Allston? I'm pretty comfortable with allston actually,but I've never really ventured outside the Harvard ave area. If I'm not mistaken, allston is mainly know for its rapes and property crimes. But I have a feeling the area is not as hip and trendy as allston, especially not in terms of food (allston has some terrific food, probably some of the best asian food in metro boston area).
I'm in the process of buying a condo at 35 Jamaica way, on the border of Brookline/Mission Hill/Longwood. It is very close to back of the hill stop, but it is on the jamaicaway and fairly quiet area facing the Leverette pond. I was wondering
1) how safe is this area? I havent been back to boston in about 5 yrs, but I remember the heath street/mission hill project area on huntington ave was a little sketchy, though I didn't have the sense of impending doom I had in North Philly or even Dorchester. Does being on the jamaciaway side help things out? are there many property crimes in the area against cars and homes?
2) how easy is parking with a res. permit?
3) is it safe to walk along the jamaciaway at say 3am in the morning to and from the longwood hospitals?
4) how safe is the area of brookline (brookline village?) across the emerald necklace from jamaicaway?
Thanks,
Art
I can't imagine how much the condo fees are there.. yikes.
Yes, safer than Allston. I also enjoy ambles along Harvard Ave, because of the funky energy there and all the unique unpretentious spots for eating and shopping. Count me among the mourners for Sports Depot and Harper's Ferry too. But after 10 or so at night (particularly between 1-4 AM) on any day of the week I'd rather be on South Huntington, hands down. In Allston - NOT "Allston Village," thank you - funky phases into sketchy at those hours. "Permanent resident of Allston/Brighton" is a contradiction in terms. The transiency level of that neighborhood coupled with the preponderance of college students and 20-somethings guarantees risk. So does the overabundance of watering holes. Plus, Back of the Hill (the area between Huntington Ave, the J-Way, South Huntington, and Heath St) is actually quiet late at night. The most you'd normally hear is ambulance sirens - thanks to all those hospitals in the vicinity - and the clanking and screeching of the E-line trolleys as they make that big turn. (Call me strange if you will, but when I lived on the first block of SH I enjoyed hearing the streetcars clickety-clack past my building.) On the J-Way you wouldn't even hear the trolleys in any event. Contrast that with the shouts and screams of perpetual and post-adolescents, who've had too much to drink, that fill the nighttime air of Allston more often than not. It's bad enough to drown out most of the decibels the B line generates sometimes.
Yes, safer than Allston. I also enjoy ambles along Harvard Ave, because of the funky energy there and all the unique unpretentious spots for eating and shopping. Count me among the mourners for Sports Depot and Harper's Ferry too. But after 10 or so at night (particularly between 1-4 AM) on any day of the week I'd rather be on South Huntington, hands down. In Allston - NOT "Allston Village," thank you - funky phases into sketchy at those hours. "Permanent resident of Allston/Brighton" is a contradiction in terms. The transiency level of that neighborhood coupled with the preponderance of college students and 20-somethings guarantees risk. So does the overabundance of watering holes. Plus, Back of the Hill (the area between Huntington Ave, the J-Way, South Huntington, and Heath St) is actually quiet late at night. The most you'd normally hear is ambulance sirens - thanks to all those hospitals in the vicinity - and the clanking and screeching of the E-line trolleys as they make that big turn. (Call me strange if you will, but when I lived on the first block of SH I enjoyed hearing the streetcars clickety-clack past my building.) On the J-Way you wouldn't even hear the trolleys in any event. Contrast that with the shouts and screams of perpetual and post-adolescents, who've had too much to drink, that fill the nighttime air of Allston more often than not. It's bad enough to drown out most of the decibels the B line generates sometimes.
I constantly hear this about "Allston" but my experience of Allston includes two areas: Lower Allston and Upper Allston. Lower Allston (near Harvard Business School) is quiet, safe and few students.
Do you really think Lower Allston is how you describe "Allston"?
It's fine. Most of the people you would encounter in this area are students, so that's something to consider. JP and Mission Hill are fine. I may be wrong, but I think most of the people who have posted haven't really experienced it. Maybe its because I pass by this area every day.
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) One "minus" is that major food shopping isn't close at hand. You'd have to go to the Stop & Shop between Brookline Village and Coolidge Corner, or the one at Brigham Circle, or the Whole Foods about a mile down South Huntington. 
