Small Family moving to Boston? (Cambridge, Quincy: rent, condo, safe area)

[metroportland]

I am a 54 year old woman with a 14 year old son wishing to move to the Boston area. We are looking for inexpensive, safe neighborhoods, and close to Boston. We would also like very good access to public transit, and depending on where we live, we will probably sell our car. We are coming from Portland. We also would like an urban or semi-urban environment. We were thinking Somerville, Quincy Center, Mission Hill, Cambridge, Roslindale, and safe areas of Dorchester. For us, good transportation means safe areas near subway stations, or neighborhoods that are cheap with frequent bus service near the Commuter Rail. Our budget will be between 1100 and 2200. Thanks a bunch!

[ogre]

As a starting point, something to keep in mind with a son of school-age is that in Mission Hill, Roslindale, and Dorchester you'd be dealing with Boston's city schools. I've seen varying opinions about Boston's schools on this forum. There are exceptions, but most people seem to have negative views. Some of those with positive views seem to have been old veterans of negotiating the school system's lottery setup, where kids don't necessarily go to schools in their neighborhoods. Prevailing opinion seems to be that if you don't know how to work the system to get your kid into a good school, it can get dicey. At the very least, you might want to get some advice on here from Boston city residents who have had this experience and learned how to manage it.

Mission Hill is near an area with a bunch of colleges, and so in recent years has become more and more of a student ghetto kind of neighborhood. Not sure whether you'd mind that or prefer to avoid it, but be aware that noisy parties at night are a possibility in that neighborhood.

Is there a reason you need to be near commuter rail in particular, as opposed to other modes of public transit? All the areas you've said you're considering at this point have access to some sort of public transit (all the general areas at least, though proximity to transit can vary by neighborhood), but several of those areas aren't really very close to commuter rail, and would require a longish ride by bus or subway to connect to commuter rail. The quickest connection from places you're looking at would be from the Davis Square neighborhood in Somerville, which is one stop by subway from a commuter rail station. Then the question is whether there is a particular commuter rail line you'll need to use.

[sharencare]

You can also try to look in the South Boston area near Andrew Square. We pay rent for $1500 for 2.5 bedrooms and have a nice big back porch. The area is safe especially if your son isn't the loitering type, though the condo folks farther up north in Southie might be scared to walk in our neighborhood at night. I've had family (Boston Police officer and mechanic) live in northern Dorchester, between JFK and Andrew. That area is very Polish, though my family was Chinese-Vietnamese. I think the area is safe, but I've had friends who don't like to drive on Dorchester Ave.

But unless your son plans to try for the 9th grade Boston exam school tests, you might want to consider the Quincy schools. I think around Quincy Center, you might get something nice for about $1100-$1400 depending how far it's from the train station. You can also try looking into Malden which has a quick transit orange line running through it.

I have friends who live along Grew Avenue in Roslindale. That's fairly safe area to me.