Hyde Park, safe or unsafe neighborhood (Boston, Cambridge: crime rate, houses, gated)

[vivabigpapi]

Anybody know what the Hyde Park neighborhood is like? Is it safe or unsafe?

[kharing]

Hyde Park is somewhat safe....I wouldn't live near Cummings Highway or close to Mattapan. It really depends on the street.

[vivabigpapi]

Originally Posted by kharing

Hyde Park is somewhat safe....I wouldn't live near Cummings Highway or close to Mattapan. It really depends on the street.

I heard this rapper who grew up in Mattapan calls it Murderpan, because of the high crime rate in it.

[xS☺B☺s]

Originally Posted by vivabigpapi

I heard this rapper who grew up in Mattapan calls it Murderpan, because of the high crime rate in it.

It's pretty much okay - but definitely not fabulous. It's kinda far out from downtown. Hyde Park Ave has been spiffied up a bit. There are some project areas where issues are probably more concentrated. Then there is working and middle class housing areas too. Mostly it's not glamorous with a lot of ugly warehouses and ugly housing.

As far as "murderpan" - well the sad fact is that wherever one finds a dense concentration of you ng black males, you will find a concentration of murder because unfortunately that's what they do to each other and usually it is for almost no justifiable reason whatsoever, not even drugs. Just a lot of ego crap. "Murderpan" has a dark glamorous ring to it, doesn't it? Sounds exciting, challenging, intriguing... Make me wonder if the KKK don't produce those themselves.

Suffice to say if you don't play the gang game, you'll probably have no problem.

[vivabigpapi]

Originally Posted by Bostonian08

It's pretty much okay - but definitely not fabulous. It's kinda far out from downtown. Hyde Park Ave has been spiffied up a bit. There are some project areas where issues are probably more concentrated. Then there is working and middle class housing areas too. Mostly it's not glamorous with a lot of ugly warehouses and ugly housing.

As far as "murderpan" - well the sad fact is that wherever one finds a dense concentration of you ng black males, you will find a concentration of murder because unfortunately that's what they do to each other and usually it is for almost no justifiable reason whatsoever, not even drugs. Just a lot of ego crap. "Murderpan" has a dark glamorous ring to it, doesn't it? Sounds exciting, challenging, intriguing... Make me wonder if the KKK don't produce those themselves.

Suffice to say if you don't play the gang game, you'll probably have no problem.

So let me guess. The parts near Cummins Highway and Mattapan, are the predominantly black areas of Hyde Park. I'm just wanting to know if I should add Hyde Park to my list of neighborhoods not to visit when I go to Boston this summer. So far on my list I have Roxbury, Dorchester, and Mattapan. I remember when I went there in 2005, I got stuck in Dorchester in the middle of the night, not sure which section of it, but I think it was one of the black sections, I saw a bunch of black guys giving me weird looks. I later told that story to a cab driver and he was telling me I was lucky I lived.

[xS☺B☺s]

Originally Posted by vivabigpapi

So let me guess. The parts near Cummins Highway and Mattapan, are the predominantly black areas of Hyde Park. I'm just wanting to know if I should add Hyde Park to my list of neighborhoods not to visit when I go to Boston this summer. So far on my list I have Roxbury, Dorchester, and Mattapan. I remember when I went there in 2005, I got stuck in Dorchester in the middle of the night, not sure which section of it, but I think it was one of the black sections, I saw a bunch of black guys giving me weird looks. I later told that story to a cab driver and he was telling me I was lucky I lived.

Hyde Park is a predominantly residential neighborhood. Hyde Park Ave closer in to town has some commercial areas and way out it's kinda industrial. I would not call it a bad neighborhood. I take my son there occasionally to the Taco Bell/KFC/PizzaHut, or to the Hyde park McDonald's, or to the Bowling Alley, or a little kiddie playground there. I'm not the expert at Hyde Park, but my impression is that HP is one of those many neighborhoods in Boston that completely bucks the theory that Beantown is so segregated. I think HP is sprinkled with a bit of everybody everywhere.

It's not that you can't go to HP - or Roxbury or DOT or MP for that matter. I live in Lower Rox. Nobody is going to come running out of their houses with a cleaver to chase you down. There's just not a lot of touristy stuff to see in HP. DOT has Franklin Park Zoo which I frequent and recommend. It's like Queens or Burbank, Kendall or Richardson, just residential. Walk around the neighborhood aimlessly, people will wonder what you are doing.

The sights to see in Boston are downtown almost entirely. Centre St JP, the Arboretum, Franklin Park, Rozzie Sq, the Blue Hills are all the hidden gems of local knowledge. But there is SO much to see and do in downtown, there is no reason to try to discover hidden Dorchester.

If you come to Boston, do the Freedom Trail, The MFA, Back Bay, Newbury, the Fens, Cambridge, North End, the Charles River, Castle Island, Harvard, all that. Still not enough? Go to Salem, Hampton Beach, Nantasket, Marblehead or the Cape, the White Mountains, Battleship Cove, Portland.

BTW, the most dangerous people in this town are the cabbies. You're much safer standing on Geneva St in DOT at 12m than you are in the back of a cab on Comm Ave in Allston.

[hiddenboston]

Hyde Park isn't my favorite section of Boston, but that's not because it is unsafe. Most of it is fine, though there are some sketchy neighborhoods here and there. To me, the problem with Hyde Park is that there really isn't much in the way of restaurants, shopping, culture, etc. It is more like a suburb than a part of Boston. But there are some nice sections to live in, especially up in the hilly areas on the Milton Line.

[eevee]

Hyde Park is mostly safe w/ a few bad areas. the Readville area is very safe (I believe the mayor still lives around there) as are the other parts that border Milton. there's a commuter rail station there that provides quick access to downtown, and it's right near Blue Hill Ave which provides good access to the highways.

Hyde Park is mostly black in some sections, a lot of Haitians that spilled out from Mattapan. but there's some good diversity around the Readville areas and some other parts. like Bostonian08 said, it's one of the most diverse neighborhoods in Boston, both racially and economically (I'm not quite sure what % of the population is Asian or Hispanic though)

even the parts of HP near Mattapan aren't that horrorfic. the bad parts of Mattapan mostly border BHA and Dorchester. I've lived off of Cummings Hwy and it's no where near as dangerous as some would make it out to be- mostly just SFHs/2 family homes. the area around the cemetery should be avoided at all costs (the cemetery off of Cummings Hwy, not Walk Hill). honestly, most of Mattapan doesn't deserve the "Murderpan" moniker

are you coming to Boston as a visitor or potential resident? please do NOT avoid entire neighborhoods out of fear!!! if you're just a visitor, there really is no reason to go to Hyde Park, since there's no tourist spots there. I believe there's a botanical garden in Mattapan that free, and of course, you'll need to pass through either to get to the Blue Hills (which is awesome in the summer!!). do NOT avoid Dorchester entirely!! you'll be missing out on SO much: Franklin Park Zoo, JFK Museum, Castle Island, UMass. In Roxbury, you have Franklin Park, w/ it's golf course and great hiking trails through the parks and forest (though some of this may be in Dorchester/JP). you have lots of spots in Roxbury to visit like the African American museum and Fort Hill. most of the tourists spots are downtown, but there are a few scattered amongst these "dangerous" neighborhoods.

honestly, don't worry too much about the crime in Boston. the majority of it is concentrated in certain blocks and almost all gang related. granted, there is crime all over, just like in any other large town/city in the world (robbery exists everywhere in the city if you're not careful, same as some types of assaults), but overall Boston is very safe. just use some common sense, don't wander aimlessly down BHA at night, don't go to strange house parties thrown by people you don't know, don't get in strange cars, etc.

[kharing]

I agree with eevee. If given the choice, I would live in Dorchester versus Hyde Park. I lived in Wellesley Park in Dorchester and swear it was one of the most beautiful neighborhoods in the city. Gas lanterns lined the streets, lots of beautiful open space parks. Plus it is on the Red Line...Shawmut station.

Hyde Park was a good neighborhood when I grew up there - since it was mostly single family homes but I wouldn't live there now since it isn't near the T.

[missionhill]

In Roxbury? In Dorchester? There's no satisfactory answer, and it creates something of a problem for the park's identity. The Blue Hill Ave edge may be in Dorchester, but who really knows where the line is? Certainly most, if not all, of Franklin Park lies within the former municipal limits of Roxbury. But when West Roxbury formed a separate town, in 1868, the area that would later become Franklin Park was within West Roxbury. A few years later West Roxbury voted to join up with Boston, and only then did Boston have enough undeveloped land to create a 500+ acre park. Since then, the name "West Roxbury" has come to mean only the southernmost part of the former town, so that while technically or historically, the park is in West Roxbury, it would be misleading to say so today. (The location of the W. Roxbury courthouse on the Arborway in Forest Hills presents a similar anomaly.) So you can't really say it's in Roxbury, it really isn't in Dorchester; it's definitely not in West Roxbury, and it's not in Jamaica Plain. So where is it? Maybe someone can solve this problem.