Boston Slums

[ChunkyMonkey]

Are there any slums in Boston? What is the worst areas? I haven't seen any, the worst I've seen are the general crappy, industrial areas near Sullivan Square. I thought Dorchester was really bad, but the pics I've seen and the limited areas I've travelled to in Dorchester doesn't look bad at all. What about Mattapan?

[Scott]

The short answer is that there are no real slums left in Boston in the third world (or NYC) sense. That said, there is still quite a bit of poverty and dangerous neighborhoods.

Under the SE Expressway near the Broadway Bridge is a huge homeless encampment. Nearby is a railyard that had a number of abandoned trains used as shelters until a young lady was visciously murdered there and they finally did something about them. Homeless men also sleep en masse out on Long Wharf and anywhere else they can hide in DT Boston. The corner of Mass ave and Melena Cass Blvd is a favorite hangout for junkies and homeless people from nearby shelters and detoxes. As is the whole area of the Southend near Washington Street and E. Berkeley, though this area is rapidly gentrifying like all of the Southend. That would have been considered the worst neighborhood in the city before they took down the elevated Orange line (Dover and Northampton where the worst stations).

In Dorchester and Roxbury there are all the famous "bad" streets: Humbolt Ave, Dudley Street, Seaver Street, Templeton Street. "Bad" projects, Frankilin Hill and there nemesis Franklin Field, Orchard Park, Mission Main, etc. Bad areas like Savin Hill (stabbin-kill)but I'll get into those later as I have to go do some work now!

[M. Brown]

No Shanty Towns but some rough areas though.

[Cotuit]

Lynn Lynn City if Sin.

When I moved to Boston in 1992 and lived in the Fenway, there was a tent city in the Fens near the Boylston Street Bridge over the Muddy River. Today there is a playground in its place.

[Scott]

Mattapan is a tough area but very little of it could be considered a "slum". Most are detached houses with driveways and modest backyards. Mattapans boundries are hard to define, the Boston Globe defines it by zip code but that has no relation to the former boundries of the town of Dorchester that Mattapan was once part of. For our purposes it is American Legion Highway to the train bridge near the cemetary in the west(Roslindale), Franklin Park to the north, Star Market in Lower Mills to the east and the Milton line to the south. By this definition the toughest parts of the city are well north of there in Dorchester JP and Roxbury. The Milton line was once this imaginary boundry that human beings subject themselves by race. At the same time there are still "white" bars on Blue Hill Ave and there has always been a large 'well off' black population in Milton.

Most People forget that Charlestown was once the toughest neighborhood in Boston, famous for bank robbers, car theives and PCP freaks. Charlestown kids were notorious for having guns. It seems that things have changed radically since they took down the elevated and cleaned up City Square but to this day there is some poverty and violence. Recently the Globe published an article about how crime near a local church and housing development was affecting quality of life. This, while right up the street townhouses sell for over a half million dollars!

[Cotuit]

When was the 99 massacre? Mid 90s?

[Scott]

Yes mid or late 90's. Charlestown was known for its "wall of silence" concerning murder, nobody see's nothing. There is also the case of "Butchy Doe" a small time hood who has had a number of companions gunned down in his presence but has miraculously avoided meeting his own demise.

[Cotuit]

Charlestown and Providence have so much in common.

[Scott]

The corner of Mass Ave and Washington Street is the site of the old Northhampton Elevated Station. It's been years since its been torn down and the neighborhood has improved dramatically but this block has remained boarded up while redevelopment has gone on all around it. Look there's a Fleet Bank ATM right across the street. 20 years ago you wouldn't walk down this street in broad daylight!! It's amazing how dramatically the city has changed!!