<p>That’s true that not all robberies are armed robberies. I would say probably half of them involve guns though, although that is just a guess. And yeah I guess Beacon Hill might be considered nicer than Back Bay, but they are both up there with the nicest in this country. Beacon Hill is old money, Back Bay is new money. Stuff happens in Beacon Hill too, as does in the West End. </p>
<p>I guess maybe I exaggerated when I said the media portrays Boston as this perfectly safe place, but all I hear is what a great college town it is from both the media and college students. This implies safe to me, maybe I am stretching it though. Boston is not Charlottesville VA or Ann Arbor MI, its a city, thats all I am trying to get across. Never had a gun pointed at my face, but have had a knife to my throat though. I never made a huge deal about it.</p>
<p>A bing search of “armed robbery” “west end” “boston” shows two or three entries for stores being robbed. The location of the huge police station in the West End may have something to do with the very low crime rate in the area. Police can get around very fast there. There’s also the proximity to Faneuil Hall and the financial district.</p>
<p>I have seen women dressed in business attire walking around the area after 10:00 PM, I assume from the financial district, in the West End. They don’t seem particularly worried about getting robbed.</p>
<p>I looked at a crime map of Boston for the last two months and the Back Bay had far more robberies than the West End (0) and Beacon Hill (1).</p>
<br>
<br>
<p>It is a great college town. There are lots of opportunities for coops, internships, jobs when you graduate, bars, tourist sites, museums, tons of places to run or cycle, restaurants, parks, music, theatre, etc.</p>
<br>
<br>
<p>How would you like to go to UMass Lowell? I think that it’s more dangerous there than Boston University.</p>
<br>
<br>
<p>I think that most students and parents would make a big deal about it and would, at a minimum, report it to the police so that some other student would be less likely to also experience it.</p>
<p>Boston is generally pretty safe, all I am saying is stuff happens in every neighborhood in the city from time to time. Back Bay and South End, 2 of the 3 “big 3” if you will in terms of desired neighborhoods in Boston, have a fair amount of street crime. That’s not to say they are not safe though. I feel safe walking around pretty much any neighborhood in the whole city minus a few pockets here and there at any time, but then again I know the city extremely well. And of course women walk around the financial district and other places without fear. I guess what I am trying to say is stuff can happen to you anywhere here, but for the most part you will be fine. I am just shocked this made national headlines though, as it does happen more often than some people not from here think. This isn’t detroit or east st louis, but it isn’t long island either.</p>
<p>There was an attempted stabbing in the west end a couple weeks back though I think. Still one of my favorite neighborhoods in boston though, and very underrated (along with bay village) when compared to south end, back bay, and beacon hill which are the 3 places realtors always push. Love the basketball courts in the west end right by the esplanade.</p>
<p>I had a friend that lived on Humboldt Ave and I thought that was a fairly scary place. This was back in the late 1980s. I stopped going there when the drive-by’s started in the 90s.</p>
<p>“After last weekend’s rash of drive-by shootings, police flocked to Roxbury’s Humboldt Avenue and Blue Hill Avenue in Mattapan to search for the culprits. But usually, business owners complain, the areas remain desolate save for residents and merchants, who must cope and survive despite the crime that whittles away at their clientele with each passing day.”</p>
<p>“It’s not easy, they said, to live and do business in neighborhoods others are scared to visit. Many also feel neglected by police, and say they desperately need foot patrols and increased police presence. The effects of rampant gang warfare, random crime and an armed citizenry are evident in the scarred and abandoned stores …”</p>
<p>By realtors I mean rentals agents or whatever you want to call them. South end prices have soared over the past 10-15 years to the point that they might honestly be more than back bay for rentals. The rental market is crazy in those 3 neighborhoods, not so much in the west end or bay village although I heard from someone the west end apartments can get pricey as well. </p>
<p>Roxbury and anything near BHA can get pretty shady in parts. The mass ave border between the south end and roxbury is where you start to see a change, although many realtors will push the south end neighborhood even further south just to get a rental deal sealed. And you are definitely right about lowell. The most dangerous parts in mass probably are not even in Boston, and consist of places like lowell, lynn, lawrence, new bedford etc.</p>
<p>This wasn’t a robbery though. Sounds like a person with problems.</p>
<p>There’s a huge building in the West End that provides mental health services (not sure if it is city, state or private) and there may be some relation there. My son talks about people that he sees on the street that look a little unbalanced but they are mostly harmless. In this case, perhaps they aren’t harmless.</p>
<br>
<br>
<p>The West End towers have their own sales offices. You don’t need a realtor to rent there. You just go online or walk into a sales office and ask to see a place. That’s a lot easier than arranging a time to see a place with a realtor.</p>
<p>The South End might be seeing a bubble. One of my neighbors bought a commercial condo there a few years ago with a partner ($800K) and has a tenant that is growing their business - I’m pretty sure that he is cash-flow positive but he has a brother that has been operating a business there for many years and had some local help in picking the place.</p>
<p>To wrap up, Boston University is a fairly safe place for students. The idea of a $10K reward is interesting. Typically CrimeStoppers offers a much smaller amount for information leading to arrests but I can see where it would be very attractive for a University to offer $10K for arrests - it’s a small amount of money for them.</p>
<p>The part of Boston that BU is in is safer than the area of Ann Arbor around Michigan. I see the crime statistics. The BU campus is also safer than Michigan’s. (As disclosure, I lived in Ann Arbor and went to law school and have family there. And I had a kid at BU.)</p>
<p>They caught some people. See story below. At least one of the robberies occurred in Brookline (but right near the Boston line near BU’s West Campus). Brookline, I believe, is almost completely surrounded by Boston city limits. I heard somewhere that it is considered America’s First Suburb. A lot of faculty who work at all the Boston area universities, not just BU, live there, as well as physicians who work at the hospitals nearby (Longwood area where Harvard Med School is), and Brookline High is a good school. There are rougher parts of Boston not too far away, but I’ve always considered the areas near BU pretty safe.</p>
<p>With the tens of thousands that commute into the City for work everyday (increasing the denominator), I’m guessing that the odds are much lower than that.</p>
<p>Not that it matters - and it seems many posters aren’t skimming earlier comments - but Boston’s daytime population, per census estimates, is over 40% higher in the daytime. But taking the entire area and population is silly. If you think of New York, you are significantly safer in Brooklyn Heights than in Brownsville.</p>