Areas to avoid in Boston USA

[whiteroseredrose]

Hi.

My DS has just booked a trip to visit New York and Boston for a few days next week. He will be going alone to have a look around some university campuses (nothing official).

I'm concerned about all the homelessness and increased violence that I unfortunately keep reading about in New York (!) but also know nothing about Boston.

Are there any areas to avoid, especially at night?

Many thanks.

I lived in Boston for a year a couple of years ago (DH lives there now). Unless your DS is staying well outside the centre of Boston and Cambridge (where Harvard and MIT are) I don't think he'll have any trouble. I've never felt unsafe in Boston and happily use the T (underground) at night. He will see homeless people. There are people begging everywhere and some of them have obvious mental health problems but this is much less obvious in the winter months - it is very cold at night and I think there are more homeless shelters opened up. It's unusual for any of these people to be in any way aggressive. (Avoid the man outside Lush who always wants to hold hands for ages!). Having said that the homeless problem seems much less severe than say, San Francisco. The atmosphere in Boston is polite and friendly, in general, it's much less edgy than New York. All of this is with the proviso that I haven't been there since March 2020.

Boston and New York are worlds apart (despite there being four hours between them) . If anything, Boston may seem a little tame for a young person. You don't need to worry at all!

A big thank you to both. He is staying centrally in both places. .

Hopefully he will be fine.

He tells me that his American friend's mum is worried about her going to London because of the homelessness and violence here too