Talk:Neighborhoods in Boston

Map

The article would really benefit from a map, even if it showed fuzzy boundaries. -- Beland 15:10, 1 March 2006 (UTC)

Some sources:

• ZIP code boundaries follow neighborhood boundaries in many cases, and would be useful to distinguish e.g. Allston from Brighton. I see proprietary ZIP code maps are at: http://maps.huge.info/zip.htm
• http://www.schoolyards.org/sites.htm is a good map, though it does not distinguish Beacon Hill, the Back Bay, Chinatown, and the West End
• https://ssl.opendoor.com/RoommateCo/newforms/cityofbostonmap.html is another good map, which shows the West End and the downtown-Back Bay boundary, but it lumps things together in other places.
• Residential parking permit zones are fairly canonical, but I can't find a map for this program. [1]
• U.S. census data might have some appropriate polygons, but I'm not sure.

-- Beland 17:56, 16 July 2006 (UTC)

Well, we have a map now, but it's not as clear as some of the other maps of Boston neighborhoods you can find on the Web. The fine lines in our map appear to be major streets, rather than neighborhood boundaries. It looks like it's pretty hard for anyone not already familiar with the subject to figure out the map. -- Beland 04:49, 14 April 2007 (UTC)

The map could certainly be improved, but it was unreadable as a thumbnail. I made it a bit bigger, which didn't overlap well with the {column} that the neighborhood list was in, so I took out the column markup. I'm not sure why there was a one-column {column} there anyway. —johndburger 02:46, 31 May 2007 (UTC)

• If anyone ever feels ambitious, the map's caption states, "A map showing the location of Boston's 21 official neighborhoods" but it only has 19 listed as Bay Village and West End were left off. I tried a correction but it looks awful - may have to be done over. For placement, you could reference http://www.cityofboston.gov/neighborhoods/ jswfl09 (talk) 17:34, 28 June 2011 (UTC)

Sourced lists

I have a paper brochure I got yesterday from City Hall, titled "City of Boston Transportation Department Resident Permit Parking Program". It lists the city's parking districts as:

• Allston/Brighton
• Back Bay
• Bay Village
• Beacon Hill
• Charlestown
• Chinatown
• Dorchester
• East Boston
• Fenway/Kenmore
• Hyde Park
• Jamaica Plain
• Leather District
• Mission Hill
• North End
• Roslindale
• Roxbury
• South Boston
• South End
• West Roxbury

There is no map. Some neighborhoods might not have resident-only areas, and so might not be listed. -- Beland 14:40, 13 April 2007 (UTC)

• The BRA [2] lists the same neighborhoods, adding Downtown and Mattapan and combining some other with slashes.

• The City of Boston website [3] lists the same neighborhoods, adding Downtown and Mattapan and "Mid Dorchester", and omitting the Leather District. -- Beland (talk) 20:56, 5 March 2008 (UTC)

The U.S. Postal Service recognizes the following place names in Boston ZIP codes:

• Allston
• Boston
• Boston University
• Brighton
• Charlestown
• Dorchester
• Dorchester Center
• East Boston
• Grove Hall
• Hyde Park
• Jamaica Plain
• Kenmore
• Mattapan
• Mission Hill
• Readville
• Roslindale
• Roxbury
• Roxbury Crossing
• Soldiers Field
• South Boston
• Uphams Corner
• West Roxbury

Park Square

Apparently Park Square (Boston) is not part of the Back Bay nor Bay Village. Is it a part of the Theatre District, or is it its own neighborhood? -- Beland 01:11, 7 May 2007 (UTC)

Criticism

This page needs some going over. It sounds like it was written by someone who doesn't have personal knowledge of Boston. No offence to the author, who took the trouble to write it up, but Hispanics and Asians moved into East Boston in large numbers years ago - it's probably been 25-30 years since it was solidly Italian. I'll try to go over it when I get some time. MarkinBoston 03:44, 5 July 2007 (UTC)

Neighborhoods?

One big problem with this page is that the "Neighborhoods" aren't really neighborhoods at all. Yet even the city itself uses the term, as cited in the city web page linked at the bottom of this article. West Roxbury is not a neighborhood, it's a region. Same with Dorchester, Mattapan, etc. A neighborhood is the place your neighbors live - the blocks around your house where you get to know people. Residents of Savin Hill and Franklin Field are not neighbors - they may never meet each other in their entire lives. Properly used, "the neighborhoods" are the residential areas outside of the downtown business district. Those neighborhoods are "in" Jamaica Plain and Roslindale, rather than "being" JP and Rosi. Neighborhoods in Boston may be a reasonable subject for a Wiki page, but I think a total revision is required, rather than a piecemeal editing.MarkinBoston 04:31, 26 July 2007 (UTC)

"A neighborhood is the place your neighbors live" is only one definition; some of the sources I list above don't seem to agree with it. Neither do I; I consider my neighborhood to be Brighton, even though I'm only really neighbors with people in Cleveland Circle. Perhaps there's a more neutral term that could be used instead, but "neighborhood" is used by many other articles that describe the unofficial subparts of an American municipality, regardless of scale. -- Beland (talk) 21:54, 5 March 2008 (UTC)

I'm with Beland, I live in West Roxbury and it's a neighborhood OF the City of Boston. For the most part the neighborhood listing is correct minus the fact it lists some SUB-Neighborhoods in it. Like Uphams Corner, Franklin Field etc (Dorchester) or Leather Dist (Chinatown). Bay Village consists of like 3 streets and is the South end by most peoples def, but split apart for parking reasons. Alot of People say they live in Readville, which is NOT it's own neighborhood, It's a section of Hyde Park, it goes on and on. I think it fair to ask that if you haven't grown up or spent YEARS in this city your not qualified to add stuff like that, If you have to check the BTD page and taking parking permit areas as law you probably should just leave it alone. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Snatale1 (talk • contribs) 23:59, 30 May 2009 (UTC)

The above two posts are correct. The term "neighborhood" isn't literal in Boston, it has long been used to describe very specific areas that are often made up of many smaller communities. Dorchester is a single neighborhood, even though it's large and made up of various areas including Savin Hill, Fields Corner, Upham's Corner, etc. West Roxbury could be broken down into archaic areas like Germantown, commonly referred to areas like Bellevue (which it shares with Roslindale) or areas that mostly seem to be defined by the MBTA and Google maps, which I've never heard in actual conversation (like Highland). They're still single neighborhoods to Bostonians, and there are clearly defined neighborhood limits on most official Boston maps. 66.65.68.196 (talk) 05:34, 14 August 2009 (UTC)

Another comment. As a native Bostonian, the "City of Boston Transportation Department Resident Permit Parking Programs" list is the most accurate in the discussion page (the postal zip code list breaks down large neighborhoods into smaller areas). My only objections are: the Leather District is not a neighborhood, it's either part of Chinatown or part of the Financial District, it's almost literally a single street. Brighton and Allston are often lumped together but are wildly different neighborhoods. Mission Hill is gentrified but is still geographically a part of Roxbury. The Bay Village (I think the new sign says it's now called South Market or New Market?) is a weird no man's land between Dorchester, Southie, and the South End. 66.65.68.196 (talk) 06:02, 14 August 2009 (UTC)

Call for discussion

If no one protests, I'll be removing some of the entries. Government Center is not a neighborhood under any definition of the word. Nor is/was the Combat Zone, Downtown Crossing, or the Theatre District. Speak now, or forever hold your peas. MarkinBoston 01:48, 9 August 2007 (UTC)

I removed the non-resident districts. If you have no neighbors, you can't be in a neighborhood. MarkinBoston 17:31, 12 August 2007 (UTC)

I would have no problem with someone asserting the existence of a commercial or industrial neighborhood; different people have different definitions for that word. The point of this article is to document the internal geography of the city, not to list only certain entities that meet a narrow criterion - there isn't a clear universal criterion to use. Some of the sourced lists I've supplied certainly mention downtown, and various sources do use the other names to refer to parts of Boston (and we have articles on most of them). -- Beland (talk) 20:19, 5 March 2008 (UTC)

While I disagree with MarkinBoston on what constitutes a Boston neighborhood (it's a broad residential area, not the people who literally live next door), I agree with removing places like Government Center, Haymarket, and the Financial District from the list. When people refer to "the neighborhoods", they're almost always specifically talking about the residential areas. 66.65.68.196 (talk) 06:09, 14 August 2009 (UTC)

Confusion

This article, Template:Boston neighborhoods, and Category:Neighborhoods in Boston, Massachusetts, all appear to have different opinions over what constitutes a neighborhood in Boston. Can anyone from the area clear this up? Sbacle 13:51, 16 October 2007 (UTC)

There's no official definition of "neighborhood", so there's no canonical list. Some of the neighborhoods that are listed in the category are small parts of the larger neighborhoods that are listed in the template, which seems fine to me. I annotated the list in this article to more clearly lay out these relationships. -- Beland (talk) 21:44, 5 March 2008 (UTC)

Wikis

Are there any significant wikis devoted to any or all of these neighborhoods of Boston, or to Boston or Greater Boston as a whole? -69.87.203.103 (talk) 15:18, 28 January 2008 (UTC)

No wikis that I know of, but there are many neighborhood association web sites, and a variety of community blogs and other types of online communities. -- Beland (talk) 21:45, 5 March 2008 (UTC)

Downtown

Downtown Boston needs a seperate article. Currently "Downtown Boston" directs to Financial District, Boston, which is a part of the larger Downtown. It need not be a huge article, but informative enough for the significance of Downtown to the rest of the city.--Marcbela (talk) 18:57, 9 April 2009 (UTC)

Demographics

not all the "neighborhoods" listed have this section available, and others seem to have conflicting information (for example, this page says the South End is the LGBT center, but the article for Dorchester also claims that).--99.101.160.159 (talk) 05:50, 28 December 2011 (UTC)

The South End, parts of Dorchester, and JP all have significant LGBT populations. -- Beland (talk) 23:20, 2 October 2012 (UTC)

Theatre District article needed

We have Category:Boston Theatre District but not Theatre District, Boston, if anyone fancies drafting an article about another slice of "Downtown" that's not well documented on the site. -- Beland (talk) 23:22, 2 October 2012 (UTC)

Bay Village Smallest or not?

This page says that Bay Village is the smallest of the neighborhoods in Boston, while Bay Village, Boston says that it is the second smallest. Which is it? 24.218.145.110 (talk) 23:16, 2 November 2012 (UTC)

Allston vs. Brighton and Dorchester vs. Mid Dorchester

Hello! I updated the article to reflect the City of Boston's new neighborhood designations, but I'm not familiar enough with the sub-neighborhoods in "List of places and squares within neighborhood areas" to properly split Allston-Brighton and Dorchester & Mid Dorchester. I moved a few sub-neighborhoods from Dorchester to Mid Dorchester based on the City website's description, but can someone else check if any of the neighborhoods listed under Dorchester belong under Mid Dorchester? And can someone split up Allston & Brighton? Thanks! Nadhika99 (talk) 08:28, 30 January 2014 (UTC)

Chestnut Hill

I saw that Chestnut Hill had been removed from the list of 23 neighborhoods at the top of the article. This reduced the number from 23 to 22, even though the list was still described as having "23". I added it back. Is there any reason why Chestnut Hill shouldn't be on the list? It has its own ZIP code, and was still listed in the second, expanded list on this page under "List of places and squares within neighborhood areas". WillieBlues (talk) 15:35, 14 December 2020 (UTC)

The city's official neighborhood list (now up to 24) does not include Chestnut Hill has a separate neighborhood. Pi.1415926535 (talk) 23:22, 14 December 2020 (UTC)