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Seconded. I lived in JP for several years and it was easily my favorite of the Boston neighborhoods to live in. Absolutely gorgeous. I lived in a 6 bed unit on

Seconded. I lived in JP for several years and it was easily my favorite of the Boston neighborhoods to live in. Absolutely gorgeous. I lived in a 6 bed unit on the top level of a 3-story duplex that had 4 people living on the ground floor. It was a massive house that allowed for ten non-related people to live together on a street filled with similar houses, lined with massive oak trees and a five minute walk from a lovely pond. Gorgeous neighborhood. Edit: I’ll add that I never experienced any negative effects in JP that I’d associate with such dense living. Unlike the more rowdy student oriented neighborhoods like Allston that were far more rough and messy.

seibelj 5y ago
It's for more mature and professional people than Allston, but there is a growing group of Northeastern students starting to populate things. I obviously can't prove this, but I believe because everything is so beautiful, people instinctively treat the location better. Whereas Allston is a party area and everything is grimy, so no one cares and joins into the debauchery and littering.
- ghaff 5y ago
  I've never spent a lot of time in JP, but my understanding is that it is nicer than it used to be. And the gentrification has been somewhat controversial: https://planetgeogblog.wordpress.com/2020/04/22/the-two-jps-how-a-whole-foods-split-a-gentrified-boston-neighborhood/ https://planetgeogblog.wordpress.com/2020/04/22/the-two-jps-... Also, for those not from the area, JP is indeed a "Boston neighborhood" but it's on the outskirts around parkland, the Arnold Arboretum, etc. and is about a 30 minute public transit ride [edit: on the Orange line not Green line]. So don't imagine this is in Boston in the way many might imagine. It probably has more in common with close in suburbs like Arlington than downtown.
  - seibelj 5y ago
    The JP line is the orange line, and getting downtown takes less than 20 minutes. It is the second fastest and most reliable line after the blue line. Arlington is a car suburb and is not Boston proper.
    - ghaff 5y ago
      Bleh. I knew that. Google did say 30 minutes when I looked. (I've never actually taken transit to JP.) Of course, the reason that Arlington doesn't have better transit links is that they didn't want it when the Red line was extended to Alewife. JP is certainly less suburban than Arlington but it also doesn't (to me) really feel like it's in "the city."
      - seibelj 5y ago
        I agree - it's more suburb than urban, but it is much more of an urban mix than almost all suburbs in the US. I would not say Arlington feels anything like being near the city, the amount of lights and traffic makes it take forever to get downtown. JP is very walkable and has pretty good nightlife if you wanna get blasted and walk home. I love JP.
        ghaff 5y ago
        >the amount of lights and traffic makes it take forever to get downtown If I go into Cambridge after work, it takes me something like 45 minutes to get to Alewife near the Arlington line in pretty nominal reverse commute traffic. It takes me a good other half hour to go the last few miles. (And that's Cambridge. Boston would take even longer although I'd normally take a different route from my house)

seibelj 5y ago

It's for more mature and professional people than Allston, but there is a growing group of Northeastern students starting to populate things. I obviously can't prove this, but I believe because everything is so beautiful, people instinctively treat the location better. Whereas Allston is a party area and everything is grimy, so no one cares and joins into the debauchery and littering.

ghaff 5y ago
I've never spent a lot of time in JP, but my understanding is that it is nicer than it used to be. And the gentrification has been somewhat controversial: https://planetgeogblog.wordpress.com/2020/04/22/the-two-jps-how-a-whole-foods-split-a-gentrified-boston-neighborhood/ https://planetgeogblog.wordpress.com/2020/04/22/the-two-jps-... Also, for those not from the area, JP is indeed a "Boston neighborhood" but it's on the outskirts around parkland, the Arnold Arboretum, etc. and is about a 30 minute public transit ride [edit: on the Orange line not Green line]. So don't imagine this is in Boston in the way many might imagine. It probably has more in common with close in suburbs like Arlington than downtown.
- seibelj 5y ago
  The JP line is the orange line, and getting downtown takes less than 20 minutes. It is the second fastest and most reliable line after the blue line. Arlington is a car suburb and is not Boston proper.
  - ghaff 5y ago
    Bleh. I knew that. Google did say 30 minutes when I looked. (I've never actually taken transit to JP.) Of course, the reason that Arlington doesn't have better transit links is that they didn't want it when the Red line was extended to Alewife. JP is certainly less suburban than Arlington but it also doesn't (to me) really feel like it's in "the city."
    - seibelj 5y ago
      I agree - it's more suburb than urban, but it is much more of an urban mix than almost all suburbs in the US. I would not say Arlington feels anything like being near the city, the amount of lights and traffic makes it take forever to get downtown. JP is very walkable and has pretty good nightlife if you wanna get blasted and walk home. I love JP.
      - ghaff 5y ago
        >the amount of lights and traffic makes it take forever to get downtown If I go into Cambridge after work, it takes me something like 45 minutes to get to Alewife near the Arlington line in pretty nominal reverse commute traffic. It takes me a good other half hour to go the last few miles. (And that's Cambridge. Boston would take even longer although I'd normally take a different route from my house)