Somerville
Dense, diverse, and on the Green Line. A creative-class magnet.
The numbers
How Somerville scores
The honest read
What Somerville residents actually say
3 quotes · sourced from RedditPulled from r/boston, r/massachusetts, and town subreddits. Lightly edited for grammar only. The tradeoff quote is on purpose. The honest stuff is what makes the rest believable.
You can stroll to a nearly limitless array of restaurants, cafés, bars, and convenience stores, many of which are genuinely one-of-a-kind. The density of good stuff per block is hard to match anywhere in New England.
Somerville is safer than people who haven't lived here assume. Substantially less crime than the reputation suggests. But the rent has caught up to that reputation, fair warning.
East Somerville is fine. Source: been living there since 2002, walk everywhere, am not a physically imposing person. The neighborhood reputations are 20 years out of date.
Compare on your terms
These scores reflect a neutral weighting. Your priorities are not neutral. Open the full atlas to tune schools, walkability, affordability, commute, and seven more dimensions, and see where Somerville lands for you.
Nearby towns
Bordering and adjacent Massachusetts towns near Somerville.
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