• The Back Bay is full of red brick townhouses next to the Financial District and Newbury Street, the chi-chi shopping strip
  • Beacon Hill is a centuries-old historic setting with cobbled streets and gas-lit street lamps near the Statehouse and Boston Common.
  • The North End is a web of tiny, quirky streets jammed with Italian restaurants and virtually no parking.
  • The South End is near the Back Bay but boasts more of a Victorian style as well as a thriving artistic community.
  • Fenway/Kenmore Square has the schizophrenic ingredients of major art museums, dance club-heavy Lansdowne Street, and Fenway Park, home of the Red Sox.
  • Allston/Brighton is chock full of students attending Boston College and Boston University, with apartment buildings, Victorian homes and some industrial buildings.
  • Brookline has Coolidge Corner and Brookline Village with upscale boutiques, large houses and apartment buildings.
  • Cambridge houses several academic institutions, including Massachusetts Institute of Technology, it has a large student population, which tends to gather around Harvard Square and Central Square, both of which are shopping and transportation hubs.
  • Charlestown is east of Boston over the bay, and features a mix of yuppie professionals and blue collar residents. It has apartment buildings, beautifully overhauled former Navy yards-turned-waterfront condos and quaint townhouses.
  • Dorchester is Boston's largest neighborhood, with many triple-decker homes and Victorian architecture, and residents with Irish, Hispanic and African roots.
  • East Boston has the bonus of being next to Logan Airport, which can also be a huge drawback with jets screaming above at 2 a.m!
  • Somerville is a city north of Cambridge, and shares much of its characteristics. Its dense, multi-family housing is interspersed with squares for dining and shopping. Tufts University is nearby. Again, parking is awful.
  • Jamaica Plain is becoming an increasingly gentrified urban neighborhood with plenty of character and quiet streets.
  • Roxbury is next to Jamaica Plain but closer to Boston and a source of high crime and economic revitalization efforts.
  • West Roxbury is miles away on the western side of Jamaica Plain and is virtually a suburb.

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