Alderman & City Politics
Start a New Topic 
Author
Comment
View Entire Thread
Re: Police

Worse happens in bedroom communities further away than Melrose not just now but in the past (for example, remember Edgewater Technology massacre in Wakefield in 2000?). And Malden is a heckuva lot better than it was in the late 1990s when it was heading towards becoming Lower Lynn; now it's more like Upper Quincy (a way better result).

Melrose hasn't moved. Melrose has relatively fewer streets of entry and egress compared almost any other community in the Greater Boston area than is not Winthrop, Nahant or Hull.

We're not immune to anything, and can have our own home grown criminals (of many different classes), too. We had quite a peak of those a decade ago when opiate addiction among white school kids was relatively new here and a rash of burglaries to support new habits were a thing. I recall a former alderman's grandson being reminded to stop thefts at homes near where he was crashing or else.

Re: Police

Concerned Melrosian
Worse happens in bedroom communities further away than Melrose not just now but in the past (for example, remember Edgewater Technology massacre in Wakefield in 2000?). And Malden is a heckuva lot better than it was in the late 1990s when it was heading towards becoming Lower Lynn; now it's more like Upper Quincy (a way better result).

Melrose hasn't moved. Melrose has relatively fewer streets of entry and egress compared almost any other community in the Greater Boston area than is not Winthrop, Nahant or Hull.

We're not immune to anything, and can have our own home grown criminals (of many different classes), too. We had quite a peak of those a decade ago when opiate addiction among white school kids was relatively new here and a rash of burglaries to support new habits were a thing. I recall a former alderman's grandson being reminded to stop thefts at homes near where he was crashing or else.
I appreciate the intelligent, respectful post. However, Melrose hasn’t been considered a bedroom community for about a decade now. Far too dense and they continue to build. With that being said, that is only my personal opinion.

Re: Police

Serious question: does anybody know why so many reports are missing from the public police logs? When you look at the log report numbers, they're not sequential, indicating that tons of dispatch logs are removed.

Re: Police

Melrose is definitionally a bedroom community. Employment within the city is picayune compared to most other suburbs of Boston. Bedroom community has nothing to do with minimum quarter, half acre or single acre plus zoning. Melrose's population has stayed within a 26k-33K population band for the past 70 years of the post-WW2 era (with the peak being 1970) and is currently estimated be in the middle of that band.

Anyway, it will be interesting to see how much real estate churn slows down in the coming few years. Historically, it took Melrose a few years after each real estate crash to bottom; can't tell how many people bought with too much debt in the overextended cycle that is coming to an end and will have to sell or those who will stay put because they can't afford to buy-up to communities with better schools systems. This will be my fourth or fifth cycle here, depending on how one counts them (peak to peak or trough to trough).

Re: Police

Concerned Melrosian
Melrose is definitionally a bedroom community. Employment within the city is picayune compared to most other suburbs of Boston. Bedroom community has nothing to do with minimum quarter, half acre or single acre plus zoning. Melrose's population has stayed within a 26k-33K population band for the past 70 years of the post-WW2 era (with the peak being 1970) and is currently estimated be in the middle of that band.

Anyway, it will be interesting to see how much real estate churn slows down in the coming few years. Historically, it took Melrose a few years after each real estate crash to bottom; can't tell how many people bought with too much debt in the overextended cycle that is coming to an end and will have to sell or those who will stay put because they can't afford to buy-up to communities with better schools systems. This will be my fourth or fifth cycle here, depending on how one counts them (peak to peak or trough to trough).

I’d agree with most of your post except for the population talk. I don’t think there is any way in hell we are under 30,000 residents. And that 33,000 statistic you mentioned from the 70s, I bet we are right around that mark. This census will be interesting.