Dorchester just can't seem to shake that reputation

I've both visited friends and extended family in Dorchester, and biked through sections of it on the way from a former job in Mission Hill toward the south shore.

I am also familiar with census demographics and mapping and have, at one time, done thematic maps of various demographic and socioeconomic indicators for much of the Boston Area as well as for Greater Lowell.

How anybody can say much of anything descriptive about Dorchester as a whole is really beyond me. It isn't just a neighborhood, it is a series of neighborhoods, all of them different, some are more affluent, some are far less so. Some are stacked and crowded and treeless, some are graced by grand old Queen Anne Victorians perched on rocks and hills and sporting spacious lawns. Some are mostly single and two family areas, some are brick blocks.

I don't see how anybody with even a passing familiarity can ever generalize here. I have to wonder how many people who are ragging on the place have ever been to or through it, at any speed where they could get a sense of the place(s).