Q: A reader asks: ‘Is Boston, MA a terrible place to live?’ (via Quora)
A: Questions like this, with a built-in bias, presuppose the answer, sort of like “Have you stopped beating your wife?” But the answer is clearly no.
Here’s proof: People don’t choose to move to a place that’s terrible, and Boston hasn’t had a population decline since the since the 1980s. (source)
So, either all these people moving in are really, really stupid — or the premise of your question is wildly wrong:
Of course, like everywhere else, Boston has some areas that are not great to live. Like everywhere else, some Bostonians experience hard luck and bad times through no fault of their own; and that sucks. Like everywhere else, other Bostonians experience hard times through poor voluntary choices.
But for most people, Boston is more than OK, and can be great.
Otherwise, the population numbers would be going down.
(BTW: A reader seriously disagrees with the above. Scroll down for interesting comments!)
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This Boston population chart fails to mention that Boston is a sanctuary city with an illegal alien population of 180k in a city of 672k (2017 Boston Globe). That’s 26% of the population in a city with maybe 1% growth. According to 2018 statistics crime by illegal aliens is up 50%. Maybe population statistics don’t really mean that much. If you love being governed by Liberal Progressive Democrats this is the place for you. Don’t get me started on the corruption.
If you’re going to throw statistics at me, please cite them accurately.
Here’s the Globe report you cite; and here’s the original Pew Study that the Globe was talking about.
Take a look: You conflated two entirely different numbers.
The 180K undocumented immigrants you worry about live within the entire Boston metro area — 4,628,910 inhabitants — not within the Boston city limits — 672K inhabitants. Big difference. (And, btw, both the Globe and the Pew report took pains to make this clear. I guess you missed that.)
Do the math: the real number for undocumented immigrants is 0.03 of the area population, not 0.26.
But if you want to look just at Boston proper, the Pew report has those numbers too: They say there are about 35K unauthorized immigrants in Boston proper, a city of 672K, or about 0.05 of the population.
Those are very small percentages. Your “26%” is a sheer Trump-style fantasy.
You also state, but don’t cite a source, that “crime by illegal aliens is up 50%”
But I think you’re mixing up another number, cited in this actual Globe article: Arrests of undocumented immigrants in Boston are up 50 percent. That’s federal ICE action, not Boston police pursuit of new crimes committed by the immigrants against Boston citizens.
Neither the Globe, nor Pew, nor the census bureau, nor the actual daily experience of living here, support your claims and your fears.
Take a deep breath, my friend. Turn off Fox.