This would have been in the late 80’s. I don’t remember being particularly intimidated around there at the time. I’m living in the Boston area again and haven’t had occasion to go down there, but I can believe the Combat Zone is gone. Lots of formerly “scary” areas seem to have gentrified, or maybe I just seem them differently. As far as Dorchester, I suppose I assumed it was mostly filled with Mark and Donnie Wahlberg clones. 
Yup, it’s all be redeveloped, just one or two adult bookstores left.
[hijack on]
Boston’s Chinatown is still a pretty dodgy place. In the past 6 months both the Globe and Herald have run stories on the general seediness of the area. The Herald, in banner headlines of course, focused on drugs, prostitution, and violence, whilst the Globe looked at residents and their safety concerns (particularly walking home at night). The jist of these articles was that though the sex trade has been priced or forced out, the general area is still a locus for underworld types.
FWIW, I think there’s more than a grain of truth to this. During the day it’s fine enough, but at night, yeah, I defiantly stay alert when passing though. [\hijack off]
That’s where the “travellers” (irish gypsies) live. Supposedly, the police don’t go here. From what I’m told, this place is like a “winter quaters” for these people-as soon as spring comes, they fan out across the country, running scams (staged auto accidents) and shoplifting, ripping off elderly homeowners, etc.
Anybdoy know more aboutthis place?
There are trailer parks like that in Joplin, Missouri and Loami, Illinois as well.
Murphy Village is the name you are looking for.
To the extent that police avoid it (I don’t know if this is true), it would be because of the perception that the Travellers (who are associated with the acts you note, rightly or wrongly – don’t want to start a debate in GQ) are clannish (seems indisputable) and unlikely to cooperate with cops, thus making ventures there pointless. Supposedly, the Irish Travellers in America maintain good internal order (and thus wouldn’t need cops to patrol their insular communities).
Importantly, of the crimes of which the Travellers are accused, violent crimes figure very low in the rankings – it’s usually confidence scams, etc. of which they’re accused (Madelyn Toogood, a Traveller from Tex., not S.C., was an exception when she was caught beating the crap out of her little kid on a surveillance camera outside a department store in the Midwest (which the media at least hinted she had been visiting for purposes of some shoplifting scam)).
So – I don’t think anyone’s suggested that visiting Murphy Village would be a threat to the “country people”'s (the Traveller word for non-Travellers) physical safety (though you’d likely, to hear tell, encounter some dubious/hostile glances from the inhabitants).
I used to live in Echo Park which is now becoming more respectable. I lived in the projects and I can say with certainty that I was the only white person in the building I lived. All the other residents were Latino or Korean. I once went to a McDonalds nearby where I lived and ran into another white person. It was very strange. Echo Park is not a ‘bad’ neighborhood, but other areas of LA were. Most of worst ones I saw were populated by Latinos and/or Asians.
I would never, ever walk around Chinatown or KoreaTown by myself after dark. Once, my then boyfriend and I went with his family to a restaurant in the heart of KoreaTown. As we were walking back to the car, his parents asked us to not hold hands because of the looks some of the teenagers were giving us.