The Flats
The Flats is East Boston at its most working, not its most gentrifying — 27 grocery stores (saturated at 3.66 z-score), Santarpio's Pizza that's been here since 1903, La Hacienda doing brisk dinner business, and Logan Airport audible overhead on clear days.
Score Breakdown
About this Neighborhood
The Flats is the low-lying part of East Boston that sits between the elevated expressway and the harbor, where the grocery saturation — 27 stores, a 3.66 z-score, the most pronounced saturated signal in this batch — reflects a dense working-class Latino community that has supported corner markets long before the foodie economy showed up. Santarpio's Pizza is a Boston institution: James Beard-adjacent, cash only, the kind of place that gives a neighborhood its temporal anchor. La Hacienda, Pollo Campero. Seven coffee shops — Melo's Cafe, Eagle Hill Cafe, East Boston Farmstand — are lean for the population density; this is a neighborhood that doesn't run on pour-over. Five fitness spots include the East Boston YMCA. Fifteen parks. Social glue at 45 — lowest in this batch — which may reflect a population with less residential stability than the built environment would suggest.
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