🔷 Open Thread

Mayor Wu Files Ordinance to Create City Planning Department​

Mayor Michelle Wu has filed an ordinance to move the BDPA under City Hall's jurisdiction and create a city planning department. The proposal would put the agency's budget and oversight under City Council control with divisions for planning, design, development review, and real estate. The ordinance is part of Wu's efforts to restructure the city planning process which have been in the works since she released a white paper in 2019 calling for the dissolution of the BPDA.
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Michelle Wu Files Ordinance to Create City Planning Department
 
The EGE said:
metro-memory.com

Boston Metro Memory

How many of the Boston metro stations can you name from memory?
metro-memory.com metro-memory.com
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Good find! Disappointed in "65% in 10 minute" result. I definitely have avoided the Green line post-Kenmore, and never been on the Mattapan trolley.
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Vagabond said:
Good find! Disappointed in "65% in 10 minute" result. I definitely have avoided the Green line post-Kendall, and never been on the Mattapan trolley. View attachment 47418
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96.5%, turns out spending way too much time looking at the map does work for memorizing it. Only missed Valley Rd and ~50% of the C branch.

By the way, you're missing out, go ride the Mattapan trolley.
 
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Can someone from Salem explain how this enormous landscaper storage facility got built on prime waterfront property?
I'm guessing it went something like this:
Land owner: "We'd like to put some luxury condos on this prime waterfront property."
NIMBYs: "Are you nuts?!! This city is already over crowded as it is! We don't want more housing!"
Land Owner: "Oh, OK. How a nice high end retail/hotel complex?"
NIMBYs: "Are you nuts?!! This city is already overrun with tourists! We don't want any more coming in!"
Land Owner: "OK, what do you think the city needs?"
NIMBYs: Well, our houses are old and we don't have a lot of closet space...."
Land Owner: "On it!"

Edit: Google Maps is telling me that it its not in fact just a storage place. I was going by this sign:
 

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statler said:
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Can someone from Salem explain how this enormous landscaper storage facility got built on prime waterfront property?
I'm guessing it went something like this:
Land owner: "We'd like to put some luxury condos on this prime waterfront property."
NIMBYs: "Are you nuts?!! This city is already over crowded as it is! We don't want more housing!"
Land Owner: "Oh, OK. How a nice high end retail/hotel complex?"
NIMBYs: "Are you nuts?!! This city is already overrun with tourists! We don't want any more coming in!"
Land Owner: "OK, what do you think the city needs?"
NIMBYs: Well, our houses are old and we don't have a lot of closet space...."
Land Owner: "On it!"

Edit: Google Maps is telling me that it its not in fact just a storage place. I was going by this sign:
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I mean... Its also not exactly *new*. That building is part of Shetland Park and that entire complex was an old textile mill; a quick Google suggests those buildings date to the 1920s after the Salem fire of 1914. A lot of that complex is mostly office space at this point, but yes, the same company that owns Prime Self Storage also owns the entire complex.
 
Oh wow. I guess I pre-judged based on the windows which, honestly, look pretty modern. Thank you for the context. I rescind my snarky comment.
 
That roofline is designed to allow daylight over the entire floor of the building. It was common in older factories before everything was just illuminated with electric lights.
en.m.wikipedia.org

Saw-tooth roof - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org en.m.wikipedia.org

Other remnants of the old industrial waterfront, such as the canal, now make it possible to have a beer on the water while gazing at an electrical substation, which I think is awesome. Check out Notch if you have not already!
 
Clearly they riffed on the curvilinear forms of the Knights of Columbus tower, and by that measure I like it more than I probably should.
 
A surprisingly interesting video about suburban greenfield development. A lot of information in it but my big take away is that suburban developments are apparently getting denser? (Not actually dense of course, but denser)

 
www.nbcboston.com

‘Are we going to end up homeless?' Chelmsford condo complex facing condemnation

Thirty families could soon end up without a home after the town of Chelmsford, Massachusetts, found concerning structural damages at Milestone Condo. Many of the residents of the building on Chelmsford Street are low-income families, seniors, and people with disabilities. They now face a...
www.nbcboston.com www.nbcboston.com

There's probably a better thread for this but I thought it was interesting. A 60s era condo complex in Chelmsford is facing being condemned after serious structural damage was found. Unit Owners are unable (or unwilling) to pony up the million+ price tag for repairs. Even getting a loan is problematic because of lack of faith.
 
jklo said:
www.nbcboston.com

‘Are we going to end up homeless?' Chelmsford condo complex facing condemnation

Thirty families could soon end up without a home after the town of Chelmsford, Massachusetts, found concerning structural damages at Milestone Condo. Many of the residents of the building on Chelmsford Street are low-income families, seniors, and people with disabilities. They now face a...
www.nbcboston.com www.nbcboston.com

There's probably a better thread for this but I thought it was interesting. A 60s era condo complex in Chelmsford is facing being condemned after serious structural damage was found. Unit Owners are unable (or unwilling) to pony up the million+ price tag for repairs. Even getting a loan is problematic because of lack of faith.
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Intriguing on a local level, but between this and the Surfside condo collapse of three years ago one has to wonder just how many of these neglected 1960s apartment/condo boxes all over the country are on the precipice. Lord knows these things are littered all over every town and neighborhood here in Greater Boston, and speaking from experience working in residential real estate for almost three years now the vast majority of them look as shabby on the inside as they do outside. 7'6" popcorn ceilings, no light fixtures in most rooms, fogged over windows, grungy carpeting, tan plastic bathtubs... they're at their do or die moment.
 
kz1000ps said:
Intriguing on a local level, but between this and the Surfside condo collapse of three years ago one has to wonder just how many of these neglected 1960s apartment/condo boxes all over the country are on the precipice. Lord knows these things are littered all over every town and neighborhood here in Greater Boston, and speaking from experience working in residential real estate for almost three years now the vast majority of them look as shabby on the inside as they do outside. 7'6" popcorn ceilings, no light fixtures in most rooms, fogged over windows, grungy carpeting, tan plastic bathtubs... they're at their do or die moment.
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I feel like this sort of chronic underinvestment in condos and the pressure to keep dues artificially low is pretty endemic - most condo boards aren't familiar enough with buildings to know what are appropriate reserves. Even my condo in Cambridge had and has basically no reserves. In my view, it's particularly bad in places where the majority or board is comprised of those on a fixed income, for whom raising the dues might make it unaffordable - it's those same folks who might no be able to afford to update their units generally.

While I sympathize, and particularly feel bad for those who bought in recently, I think this is one of those things where boards need to be held to a externally defined standard. And yes, it's that standard that's causing much consternation in FL at the moment. Here, Looking at the docs snippits, they've already had issues collecting dues. Here the 30 condos together, optimistically, had a market value of what, 4.5m? The building needs >1m in work... I hate to say it, but the only move seems to be walking away or working out some sort of deal with whatever affordable housing authority is in Chelmsford to deed it over in exchange for tenancy and repairs.

What may be a bigger concern statewide frankly is the ongoing pyrrhotite contamination problem - no one knows just how many buildings /structures were built in the past 30 years or so with contaminated concrete that is now crumbling. It's been an entire thing in CT and now rumbles are starting in MA.
 
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