30 North Margin Street - North End

Padre Mike said:
Hey, Ron Newman, I have the answer to your query: "I'm curious how this came to be a parking lot, and how long ago that happened."
This open lot was the location of St. Mary Grammar School run by the Society of Jesus (Jesuits). It was next to my Aunt Mary and Uncle Jimmy's tiny apartment on Stillman St.; her kitchen window used to look out on the back of the school. After the church was closed, the school became defunct and was torn down. There was great rejoicing in my aunt's building that day. For the first time, she had daylight coming into her cramped, four room apartment that shared a toilet with their neighbors (conveniently here sister's family). There was no shower or bathtub in the building; the ladies took sponge baths in the kitchen and Uncle Jimmy went to the nearby public bath house. In the 1970's they took a small hallway and closet and converted it into the tiniest bathroom/shower in existence. Their's was one of the surviving tenements in the North End. Four rooms all opening into each other, no closet space to speak of, a dank stairway, and a light well in the center of the building that provided some light and ventilation into the hallways (and a convenient way for residents to yell for each other, rather than use the party-line phone.) The rent was dirt cheap for years and years.

About 10 years ago, there was a terrible fire in this building. The owner was storing flammable tanks or some such in the former retail area on the first floor and the whole building went up (Duh!!). No one was hurt, but Uncle Jimmy lost everything and had to move out. The building's been rehabbed, but I don't know what the interior now looks like. Now those kitchen windows are going to lose the light of day once more!
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This story is a great example of why it's worth coming back to this forum every day.
 
Agreed...that was a wonderful anecdote. I really enjoyed that little slice of history. I wonder whether there might not be room within this forum for such oral histories about urban life in Boston. It really shows a rich and colorful part of the city that few people know about.
 
Getting back to this proposed development on the existing parking lot, I think the more parking the better. I live in the neighborhood, very close to this site, but rent a spot in the Haymarket Garage on a monthly basis, and try to street-park whenever possible (which surprisingly is very often). If the developer can extract extra revenue from digging down and creating parking, then why not? If it just costs them more money, then why do we care? Plus, it will decrease the likelihood that resident parking spaces are taken up by people eating dinner in the N. End, going to Reggina's, or the Garden.

Plus, there is a dearth of new rental product available in the neighborhood and more supply is good, right? Obviously not for the NIMBYs, but that is a given.
 
ablarc said:
How true!

That could be the basis of a developer getting rich and a city getting revitalized --like Warrendale!
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Well, yeah, everyone knows that good planning and development comes from following ridged and inflexible universal formulas! ;)
 
Ron Newman said:
I didn't know they had a second one!
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Soon to be third. I was talking with one of the owners today and he said they are signing a lease for a place on the corner of West & Washington where the new Suffolk Dorms are going in. He mentioned that the location was originally slated for a Starbucks but the Suffolk people didn't want one there and wanted Beanstock instead. Besides, I don't see Starbucks expanding very much for a while. Haven't they been forced to shut down locations in Europe and the US and raise prices/do away with menu items because they're strapped for cash? (not to get off topic!)
 
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That's great news. I'm glad Suffolk is favoring a well-regarded local business over a national chain.
 
Banker & Tradesman - March 3
North End Residents, Condo Proponents Clash at Hearing
By Thomas Grillo
Reporter

A shouting match nearly silenced a public hearing Tuesday night in Boston?s North End.

In a packed room at the Nazzaro Community Center, proponents and local residents clashed over a proposed luxury condominium development. In one of the evening?s more tense moments, the project?s lawyer shouted ?shut up!? at an activist and the city?s project manager threatened to end the hearing.

?I will shut the meeting down if we can?t respect each other?s opinion,? said Kristin Kara, the Boston Redevelopment Authority?s (BRA) project manager, as she stood on a chair.

At issue is the redevelopment of a parking lot at the corner of North Margin and Stillman streets. Steven Fustolo is heading a team that has proposed 61 condos in a 5-story building. The two-and-a-half-hour session was the first time the community saw the plan.

On one side of the room were members of the Iron Workers Union Local No. 7 who favored the plan. On the other side were many longtime ?North Enders? and abutters who fear that digging 37 feet below grade to create the parking facility would exacerbate the depletion of the groundwater in the neighborhood.

Michael Durant, the union?s business manager, said the project is essential to employ his members. ?I represent 4,000 ironworkers and some of them are here tonight,? he said. ?And we need a project like this now.?

While many residents said they could support a smaller project with fewer parking spaces, there was concern that digging so deep could threaten the foundations of nearby homes.

Aaron Michlewitz, a North End resident and House Speaker Salvatore DiMasi?s constituent services director, said his biggest concern is about excavation for the building. ?This is an area that just went through the Big Dig and there are lots of foundations that have been weakened during 16 years of construction,? Michlewitz said. ?Going forward, we have to make sure that further damage is not done.?

David Kubiak, a longtime resident, said he can?t understand why the the city would allow such a large underground parking structure in what he said may be one of the most at-risk sections of the city.

?It?s scary,? he said. ?Once it happens, you won?t be able to fix it. People are losing their properties on Fulton Street because of groundwater depletion. Who knows if it?s the Big Dig? The point is, no one can figure out what?s causing it.?

In response, William Ferullo, the project?s attorney, said, ?Dave, most of your statements sound nice, but they?re wrong. We have people in this room who are experts on groundwater, but Dave will tell you the North End will fall into a hole and won?t be here anymore.?

?Don?t put words in my mouth,? said Kubiak. ?I never said that.?

But when Kubiak tried to interject, Ferullo shouted, ?Are you interrupting? Well, shut up! How?s that? If you want the same respect, then give it back, so let me finish.?

The BRA?s comment period for the project ends March 18.
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NLA
 
The obvious answer to this is keep the condos, lose the underground parking garage.
 
^^ Was that a sly Godfather reference?
 
The developer/lawyer team sounds like another group of idiots that are going into the permitting process without a PR agency. It's like sending sheep to the slaughter. Nothing will get built here until a more professional team takes over (at the very least) the communications/outreach campaign.

I can't understand why developers pour money into so many aspects of a development and then don't hire a well-connected, high-powered PR agency.
 
On one side of the room were members of the Iron Workers Union Local No. 7 who favored the plan. On the other side were many longtime ?North Enders? and abutters who fear that digging 37 feet below grade to create the parking facility would exacerbate the depletion of the groundwater in the neighborhood.

Michael Durant, the union?s business manager, said the project is essential to employ his members. ?I represent 4,000 ironworkers and some of them are here tonight,? he said. ?And we need a project like this now.?
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These union thugs had no right to be there. I'm surprised no one got a beating afterwards. There is a building boom going on now. It's not like anyone is out of work. I'm tired of seeing all the constuction workers trucks from New Hampshire, Maine and Rhode Island in the state.

Massachusett's biggest problem is the out of control unions.
 
Ugh, yeah, the last people the pro-development community in Boston needs advocating for their side are the intimidating unions. I think the NIMBYs are more likely to identify with slick corporate developers than them.
 
BostonObserver said:
These union thugs had no right to be there. I'm surprised no one got a beating afterwards. There is a building boom going on now. It's not like anyone is out of work. I'm tired of seeing all the constuction workers trucks from New Hampshire, Maine and Rhode Island in the state.

Massachusett's biggest problem is the out of control unions.
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You're exactly right. They once had a place in the labor world, but they now exist to serve their self interests. I actually side with the residents on this one. The developer thought by teaming up with the union that they could "muscle" this project in to the North End. Wrong. Dead wrong.
 
^ Plus, everyone remembers driving through the Big Dig construction watching one worker dig while the rest stood around. The unions are despised, and not just for being muscley.
 
^^ Or seeing none of them digging.

It's easier said than done to engage in manual labor all day long, but I seldom, seldom, seldom saw any movement by the workers on the Big Dig.
 
Local 7 is one of the most politically connected unions in Boston. They helped get Stephen Lynch (D-South Boston) elected to congress.

Sadly, this development will get built as is even with the ridiculous height and the obnoxiously large garage.
 
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