Allston-Brighton Infill and Small Developments

[Arborway]

Yeah, because that area is so beautiful and totally worth preserving in amber forevermore.

Those deteriorating single story cinderblock buildings and crumbling parking lots as far as the eye can see cannot be messed with under any circumstances.

 

[kz1000ps]

What Greylock/Glenville Streets need more than anything are some mature trees. Without those the cruddy condition of the area's building stock is all too obvious.

 

[vanshnookenraggen]

Remind me to get married and have a kid before I try to move into a new apartment.

Well they aren't wrong. I've always been peeved at how a lot of new development only targets YUPys and the retired upper-middle class. We all want a city with diversity and to show it off as a good place to raise kids. We need more multi-bedroom units.

That said the people flipping out over the Irish family wanting a guest room is pretty stupid.

 

[statler]

C'mon Van. You know as well as I do "family-friendly' doesn't mean "multi-bedroom apartment" it means "single family detached house with a yard and two off-street parking spaces."

 

[GW2500]

^^^ Anything less is such an embarasment for most houswives.

 

[palindrome]

"Family-friendly" isn't a real deterrent to having students live in the neighborhood. If anything, it makes it more affordable for them to do so.

Is the BAIA actually have any power, or are they just a group of concerned citizens? The building was already approved by the BRA and i think the ZBA.

 

[statler]

I don't think it's so much an ego thing as it is a 'think of the children' thing. We have been brainwashed to believe that trying to raise a child in any setting that doesn't give the parents complete control over the immediate environment somehow exposes that child to all sorts of danger. Despite the fact that generations of children were raised in urban settings (and many continue to be) and turn out just fine.

 

[GW2500]

^^ yea more so that. And a lot of people, more so the moms, forget that last part.

 

[vanshnookenraggen]

C'mon Van. You know as well as I do "family-friendly' doesn't mean "multi-bedroom apartment" it means "single family detached house with a yard and two off-street parking spaces."

I forgot. Maybe we need some eminent domain so we can get Brighton down to 1 house per acre.

 

[statler]

You would get very little opposition to that proposal. (Except, maybe from some 'greedy' businessmen.)

 

[ablarc]

... generations of children were raised in urban settings (and many continue to be) and turn out just fine.

Not just fine, but the creme de la creme. When I was in college, all the smartest kids were from Manhattan.

 

[Ron Newman]

Asking for more multi-bedroom apartment or condo units strikes me as an eminently reasonable suggestion from the neighborhood group.

 

[AmericanFolkLegend]

Asking for more multi-bedroom apartment or condo units strikes me as an eminently reasonable suggestion from the neighborhood group.

Right, but if the goal is to keep out college kids, then I'm not sure that's the right way to do it. I lived off campus two years in college. In a 3-BR and a 5-BR.

 

[kennedy]

Not just fine, but the creme de la creme. When I was in college, all the smartest kids were from Manhattan.

Just to play devil's advocate, is there any correlation between this and the fact that living in Manhattan (well, parts of Manhattan) is much more expensive, and upper class?

On the bedroom topic: I don't think number of bedrooms really relates to college kids desiring or avoiding a neighborhood. If anything, they want more bedrooms to share with more roommates to have cheaper rent.

 

[stellarfun]

I love the complaint about delivery trucks (for Lowe's) increasing traffic on local streets. This in an area where Harvard demolished acres of warehouses and industrial properties, with all the associated truck traffic, and now gets chastised for 'land-banking'.

 

[Ron Newman]

Is this really the same area? Harvard's demolitions are on the other side of the Pike, and a fair distance to the north and west of New Balance.

 

[ablarc]

Just to play devil's advocate, is there any correlation between this and the fact that living in Manhattan (well, parts of Manhattan) is much more expensive, and upper class?

Sure, that's part of it --growing up in an apartment with books and a grand piano. Combine that with a healthy dollop of street savvy mixed with slice of life; then stir in a generous pinch of theatre, music and art ... and you have a pretty smart kid.

 

[kz1000ps]

Some stuff from yesterday

 

[Shepard]

Ive been inside the Urban Outfitters - it has a nice space there. But the building denies it any street presence. Also, they should have some sort of sign over the ugly window on the ugly "turret" perpendicular to Harvard, so that you can see it from Comm Ave. Once you realize this building has retail, its fugliness becomes a bit less grating.

 

[kennedy]

Look at how ironic I am! I have rustic wood on the outside of a typical faux brick skin in the city!

Alright, perhaps it doesn't deserve that, the wood is a nice touch. But it's very haphazardly applied. The interiors typically are at least halfway decent.