Ross wants ugly out of Beacon Hill
Councilor pushing bigger historic area
By Jay Fitzgerald | Monday, February 25, 2008 |
http://www.bostonherald.com | Real Estate
A city councilor wants to make Beacon Hill?s Cambridge Street more historically quaint like nearby Charles Street - while neighborhood activists are trying to keep Charles Street looking like Charles Street.
City Councilor Michael Ross said yesterday he plans to introduce a measure this week that would extend the Beacon Hill Historic Architectual District to the south side of Cambridge Street.
Cambridge Street has a more gritty, hardscrabble appearance than the postcard pretty Charles Street.
Despite a recent reconstruction of sidewalks and installation of a new flower-filled median strip, Cambridge Street still has some ugly commercial signs and other unattractive aspects to it that need sprucing up, Ross said.
A new Subway sandwich shop has a large commercial sign out front that doesn?t fit into the neighborhood, while banks are putting in ATM machines that don?t mesh with attempts to make Cambridge Street more quaint, said Ross.
Putting Cambridge Street into the rest of the neighborhood?s protected historic district might help the area, Ross said.
Some business and property owners were generally positive about Ross? proposal.
?We still have 1970s-kind of neon signage and a mishmash of other things thrown up? on Cambridge Street, said Babak Bina, owner of property on Cambridge Street and former head of the Beacon Hill Business Association.
The manager of the Subway shop could not be reached for comment.
But some business owners and landlords reportedly aren?t as thrilled about separate efforts by activists to possibly restrict the opening of new insurance, real-estate and other office spaces on the ground-floor of buildings along the 19th century Charles Street, considered one of the prettiest streets in America.
Karen Cord Taylor, part-owner of the Beacon Hill Times, said small retail shops are being squeezed out of ground-floor space on Charles Street by insurance, real estate and law firms.
Offices are not as lively and attractive to visitors and residents, said Taylor, who?s working with other activists about possibly pushing for new zoning restrictions on Charles Street.
Taylor said the idea is supported by retail-shop owners - but faces resistance from building owners and firms with offices on Charles Street.
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