Brookline Infill and Small Developments

I think that if the parcel was fully in one or the other municipality, this would have been finished already.

The groups just play the towns off each other though.
 
davem said:
Fuck these people, seriously. This is a solid project, replacing an ABANDONED theater (that used to generate a ton of traffic) and an Applebees. They should be cheering someone wants to do something with the site. I hope the theater sits there abandoned for ever, and all the other businesses flee the area. Maybe it can have a small fire, or some homeless people can move in. Or a plague of rats!

I mean god, Samuels is building a mixed use project in Allston, second only to Cambridge in NIMBYism. The people opposing this are insane.

Shadows... good god.
Click to expand...

Obviously, the residents of Cleveland Circle fully deserve MaryAnn's and it's "benefits".
 
Walsh weighs in on controversial Cleveland Circle, South Boston projects

“Ultimately the big issue is traffic and that’s something that has to be dealt with,” Walsh said Friday. “Part of that proposal is fixing Cleveland Circle, so it would be a shame not to see Cleveland Circle fixed. We are trying to work through the process and have the community’s voice heard. This project has traveled through two administrations and we are trying to see how we can get to a solution and move this forward.”
Click to expand...

http://www.bizjournals.com/boston/r...on-controversial-cleveland-circle.html?page=2
 
You could certainly take this quote as a positive if you consider that the Clinton Road gang has had much more to say about this project than traffic complaints, including but not limited to a negative impact on the beer league softball fields that exactly 0% of that neighborhood's population actually uses on a regular basis.

On the other hand...a fuller traffic discussion in the area, while worth having, has got to be a dagger. If we can't build anything until we "fix" Cleveland Circle? Game over, man. This site will be a police/fire training grounds in perpetuity.
 
Why there has to be a "discussion" about building density at a transit hub neighborhood where three Green Line branches converge will always be a mystery to me. Having lived in the area, traffic never seemed all that high either. Then again, I don't drive so I may not have noticed.
 
Traffic can be difficult, but as was mentioned earlier, it is almost entirely due to the terrible design of the intersection. Keeping any development here on hold pending the reconstruction of Cleveland Circle will, as Ernie said, mean that nothing gets built for the indefinite future.
 
Traffic is not that bad here compared to other places. It's hyperventilation from a few NIMBYs who just moved in from the suburbs and are shocked to learn that Cleveland Circle actually part of the city. And/or a convenient excuse for obstructionism.
 
Things are finally progressing here:

14223520511_b56efa3f83_b.jpg
 
ten bucks says it's either a bank or a cell phone store
 
Capital one 360 cafe. It's a bank disguised as a coffee shop with a Peet Coffee and Tea. There's already one on Tremont near Park st and one on Boylston st.

Isn't there already a Peet's Coffee in Coolidge Corner tho?


EDIT: to make a distinction between the Cafe on Tremont at Park and the Cafe on Boylston
 
Last edited:
bobthebuilder said:
Capital one 360 cafe. It's a bank disguised as a coffee shop with a Peet Coffee and Tea. There's already one on Tremont near Park st and Boylston st.

Isn't there already a Peet's Coffee in Coolidge Corner tho?
Click to expand...

There's also one in the ex-Anthropologie spot across from the Pru on Boylston. They're freaking everywhere.
 
These are so absolutely tacky. As a consumer of both coffee and banking services, I could never pull myself to seek out either of those products/services in a location like this. The idea of a banking associate pulling your espresso while you talk about CDs is something I just find far too patronizing.

Regarding this location, I'm also curious to see if this will have a Peet's, given the Peet's just a block away.

(This still, to me, isn't the most egregious example of a bank shafting a neighborhood along Beacon... that prize belongs to the Citibank in Cleveland Circle which spans about 5 storefront widths and looks to take up about half the total streetscape - all for the one week in September when BC freshman might want to open a checking account.)
 
I honestly don't understand why we are seeing more physical bank branches than ever when fewer and fewer people actually go to the bank in person. I honestly haven't been into a bank branch in probably 2 years since I do everything via ATM or smartphone app.
 
Every time this place comes up for discussion either here or on uHub, I feel obliged to point out that Capital One took out the lease here IN TWO THOUSAND TEN and has been letting it sit fallow on the busiest street corner in the town.

Fail hard, you shallow corporate attempt at a personality. Fail very hard.
 
cden4 said:
I honestly don't understand why we are seeing more physical bank branches than ever when fewer and fewer people actually go to the bank in person. I honestly haven't been into a bank branch in probably 2 years since I do everything via ATM or smartphone app.
Click to expand...

To them, it's advertising. Basically, this is the kind of over the top advertising a company can do when they have more money than they know what to do with.
 
So, funny story. I visited two physical bank branches today... actually both of them in Coolidge Corner. I guess that's because there's not a better way to do deposits yet.

I'm not a fan of "bankification" but my understanding of the Capital One Cafe is that it is supposed to be "friendlier" to the community by not creating a dead space/blank wall on the street.

It's not a gimmick in the sense of "teller pulling your coffee" it's supposed to be a direct response to the (largely correct, I think) argument that bank branches kill economic and street-level diversity.

Kind of corny, but I guess, at least they're trying...
 
bobthebuilder said:
Isn't there already a Peet's Coffee in Coolidge Corner tho?
Click to expand...

Yes, there is. Plus a Starbucks and Paris Creperie. Would be much happier with an independent coffee shop here, a specialty food shop, or really anything other than a bank.

Then again, there's still a vacancy a few storefronts down from here where Naked Pizza used to be, so there's still room for more interesting things. Hopefully that doesn't turn into a bank too.
 
Capital One 360 is an online bank so there won't be any tellers there. Basically the bank employees will be there to assist customers with accessing their accounts online. They don't deal with cash. The coffee shop is their way of having a reason for non-account holders to frequent the locations and learn about them and also allows them to make some sort of profit. I think the hold up in the openings was caused by Capital One buying ING Direct. I remember way back ING Direct had announced these cafes were coming.
 
Shepard said:
These are so absolutely tacky.
Click to expand...

Your point was more about the service being offered, but they also present aesthetic tackiness, what with those obnoxiously bold red and blue signs. I can't not notice them whenever I'm within a hundred yards of 'em whether it be here or on Tremont or Boylston. Good advertising I guess, but like you said, tacky.

ErnieAdams said:
Fail hard, you shallow corporate attempt at a personality. Fail very hard.
Click to expand...

LOL, quoted for truthiness!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top