New Master Plan for North Allston

pelhamhall said:
Pick whatever combination of pretty words that makes you comfortable.

Subsidized housing
Affordable housing
Mixed-income housing
Social housing
Housing for hope
Community housing

Or you can eschew the public relations spin, simplify things, and call these developments what they are: "Government Housing"

It's a term that activists have shied away from since the mid-1980s, but that doesn't mean it is an incorrect term.

The new Charlesview will be in large part, Government Housing. That's not really a controversial statement, is it?
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Government housing implies that it is government owned. Are these units owned by the government; city, state, or federal? If so, I apologize.
 
Justin7 said:
Government housing implies that it is government owned. Are these units owned by the government; city, state, or federal? If so, I apologize.
Click to expand...
Charlesview current, and Charlesview future, is owned and operated by a non-profit organization comprised of two or three churches in Allston and one synagogue.

Harvard's involvement is that it swapped land it owns at Brighton Mills and across the street for the land that Charlesview currently owns at Barry's Corner and which immediately abuts Harvard's soccer fields and the Business school.

Some in the community now argue that Charlesview shouldn't be built until Harvard prepares a plan to build other housing (preferably single family detached with lots of green space) on the other parcels of land it owns near Brighton Mills and south of Western Ave.
 
This statement:

"Housing built specifically for people who rely on government subsidies to live in that housing"

Could be shortened into this statement:

"Government housing"

In the mid 1980s, people stopped using this term because it became toxic politically. Government-sponsored housing programs were re-thought, re-invented and then re-branded. (BTW, I think this is a good thing)
 
Iam been TELLING you that Rayman idiot. Nose NOTHING but cunning stunts!!!
 
pelhamhall said:
This statement:
"Housing built specifically for people who rely on government subsidies to live in that housing"

Could be shortened into this statement:

"Government housing"
Click to expand...

Sure it can, if your intention is to mislead. The term "government housing" is not appropriately descriptive. As I stated, it implies that the property is government owned, which it is not. It is government subsidized housing, so why not call it that?

It is also mixed-income housing, but this is not synonymous with government anything. A development can be government subsidized without being mixed income, as you are aware.
 
Is this "government housing" by any definition? I thought Charlesview was a private non-profit.
 
Land swap in Allston tests residents? patience
Want development deal finalized soon

By Meghan E. Irons, Globe Staff | August 31, 2009

Harry Mattison scanned empty buildings at the site of the planned new Charlesview Apartments in Allston and envisioned a grander space with condominiums, retail space nearby, and a park.

Raisa Shapiro looked around her unit at Charlesview on Western Avenue nearby and saw decay, leaks, and mouse droppings.

Mattison and other North Allston residents are trying to get more land nearby for the new Charlesview, an affordable-housing development that is part of a Harvard University land swap.

?If we are going to do this project, then do it right,?? said Mattison, a longtime North Allston resident. ?Let?s make this as big and wonderful and as innovative as possible, because there isn?t anything happening here.??

But Shapiro, a tenant living in the crumbling housing complex, is just itching to move. Any interference by people outside the complex, who don?t have to put up with its deteriorating conditions, will only put her departure on hold, she said.

?They will delay as much as possible our move, so they can get what they want,?? she said.

The opposing perspectives came to light at a community meeting last week that exposed fissures among Allston community groups over development in their neighborhood.

Their arguments center around the land swap, approved in 2007, which is occurring in the midst of a larger community-planning process that includes Harvard-owned property.

One group is the Charlesview residents who support the land swap and are ready to relocate to a proposed complex at the Brighton Mills shopping center on Western Avenue. Harvard wants to move them, because it wants the land their complex now occupies in order to create a showcase entrance to its planned Allston campus.

A second group, the Harvard Allston Task Force, has been working with Harvard and the Boston Redevelopment Authority over a communitywide plan. The task force, which supports many of Harvard?s development efforts, has not taken a position on the land swap, said Paul Berkeley, one of the panel?s cochairmen.

But meanwhile a third group, the Allston Brighton North Neighbors Forum, is becoming increasingly vocal about what it sees as Harvard?s broken promises in the neighborhood. That group of residents wants more land provided for the Charlesview relocation project so the development can offer mixed-income housing, retail space, and a park.

With the economy slowing development in Allston, Forum members see the Charlesview relocation project as their best hope to upgrade their community.

At last week?s community meeting, hosted by the Boston Redevelopment Authority, the developer, Community Builders Inc., presented its redesign to the public for the first time.

The project was redesigned after community residents complained that units in the proposed new complex were too densely packed into tall buildings. The redesigned complex would include 360 units spread among smaller, lower buildings at the Brighton Mills shopping center, about a half-mile from Western Avenue. Instead of 12 buildings on 6 acres, the newest design calls for 26 buildings on 8 acres, the developer said.

The meeting grew heated when Charlesview residents, who long remained silent on the issue, chastised some who do not live in Charlesview for dismissing them as uneducated, poor people living in rundown housing while pressing their own demands, said a half-dozen people on both sides of the issue who attended the meeting.

Sherry Clark, a 30-year old Charlesview resident, said she likes the plan but wants the controversy to end so the tenants can move on with their lives.

Many tenants question why the process is taking so long.

?I?m at the point now where [I want Harvard and the developer] to stop listening to the residents and just get the ball rolling,?? said Andrea Circeo, an 11-year resident. ?Too many cooks in the kitchen spoil the pot.??

Forum members said they also want to see Charlesview residents relocated, but believe that Harvard can do more than that by building up its other vacant properties.

?Nobody is holding the project hostage,?? said Timothy McHale, a Forum member who said the plan has received wide support in the community.

Harvard said that, all along, it has been working with the community on two fronts. It collaborated with Charlesview?s board of trustees to reach the relocation agreement.

Harvard spokesman Joshua Poupore said yesterday that the university will continue to be an ?active and engaged partner?? in the community public review process being conducted by the Boston Redevelopment Authority.

But despite tensions, longtime resident Karen Smith downplayed any division between residents.

?There is unity around the principles,?? Smith said in a phone interview.

?I think Charlesview residents feel a great sense of urgency because of the current state of their current housing. I think that?s in the forefront of their minds. But I don?t think there is disagreement about the communitywide plan that has been developed and endorsed by many people.??

James Sloan, 51, who has lived in Charlesview for 10 years, said residents are forming a group to repair the rift between the neighbors.

?There needs to be some consensus between the two groups,?? he said, ?so they can try to work together to figure out what the problem is. ?

Another community meeting is planned for next month.
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http://www.boston.com/news/local/ma...and_swap_in_allston_tests_residents_patience/

Nothing gets done by only talking. Harvard needs to get this done soon but there really is no way to please everyone.
 
That's the solution...form more groups...that way there can be more layers to rip through before anything comes to fruition...I guess if you throw enough s#!t at the wall, something is bound to stick.
 
Harvard has not been forthcoming about its intentions for all the land it has acquired on the north side of Western Ave west from N. Harvard St to Soldiers Field Road and the bridge to the Watertown Arsenal.

The community and the city of Boston have said little about the 12 aqcre Smith Playground that sits next to Barry's Corner, and would need to be developed on if Barry's Corner is going to achieve critical mass as a small-scale retail / commercial location. (To be fair, Harry Mattison has opined that relocating Smith needs to be put on the table.)

There are three parcels that Harvard undoubtedly covets on the north side of Western Ave: the aforementioned Smith playground, the broadcast studios of WBZ (about which there were discussions some months ago about Harvard buying), and the land owned by the Boston Skating Club (opposite Brighton Mills).

If Harvard were to acquire all three parcels, what can it offer the present owners from a land swap or building swap standpoint?

Possibilities:
a.) swap land Harvard owns on the north side of Western Ave and perhaps some of the WBZ land for the 12 acres of Smith playground. This would make for a linear playground, somewhat of a throwback to the old speedway race course.

b.) give an acre or two of the 30 acres of land it owns at the old Arsenal or a portion of its Allston land holdings (east of N. Harvard St.) to the Skating Club.

c.) move WBZ into the shell technology building that Harvard bought from Cabot Cabot and Forbes adjacent to the Mass Pike.
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As for the need for more green space and play areas, N. Allston is already quite fortunate compared to other Boston neighborhoods. There is the 12 acre Smith playground, another large playground on Portsmouth St. (west of N. Harvard), and a smaller playground east of N. Harvard St. The community is also seeking a peeestrian bridge over Soldiers Field Rd. to facilitate access to the MDC parkland along the Charles river. Harvard is funding construction of a new 1.75 acre park near the library on N. Harvard St. which is more expensive, area-wise, to construct and maintain than anything on the Greenway.

The new park, design reflecting community input.

g25825834332b065c4f5a2535de2b310340c4ead15b41be.jpg


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In glancing through BRA documents for Allston, I noted that Harvard has already helped fund 50 units of new affordable housing on Everett St, south of the Mass Pike and Brighton Mills, and 10 units on Hano St., south of the Mass Pike. Both sites were developed by the Allston Brighton CDC. Perhaps, some in the community are really resisting more units of affordable housing in their nighborhood.

The Honan apartments:
BJHApts.jpg


The Charlesview designs looks better, IMO
 
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