Porter Square Infill and Small Developments

Walked by 371 Beacon again yesterday. There's at least one balcony that's leaning out/disconnected from the building. I imagine they've been working on them, but what a scrappy construction job, all around. The "back" of the building is also pretty bad - like it's already aged 40 years and it's not even (close to) open yet.
 
stefal said:
Walked by 371 Beacon again yesterday. There's at least one balcony that's leaning out/disconnected from the building. I imagine they've been working on them, but what a scrappy construction job, all around. The "back" of the building is also pretty bad - like it's already aged 40 years and it's not even (close to) open yet.
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That's what I've been wondering. The unfinished building has been exposed to the elements for quite a while now. This is a closeup (from a few years ago) of the construction of the 1868 Mass Ave Porter Square hotel. So not expecting that building to weather well in the decades ahead either. But what do I know? I'm not in the construction industry.
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Equilibria said:
Not sure this is quite a Porter Square development...

GALLERY | WaldenSquare2

www.waldensquare2.com www.waldensquare2.com
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The folks at PorterSquare.net consider it in their purview and have a good backgrounder on it:

Walden Square II Affordable Housing | Porter Square Neighbors Association

https://www.waldensquare2.com/gallery-2
portersquare.net portersquare.net

Walden Square is currently 240 units of affordable housing with a waiting list of 900

This project would add 103 units, and use Cambridge’s “100% Affordable” Affordable Housing Overlay (AHO) zoning.
 
Clearly the Zoning Board loves its kebab-place-that-used-to-be-a-chicken-place so very much, is all. :unsure:


I'm sort of glad I don't live there anymore. My nightly insomnia habit of watching way too many city meetings on CCTV provided lots of cringe entertainment value...and unfortunately is seared into my brain well enough all these years later that I can probably reenact exactly how this particular 'ZB meeting went down in histrionics without having seen it in the first place. They all start to blur together like that after awhile.
 
The nerve to say something this callous. How morally bankrupt does one have to be to casually throw out a comment like that when discussing new homes, especially a project of this type. :mad:
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Also, can someone ELI5 how the ZBA still has any discretion here given the passage of the affordable housing overlay? Isn't the AHA designed to stop crap like this?
 
These meetings have too much power. They should take into consideration what people say, but thats it. Sometimes you have to overrule people who are only looking out for their own best interests in favor of the greater community. Its not up to individual people to represent the affordable housing needs of a whole community, so this needs to be accounted for when listening to the comments.

The thing about meetings like this is that only people who are upset are going to go out of their way to complain, people who are happy with something dont get moved as much to go make their voices heard. This makes it so these meetings are non representative of the overall sentiment of the community, and the angry people are over represented. You see this in comment sections on the internet as well, angry people are the loudest. There has to be a way to overrule these people for the greater good of the city or we are going to get nowhere.
 
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My son went to a daycare that was in the back of that ^ church when he was about a year old. The childcare center was relocated to make room for this project. My son is now a freshman in highschool. That is all.
 
chumbolly said:
My son went to a daycare that was in the back of that ^ church when he was about a year old. The childcare center was relocated to make room for this project. My son is now a freshman in highschool. That is all.
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The BRA/BPDA
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Apparently Lesley University is shaking up the ground floor layout of the "University Hall" building (former Sears-Roebuck).

They plan to move the Asian specialty foods/food court area (currently in the middle/back of the ground floor) to the front corner where the Shaking Crab (formerly Tavern in the Square) now resides.

Article in Cambridge Day:

That food court is a hidden gem and, while I hope for the best with this move, it's hard to imagine it will still be "hidden" hereafter. I hope it at least means better business for the proprietors.
 
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There is a proposal circulating for a four floor lab building at 32-44 White St. It looks like it is going to use stackers to cram 25 parking spaces on the site.
 
The Cambridge Day article also mentions a lab building proposed for the Walgreens at 1740 Massachusetts Ave. That's the first I've heard about that proposal. Google search coming up empty.
 
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