Radian (Dainty Dot) | 120 Kingston Street | Chinatown

Re: 120 Kingston, 29 Story Tower in Chinatown

I pick up groceries on the way home from work after getting off the T. I've thought about a granny cart but haven't needed it yet.

In California sprawl-burbia I used a bike with a basket for commuting and picking up groceries on my way home.

In cities with a clue about transit, there is usually a supermarket or grocery store next to the subway stations that serve housing. It can go further too. For example, in Tokyo, the big stations often double as giant malls with massive aboveground and underground complexes. Many of those have been planned by private companies, but it's a natural thing to do anyway: put the retail where the people are passing by in large numbers.

That's one of the reasons I get so aggravated about the complete desolation surrounding many of the Orange Line stations. Missed opportunity!
 
Re: 120 Kingston, 29 Story Tower in Chinatown

Matthew said:
That's one of the reasons I get so aggravated about the complete desolation surrounding many of the Orange Line stations. Missed opportunity!
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Stony Brook and Green Street has enough room for more retail. Stony Brook has that big green patch in front of the station, but I bet the green-leftists would bitch and moan about not being able to play kickball if something was built there.
 
Re: 120 Kingston, 29 Story Tower in Chinatown

BosDevelop said:
1) some people have jobs and family obligations that make going to the grocery store every day a completely unrealistic option. That is fantastic that your schedule allows for 30 minutes roundtrip of walking to a grocery store each and every day.

5) this proposition assumes everyone has the space to store months supplies of paper towels, toilet paper, etc. I know when I lived downtown, closet/pantry space was at a premium and I also wished I had the space to stock up on things.

Once again, is it possible to live in a place like Dainty Dot without a car? Sure. Is it realistic for most? Not yet but hopefully that changes.
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1) Some people? Like me? I have a job and a family. I go to the grocery store everyday. Why? because it's a block from where I work. I go for lunch where I buy fresh fruit. I don't even have to pack a lunch. Then, on my way home, I pick up some fresh vegetables, and may be a pack of meat. and some bread. That's one grocery bag max.

The grocery store next door serves as a massive refridgerator for me. One that I never have to restock, I can get any food I want, it's always sparkling clean, and I never have to worry about spoilage.

5) As referenced above. I end up using much less storage space. When I need a roll of paper towels, I walk two blocks over and buy them. The CVS next door is my storage room. I can get anything I want from it, it's always clean, and it never runs out of stock.

That is the luxury of city life. Is it possible? It's vastly preferable.

Here's why it works: you know that crazy mark up that tiny urban stores like CVS, or Duane Reade charges? That's the "convenience fee" for using the CVS as your storage room. That's the "convenience fee" for using the Trader Joe's two blocks away as your refrigerator. You outsource parts of your house to a community resource. The ~$50,000 you save from not owning a car and having smaller floor space, gets spent on these various conveniences instead.

Instead of 300 atomized storage rooms, you pool into a large, collective one that is more efficient and cost-effective. In the process, you get more random human contact and build stronger communities. Things that people complain are missing from atomized suburban life.
 
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Re: 120 Kingston, 29 Story Tower in Chinatown

cden4 said:
They could go to Super 88 literally across the street.
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If they don't get run over by all the shitty drivers trying to park in the shitty little parking lot there.
 
Re: 120 Kingston, 29 Story Tower in Chinatown

Or tearing down their shitty wall...
 
Re: 120 Kingston, 29 Story Tower in Chinatown

Hutchinson, I can't believe you went there...

jijo.jpg


(easily one of the best eps)
 
Re: 120 Kingston, 29 Story Tower in Chinatown

Saw it in person today i think it fits in nice with its neighbor because of the similar colors, the round side looked really good, and it definitely adds to the skyline here... Im happy with it.
 
Re: 120 Kingston, 29 Story Tower in Chinatown

^Ditto.

And that South Park setup was awesome.
 
Re: 120 Kingston, 29 Story Tower in Chinatown

I think the glassy side actually looks pretty good. It flows very well vertically, so looks better as more cladding is put in. Higher quality building than the Kensington that's for sure.
 
Re: 120 Kingston, 29 Story Tower in Chinatown

davem said:
Why the hell would you go round trip, that makes no sense. You just stop at a store on the way home. Unless people work in the exact same neighborhood they live in, chances are pretty good you're passing at least one market. On the way back from the back bay to brighton I pass four supermarkets, and god knows how many smaller markets. If anything it saves time, because you aren't blowing your weekend shopping all day.

My first response to this is always "have you ever ridden a bike in the city?" Because it's very, very rare that someone who has ever thinks this way. I'm particularly suspicious since you seem to think that carrying a load has any effect on the rideability. Except for the extra weight trying to get up a hill, it makes no difference whatsoever.

Lol, they are called granny carts. My arthritis ridden overweight grandmother managed to push one four miles almost every day up until a week before she died. The only difference between her and your typical old person is that she grew up in europe, where people manage to get the mail from the end of the driveway without getting in their car.

These are the things you buy on the way home from work, as needed. Peapod for canned goods, pasta, drinks, paper goods?

But you had room for a weeks worth of groceries? You really didn't have a cabinet under your bathroom sink for a 24 pack of toilet paper, and under the kitchen for paper towels?

Its unrealistic to think that you need a car to get by. And yet that's what we've been driven to believe.
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How is one supposed to "stop at the store on the way home" if they lived in the Dainty Dot and work in the Financial District? I think you are missing the entire point of my post which was a hypothetical using a new resident of the Dainty Dot as an example since after all, this is the Dainty Dot thread not the "how many times a week do you go grocery shopping" thread.

I lived downtown from 1998-2006 and I owned a bike for all 8 of those years. I rode it to work when the weather cooperated. So your assumption is wrong.
 
Re: 120 Kingston, 29 Story Tower in Chinatown

BosDevelop said:
How is one supposed to "stop at the store on the way home" if they lived in the Dainty Dot and work in the Financial District?
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Conventional wisdom says: when you leave work, you go to the supermarket. Then, when you leave the supermarket, you head home.
 
Re: 120 Kingston, 29 Story Tower in Chinatown

JoeBoston1 said:
Conventional wisdom says: when you leave work, you go to the supermarket. Then, when you leave the supermarket, you head home.
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I doubt many people, especially those with the means to live in a modern building like this want to piss away an hour of their time each evening riding a bike to the supermarket.
 
Re: 120 Kingston, 29 Story Tower in Chinatown

^Then they'll have their groceries delivered. Or go out to eat, since they're of means. The generalizations being hurled around are funny though. Not all well-to-do people are snobs about their grocery shopping and means of transportation. Also, an hour biking to the supermarket? Really? From where? I can bike to Burlington from Boston in an hour.
 
Re: 120 Kingston, 29 Story Tower in Chinatown

I'm scratching my head. How could it take an hour to bike to a supermarket? It only took me 10 minutes to bike to a supermarket even in the middle of sprawl-burbia, California. In downtown Boston you could walk to a grocery store in under 10 minutes.

The only reason you'd bike to a grocery store in downtown Boston is because you wanted to use it as a glorified granny cart. Everything is close.
 
Re: 120 Kingston, 29 Story Tower in Chinatown

In this context, I'd think 45 minutes to an hour is an appropriate estimate(to and from Whole Foods Beacon Hill or Shaw's Back Bay).

BosDevelop said:
How is one supposed to "stop at the store on the way home" if they lived in the Dainty Dot and work in the Financial District?
Click to expand...

JoeBoston1 said:
Conventional wisdom says: when you leave work, you go to the supermarket. Then, when you leave the supermarket, you head home.
Click to expand...
 
Re: 120 Kingston, 29 Story Tower in Chinatown

kmp1284 said:
In this context, I'd think 45 minutes to an hour is an appropriate estimate(to and from Whole Foods Beacon Hill or Shaw's Back Bay).
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kmp1284 said:
piss away an hour of their time each evening riding a bike to the supermarket.
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Why would you go to Beacon Hill or the Back Bay? Do I have to draw it out for you on a map? Geez Louise.

https://maps.google.co.uk/maps?sadd...zLvD-w&t=h&dirflg=w&mra=dme&mrsp=2&sz=18&z=18

3 minutes.

OK, since I live in a fancy building, I'm not going to C-Mart, I'm eating out:

https://maps.google.co.uk/maps?sadd...zLvD-w&t=h&dirflg=w&mra=dme&mrsp=1&sz=17&z=17

Since I"m rich, I"m going more upscale,

https://maps.google.co.uk/maps?sadd...zLvD-w&t=h&dirflg=w&mra=dme&mrsp=1&sz=17&z=17

I'll take a cab.

Problem Solved.
 
Re: 120 Kingston, 29 Story Tower in Chinatown

I'd go to Beacon Hill because C(at)-Mart smells like a fucking sewer.
 
Re: 120 Kingston, 29 Story Tower in Chinatown

JoeBoston1 said:
Why would you go to Beacon Hill or the Back Bay? Do I have to draw it out for you on a map? Geez Louise.

https://maps.google.co.uk/maps?sadd...zLvD-w&t=h&dirflg=w&mra=dme&mrsp=2&sz=18&z=18

3 minutes.

OK, since I live in a fancy building, I'm not going to C-Mart, I'm eating out:

https://maps.google.co.uk/maps?sadd...zLvD-w&t=h&dirflg=w&mra=dme&mrsp=1&sz=17&z=17

Since I"m rich, I"m going more upscale,

https://maps.google.co.uk/maps?sadd...zLvD-w&t=h&dirflg=w&mra=dme&mrsp=1&sz=17&z=17

I'll take a cab.

Problem Solved.
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You know just because you would doesn't mean everyone would too. Some people just have a preference for cars. There's going to be a people for each option but it's bad business to discriminate against a group if the developers are trying to get the highest price possible.
 
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