Roslindale Infill and Small Developments

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HenryAlan said:
So you don't go to Watertown, then. I live in Rozzie Square, can't think of the last time I had reason to go to Watertown. Car free living doesn't mean you can do all the same things you'd do with a car. It means organizing your life around the things that you can do (which is an astonishingly long list).
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HenryAlan said:
It was approved last week!

4198 Washington Street | Boston Planning & Development Agency

Learn about the BPDA's development review process, view information about development projects in the BPDA approval pipeline, and learn how you can get involved.
www.bostonplans.org www.bostonplans.org
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this is great. Overall thrilled. Now: what can citizen ME do to help the pita market find another place to go? I think they won’t be able to stay, right? They cannot cannot cannot leave the square!!
 
Tomorrow (Wednesday 7/7) is the last day for comments on the development of the Walter Street parcel above roslindale urban wild. The Norfolk proposal is less complete, but from what I can see fits the neighborhood far better. The Habitat for Humanity‘s proposal is over the top, I don’t know why they have a massive driveway and massive carports (the driveway should be no wider than absolutely necessary in any project around here), and the promenade entrance is also ridiculous. This is an urban wild, not the entrance to a giant public park. They should be modeling the design for the entrance on the Halls pond sanctuary in Brookline with its very narrow paths that perfectly accommodate the (assuredly much larger number of) visitors.
 
FK4 said:
this is great. Overall thrilled. Now: what can citizen ME do to help the pita market find another place to go? I think they won’t be able to stay, right? They cannot cannot cannot leave the square!!
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I think it's all about convincing them to stay in business. The Rozzie Square Theater and Delicious Yogurt are both working with the developer to transition through construction and end up in better space at the same rent after construction. Bob's has been offered similar assistance or help with permanent re-location. As far as I know, they have not responded to either offer. But I agree, we need to keep them!
 
HenryAlan said:
I think it's all about convincing them to stay in business. The Rozzie Square Theater and Delicious Yogurt are both working with the developer to transition through construction and end up in better space at the same rent after construction. Bob's has been offered similar assistance or help with permanent re-location. As far as I know, they have not responded to either offer. But I agree, we need to keep them!
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I was in there yesterday and talked to one of the employees who expressed bluntly and bitterly his opposition, also said the developer was “connected”… he was not the owner but interesting to hear. I support the development but it does make me wonder… and think about the inevitable casualties of development. I really hope they stay or can get real assistance moving to a location that works. One thing that does work about old, low slung taxpayer buildings is there’s often allowance for quirky or decidedly not one size fits all commercial spaces. Those markets like Bobs and the Roz Fish Market (to a lesser extent, I think they’re actually pretty economical with how they use space) are bigger than a normal space but not so big to justify a real food market space, at least by American terms. I hope that as new development keeps happening we can find ways of being flexible with sizes of commercial spaces since they often seem to be constricting in their design.
 
Bancars, thanks for the update, It's good to see some progress starting back up on Wallpaper City (balcony wood paneling), but rather distressing to see the two street trees in such sorry state and I thought the new sidewalk/bus stop pavement extension was bad enough without additional planters or tree pits. As much as I am in favor of the bus stop relocation, there should have been more community input, even just a workshop, into the landscaping especially after the work done to help revitalize Poplar Street last year.
 
New bus bump out on Corinth St (not sure what it actually accomplishes since I don’t see many people waiting at this particular stop, but whatever, it’s more sidewalk space), and the building on Poplar that’s finished now. I know some people don’t like it, but I think it’s all right, and will look significantly better in the future if its neighbors can add some height, too.

I think the single biggest needed improvement right now in the Square is speed reduction for the corner of South and Belgrade. Cars continue to fly around the bend and even though the very first 50 feet of Belgrade is one lane only, many times I have had rude drivers try to pass the nice person who stops for the crosswalk, and fly through the bike lane only to almost run me over.
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Nibbles O’Plenty said:
Would be great if the old Rialto Theater were still there! Spent soooo much time there as a kid.
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Cool, thanks for the memory. I didn't know about that. Some testimonials here: http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/12435

Edit — even more history here... amazing... The Redd's/old Tony's/Chilacates was a silent movie theater and there was also one next to Stash's pizza on Belgrade. https://www.universalhub.com/2019/when-roslindale-and-roxbury-had-movie-theaters

I feel like everything was on a smaller scale back then and we have come very far as a society from that... and that centralizing every type of business in larger themes that require more travel is not necessarily a good thing.
 
Nibbles O’Plenty said:
Would be great if the old Rialto Theater were still there! Spent soooo much time there as a kid.
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can still go to the Rialto barber tho! Apparently that was a thing all over too?--Rialto theater/barber duo. I went last year and she said there used to be a back entrance between the barber and the theater so you could get your haircut and catch a movie after.
 
FK4 said:
New bus bump out on Corinth St (not sure what it actually accomplishes since I don’t see many people waiting at this particular stop, but whatever, it’s more sidewalk space)
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I think it does a few things:
  • Vastly improves accessible boarding
  • Consolidates stops (were previously two on one block of Corinth)
  • Better positions the buses to make the left turn on to Washington
Each of these leads to overall more efficient operations and better overall traffic flow. Originally, the plan was to convert the right side lane to a full time bus (and bike) only lane, but I think that part might have been dropped. There is enough bus traffic to justify the idea, but it would be very challenging to get community buy in.
 
Regardless of the benefit to traffic flow, the sidewalks here were woefully narrow for such a busy pedestrian stretch. Massive improvement.
 
HenryAlan said:
I think it does a few things:
  • Vastly improves accessible boarding
  • Consolidates stops (were previously two on one block of Corinth)
  • Better positions the buses to make the left turn on to Washington
Each of these leads to overall more efficient operations and better overall traffic flow. Originally, the plan was to convert the right side lane to a full time bus (and bike) only lane, but I think that part might have been dropped. There is enough bus traffic to justify the idea, but it would be very challenging to get community buy in.
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Ah yes, I forgot they moved the bus station as well. OK, that makes sense. How does it better position the buses to take the left, though?

BronsonShore said:
Regardless of the benefit to traffic flow, the sidewalks here were woefully narrow for such a busy pedestrian stretch. Massive improvement.
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Yeah, this I agree with for sure. The other side is still super narrow, with very high pedestrian volume. Corinth is tough... too much traffic on too narrow a stretch.
 
FK4 said:
How does it better position the buses to take the left, though?
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It enables the buses to move to the left lane before the turn. Under the prior arrangement, with the bust stop at the corner of Washington, the buses were making the left turn from the right lane, which is intended to be done only by vehicles heading to Cummins Hwy. With the exception of the 30*, buses need to turn in to the other lane on Washington, so it's a traffic safety issue to do so from the wrong lane. This fixes all of that.

* the 30 now avoids Corinth St. altogether now, stopping instead at the new Poplar stop. Not having to route the 30 around the Belgrade/Corinth corner is a huge benefit of the revised Poplar stop location.
 
HenryAlan said:
It enables the buses to move to the left lane before the turn. Under the prior arrangement, with the bust stop at the corner of Washington, the buses were making the left turn from the right lane, which is intended to be done only by vehicles heading to Cummins Hwy. With the exception of the 30*, buses need to turn in to the other lane on Washington, so it's a traffic safety issue to do so from the wrong lane. This fixes all of that.

* the 30 now avoids Corinth St. altogether now, stopping instead at the new Poplar stop. Not having to route the 30 around the Belgrade/Corinth corner is a huge benefit of the revised Poplar stop location.
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Got it. Thanks.
I have to say, the bus situation on Washington is great, or at least it was pre-pandemic. I could either take the commuter rail to South Station to the RL or a bus to the OL to the RL for work, and given how crowded the CR was in the morning along with the limited schedule, I usually would just walk the extra two blocks to the stop by the DMV, and take a bus to Forest Hills. There are so many different lines I never waited more than a couple minutes and the time loss was insignificant. Ditto for coming home. Only illustrates how much having frequent buses will change people's uses of the bus, at least in my case.
 
FK4 said:
Got it. Thanks.
I have to say, the bus situation on Washington is great, or at least it was pre-pandemic. I could either take the commuter rail to South Station to the RL or a bus to the OL to the RL for work, and given how crowded the CR was in the morning along with the limited schedule, I usually would just walk the extra two blocks to the stop by the DMV, and take a bus to Forest Hills. There are so many different lines I never waited more than a couple minutes and the time loss was insignificant. Ditto for coming home. Only illustrates how much having frequent buses will change people's uses of the bus, at least in my case.
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Yeah I would say the bus frequency was ten times better than the orange line. I could get from Rozzie sq. to Forest Hills in about two minutes but then I'd wait at least 10 minutes for a train
 
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Can anything be built in the wooded area off Washington street near the Enneking parkway?
 
mass88 said:
Can anything be built in the wooded area off Washington street near the Enneking parkway?
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West of Washington St is the Bellevue Hill Reservation, owned by the Commonwealth, given the water tank at the top probably the MRWA.
East of Washington between Enneking Parkway and north to the Domino's Pizza/Comcast building is owned by DCR. West of Enneking Parkway the wooded land adjacent to Washington St is owned by the Archdiocese of Boston.
 
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