South End Infill and Small Developments

I can't think of any "W" town where kids have to work in best buy with the exception of woburn or waltham, because it certainly is not wellesley, weston or winchester. Regardless, I strongly suggest you get out of your perfect little town and take a walk down washington street somewhere south of the ritz. Remember what Thomas Friedman said, if you don't visit the bad neighborhoods, the bad neighborhoods will visit you and you are in quite the need of a visit.
 
Maybe he's from Wellesley, Wayland, or Weston. Certainly not from Worcester, Woburn, or Waltham. Maybe from Welfleet, or Weymouth, or Ware. Whatever, dude.
 
Ron Newman said:
The South End was a working-class immigrant neighborhood for far longer than it was a rich neighborhood (either in the 19th century or today). People who grew up there should be able to stay there.
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So if someone from Beacon Hill whose family has been there for centuries, blows their fortune, you think they should be allowed to live there simply becuase that's where they grew up? Should the government buy them a townhouse and pay their rent?
Also, suppose everyone in the South End sells their place to rich yuppies and the prices of housing skyrockets. You think that the taxpayers should have to pay the rent for their kids becuase their parents sold out their neighborhood? I was on a bus once and the bus driver was from Southie. He said that everyone in Southie was complaining that housing was getting so expensive that their kids couldn't afford to live there. The bus driver's answer was which one of you complainers wants to volunteer to sell your house at a steep discount and the room was silent.
 
But honestly, as a libertarian I don't believe government should be messing in things like housing.

Actually, the government does mess big-time with housing and the middle and and upper classes are the chief beneficiaries, including your parents in Westwood. What I am referring to is the income tax interest deduction that the government grants to homeowners. This is direct government intervention by the government in housing with the express purpose of encouraging people to buy a home which is a very good thing for the economy. Frankly, without this deduction, many of us, including many living in the "W" towns would not be able to afford to own their own homes.
 
atlantaden said:
Actually, the government does mess big-time with housing and the middle and and upper classes are the chief beneficiaries, including your parents in Westwood. What I am referring to is the income tax interest deduction that the government grants to homeowners. This is direct government intervention by the government in housing with the express purpose of encouraging people to buy a home which is a very good thing for the economy. Frankly, without this deduction, many of us, including many living in the "W" towns would not be able to afford to own their own homes.
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THANK YOU!! The ONLY reason the suburbs exists the way they do is because the Feds subsidize them. They paid 90% for the highways that serve them and, like atlantaden said, they cut the taxes.

Also the argument of someone losing all their money and expecting the government to buy them a nice townhouse is completely ludicrous!! The point is to help the underclass. Lumping one fuck up with an entire class of people is just looking for an excuse to denounce an entire program.

Public housing should exist to help people who are not as fortunate to live in a "W" town, who work long hours to feed their kids only to make minimum wage. The so called American dream is to have a place called home. When the government started subsidizing the suburbs they effectively told all the middle class that they would pay for their homes. The system has fallen apart because we let it.

If you don't want the government to subsidize housing, ANY housing, that is a noble goal but to accept subsidies for upper and middle classes while condemning the lower classes for taking a cent to try and help their position is not only hypocritical but shows a basic ignorance.

I would rather have us all get some subsidy then the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer.
 
One shot of the hotel (edit: office building) u/c from last night

img1680dy6.jpg
 
office building

That's an office building under construction. The hotel portion was completed before.
 
Ah, you're right. I wondered why there was already a Hampton Inn next door and how a hotel floor plan could work in such a wide building.. 282,000 s.f. it will be.

I got confused because the on-site rendering had a 1-800-Hampton number.
img11154oi.jpg
 
I swim at the pool across the street a few times per week and have been watching its progress, as it is visible from two or so of the lanes through a window above an emergency door near the shallow end of the pool. Someday I guess I'll be visible to the tenants of the building.
 
Ribbon cut on 2-building ArtBlock in the South End

Mayor Thomas M. Menino and South End artists cut the ribbon on ArtBlock, 26 affordable and 28 market-rate artists' living-work spaces, studios, and a 2,000-square-foot gallery, in two new five-story buildings and the rehabilitated Joshua Bates elementary school on Harrison Avenue. The city gave $1 million to the project, started more than two years ago, designed by ICON Architecture Inc., and built by New Atlantic Development Corp. The project was the result of the first request for proposals ever issued by the city for a housing and studio artists' facility, Menino said, and brings to 165 the number of artists' living-work spaces created through the city's arts program. (Thomas C. Palmer Jr.)


Link
 
Whoa .....

Whoa. Hold on a second.

Mayor Thomas M. Menino and South End artists cut the ribbon on ArtBlock, 26 affordable and 28 market-rate artists' living-work spaces, studios, and a 2,000-square-foot gallery ...
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That's not exactly accurate, much as the Mayor would like it to be.

As far as I know, there was no requirement that a buyer needed to be an "artist" to buy a condo, affordable or market-rate.

This is all city PR - "Let's pretend!"
 
The Globe said:
A vision is realized: Creative community embraces ArtBlock

February 25, 2007

Not long ago, artists buying homes in the South End wouldn't have been big news. But all those artists helped set off a wave of gentrification in the South End, making it hard for them to afford to stay in the neighborhood they helped revive.

With the opening of ArtBlock, a new artist community that held its grand opening Tuesday, the city hopes to reverse the trend. The Harrison Avenue project, which grew out of Mayor Thomas Menino's Artist Space Initiative, created 54 condos, including 26 affordable units. Those range from $179,000 to $199,000; the rest from the low $400,000s to high $500,000s.

The condos were built by New Atlantic Development Corp. on two vacant city-owned lots next to the former Bates School, a newly renovated building that artists have used for workspace for decades.

Maritza Medina , a graphic artist, had been renting in the South End and found it "heartbreaking" to search for a home to buy outside the city. She heard about ArtB lock before construction began and imagined what it would look like when walking by the site.

"I'm absolutely thrilled to be here, this is the best thing that's ever happened to me," said Medina, who bought an affordable unit. She has met painters, sculptors, a performance artist, and a dancer, whose ages range from 20s to 70s, she said. Residents' work will be displayed at an on-site gallery that was slated to open on Thursday.

ArtBlock marked the first time the Boston Redevelopment Authority called for artist housing to be built on city-owned land. To help make the high number of affordable units feasible, the Department of Neighborhood Development donated $1 million.

"Now we'll have more artists in the South End, more people looking at art, " said Jane Cooper Brayton , an artist who lives nearby.

RON DePASQUALE
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And artists get a special hand-out why?

Um, remind me again, why do artists get a free-ride, while everyone else tries to get by without handouts from the city?
 
free ride stuff again, huh?

You don't wanna know my opinion of how real estate agents make money.

In comparison, the DPW workers are relative hard workers and used car salesmen are honest. :wink:
 
Doesn't bother me ....

I don't have a problem with people having a problem with how real estate agents make money.

:wink:

On its purest level, a real estate agent brings a buyer and seller together.

I'd say everyone of my clients loves the job that I do for them, and think I'm worth the money that they, themselves, are paying.

But, what does this have to do with artists getting subsidized housing?
 
Just the market rate units at ArtBlock:

28 units X $500,000 each = $14,000,000

divided by 6%= $840,000 in real estate commisions for Gibson and Keller Williams who risked nothing, who neither funded, constructed nor purchased any of these units. Pretty good for a building that needed a million dollars from the city just to get off the ground.
 
This conversation will go nowhere ...

You make some good points. Thank you.
 
Re: And artists get a special hand-out why?

IMAngry said:
Um, remind me again, why do artists get a free-ride, while everyone else tries to get by without handouts from the city?
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My understanding is that that there is a belief that the artists provide an intangible benefit to society through their work, i.e. the world is a better place with art than without it. We can argue all day as to if this is true or not, but it is a fairly widely held belief in most civilized nations.
As to why we don't just let market forces dictate the value of the artists work, five words:
Thomas Kinkade, Painter of Light
 
^That's the best argument ever made on this forum.

justin
 
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