St. Gabriel Monastery | Washington St | Brighton

FK4 said:
I hate Brighton... it totally typifies the insular, provincial Boston neighborhood mentality.
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Now, now. I live/own in brighton, and I can assure you that I (and many neighbors) do not exemplify Eva's attitudes.

I honestly believe that Brighton is (one of several) perfect locations to improve the quantity and quality of additional housing for young working professionals for the city of boston. (yes, I would vote to expand the target audience beyond just grad students - but I would think that would happen almost automatically, given how many professionals are also looking for housing here; both to rent and own)

Now, with my resident cap on, I will honestly say that the transportation infrastructure NEEDS to be improved. A solid half of brighton is very poorly connected to transit, and the other half is served by the absolutely pathetic B-branch green line: if this isn't a case study for electronic train right-of-way technology, then I don't know what on earth is.

That said, I and others absolutely support smart development here. In addition to the Monestary area, there are two stalled abandoned gas station redvelopment projects within 3 blocks of the Monestary. These empty lots collect trash and abandoned vehicles. Does Eva want that in our neighborhood too? It would also be nice to have a few more coffee shops and a few less bong stores.

The point is that Brighton is ripe for potential, and residents such as her are extremely close-minded thinking that "we have it great - how could it be any better than this?".

If we lobby for transit improvements (and somehow get developers to be involved in this too), then I'm all for it.
 
FK4 said:
Eva Webster of Brighton is one of the worst, bitchiest troglodytes of Boston's NIMBYs... She fought the Cleveland Circle project and ground it down to the retirement home disaster it's now becoming, and has opposed almost everything proposed in Brighton. She even tried to take down Maryanne's (google this idiot) and complained that the floor was too sticky! She represents everything bad about Boston's anti-development team. I hate Brighton... it totally typifies the insular, provincial Boston neighborhood mentality. Another guy in the article posted above complained that the parcel on Washington was "once a farm" as a reason to fight density. Yeah, so was everything else around here at one time. Wow.
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FK -- if you do some digging such as in:

the fine picture book about the Charles
The Charles River: A History of Greater Boston's Waterway Hardcover – February 28, 2013
by Ted Clarke (Author)

or the schollarly
Inventing the Charles River (MIT Press) 1st Edition
by Karl Haglund (Author)


You will find that Brighton up until the Dam was built was a sort of Boston version of Fort Worth, or Kansas City -- drovers actually drove herds of cattle to the slaughter houses in Brighton and then took advantage of the "ah entertainments" offered by the town
cattle%2Bfair%2Bhotel%2B1834.jpg

The hotel was run by Mr. Porter of Cambridge for whom the Porter House Steak is named
abattoir.jpg
 
^ I don't think this is the correct project for this thread (St. Gabriel's parcel)...this project you are showing renderings from is for the Synagogue parcel at 101-105 Washington...it's further up the street toward Com. Ave. compared to St. Gabriel's (although very close by)
 
bigpicture7 said:
^ I don't think this is the correct project for this thread (St. Gabriel's parcel)...this project you are showing renderings from is for the Synagogue parcel at 101-105 Washington...it's further up the street toward Com. Ave. compared to St. Gabriel's (although very close by)
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Yup... it was posted in another thread... where I recently bashed Brighton again. Sorry bigpicture, it was a blanket attack and there are good and reasonable people everywhere... glad to know you're one of them. In 48 hours it may not matter anymore when the nukes hit the Eastern Seaboard...
 
Whoops, sorry mods you can delete if it's a repeat or move it into another thread. I saw Washington Street so I thought this was the same project. It's interesting how Churches, Synagogues, and Monasteries are being redeveloped in Boston. It seems religion is dying in this city, plus that religious school in Newton that is closing (the name has escaped me).
 
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tysmith95 said:
Whoops, sorry mods you can delete if it's a repeat or move it into another thread. I saw Washington Street so I thought this was the same project. It's interesting how Churches, Synagogues, and Monasteries are being redeveloped in Boston. It seems religion is dying in this city, plus that religious school in Newton that is closing (the name has escaped me).
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On the contrary, the development at the 101-105 Washington parcel includes a Mikvah (ceremonial Jewish bathing). I know it's only one drop in the big pool that is the region's rich religious history, but it's something.
 
Downburst said:
On the contrary, the development at the 101-105 Washington parcel includes a Mikvah (ceremonial Jewish bathing). I know it's only one drop in the big pool that is the region's rich religious history, but it's something.
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Yeah this is a pretty nice site plan; they are retaining (rebuilding) the religious aspects of the site from what I understand, but adding some good looking apartment infill adjacent to the existing row of apartments on that stretch of Washington.

We discussed this one in the general Brighton developments thread.
 
odurandina said:
i've wondered when the extensive grounds adjacent to the methadone clinic would be developed into a large hospital campus.

https://www.google.com/maps/place/A...7f248ba9ff326e!8m2!3d42.3489571!4d-71.1426625
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What extensive grounds are you talking about? The grounds that are becoming veteran housing? The public park? The medical complex that is already there sharing a building with the methadone clinic? I mean the monastery, rectory, and school all have residential already proposed.
 
odurandina said:
apparently so. thanks for that link.

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In case anyone is interested, those brick buildings there figure prominently in Infinite Jest, being the detox where Don Gately lives... the fictional Enfield Tennis Academy being at the top of the hill.
 
This week's BPDA board meeting will discuss rezoning of this site. Seems to be a combo of (a) moving part of the site from st. elizabeth's institutional subdistrict to the st. gabriel's conservation protection subdistrict and (b) certain exemptions for a PDA within the st. gabriel's conservation protection subdistrict.

some slides about the zoning change.
 
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