The Alcott (née Garden Garage Towers) | 35 Lomasney Way | West End

Re: Longfellow Place (née Garden Garage Towers) | 35 Lomasney Way | West End

bigeman312 said:
We have to start, as a group, attending these meetings and providing a counterpoint. I would love to have stood up during that meeting and said, "I love it. My only complaint is that it is too short. But, hey it's not my land and I thank you for not coming into my home and telling me where to put my furniture. I also want to thank you for trying to address the housing shortage in his city. The more units you build the better. I also celebrate your profitability as it is a reflection of the demand or people to move into and re-invigorate our city. You, sir, and the other developed that are making Boston an even better place are a god-send. As a tax paying resident of Boston, I strongly urge you to build this building. But, regardless of what I believe, I want to remind everyone here that the only person in this room doing anything to improve our city is the developer. And the only person in this room who owns the land in question is the developer. Those in glass houses should not be throwing stones. Thank you."

But really, where can we (I) find out about any and all BRA/other community meetings related to development. Because if there is one (or a few) places where these meetings are listed, I would be happy to lead an organization of folks who are pro-development on this board and want to attend and have our voices heard.
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Equity had a lot of people speak in support but they were either union members, Equity employees, the managing boards of abutters, and a few random residents sprinkled throughout the West End that actually like living in a city.
 
Re: Longfellow Place (née Garden Garage Towers) | 35 Lomasney Way | West End

stefalarchitect said:
It says they tabled it, so they pushed it off.
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Isn't this sort of the pattern? I believe this happened with Copley and the TD Garden Tower. They were rejected or tabled at the first meeting and then they came back and were approved with virtually no changes.

Maybe I'm too sanguine here, but I don't put much if any stock in this recent move.

http://www.archboston.org/community/showthread.php?p=245364#post245364

http://www.archboston.org/community/showthread.php?t=1113&page=79
 
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Re: Longfellow Place (née Garden Garage Towers) | 35 Lomasney Way | West End

bayvillagebrahmin said:
Ah, well their team needs to be more prepared next time. Who even lives in the West End?
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The team was prepared. West End residents and the board can't comprehend that they can't make a profit without a certain amount of units that fit under a certain massing/height.
 
Re: Longfellow Place (née Garden Garage Towers) | 35 Lomasney Way | West End

They can comprehend fine. They however do not give a rats ass or even care about any ass that isn't them.

Not a typo.....
 
Re: Longfellow Place (née Garden Garage Towers) | 35 Lomasney Way | West End

After watching the stream I had a hard time seeing that 100 people would speak out against this and then they would be like after almost everybody here said they dont want it this project is approved. I believe they will make some minor changes to be like see we listened and then slip this through. I cant imagine why so many people are against vastly improving the west end knowing that the residential portion of the neighborhood is essentially a gated community for the people who live there only and contributes exactly nothing to the people who dont. Oh wait.
 
Re: Longfellow Place (née Garden Garage Towers) | 35 Lomasney Way | West End

bigeman312 said:
We have to start, as a group, attending these meetings and providing a counterpoint. I would love to have stood up during that meeting and said, "I love it. My only complaint is that it is too short. But, hey it's not my land and I thank you for not coming into my home and telling me where to put my furniture. I also want to thank you for trying to address the housing shortage in his city. The more units you build the better. I also celebrate your profitability as it is a reflection of the demand or people to move into and re-invigorate our city. You, sir, and the other developed that are making Boston an even better place are a god-send. As a tax paying resident of Boston, I strongly urge you to build this building. But, regardless of what I believe, I want to remind everyone here that the only person in this room doing anything to improve our city is the developer. And the only person in this room who owns the land in question is the developer. Those in glass houses should not be throwing stones. Thank you."

But really, where can we (I) find out about any and all BRA/other community meetings related to development. Because if there is one (or a few) places where these meetings are listed, I would be happy to lead an organization of folks who are pro-development on this board and want to attend and have our voices heard.
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As an affront to the NIMBY's, We could attend these meetings wearing PRO-development t-shirts, with a chart on them showing a rough estimate of how many new buildings have to be built to attain Marty Walsh's 53,000 apt. goal by 2030. It would actually have to be close to eight millennium Towers-PER YEAR-to attain 53,000 by 2030. Or, 16 30-story towers-PER YEAR-to attain his goal.....bottom line is, Walsh has to start standing up to the Nimby's, if he wants his legacy to be one of economic prosperity and growth for the city. Boston's booming and we're not in Texas-we don't have the land for sprawl-we need to go UP.
 
Re: Longfellow Place (née Garden Garage Towers) | 35 Lomasney Way | West End

lapradetom said:
As an affront to the NIMBY's, We could attend these meetings wearing PRO-development t-shirts, with a chart on them showing a rough estimate of how many new buildings have to be built to attain Marty Walsh's 53,000 apt. goal by 2030. It would actually have to be close to eight millennium Towers-PER YEAR-to attain 53,000 by 2030. Or, 16 30-story towers-PER YEAR-to attain his goal.....bottom line is, Walsh has to start standing up to the Nimby's, if he wants his legacy to be one of economic prosperity and growth for the city. Boston's booming and we're not in Texas-we don't have the land for sprawl-we need to go UP.
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I'm all for more towers, but a lot of the density can be made up in the less developed parts of the city. There is plenty of space in Hyde Park, Rozzie, Seaport and even Dorchester to build mid-rise buildings that create a lot of density.
 
Re: Longfellow Place (née Garden Garage Towers) | 35 Lomasney Way | West End

^+1

While towers are important to build downtown and I really hope this tower gets built the reality is that the vast majority of the units that need to be constructed can't fit in downtown or the immediate surrounding neighborhoods.

Boston could hold hundreds of thousands of more people without skyscrapers just by densifying the outer neighborhoods with low rise and mid rise apartment buildings.
 
Re: Longfellow Place (née Garden Garage Towers) | 35 Lomasney Way | West End

^--- And you can accomplish that by encouraging a bunch of "Medium Spines" along main through-ways. You can leave the side streets alone. Tokyo gets its density this way: lots of 8-15 story residential mid-rises along both sides of main roads, with single family houses (on small lots, of course) filling in the side streets behind. Add some additional density and height around the train stations and there you go.
 
Re: Longfellow Place (née Garden Garage Towers) | 35 Lomasney Way | West End

shawn said:
^--- And you can accomplish that by encouraging a bunch of "Medium Spines" along main through-ways. You can leave the side streets alone. Tokyo gets its density this way: lots of 8-15 story residential mid-rises along both sides of main roads, with single family houses (on small lots, of course) filling in the side streets behind. Add some additional density and height around the train stations and there you go.
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Shawn -- Precisely -- if the entire city had the density of the Back Bay or the North End or even the residential parts of Southy the total population that could be housed would be well over 1 Million

That means a whole lot of 4 and 5 story buildings replacing the typical 1 story neighborhood corners and some redeveloping some amount of single family houses on major streets

Not to reiterate this too often -- but Paris [city limits] has about the same area as Boston -- and nearly 4X the population essentially without any towers
 
Re: Longfellow Place (née Garden Garage Towers) | 35 Lomasney Way | West End

whighlander said:
Shawn -- Precisely -- if the entire city had the density of the Back Bay or the North End or even the residential parts of Southy the total population that could be housed would be well over 1 Million

That means a whole lot of 4 and 5 story buildings replacing the typical 1 story neighborhood corners and some redeveloping some amount of single family houses on major streets

Not to reiterate this too often -- but Paris [city limits] has about the same area as Boston -- and nearly 4X the population essentially without any towers
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The problem with this idea is transportation. If the population of West Roxbury, Mattapan, Hyde Park, Roslindale, and western JP (the least dense neighborhoods) suddenly tripled, how would everyone get to work? The roads certainly couldn't handle it, and there is limited public transportation to those neighborhoods. It's a great idea in theory but will never happen without improved public transit.
 
Re: Longfellow Place (née Garden Garage Towers) | 35 Lomasney Way | West End

FenwayResident said:
It's a great idea in theory but will never happen without improved public transit.
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That is how it would happen. With improved mass transit.
 
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