West Roxbury Infill and Small Developments

Equilibria said:
Roxbury Prep:

http://www.bostonplans.org/document...ry-preparatory-charter-high-school-small-proj
Click to expand...

This is SO controversial in my neighborhood, about the half the lawns have signs either supporting or opposing it... and it is probably worth noting the balance tips increasingly toward those 'in favor' the farther from the site you go.

I don't live close enough that it would affect me one way or another, but while my gut reaction is to support it, the stats on the existing school (posted on this site, I think) aren't particularly suggestive that it's a model population of kids you'd want running around your neighborhood (lots of suspensions and detentions etc), although then again, I don't know how that compares to other local school or what that data really 'means'.
 
wtf

Opposing a few Schools be built/upgrades/upsizing is really getting fully NUTS.

Throwing innocent kids under the next nimby bus is horrible.

Needham transit stops will be more urban than W.R./Rozzie/H.P. this keeps up.

That it even ignites controversy makes me ashamed to be an American today.
 
Yeah, the opposition is kind of strange. The whole thing is complicated somewhat by the fact that it's a charter school, because that brings with it a whole bunch of additional baggage. Most people who are anti-charter are nevertheless at least somewhat supportive of the school being built. Those opposed mostly speak to concerns about traffic and disruption to the "character" of the neighborhood. It is hard to find meaning in either of those concerns.

Based on the school's demographics, these kids are going to be riding buses or the Needham Line, they are not going to be driven to this location. Teachers might add slightly to traffic at brief points during the day that are not part of the peak commute time slot. So I really don't get that point at all.

As for the neighborhood character issue, I have trouble seeing that as anything other than veiled racism. The area immediately abutting the proposed school is fairly blighted, including poorly maintained triple deckers, a closed gas station, empty store fronts, and some light industrial buildings begging to be torn down and converted to first floor commerce/upper floor residential. The location itself is a closed car dealership. There really is nothing this school can do but improve the built environment. I'm pretty convinced the concern regards who will be inside the building.

Okay, rant over. Like FK4, I'm not quite so close as to be directly impacted, but I do really want something to happen on that parcel. It is the driving force behind the blight and could really turn around that stretch of Belgrade Ave. to have something (anything) with a contemporary and active use.

Last point, this belongs in the Roslindale thread. The property is close to West Roxbury, but not quite over the line from Roslindale.
 
^I would agree, although it is 02132...
 
HenryAlan said:
Yeah, the opposition is kind of strange...
Click to expand...
It's one thing moving into a neighborhood with an already established school, it's quite another thing having a new school imposed on your already established neighborhood. The introduction of hundreds and hundreds of teenage students on a daily basis is a huge impact and a very legitimate thing to protest if so inclined.
 
Brad Plaid said:
It's one thing moving into a neighborhood with an already established school, it's quite another thing having a new school imposed on your already established neighborhood. The introduction of hundreds and hundreds of teenage students on a daily basis is a huge impact and a very legitimate thing to protest if so inclined.
Click to expand...

Most opposition I have seen is that its hundreds of kids crammed into a tiny lot (with no outdoor amenities, etc). As for taking the CR - that also seems kind of iffy give the reverse commute, there are only two AM trains (07:23A & 09:24 A), although in bound isn't as bad (03:10P & 05:22P). Most seem to think there are plenty of other places in both Rozzie and Westie that would be a vastly bigger plot for the school.
 
Centre St. redesign process starts Thursday night, with a meeting at Holy Name church.

https://mass.streetsblog.org/2019/0...q5sNtl3YlSOY-vk2CNVo9i_WWw8oxc-65a1eLM-DhifBc

Activists are pushing for a 4/3 road diet plus bike lanes for traffic calming. Supposedly local businesses are on board. I hope to attend, we really need to push on this, as Centre St. is currently one of the most dangerous streets in the city for pedestrians and essentially unusable for cyclists.
 
HenryAlan said:
Centre St. redesign process starts Thursday night, with a meeting at Holy Name church.

https://mass.streetsblog.org/2019/0...q5sNtl3YlSOY-vk2CNVo9i_WWw8oxc-65a1eLM-DhifBc

Activists are pushing for a 4/3 road diet plus bike lanes for traffic calming. Supposedly local businesses are on board. I hope to attend, we really need to push on this, as Centre St. is currently one of the most dangerous streets in the city for pedestrians and essentially unusable for cyclists.
Click to expand...

I couldnt go to this — did you go? Any updates?
 
I did go. There were probably about 300 people there. The meeting began with Counselor Matt O'Malley stating that everybody in the room wanted a safer Centre Street, and asked us all to keep that in mind if we disagreed on the city's proposal. He then added that he liked a lot of it, but felt there was room for some tweaks.

As to the proposal itself, the city presented what most pedestrian safety advocates wanted to see:

  • Road diet from four bi-directional lanes to 2 lanes plus a center turning lane (from Spring St. to the Holy Name rotary).
  • Pedestrian safety islands in selected crossing points, using space from the middle lane.
  • Parking protected bike lanes using space from the dropped lane.
  • Adjusted single timing to provide more adequate time for crossing pedestrians and pedestrian head starts (getting the walk signal before the cars get the green light), etc.

As for impact:

  • 16,000 cars use the corridor on week days, which is within federal guidelines for 2 lanes with a turning lane.
  • Adjustments to parking for either pedestrian daylighting or bike lanes would result in the loss of 16 street parking spots out of 208 (I think). There are also close to 1,000 private and public off street parking spots for which they would install better way finding.
  • They are interested in doing some bus stop consolidation which might improve traffic flow and also replace some of the lost street parking.
  • Based on current traffic patterns, an analysis commissioned by the city determined that the new design would add 2 minutes to a car based trip during the peak hour and make no difference for the remaining 23 hours.

I was very impressed by the presentation which I felt was well articulated and backed by significant data. Then came the time for public comments. The first speaker was a guy who is running for city council (city wide) and acted as though he only planned on getting votes from West Roxbury. So his first comment was that nobody who didn't live in West Roxbury should be allowed to speak until everybody from the neighborhood were given their say. Then he stated that anybody with common sense knew the plan was a disaster. He repeated this several times, interspersed with tangents about the city failing to notify people (despite 300 being there), outsider views weren't welcome, etc.

The next speaker decided to take this approach up to 11 and went so far as to blame bike lanes for the election of Donald Trump (bike lanes are incidental benefits, not the purpose of the proposal). However, after these two, just about everybody who spoke supported the changes. There were a few people who, once identified as living elsewhere were booed and jeered and told to sit down. One such out of neighborhood speaker responded that they were just causing him to be up there longer, but if they were worried that he had no business there, he had just eaten a steak bomb from a local pizza joint, so they should be pleased the neighborhood was drawing people in from elsewhere.

There were definitely some loud NIMBYs, but not too many who actually wanted to articulate their concerns before a microphone. Overall, I think the road diet will happen, but I expect to still hear 15 years from now about how a bunch of angry cyclists from Roslindale and JP ruined Centre St.
 
HenryAlan said:
I did go. There were probably about 300 people there. The meeting began with Counselor Matt O'Malley stating that everybody in the room wanted a safer Centre Street, and asked us all to keep that in mind if we disagreed on the city's proposal. He then added that he liked a lot of it, but felt there was room for some tweaks.

As to the proposal itself, the city presented what most pedestrian safety advocates wanted to see:

  • Road diet from four bi-directional lanes to 2 lanes plus a center turning lane (from Spring St. to the Holy Name rotary).
  • Pedestrian safety islands in selected crossing points, using space from the middle lane.
  • Parking protected bike lanes using space from the dropped lane.
  • Adjusted single timing to provide more adequate time for crossing pedestrians and pedestrian head starts (getting the walk signal before the cars get the green light), etc.

As for impact:

  • 16,000 cars use the corridor on week days, which is within federal guidelines for 2 lanes with a turning lane.
  • Adjustments to parking for either pedestrian daylighting or bike lanes would result in the loss of 16 street parking spots out of 208 (I think). There are also close to 1,000 private and public off street parking spots for which they would install better way finding.
  • They are interested in doing some bus stop consolidation which might improve traffic flow and also replace some of the lost street parking.
  • Based on current traffic patterns, an analysis commissioned by the city determined that the new design would add 2 minutes to a car based trip during the peak hour and make no difference for the remaining 23 hours.

I was very impressed by the presentation which I felt was well articulated and backed by significant data. Then came the time for public comments. The first speaker was a guy who is running for city council (city wide) and acted as though he only planned on getting votes from West Roxbury. So his first comment was that nobody who didn't live in West Roxbury should be allowed to speak until everybody from the neighborhood were given their say. Then he stated that anybody with common sense knew the plan was a disaster. He repeated this several times, interspersed with tangents about the city failing to notify people (despite 300 being there), outsider views weren't welcome, etc.

The next speaker decided to take this approach up to 11 and went so far as to blame bike lanes for the election of Donald Trump (bike lanes are incidental benefits, not the purpose of the proposal). However, after these two, just about everybody who spoke supported the changes. There were a few people who, once identified as living elsewhere were booed and jeered and told to sit down. One such out of neighborhood speaker responded that they were just causing him to be up there longer, but if they were worried that he had no business there, he had just eaten a steak bomb from a local pizza joint, so they should be pleased the neighborhood was drawing people in from elsewhere.

There were definitely some loud NIMBYs, but not too many who actually wanted to articulate their concerns before a microphone. Overall, I think the road diet will happen, but I expect to still hear 15 years from now about how a bunch of angry cyclists from Roslindale and JP ruined Centre St.
Click to expand...

Excellent update! Many of your descriptions make me gleeful. It's a COMMERCIAL STREET ffs... if I'd been there and they told me to butt out, I'd have asked if they want me to stop rolling in from Rozzie to get my food and support local business (which I do quite often - Thai, Porter, Roche, etc etc etc). Glad it sounds like it'll happen.
 
Changes to the site plan for 64 Allandale after litigation. Style is in the 'farmhouse' style, apparently, which is like saying that Trent Reznor is a singer-songwriter.

bpda.app.box.com

2021-04-08_Small Project Change (SPC)_64 Allandale Street.pdf | Powered by Box

bpda.app.box.com bpda.app.box.com

Which is not to say that I wouldn't live here in an instant:

1618437568260.png
 
Is 64 Allandale Street not a Jamaica Plain address? It's 02130 as far as I can see..
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top