Important Links
Archives
- 04/01/2004 - 05/01/2004
- 05/01/2004 - 06/01/2004
- 06/01/2004 - 07/01/2004
- 07/01/2004 - 08/01/2004
- 08/01/2004 - 09/01/2004
- 09/01/2004 - 10/01/2004
- 10/01/2004 - 11/01/2004
- 12/01/2004 - 01/01/2005
- 01/01/2005 - 02/01/2005
- 02/01/2005 - 03/01/2005
- 03/01/2005 - 04/01/2005
- 04/01/2005 - 05/01/2005
- 05/01/2005 - 06/01/2005
- 06/01/2005 - 07/01/2005
- 07/01/2005 - 08/01/2005
- 08/01/2005 - 09/01/2005
- 09/01/2005 - 10/01/2005
- 10/01/2005 - 11/01/2005
- 11/01/2005 - 12/01/2005
- 12/01/2005 - 01/01/2006
- 01/01/2006 - 02/01/2006
- 02/01/2006 - 03/01/2006
- 03/01/2006 - 04/01/2006
- 04/01/2006 - 05/01/2006
- 06/01/2006 - 07/01/2006
- 09/01/2006 - 10/01/2006
- 10/01/2006 - 11/01/2006
- 12/01/2007 - 01/01/2008
- 07/01/2008 - 08/01/2008
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 2.5 License.
Random musings from a Midwesterner in Beantown.
Wednesday, August 10, 2005
Rumor: City of Somerville to sell path
Someone going by 'Harris' is raising suspicions that the City of Somerville is arranging the sale of at least part of the Somerville Community Path to a private developer. Check out his recent comments here (at the bottom of an old article). A call I put in to Steve Winslow at the Office of Strategic Planning and Community Development was not immediately returned. So far, the city seems mum on this.Update, 1:14PM, Thursday, Aug. 11:
Lucy Warsh, a spokesperson from the Mayor's office, contacted me today. She reaffirmed the city's commitment to the community path, adding that the city was not in the position to sell any parcels, as it did not own any of them--they're leased from the MBTA. She also reinforced one commentor's suspicions that the rumors might have something to do with the Maxpak site which abuts and presumably overlaps with the path.
I've been searching for news releases concerning either the path or the Maxpak site, and have found nothing yet. Thursday was the day, right Mr. Anonymous?
Comments:
A little more research on this topic...
I found a great article from July 11, 2004 on this area, entitled "Where Camelot Meets 'The Patch'" by Globe Correspondent Benjamin Gedan.
Some excerpts:
The rumbling of trucks from the Hires Root Beer plant and the International Paper Co. had faded into memory. Carpools to a nearby charter school had also vanished, the brick building shuttered two years ago. With the Lowell Street bridge still closed for repairs after four years, residents of Clyde, Warwick, and Murdock streets say they were enjoying the isolation. Then the Kennedys arrived. Or at least that's how some tell it.
Now, residents of this crowded warren of modest houses are battling a development proposal by John F. Kennedy's nephew that they fear will replace abandoned industrial buildings with 300 condominiums. In the process, some say, their heroes of the working class, the Kennedy family, have become public enemy number one.
[...]
KSS Realty Partners Inc., a Boston-based company run, in part, by Stephen E. Smith Jr., first proposed the project in May. Plans called for 300 units on a plot opponents say legally permits at most 60; the project needs permission from the city's Zoning Board.
Few people in the neighborhood, it would seem, want new development there. It looks like the owners have dropped the number of units to address concerns about traffic and pedestrian safety. Will it be enough?
I'm a big fan of smart development, and Somerville has a ton of potential, despite the incredible denseness. But with this denseness has to come sensitivity. Even I have to learn to be sensitive.
For example, I recently got slammed on the STEP newsgroup for advocating bike paths. Apparently there are some light/heavy rail advocates that see the rails to-trails agenda as a direct threat to the future of rail development. I guess I never really looked at it this way--they're right of course, at least to an extent.
Sensible development seems to be in order, but development that can help support city revenues, our need for more green space (a huge issue in my mind, bigger than rails IMHO), the demands of nearby residents, etc.
I'm still waiting for the big news...
Post a Comment
I found a great article from July 11, 2004 on this area, entitled "Where Camelot Meets 'The Patch'" by Globe Correspondent Benjamin Gedan.
Some excerpts:
The rumbling of trucks from the Hires Root Beer plant and the International Paper Co. had faded into memory. Carpools to a nearby charter school had also vanished, the brick building shuttered two years ago. With the Lowell Street bridge still closed for repairs after four years, residents of Clyde, Warwick, and Murdock streets say they were enjoying the isolation. Then the Kennedys arrived. Or at least that's how some tell it.
Now, residents of this crowded warren of modest houses are battling a development proposal by John F. Kennedy's nephew that they fear will replace abandoned industrial buildings with 300 condominiums. In the process, some say, their heroes of the working class, the Kennedy family, have become public enemy number one.
[...]
KSS Realty Partners Inc., a Boston-based company run, in part, by Stephen E. Smith Jr., first proposed the project in May. Plans called for 300 units on a plot opponents say legally permits at most 60; the project needs permission from the city's Zoning Board.
Few people in the neighborhood, it would seem, want new development there. It looks like the owners have dropped the number of units to address concerns about traffic and pedestrian safety. Will it be enough?
I'm a big fan of smart development, and Somerville has a ton of potential, despite the incredible denseness. But with this denseness has to come sensitivity. Even I have to learn to be sensitive.
For example, I recently got slammed on the STEP newsgroup for advocating bike paths. Apparently there are some light/heavy rail advocates that see the rails to-trails agenda as a direct threat to the future of rail development. I guess I never really looked at it this way--they're right of course, at least to an extent.
Sensible development seems to be in order, but development that can help support city revenues, our need for more green space (a huge issue in my mind, bigger than rails IMHO), the demands of nearby residents, etc.
I'm still waiting for the big news...
