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Don't you just hate how commercialized Allston Christmas has become?

Allston Christmas is here

Jess Idres spotted this thing on Comm. Ave. near Harvard today. As she put it:

AAAAAH! IT'S STARTED!

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Comments

But really though...now it's not fun anymore if places are making banners about it.

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I thought Allston Christmas was when the students moved OUT, not in.

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given that all of the leases start and end on 9/1, both happen at the same time, like dumping a bunch of new shells in a hermit crab tank.

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I somehow assumed that these kids moved out in May, but if there are 12-month leases, that, of course, is probably not true.

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I wish they would just move out and not in.

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Allston become gentrified and people invest in newly rehabbed condos and leave them empty for 50 weeks a year.

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Allston Thanksgiving Comes First!

Suldog
http://jimsuldog.blogspot.com

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Put the Christ back in "Christ, is August over already???"

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If we're going to hate Allston Christmas, let's hate it for the right reasons.

1. BU/Harvard are money making corporations that have destroyed the neighborhood, not non-profit educational institutions that make it better.
2. The student housing crisis in Allston is not a city problem, it is a private institution problem that they created for treating students like a commodity.
3. The City of Boston does not owe Harvard/BU/Northeastern/Any college a god d^mn thing. They should not be allowed to essentially shut down transportation for 2 days just because it's "student move in." Screw the students, this isn't their city.
4. Thomas Menino continuously allowed BU to land grab and destroy an entire neighborhood. He was not a mayor of the people. He was a megalomaniac who traded land to BU for a teaching position he never even fulfilled. He didn't care about Boston, he cared about his image and legacy,

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By land grab, do you mean purchase land in a free market? How do you propose the Mayor prevent such a thing?

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By "teaching position he never even fulfilled," do you mean because he had the nerve to die?

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BU bought up Audubon Circle with shell corporations in the 1980s. Kicked out all the renters and turned the buildings into "East Campus". The city allowed the expansion of BU's campus rather than requiring them to build upward on their own land. BU is sitting on vacant lots and 1 story buildings they could easily build dorms on but won't until pressured to do so.

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He didn't become mayor until 1993.

It was Harvard that created a series of shell companies that bought up a good chunk of Allston to avoid city scrutiny.

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We live in a major city. Transportation comes to a halt every once in awhile. If that is so intolerable to you, I hear Lenox is a wonderful place to live.

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Just be sure to make yourself scarce when Tanglewood lets out.

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If you're a major city where transportation comes to a complete halt, even once in a while, you're a pretty sucky city.

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You should listen to Traffic on the 1s on WINS out of New York sometime (you can pick it up during rush hour once the days get shorter, at 1010).

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Don't consider New York to be a major city.

Now Buffalo has no real traffic problems. That's a major city.

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lost their relevance over a decade ago. The Boston Marathon lost its relevance when the BAA (Boston Arrogance Association) made it a commercial event, and even more so when the BAA decided that the "elite" runners were special enough to have their own race.

The City of Boston can get along perfectly well without either of the "necessary" events.

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Sorry, hate to pull that card.

The reality is that the only events Boston is really known for are the fireworks on the Fourth (remember, at one point they were broadcast nationally) and the Marathon (ditto, except that if you consider NBCSN a legit TV channel it still is broadcast.) People make trips to Boston expressly to take part in these, bringing in tax revenue along with oodles of commercial activity providing jobs. The BAA's shindig also gives Boston the aura of being a running city, meaning that New Balance, Converse, Asics, and Reebok will continue to have a desire to be headquartered in the region.

Allston Christmas I can do without, but your hum-buggedness towards these national events does not reflect their import.

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"The reality is that the only events Boston is really known for are the fireworks on the Fourth... and the Marathon."

Yeah, because nobody comes to Boston for the Red Sox, Bruins, our parades, our museums, our restaraunts. What a stupid statement you just made...

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36,000 tops, and most of those people are locals. Ditto for the Bruins, Celtics, and each and every parade, with the possible exceptions of Evacuation Day and Carnival, which are done larger in cities to the south of us.

Museums? Yes, the MFA is world renown, but I don't see people visiting Boston solely to see the works of Childe Hassan and Winslow Homer, any more than people would visit Philadelphia to see Rodin's works.

Restaurants? That's gotta be the first time I've read that people visit Boston for the cuisine.

The Convention and Visitor's Bureau pegs the economic impact of the Marathon at $180 million.

So no, my statement was not stupid, though it was assailed by someone who claims that people visit Boston for the food.

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2. The student housing crisis in Allston is not a city problem

Perhaps if the CIty let the colleges and universities build sufficent dorms for their students, instead of continually blocking their plans to do so, then student housing would no longer be a "crisis". Unitl then, it remains a City problem.

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by grabbing up properties and throwing the original tenants/residents/businesses out didn't start with Mayor Menino, anon.

Colleges and universities here in Boston and the Boston area, generally (i. e. BC, NU, BU, as well as Harvard Univ, Tufts University, etc.,) have been encroaching deep into nearby neighborhoods for many decades, grabbing up and buying up property, throwing the original residents/tenants/businesses out, and, in general, destroying the very characters of neighborhoods, which has, understandably, gotten many long-time and life-time residents in those areas up in arms. Tom Menino may have been no different in that respect than other Boston Mayors, but he was just following in their footsteps, by continuing to allow the colleges and Universities in the areas to do that.

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It looks like a 30 yard dumpster to me.

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Now that it's commercialized, does this mean there'll be a War On Allston Christmas?

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take Christmas out of the dumpster. This intolerance will not stand.

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started carrying allston christmas cards like, three years ago

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...isn't politically correct anymore. You're supposed to say "Allston Holidays"!

(For the record, I like the tarps on the dumpsters. The dumpers were a huge improvement when they started showing up regularly on the streets for this week, and I like having them prettied up a bit. Though I don't imagine those tarps will last long. It's the thought that counts, however.)

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If I had a basement, I'd totally steal that banner for it.

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saw the same banner on the soon-to-open 'bfresh' this afternoon... behind an all too appropriate moving van, of course

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