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Public meeting tonight on proposed high school on Belgrade Avenue at West Roxbury/Roslindale line
By adamg on Wed, 03/01/2017 - 12:19pm
The city Office of Neighborhood Services holds a meeting on Roxbury Prep's proposal to replace the Clay auto facility at 361 Belgrade Ave. with a 750-student high school.
The session begins at 6:30 p.m. in the meeting room at District E-5 on Centre Street in West Roxbury.
Neighborhoods:
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Comments
This proposal has
ZERO benefit to the surrounding neighborhoods. We need housing, not a 800 kid HS servicing almost no children in the proposed community.
Really?
So it's cool to ship kids from West Roxbury off to Roxbury to attend BLA but the reverse is different somehow? Funny how that works.
Plenty of kids get shipped
Plenty of kids get shipped off to West Roxbury Academy (nee Westie High) including those from Roxbury, what is your point?
No, other way around...
This school will immensely benefit children in the neighborhood. But we need to find a way to keep it possible for schools and community programs to rent space in the Dudley/Mission Hill/South End area, rather than continually moving great programs to less dense areas (where families tend to have higher incomes and more options already).
We don't need overpriced
We don't need overpriced housing. Offer something affordable for people starting out. Not everyone in Boston earns close to $60K. Do you want all your children to have to leave this city because of housing? Also, what's wrong with this school? Because it's different, not run by unions, boo hoo. No taxes for the city. All the racists hate it because it "doesn't represent the demographics of their neighborhood"...They try to hide behind excuses of traffic and parking, all the while we know Holy Name is just overflowing in unlimited parking and the world never once stopped turning. Shameful part of the city isn't it?
By overpriced housing I guess
By overpriced housing I guess you mean housing that is actually at market price - thus by definition it isn't overpriced if it sells and the market can bear it. You also realize that every new housing unit built alleviates pressure from older (cheaper) housing stock, right? The only way to get out of the housing crisis is to build a shit ton of it to meet demand in the market. We have already begun to see the market (especially rental) start to level out due to many units coming on line recently.
BTW, op didn't mention unions or anything else. You seem to be projecting a lot of things on West Roxbury. BTW, Holy Name has been there for decades - ever think that perhaps because of it (and the very busy West Roxbury Parkway) that this will simply add more stress traffic wise to the already existing problem? Lastly, comparing an elementary school to a high school is apples to oranges. High school kids are just generally little shits - even if its BLS, BLA, normal public schools, or charters.
By your logic, the prices
By your logic, the prices should drop considerably. Just like trickle down economics work and everyone at that meeting tonight knows why they're there. They know who they are. I am not projecting anything about West Roxbury that hasn't already been spoken about this matter previously.
Because prices only fall if
Because prices only fall if we build more than demand, which we seem unable to do? Just look at SF - worse situation than we are in, but for the same reason: almost no building for decades. BTW - the school itself is in Roslindale, not West Roxbury, but I guess its not as easy to paint everyone from Rozzie as racists, right?
BTW, Boston rents have started to fall for the first time in years:
https://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2017/01/05/average-boston-area-rent...
With even more units coming online across the city this year and next, it should continue to do so. Hope that doesn't get in the way of your alternative facts, though.
Cash out your assets and
Cash out your assets and build some housing and give it away. Not everyone can afford to live in West Roxbury and get stuck in traffic going to Mass at the Holy Name, established in 1927, that's the way it is. West Roxbury has its share of educational institutes as it is already. Build a parking lot for the commuter rail stop , through in a Dunkies , or maybe a place that can get one of those bizarro liquor licenses.
Why should holy Name allow
Why should holy Name allow anyone to continue to park in their lots?
Boston is not a city of
Boston is not a city of neighborhood schools - so this comment doesn't make sense. If it was a BPS high school you would still get kids coming from all over the city.
Also - we can save some internet space if we avoid the anti charter comments that always make up the majority of thoughts I've seen about this issue. This charter school already exists! They are looking for a new location for their school - what you think about charter schools doesn't have anything to do with this issue.
Boston is not a city of
Boston is not a city of neighborhood schools, It used to be, but in a world of constantly escalating costs, it really makes sense to build a school that must be supported or fed by burning fuel to transport the students there. Aren't there under-utilized school buildings now that can be re-fitted to the needs of this particular adventure? Where is Boston Trade these days anyway? This madness of adventurism with the educational system has to stop.
Oh, there's a benefit
For area families that enroll in the school.
Or are we speaking in code now?
No, no
You see the same kids which go to the school now are the only kids who will ever attend the school. No-one from the Parkway will ever attend a local high school because ... reasons.
Well, the answer is simple
People over that way are SO committed to the Boston Public Schools that they wouldn't even consider a charter school.
I mean, what else could it be?
Well, did you ever think that perhaps
people over THIS way would like a high school that's something in between an ultra competitive exam schools and the crappy bps high schools? This may fit the bill. Unfortunately, there's no guarantee that anyone from this area would even be able to get into the school if it's based on a lottery system. So, do area residents support a school that may only enrolls kids from other parts of the city while kids from this area are shut out of a local school?
How much environmental
How much environmental remediation will that require?? Surely they must expect asbestos , lead , gasoline , oils and other lubricants, to name a few. Then you stick a bucket in the ground, and eureka, guess what I found.
So...
So, your proposal is to just keep it as a closed up car dealership and parking lot for used cars? Any new use for the property would require cleanup.
That's not saying I'm in favor of the project - it's a charter school and as an active volunteer on the successful "No on 2" campaign I'm not interested in expanding a charter school - but the need for cleanup is not a valid reason to keep that location from being developed.
I asked for the cost not a
I asked for the cost not a rambling, you know actual dollars , like actually. Not some figment of anyone's imagination.
It's a sunk cost
Ironically, if they were thinking housing, the remediation costs would be a lot higher. As a school, the asbestos tiles is a common issue. The petroleum products would have to go anyway. As long as they aren't growing things on the property, they should be okay. We're talking teenagers, not 5 year olds.
If the site is redeveloped, there will be cleanup costs, which brings us back to the original reply- are you saying nothing should do in there at all?
There are different levels of
There are different levels of remediation, Whatever is going there should bear the costs of such. You know darn well if the private sector does the job, the costs will be apportioned to the usage of the property and have to make economic sense, If it is a subset of a smoke and mirrors educational system the costs will be blurred and capsulated under the banner of a social experiment for the children.Leave this property to the private sector. The track record of the educational system and property management of such in Boston is deplorable.
What's the schedule at Holy Name?
If the schedules overlap too much, traffic right there is going to be tough. I assume Holy Name has later start/end times as an elementary school though.
Holy Name starts at 8am
Holy Name starts at 8am
Also at same time - 8am weekday mass and a commuter rail train inbound
Holy Name ends around 2:15/30pm
Out of the loop, I guess
I'm neutral on this for now, but I thought that the BPS were well under capacity and needed more K-8 seats, not more high school seats.
Well logically if there's a
Well logically if there's a press for seats for k-8 right now... in the couple years it'll take to build this thing... there'll be a boom in highschoolers
Attrition
Lower enrollment at the high school vs. elementary level doesn't indicate a baby boom as much as attrition.
I don't see any reason school enrollment would ever increase ..
Things could change but, boy, the trend has been for fewer and fewer school-aged children to live in Boston.
The past seven years alone:
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C5ngJIWVAAAL3D2.jpg
Looks as though Boston lost as many as 11,800 residents ages 10 - 17 during that 7-year time period. (This is ACS data so you and I both know it's a very-rough estimate, but the trend has been the same for years .. decades.)
All those babies being born right now are going to be wheeled right out of town when they get to be four or five years old and enrolled in Newton and Wellesley kindergarten classes. They won't be saving any schoolteacher's jobs ..
Also heading out the door are those babies' parents, 35 - 45 years old, eager to be able to drive everywhere (and park in their own garages!) while having more than 750-square feet of space to fit their spouse and two bratty kids.
Boston's future is bright and it's made up of college boys, I mean, college kids, post-grads living in Boston or in its nearest suburbs (Brookline, Cambridge, Medford, Malden, Watertown, and Quinzy), and the AARPs (which you can join when you turn 50, don't you forget! (I'm a member!).)
These residents won't care about schools, they will care about safety (and helping the poor and sick), and they won't care about bio-labs. And, they'll be willing to pay their property taxes in order to keep themselves safe.
Several phases
First phase: Kindergarten. Lottery? Eeeek! Run to the burbs!
Second phase: Third grade. What do you mean he didn't get into AWC? Run to the burbs!
Third phase: Sixth grade. How much did I pay and this is your ISEE score? Run to the burbs!
It's not _all_ those babies being wheeled out of town. But it sure is a lot of them. And the demographic bulge in the elementary schools is likely to be whittled down as well by the time of high school.
It seems peculiar to me that more housing, at higher prices, means fewer children. But that's likely what it will mean if the market runs its course: luxury condos no child will ever grace. Like they say, a city for the newly married and the nearly buried.
Thank you
Thank you
This isn't a BPS school. It's
This isn't a BPS school. It's a charter school.