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BRA postpones vote on moving Allston housing complex

Harry Mattison gets the scoop on the delay of tomorrow's originally scheduled vote. Michael Pahre wonders if it has to do with local officials, in particular Councilor Ciommo, still expressing reservations over the latest proposal.

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I read the post over at brighton centered and it sounds like he is sticking up for his community. Harvard could care less about the A/B neighborhood. Ah, the process sometimes works.

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actually...

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No news item here will appeal to all readers. What's the point in posting a reply like yours? Feel free to read something else.

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I actually care a lot. It makes me happy considering I voted for Ciommo.

But using couldn't care less incorrectly bothers me like incorrect apostrophe's bug eeka.

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I guess I'm so used to the incorrect form that my eye just slid right over it.

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Here's what I don't get. The Globe reports about "Allston neighbors, who insisted additional housing be built on that site to help create a more vibrant neighborhood with residences [and] shops." Well, that seems reasonable. The Western Ave corridor, at present, is anything but vibrant. The existing Charlesview is an island of residential housing, cut off by Harvard on one side, bordered by two busy streets, and surrounded by desultory retail - gas stations, auto dealers, and the like - even before those lots were vacated. So turning the area from a lackluster commercial strip into a vibrant neighborhood is a great idea.

But wait! The best way to revitalize any neighborhood is to ensure that people live there. But the community has already forced the removal of several dozen units from the proposed redevelopment. It's still pressing for lower heights and more open space. But the key to vibrant urban neighborhoods is their density. Every unit eliminated from the project makes it far more difficult to support the street-level retail shops already planned, much less a larger number - another key community demand. And the euphemistic demand for 'more open space' functionally serves to turn the development into a sprawling complex, lengthening the average distance between residences and the streetlife the community is ostensibly demanding be fostered.

There are certainly reasonable demands and good ideas included in the objections that activists are voicing. But it strikes me that several of the core demands don't serve the longterm interests of the city. Density is the key to urban vibrancy. Charlesview, developed as a single unit, will occupy a huge chunk of the new neighborhood, and help to set its tone. The existing development, with its low-rise concrete townhouses, failed to support much in the way of local retail. I just can't summon much sympathy for activists who want lots of street level retail, and then demand that the developers scale back the density necessary to support it.

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Reducing density and lengthening the average distance between residences are not core demands of many Allston and Brighton neighbors and the Allston Brighton North Neighbors Forum (ABNNF). To the contrary, we consider higher density development, particularly on the McDonald's site, to be a key to this project and the future of Western Ave. The BRA planners agree with us but Harvard proposes building a new one-story McD's a few yards east of the current building (which would be demolished to allow Telford St to extend south to Holton St). We hope to collaborate with all the stakeholders to figure out how to respect McDonald's right to continue doing business at this location and build the kind of building that Western Ave needs.

Regarding open space, we agree with you that doing something like having 10 feet between houses instead of 6 feet between houses is a poor use of land. However, if this space is pooled together into a public park, plaza, and pedestrian promenade along the new Telford St it would create a greener, more attractive community without creating the sprawl that you describe.

In any case, what is really needed to create the market demand to support more retail is more development on the dozens of acres of vacant and underutilized property in our neighborhood. If you haven't seen the recent Greater Boston program on this subject, I hope it will show that we know the future of our neighborhood should be in the demolition of many of these obsolete old buildings that could be replaced with new housing, institutional, commercial, and retail development.

http://allston02134.blogspot.com/2009/11/harry-bre...

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