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No, not the Applebee's!
By adamg on Thu, 03/03/2011 - 7:15pm
Residents from Brighton, Brookline and Newton are trying to organize a task force to watch over a proposed hotel and retail development that would demolish not only the vacant Cleveland Circle Cinema but the Applebee's next door, on land split by the Boston/Brookline line just down the street from Newton.
The first meeting of the Cleveland Circle Task Force is Tuesday, March 8 at 7 p.m. in the basement of Roggie's, 356 Chestnut Hill Ave.
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Comments
Swanky Applebees
I can never look at Applebees the same way after picking up a newspaper in San Pedro Sula, Honduras and seeing in the Society pages every week (like the highly enjoyable "Names and Faces" section in the Globe), photos of the well-to-do and power-brokers of the original Banana Republic whooping it up at their swanky soirees at ... yes, Applebees. In Tegucigalpa it was TGIFriday's. They could send out death squads on orders to kill campesinos in between Mud-Slides and hot wings. Now there's some Flair!
How droll!
How droll!
Is there really demand for a
Is there really demand for a hotel there other than for BC home games?
hotel
the invisible hand of the market will be the judge of that!
but i think the proximity to the green line, brighton/brookline areas is enough to support a hotel...
The people putting their
The people putting their company's money on the line think so. They do research, 'n stuff - ya know?
I think
an affordable hotel (Hampton Inn), connected to three branches of the green line would do extremely well.
Besides the obvious BC home games, there are also students visiting the school, as well as BU and an 86 bus ride away from Harvard.
Prospective guests also could include anyone looking for an affordable hotel alternative that has great connections to longwood.
Don't forget Orthodox Jews,
Don't forget Orthodox Jews, who will find that location within convenient walking distance of several synagogues. Orthodox Jews don't drive or ride in vehicles on the sabbath or festivals.
Boston shortage
Boston/Cambridge has a shortage of affordable hotel rooms. It's truly awful trying to find a room (that costs less than RT airfare each night) for out-of-town colleagues.
Not Unusual
It's not unusual for franchises to position themselves differently in new markets, especially developing markets, differently than they do at home.
McDonald's in Moscow was considered midrange, rather than fast food, when it first opened, and in Kazakhstan, the operators of a TGIF-like chain also positioned themselves as closer to "upscale" on launch.
Usually after a few years they settle back down into the usual niche.
Pizza hut in Brazil is
Pizza hut in Brazil is upscale. Your pizza is placed on a stand next to the table, and a waiter serves each person a piece. It is then covered with one of those silver-domed things until you're ready for more.
Based on the posting, it
Based on the posting, it looks like these people have the right idea in mind. Taller buildings with smaller footprints and plenty of retail.
BUT
What about the traffic????????????
The ever popular NIMBY and BANANA reply.
The ever popular
anon taunt.
While that area can be nasty,
While that area can be nasty, particularly during rush hour and when trains are moving through the loop, the movie theatre in its heyday generated just as much traffic as the hotel likely would.
I am a bit surprised the plan involves stomping out the Applebee's and it seems like they just moved in in place of the old Ground Round. Not that Applebee's has many redeeming qualities but it still seems a shame to kick out an existing business. But maybe they'll have a shot at a street level retail/food slot in the new building.
Doesn't surprise me
The Applebee's by the Pru didn't last very long.
Not to mention shadows!
Shadows cast over the reservoir, one of the last bastions of open space in this
suburbcity!Another HoJo's...
Another old Howard Johnson's bites the dust.
So many of the HoJo's around here were built at rotaries -- Wellington, Fresh Pond, Concord, Cleveland Circle.
Yes, it got its name because it was originally a rotary. If you look at an air view (Google Maps) it's still pretty obvious. Parts of the old traffic circle now are used for parking.
Cleveland Circle rotary
That's wild, guess I never thought about it. A well-designed roundabout might very well work better than the mess that's there now.
i liked that, too. From the
i liked that, too. From the air, the rotary looks great. Who knows how it'd work now. Personally, I'd welcome the change. I frequently feel like dying would be a potential outcome from driving through that ridiculous intersection.
Cleveland Circle hotel
I support this idea...so long as they also build a rotary there. Those stoplights are a joke...time to get rid of them.
Yes, I know there's a trolley there. We're the (expletive) Athens of America. Make it work.
Not a problem; the trolley
Not a problem; the trolley tracks were there back when it used to be a rotary. The trick is that the train goes through the middle, rather than around the circumference with traffic.
Stop lights will be needed, but you'd need them anyway to not make that whole area an even bigger danger for pedestrians, not that the current intersection is all that great.
I knew someone who joined a
I knew someone who joined a NIMBY task force to stop a development project, but she quit when she realized how crazy the rest of the group was.
Applebee's
I'll support any project that includes the destruction of an Applebee's.
Why?
?