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Some residents have a word for condo project off Baker Street in West Roxbury: No

Proposed Baker Street condo project

Architect's aerial rendering. Dashed line at top is the railroad.

Many of the residents who attended a BRA get-together on a 138-condo complex proposed for Baker Street where it crosses the Needham Line opposed the idea, saying that's a bad location for so many cars - 210 parking spaces proposed- and worrying about the effect on already oversubscribed local BPS schools, according to Tim Sullivan, who attended the session at the West Roxbury Elks. He added a number of residents expressed doubts the BRA would really listen to their concerns.

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Comments

people are really fucking hesitant to add more

**bitches about cost of housing**

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Boston seems that have two kinds of people: those who oppose market rate housing and those who oppose any new housing nearby. God forbid West Roxbury had some traffic too.

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Love to hear all these folks who's
Mommy and Daddy fled to the
burbs during busing. They all
whine because locals aren't
throwing out the welcome mat!
Boo Hoo!

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West Roxbury does have traffic. Try driving down Centre Street or VFW Parkway at rush hour (darn; I missed the meeting the other night on the 84-unit proposal next to Home Depot).

Yes, West Roxbury has plenty of "I moved here to get away from the city" types.

But multi-family housing (which Washington Street is full of) is not 100% opposed. The concerns over a proposed condo building on Centre Street at a meeting the other night focused on stuff like the color of the metal tiling the developer was proposing; not OMGTrafficWeAreAllGoingToDie type stuff.

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Westie has added new condos on the VFW, Park St, Roch Bros; and we have new condos planed on Centre, Lagrange, the VFW all in the past year.

It funny seeing people bash Westie who have no idea what they're talking about. Worry about your own neighborhood.

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Have you ever attempted to travel on Baker Street from 3:30pm on? The traffic is already backed up the whole length of Baker Street to the VFW. When little league starts April-July it's even worse.

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They should put some housing (mixed income)on Baker St., at little league fields. Push them back to Dow Rd. Move baseball to Millenium.

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I drive that way all the time. You don't know actual traffic congestion if you think that area is backed up the entire way. It has volume but moves like regular traffic does. It's not the expressway.

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LA Fitness proposed a new gym right next to this development in 2008, at what is now Savers. Most communities are happy to get a nice new health club...But not West Roxbury. LA Fitness ran into all kinds of resistance and moved on. What kind of community fights against a health club?!

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There are a lot of people around here and nationwide that do not like that company specifically. Google L.A. Fitness and you'll find an endless stream of alleged shady practices and lawsuits by former members. Maybe wasn't a big loss in reality. Housing on the site is a much better use anyway.

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The kind that loves the Y

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First there's not enough parking -- now there's too much. Sigh.

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From the drawing and the address you would think you could access it from Baker street but you would be wrong. There is a bridge there and there is no access, Baker street is elevated and at least 20 feet above the parking area. All the residents would be using small side streets and the VFW for access. Not and ideal situation.

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Where is the access from? I assumed it would be through the Office Park?

Is it Baker St to Gardner St (One Way) to Heldun St?

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Right now the only access in there is from the Parkway. you cant get there from Hedlund, Baker or Gardner. the drawing is not correct and they would need a whole lot more hearings before those streets changed.

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Pretty sure you can access the site off Gardner St. There is a private way/access road that connects to the site going behind the existing Savers building.

There is no access off Baker St and I doubt that's going to happen. Neighbors don't want it and they'd have to cut through an existing daycare building lot and build on the grade. Not worth it. Developers probably put that out there to pull it back later as a "concession" when in reality they never planned to do it in the first place.

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That private way/access road is called Simbroco St. From the rendering, it looks like the proposal is to extend that all the way to the commuter rail tracks then have it turn left and go behind one of the new, proposed buildings. So that would another entrance in addition to Baker St.

It looks like they're planning on taking down an existing building. The corner where Baker St and the rail meet, there is an office building which houses a day care in the first floor. In the rendering, that is gone and replaced by a light greenish 5 story building.

If this goes thru, it'll be interesting if the MBTA reinstates Sat service on the 52 bus which services Baker st. And Sunday service.

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i understand the developer proposed and entrance on Baker St? I guess building a ramp. That section is across from Catholic Memorial and just down from the intersection of Spring street. Adding more traffic to and already busy section of road next to a school.

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My 4yr old nephew could make a comment more intelligent than the ones posted by you anti-NIMBY morons. Poorly conceived and ill planned development which does not fit the site for which GREEDY developers who could give a fuck about the community is NOT something residents should roll over and take up the ass. Good luck to the residents who are willing to stick up for themselves and the good of their community!

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Move to Shelburne Falls.

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You can move to a city that doesn't let people give any input on what gets developed near them. Your argument implies every neighborhood should have maximum traffic. Worry about your own neighborhood or move back to whatever city you came from.

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What I see when I look at that rendering is a lot of free-standing homes around the development that are a poor fit for the site.

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Illogical argument or just idiocy, it's not clear. The single family goes there are fine.

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The city needs more density to supply more housing. In order to meet the demand, and in a [possibly futile] attempt to lower housing costs ALL neighborhoods and the close suburbs need to become at least medium density. This means 3-5 story apartment/condo buildings need to carpet the entire region. Spaced out housing only works in sprawl cities where there is desert/prairie on the edge of the city that you can expand out into.

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No, they don't. There is no infrastructure to support that. The roads are not laid out in a way the is conducive to that. The existing neighborhoods have immense value. People living in those less dense areas of Boston do not have less reason to try to protect their own areas than others do. You don't explain how you would even implement that. If the region is too expensive for your taste and you would like to live in an area that builds without consideration, there are other cities that cater to you better.

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Where the hell are you going to put the cars? That area has exactly two busses, neither running that often, and a commuter rail stop that doesn't have sunday service.

IMPROVE TRANSIT AND THE NEIGHBORHOODS WILL DENSIFY THEMSELVES.

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Southie got a bunch of crappy development rammed up their ass. Now parking sucks, traffic is horrendous, and they have a bunch of shitty looking condos full of jerkwads.

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There are other issues that need to be addressed before we just start approving developments all over the place.
There are all these buildings going up, but no plans to fix the school system or a solid plan to get kids in to neighborhood schools. I live within walking distance to the Lyndon and my sons assignment was a Tier 4 School in Hyde Park. How does Boston plan on supporting more children?
There are no talks to improve the cities infrastructure when it comes to police, fire & ems.
How does the city plan on supporting all these new developments?
And for those of you who say “we need more affordable house” This development has one bed rooms starting at $350K. And even 425 Lagrage is 1 bed room apartment started at 2200.
Mayor Walsh had a campaign promise of ‘blowing up the BRA’, obviously that’s not happening.

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Boom!

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Are because BPS has specifically said they do not do neighborhood schools. They will not change that aspect of school assignment just because a bunch of new people moved in.

Sure, long term it might change, but not in any one child's elementary career.

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breaking news out of Boston... in a first for the city, residents oppose something that would somehow alter the current environment.

Facepalm at 11:00...

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That developer used to think that it was so easy.

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Nice to see people fighting
these condo world money
grabs.Developers in bed
prostitutes ! Oops I mean
politicians.

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While I usually find myself running with the herd of eye-rollers at NIMBY opposition to development... it is kinda nice to see locals complaining about too much parking for once.

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I live on Gardner and we have two houses being built on our street and i'm for them. I'm also for the apartments that are going up on Gardner/VFW as well. we need more housing. The only reason why this gives me pause is because that is a LOT of cars that are going to be exiting onto Baker right next to CM. If people are taking the train, they're most likely driving to a commuter rail station or all the way to forest hills. the only buses that run near us are the 36, 37, and the 52 and the 52 does not go into Boston. That's a lot of congestion near kids crossing the street.

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Most people, both long and short time residents invested serious $$ to reside in WR due to many factors. The main factor is that it's close to downtown but still (for now anyways) has the feel of a suburb. It is a strong neighborhood with great amenities and people can typically drive from point A to point B in the neighborhood without too much hassle.
Just look at what poor planning and lousy Menino politics did to Southie. You can't go to the supermarket there without several hours of strategic planning. That is no longer a neighborhood but just a jammed in, multi-unit, overpopulated hole.
Just because we want to maintain what we have--we get labeled "haters, racists, NIMBY", and worse.
These greedy developers profess that they're doing us this huge favor by bringing their big box monstrosities to our mainly single-family neighborhood. They play the game of asking for 128 units but are really looking for about 110. Then they act like real heroes when they come back to us with a "scaled down version". Too bad that many folks believe this crap.
The normal folks of WR need to start making their voices heard to these developers and City Hall to end this before its too late! The zoning code is there for a reason. Make them adhere to it!

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