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Auto-repair shop on Roslindale/West Roxbury line could make way for a charter school

Clay Car Center on Belgrade Avenue

The current buildings of the Clay Car Center.

Residents near the Clay Car Center on Belgrade Avenue at the West Roxbury Parkway yesterday heard preliminary plans to replace it with a new Roxbury Prep High School.

Under the proposal, which has yet to be formally submitted to the BPDA, the school, which is now based on Wachusett Street in Jamaica Plain, would move into a new three-story building with room for 750 students.

School officials expect most students would get to the school by public transportation, minimizing the impact on surrounding streets. The auto-repair center - which started as Clay Chevrolet - is next to a stop on the Needham Line, for which students can use their school-issued CharlieCards.

The proposal is the latest for the western stretch of Belgrade Avenue.

Clay is across Anawan Avenue from a fairly new residential/retail building, which itself is across a dead end from where a developer has proposed a four-story residential and retail building - right next to where Exodus Bagels just set up shop.

And the BPDA and the Zoning Board of Appeals recently approved replacing the long abandoned gas station on the other side of the parkway with 18 condos.

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Comments

Great, just what this area needs...

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In its new location, will Roxbury Prep continue to honor the tradition of its founder, Secretary of Education John King, of having the state's highest rate of student suspension?

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Personally, I think its a horrible location for a school.

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Why?

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I think what people are worried about is potential loitering on people's doorsteps and other issues such as fights. I know I and many other people will not use Forest Hills or the Orange Line at the times various area high schools let out.

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Really? That is unfortunate. I have never had an issue at FH with any of the students. Even when I was one 30 years ago...it's part of city life.

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delicious friend empanadas, or possibly the donuts they sell at the little kiosk upstairs, then I think you're maybe being a little ridiculous.

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They're loud. And their boisterous. And some of them wear low hanging pants.

(Seriously, I am more worried about the older crowd hanging around the station than the teenaged crew.)

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I was thinking traffic wise, both for travelers thru the area and the kids.

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a horrible location for a school

My UMass Boston math classes were upstairs from the Silver Slipper.

Clarification: I am not referring to the diner in Roxbury, but the strip club on Boylston St., if anyone was unclear.

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...in this location is horrible (just like everywhere else, I know). With all the new development happening all at once (and separate traffic studies trying to make the individual projects look good) we won't know the true impact of all of this until it is too late. Plus, the idea that these kids are going to take the train is silly. There will be a line of cars on Belgrade twice a day clogging up a major thoroughfare.

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a 2 minute walk from this location. I do not think the traffic and parking are issues at all in this neighborhood. It is possible that I do not drive during peak times ( am usually on the road by 7:00 AM and back before 5:00 PM )but not once have I ever said the traffic is horrible around here. People drive and park near the Bellevue T stop without issue. I know that we will be getting many more new residences but I think the traffic and parking concerns are overblown IMO. I do have concerns with the School coming there but traffic and parking are not among them.

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I agree. Live a few blocks away and while Belgrade is certainly busy and you aren't blowing through there at 60 mph with no stops, the traffic is not particularly BAD by any regular boston standards. This school is moving from JP so the kids are probably used to taking transit (most teenagers don't have their own cars in the city anyway) and it's a high school so much smaller number of busses. There is plenty of space on that lot for teacher parking.

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Traffic...in this location is horrible

Define 'horrible.' This is all anyone in West Roxbury ever talks about - traffic - and yet there is less traffic there than probably any other part of the city. The rotary sometimes backs up at rush hour, que horror!

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Most if not all of these kid will be traveling from Forest Hills through the Square which is HORRIBLE! Not to mention the last thing Forest Hills needs is more HS kids!

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Who says they're going to get on buses? They all have student CharlieCards, which let them ride the Needham Line for free (the site is basically on top of a stop). And especially when it's free, commuter rail beats a bus any day. Just ask all the BLS kids who take commuter rail to Roslindale or West Roxbury already rather than one of the 3x buses.

More kids at Forest Hills? A) So? B) The school's now in JP (what's the area south of Forest Hills along Hyde Park Avenue? Woodbourne?), so moving the school to West Roxbury won't change the number of Roxbury Prep kids, just which buses (or trains) they get on.

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80% of the traffic problems in West Rox are due to idiots double parking along centre, weaving in and out, taking unsignaled left turns, etc. But mostly the double parking and inability to actually parallel park close to the curb.

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If this were proposed for Washington St., I think you'd have an argument, but Belgrade Ave. usually moves pretty well.

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I hope they add some lights at Belgrade Terrace, then. People already do stupid/crazy things at that turn, add in a bunch of lackadaisical teens who wander into the road without looking and somebody's going to end up in an accident.

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OK it's on the Needham line. So kids will take the Orange line to Forest Hills and transfer OR they will take one of the many buses from FH. The buses take 20 minutes to that location and the train runs infrequently. Not optimal.

It's not a terrible place for a school...it's more of a head-scratcher ("Really? A school? THERE?")

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- insert mandatory "extend the orange line" argument here -

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It's an important mandatory argument. The lack of service up through Rozzie & WR is ridiculous. Yes, PLEASE extend the orange line or at least have a line that runs well and more frequently and gasp on Sundays too!

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It is, but until the neighborhood organizes and starts pushing for studies it's dead in the water. MBTA won't do anything willingly.

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Well, hopefully Amtrak keeps ramping up service on the NEC which will literally push the Needham line out and force it to be an Orange Line extension one day - in like 15-30 years :(

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I have no idea who thinks of these locations. The just put a new Condo Complex next to this location and have requested another building where Reardon Electric was located, the High shcool and the 2 condo complexes will be side by side????????????????

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And Belgrade Ave. is just the right place fo a bit of a density upgrade.

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Where are high schools supposed to go? Should we be trying to hide all the kids somewhere unseen, unheard and unnoticed? Students should be a welcome part of any community and should be treated as such. Not to mention students being good for businesses (they eat and snack and spend when they have it!).

Traffic- if you don't want to be around cars, the state of MA offers plenty of land very affordably out west.

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The real issue is that the school expects 900 Students! They will be backed up against the rail line and right up to Belgrade and the parkway. Say goodbye to the walk trough to the train station. They will never keep it with hundreds of students rushing to make a train that only comes twice between 2:00 and 5:00 pm.

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