Board rejects replacing an LGBTQ sports bar in the South End with a marijuana shop

My late mother was very impressed by him. She thought he'd be mayor or more some day.

Oh well, Boston politics seeks its own level.

Isn't there enough skunk smell in the street and general estupification already?

"The loss of another center of our culture would be tragic," state Rep. John Moran (D-9th), who is gay, said. He called the location, across Washington Street from the park and near several schools and daycare centers "very troubling"

the concerns about the loss of Cathedral Station

I'm a gay dude. I've frequented Cathedral Station myself. I am sad that it is closing but for the love of god people, forbidding something else from opening up in its space that isn't a bar, is NOT going to bring the business back.

So now this space will just sit empty and be another blighted building while the owner tries to find a new tenant... who may be met with equal or greater NIMBYism.

I'd love to poll every person who spoke up or wrote in letters against this being here and ask them "So when was the last time you were inside Cathedral Station". I'm willing to place a bet that less than 50% of those people have been there in the past year. I'd even say it was closer to 25%.

Gay Bars aren't closing b/c of big mean developers. They are closing because gay life has changed, going out isn't as big of a thing anymore because most people went to bars to hook up. Now there's apps for that.

I was a regular at the RamRod and Machine for many years, and stopped going out for a while. I went there a few months before it closed and you could blow wind thru the place. The bars are closing for lack of business, so a developer comes along and offers the owner a whole lot more money than they were making in the bar.

If you were older, and had been pouring your life into working at a bar for 20+ years, and someone offered you a few million for it. Wouldn't you just take it? People don't run businesses for the good of things, they run business to make money. They won't operate at a loss just because community wants it. Plain and simple.

I'm sad to see many of the bars I used to frequent close up. Boston's gay nightlife is abysmal now. But when you go, and the bar isn't busy on a Friday night, people are simply just not going to bars anymore.

You want bars to survive, you have to attend and patronize them.

Mario Nicosia, who helped coin the name SOWA,

Great now I know where to send my hate mail. His opinion is invalid, just for giving us that stupid marketing name.

But just like when Fritz closed, we found a new spot. Fortunately, Dani's Queer Bar on Boylston is soon to open so we can go there and support them in their new endeavors. Sure, it's going to have a Sapphic theme but I think they're going to need to boys to help them with revenue.

Won't walk over a mile to purchase taxable 420. They just won't...

I was told the Cathedral Station owner is thinking of retiring at some point, but hasn’t committed to any particular date, so remains a month to month tenant. The landlord, apparently wants to charge an exorbitantly high rent and that prevents the CS owner from signing a long term lease. Enter cannabis operator with talk of high end clientele who have money to burn (literally). Sure, some people don’t think an LGBTQ+ “safe space” is as important as it used to be because the world has evolved. Others, however, lament Cathedral Station’s eventual closure.

NIMBYism has nothing to do with why neighborhood residents opposed the proposal. It was all about the location-directly across the street from a large park that welcomes young children, dogs playing at the dog park (cannabis is toxic to dogs), the home of South End Little League which provides opportunities for children of all socioeconomic backgrounds, nearby daycare centers, Cathedral High School, and Pine Street Inn which has numerous sober programs for people in recovery. The park is already troubled by unwelcome smokers and users of other drugs. The surrounding neighborhood reeks of cannabis, people walk, drive and sit at Peters Park while smoking. How much more convenient could it be for people to buy cannabis at a dispensary and walk across the street to smoke it?

The most questionable part was the equity applicant’s loss of financial backer and advertisement for a new one, with the option to buy her out—I believe the details were something to the effect of her leaving after 18 months for a $5 million dollar payout. Where is the important face of an equity applicant in the community if that applicant is interested in selling out (and to whom—an unknown investor?). Too many holes in that plan, along with greed and poor initial judgment to approve by the Zoning Board.

Washington St. doesn't have four travel lanes; it has two travel lanes and two bus/bike/turn lanes. Further, there's a crosswalk complete with curb bump-outs leading to Peters Park half a block from where Cathedral Station is now. People would obviously just cross the street to go smoke in the park.

I'm sorry to see that Cathy's might go away but I'm more surprised to see that the building isn't being replaced by 50 or so million-dollar condos.

Also, as equity applicants go, it seems like the equity ought to be spread around a bit more -- i.e. one granted license per applicant. She's already got one.