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Dorchester civic group comes out swinging against more development - not in Dorchester, but next door in Milton

After years of Milton residents fretting about evil Bostonians swarming their town, it's time for some turnabout: The executive board of the Cedar Grove Civic Association in Dorchester says its residents should join the fight against a ballot question in Milton that would allow denser development in parts of that town, to keep more commuting Miltonians from swarming their neighborhood.

In a Facebook post today, the leaders of the Cedar Grove group say warn that if the measure passes, "thousands" more Waze-crazed Miltonians would clog Dorchester's overburdened roads on their way to their jobs downtown.

Milton Town Meeting approved zoning changes in December to allow greater housing density near rapid transit lines, under a state mandate aimed at increasing greater Boston's housing supply by allowing more housing development near MBTA stations. But a group of residents got enough signatures to hold a referendum on the measure on Feb. 13.

Milton is the only Boston-area community to have not yet filed compliance plans with the state, which has threatened legal action if the proposal is voted down.

The leaders of the Dorchester group call on Dorchester residents to pick up the phone and call all their Milton relatives and friends to urge a "no" vote - and to volunteer for the No group in Milton on Election Day to make sure the measure dies - which they say will send a message to the state that a "one size fits all" development policy just isn't right.

The board says the Milton proposal would cram the higher-density zones in East Milton, which means more GPS-directed car traffic from Milton through streets such as Hilltop Street, Milton Street and Gallivan Boulevard on the other side of the Neponset.

The board snorts at the idea that the Mattapan Line, which serves Milton along the Neponset River, is "rapid transit" or that anybody in the new condos in Milton would willingly take it:

Long story short, this zoning scheme will make these problems worse. We know that nobody is going to be walking or even driving from these proposed condo buildings to a trolley station, especially given the MBTA's current state of unreliability, and the already existing resident parking requirements around our trolley station. They're going to get in their cars and drive through our neighborhood to get the expressway like many Milton residents do today, but if this zoning change passes, there will be thousands more cars each day.

Milton also has a group calling for a yes vote on next week's referendum.

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Comments

Steve Bickerton, who took over the Cedar Grove gang after his father.

These "neighborhood associations" feign as some sort of actors in a democratic planning process, but rarely have any sort of democratic quorum -- seems like every time you look under the curtain, it's these sort of people whose families have been there a million years, pulling a "I got mine, fuck you" move. Their power in zoning and planning policy ought to be diminished.

If it's supposed to be a "community process", then let's do it -- let's put it on the ballot -- but we can't have any more shakedowns and roadblocks by groups that don't really represent any substantive sample size.

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Touch grass

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LarryW is a NIMBY Karen apparently.

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you're a profoundly disturbed and unstable creep without telling us Kinopio

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I've got to admit, Bickerton is a great name for a NIMBY.

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I’m from right on the boarder in Mattapan and I’m sad to say after 40 years I don’t have one solid friend from Milton.

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Lower Mills and East Milton Square are very congested. Have you ever tried getting on the Expressway at East Milton? Does not make any sense to add housing in that area.

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That might matter.

This is transit oriented development. Car users are irrelevant.

If you don't like traffic in the city, remove your car. It will help.

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Your car makes traffic, too. You can reduce traffic by not driving.

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Try crossing the street in Lower Mills and East Milton. It’s a challenge. Good Luck

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…. to reduce driving in that area with better bike and pedestrian friendly infrastructure and improved public transit.

Housing is more important than cars.

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Not everyone bikes....

I know that is hard to fathom.

Also, if you knew Lower Mills, there are already good transit connections and a great bike path.

Once again, not everyone wants to bike.

Not everyone goes where the T goes and not everyone wants to bike.

 

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… or using public transit in Lower Mills?

I suggest you lug your ass out of your car and actually try them.

Then get back to us.

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but I will admit that he has a deeper knowledge of Boston and the immediate area than most of the board.

I will guess he has much deeper knowledge of Dorchester, Lowe Mills, E.Milton Square, . . . transit, walking, biking, whatever,
than you or most others.

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I only lived in Lower Mills as an adult for a few years and was only taking the trolley to see friends in Milton from the time I was 12.

I only wish the bike path was there when I was a kid. Much easier then going up River Street and then through Dot Park.

Why would I know better than some collection of sentient collagen who lives in the South End than I do about Dorchester?

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… you’ve never cycled, you’ve barely walked and had some limited experience on public transportation there many years ago.

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I’d pay to see that! LOL!

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If you don't want to bike or take public transportation then stop complaining. You chose to sit in traffic. Live with your decisions and stop telling other people what to do with their property.

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The comment included the word TRANSIT.

TRANSIT is not biking.

We know that you like your car, John. So don't live someplace where cars aren't convenient? Like in a city built out centuries before they were invented, for starters? Not everyone needs to share your expensive fetish or tear things up to make it convenient.

Or happily sit in traffic with one hand on the wheel. Maybe move to a wonderfully car-centric place like Dallas or hollowed-out Hartford. Whatever.

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"Hollowed out Hartford"? I see in your usual expertise on all matters you are taking a swipe at Hartford so you must be an expert on Connecticut and Hartford transportation issues as well as the Boston area.

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Some of the people currently driving would choose a non-auto alternative if it were some combination of cheaper/faster/safer/more comfortable.

If we provided those improvements so that those people didn't drive, auto congestion would be reduced for all drivers, including those who don't bike or go where the T does not.

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The big challenge for us YIMBYs is to acknowledge that most people like their neighborhoods the way they are rather than sneering at them for being wary of the negative impact of development on their day to day lives. Yep. Streets get more cars and schools may get additionally burdened.

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Half the time developments are put in empty parking lots or where an unused, decrepit building was. No rational person thinks those places make their neighborhood better.

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And they are selling for 750,000 for a two bedroom condo next to central avenue station. The condo development at Milton station has listings for condos up to a million. Can anyone show where condo development built next to MBTA stations increased ridership which is plummeting everywhere? Hundreds of apartments have been built at nearby Ashmont station but residents still drive to work because the station is not safe and the service is unreliable.

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I don't know if you didn't carry the 2, but the Hendries plant site has a whopping 38 units.

That, despite my problems with math, I know is less than hundreds.

The units from 20 years ago next to Milton station are huge (2,800 to 4,500 square foot units) They were built for people selling their big houses but wanted to stay in Milton. They are not for commuters. They are for people who live 4 months of the year in Naples or Sanibel.

As far as everyone getting their boobies caught in the works about the Cedar Grove CA, they watched Milton leave 2 Granite Avenue as an abandoned development (three stories of steel rotting) in the breeze for years before the building was finished. It was a middle finger by Milton to Neponset / Cedar Grove. The Cedar Grove is a collective defensive unit for the neighborhood. They are part of the community too, despite your whining. Get over it.

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Taking the T is a million times safer than driving. 43,000 Americans die in car crashes every year. How many die at Ashmont station? Zero.

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I read it as if the Moon Door kid from Game of Thrones was talking.

Spoiled brat.

Also: https://www.boston25news.com/news/man-hospitalized-after-being-hit-by-mb...

Even More: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SPyjFWFbxxw

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No cap

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OK boomer

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I know these folks are just pathologically selfish, but I don't understand where they think their children are gonna live if they ever make it out of the basement? Do they want them all to move to New Hampshire or Ohio or some other place far away? Because nobody I know can afford to buy a place in the greater Boston area these days.

Also, its pretty easy for these sociopaths in Boston to tell their neighbors in Milton to subject themselves to years of lawsuits and loss of state funds, its not gonna hurt Dorchester.

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They also think they are special and should not comply with the MBTA housing rules. As if they aren't right next to a major city and times are changing.

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Maybe instead of less residential development in the suburbs, these groups should be pushing for more commercial development so the new residents could get jobs close to where they live and wouldn't need to commute through anywhere!

Also, the CGCA citing "the MBTA's current state of unreliability" to oppose a zoning change that would be years away from contributing a single new resident under even the most aggressive possible timetable is pretty silly. One suspects this group doesn't want the MBTA to become more reliable, either.

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