The Bowl and Board space

[dangone.livejournal.com]

So I was just thinking, is there anything that we can do as a community to prevent the landlords from charging an exorbitant amount of rent for that space?

I had posted yesterday that the space is on loopnet.com for 20k and people started tweeting about it, everyone in shock.  Basically it got me thinking, do residents have a say in what gets placed in the space?

Only a restaurant or bar or chain will be able to afford that rent.

It would really suck if it was a Qdoba. 

Dan

Comments

[canongrrl.livejournal.com]

thank you for this, you saved me finding all the links to post.

Having been in the city pre and post rent control, I can tell you its a lot better post.

[ron_newman]

Which city? My impression was that Cambridge had a more diverse residential population, and more interesting businesses, when rent control was still in effect. If people are spending less money on rent, they have more money to spend at local businesses.

(Somerville had rent control for only a few years in the early 1970s, not long enough to have any real effect)

[enochs-fable.livejournal.com]

I (and others i'm sure) would definitely be interested in your perspective!

[canongrrl.livejournal.com]

so I should say I lived next to cambridge before and after. The basic things I saw were:
-property upkeep increase in Cambridge (strict rent control deters building upkeep except those that would cause putative responses)
-more property starts. I mean the condo explosion we would not have seen thus less places to buy at a "reasonable" price
-the rate of rent increase in somerville and arlington lessened when cambridge dropped rent control. Thus better for the surrounding community.
-the owners were treated fairly. Now all owners are rich, and many were not being treated fairly

in general rents in cambridge increased to market rate, but more apartments were also added to mix. Yes economic diversity was lost and gentrification happened to some areas but that also was true for the region.

So, to me, these are all positives. Well not everything, I'm still pissed about Manray closing and becoming condos.

now I am for subsidizing housing and having some low income condos (in large condo complexes) being reserved. I think this just makes sense. I also love main street usa programs (which if Davis isn't doing on purpose they sure are making work). and teachers, cops, etc should be paid fairly for the location (and not have tenure). These would all go a long way to keeping a city together.

Finally I honestly don't care if a chain moves into the Bowl and Board space. Starbucks is a fairly green company and they do buy from local places. Chipotle has the whole eco meat thing (though they still aren't as good as Anna's) while I thought bocoloco was horrid - and the fact that their locations are closing sort of speaks to me not being alone in that thought. So while I prefer good, local - I'm also ok with good national chain over local shop that I don't like. When it comes to Davis square there is also the task force that helps shape the square. The city does too. And the owner of that space has a right to charge what they want. Was I bummed to see M&M move? Yeah but I still don't blame the owner of the property. Its not fair to him to keep rents below market. In any case, the Davis Square task force has done an amazing job and I've been impressed with how they've kept the square together and mostly unchained. Well until the huge cvs and bsc...

Finally Qdoba would be horrid, on so many levels. So would another coffee shop. or pharmacy. If I could pick something, I'd adore a book store or a good sushi place. But hey, that's just me.

[ron_newman]

We already have two sushi places, Taipei Tokyo and Snappy Sushi.

[canongrrl.livejournal.com]

I should say I want a really good sushi place, like a Toraya or Hana circa 2-3 years ago (or 4 if we can get David back here - I really miss him!). I do need to try Yoshi up by powerderhouse as I have heard good things for a bit now on that place.

And to be technical, Snappy isn't even sushi - its raw fish/veggies and brown rice. The texture, to me, is something I really can't fathom (though teko has a point that it may work well for veggie based - still)