Save the Armory! Critical ZBA meeting tomorrow (Wednesday 9/19)

[ron_newman]

(from Somerville Arts Council mailing list)

PLEASE HELP THE CENTER FOR ARTS AT THE ARMORY!!!

The Zoning Board decision on the fate of the Center for Arts at the Armory will be on Wednesday Sept.19. Our case has been continued and the vote will happen this week.

Thank you to everyone who sent letters to the Zoning Board of Appeals and came out to the ZBA hearing on September 5th. I know many of you had to leave before getting a chance to speak, so please come out and make your voice heard on Wednesday! For those of you who were not able to make it, here is your opportunity to say how much the center means to you!

Please, please, please come to our hearing on SEPTEMBER 19th at 7pm at The Visiting Nurse Association, (259 Lowell St.) and tell the Zoning Commission why you think the Armory is a vital part of your community. They want to hear it from you!

Also, if you haven't done so already, please Write a letter to the head of the Zoning Commission (click the link and don't forget to sign your note. We've written a letter for you to cut and paste below, or feel free to send your own.)

Please send this letter on, post it on your facebook page, tweet, and encourage your friends to come to the hearing and write letters on our behalf.

Thanks again for all your support,

Tracey Stark
Executive Director
Center for Arts at the Armory




Sample Letter:

Dear Mr. Foster

I am writing to urge you to approve the petition of the Arts at the Armory petitions to expand the capacity for their performance hall, add outdoor café seating, enable the venue to apply for a full liquor license, expand the venue's hours, and enable the venue to expand their kitchens so they may cook on premises.

Arts at the Armory is a vital part of the local community bringing arts and programs for our diverse community that brings neighbors together. I look forward to the improvements to the venue these upgrades will enable Arts at the Armory to bring to the local area.

Sincerely,
(insert your name and address here!)
Arts at the Armory
The Center for Arts at the Armory

Comments

[pierceheart.livejournal.com]

I'm so amused at this, and slightly peeved, considering how so many people got sold on the idea this wouldn't turn into anything like a nightclub, for various reasons Ron alluded to here (http://davis-square.livejournal.com/1673212.html?thread=19411964#t19411964).

I wonder if the Armory people think everyone else has a short memory span, or that everyone else just doesn't care about the creeping nature of the Armory's requests.

[emcicle.livejournal.com]

I kind of agree with this. They opened under one set of conditions with some objection from neighbors, and are now asking permission to change those conditions. I would hope their financial plan had been based on the first set of conditions, not based on the assumption they would get extensions (to hours) and changes. That's poor planning.

I like the idea of the Arts at the Armory, but I think asking for this now feels not in the spirit of the original compromise.

[pierceheart.livejournal.com]

and are now asking permission to change those conditions.

Again, and again.

[ron_newman]

I see this more as: they tried their best to live within the conditions, and found that it didn't work out financially. They've been a huge asset to the whole city, and the ZBA would be incredibly short-sighted if it took an action (or inaction) that caused them to close.

[emcicle.livejournal.com]

while they are a huge asset, if they can't live/function within the rules agreed to by all parties, I'm not sure they should. Again, I like them and I hope they can find a way to function and satisfy reasonable neighbor concerns. (and I totally realize some complaints are not reasonable).

[maffematician.livejournal.com]

FYI Ron, a typo in the form letter.
The second-to-last sentence refers to Arts at the Armory as a place, "that brings neighbors and together."

[ron_newman]

Thanks, I'll fix this version. (Too late for what already went out to the Arts Council mailing list and other places, unfortunately)

[laryu.livejournal.com]

Save the Armory? So if the petition is not approved, the Armory faces shutdown?

(If not, it's a pretty disingenuous letter.)

[ron_newman]

If this is not approved, Arts at the Armory says they would eventually go out of business due to inability to attract sufficient bookings. I do not want to see the Armory converted to condos or some other use that does not benefit the people of Somerville.

[nathanjw]

Do you think that more housing does not benefit the people of Somerville? Or do you have something against condos in particular? This strikes me as a remarkably NIMBY pull-up-the-ladder attitude, and I usually think better of you than that.

[pierceheart.livejournal.com]

The entire repetitious manner in which the group keeps coming back for relief and additional allowances is beginning to turn me off from any benefit they may provide to the city.

[miss-chance.livejournal.com]

I see where you're coming from there. I feel uncomfortable about it myself. If I were an abutter, I'd be angry about the moving of the goal-posts.

That said, though, there *is* a huge, long-term value to there being a thriving performing arts venue in the city. There is really nothing like this anywhere else in Somerville, and it's a huge benefit to the City.

There has to be some compromise. I don't want a sense of ever-sliding boundaries, but too, there's something to be said for being flexible. For understanding that when you start something completely new, you do so with a set of guidelines, and within a few years those guidelines have to be reviewed and revised.

It seem like the Arts at the Armory and the arts community has tried very hard to compromise and accommodate the needs of the immediate neighbors, while also trying to accommodate the needs of the greater community.

It does feel a lot like push, push, pushing for more and more. But, also, it feels like a small handful of residents putting their heals in the ground and not being willing to budge.

What do you think it would take for both sides to come to the table equally willing to work with each other?

[pierceheart.livejournal.com]

Would help if we had the link to send an email to Foster.

[ron_newman]

Whoops, fixed now. (That's what happens when I paste as plain text instead of Rich Text).

[pierceheart.livejournal.com]

Thanks, i felt free to send my own and change the automatic subject line that the link created.

[anyee.livejournal.com]

In this post, people who live on a busy street surrounded by college students complain about a potential source of nominal extra noise. In other words, WAAAHHH NIMBY WAAAHHH. Did I get it right?

[ron_newman]

Do many students live up that way? I don't really think of Spring Hill as a college neighborhood.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_meej_/]

Not many, no. I can't think of a single college student within the area. Grad students, yes, but not college.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_meej_/]

Not in the least, no. Try educating yourself.

If you'd like to somehow classify Hudson St. and Benton Rd. as "busy," and a retirement home, convent, and quiet daytime businesses as "college students," and sudden large (and, if they get their way, inebriated) crowds at otherwise-quiet times of night as "nominal extra noise," and "we like it functioning just fine as it currently is, and support its general mission as originally presented but not as the nightclub we and the City were promised it wouldn't be" as "WAAH NIMBY WAAH," then you're extremely good at viewing things just as you want to and ignoring facts.

Or you're just a troll. Could be either.

[pierceheart.livejournal.com]

No, you didn't get that right, but that's because you appear to have not done any research on the issues.

http://davis-square.livejournal.com/1673212.html
http://davis-square.livejournal.com/2970023.html
http://davis-square.livejournal.com/1623982.html
http://davis-square.livejournal.com/1619912.html

Also, we have Ron Newman himself saying a while back (paraphrased) that this isn't going to turn into a nightclub, because they aren't going to be open late, and that he wouldn't support an extension of their hours.

[ron_newman]

How would you feel about extending the hours of performance as requested, but ending the serving of alcoholic beverages at 11 pm? That should alleviate the fear of it becoming a nightclub, and avoid the problem of rowdy drunk people exiting the place late at night.

[pierceheart.livejournal.com]

I got it - everyone who is opposed is a d-bag NIMBY who hates the arts, and the concerns about the apparent lack of good faith on the parts of the Armory are just paranoia ... nevermind, Ron, that you used to say that you wouldn't support increased hours, there was no way this would turn into a nightclub, yet here they are asking for 1am hours, full booze license, and an increase to 495 capacity.

[miss-chance.livejournal.com]

I think you are making the mistake of assuming that everyone who disagrees with you, agrees with each other.

[pierceheart.livejournal.com]

So far, the people commenting in disagreement with me here, have brought up the same reasons.

It seems to be a valid and logical assumption, given the evidence in this discussion.

[miss-chance.livejournal.com]

Also, name-calling. That's all on you Who said anyone 'hates the arts'? what an absurd claim; you're the only person to say that.That's all coming from you not from me or Ron, who have repeatedly been saying "what compromises are possible?"

If you want to name-call yourself, and resort to hyperbole that's your call, but don't pin it on me.