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.

[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.

[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.

[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.

[ron_newman]

Sure. The link I added is just copied from the Arts Council e-mail blast.

[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.

[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.

[ron_newman]

Converting the armory to condos would benefit 10 or 12 lucky people who got to buy them. The Armory as an arts center benefits everyone in the city (and beyond).

(and 'reactionary NIMBY' applies better to the people who have been against the Armory from before it opened, and still are)

[nathanjw]

The Armory as an arts center may be of value. I dispute that it is of value to everybody in the city, because not everybody cares about the particular arts they exhibit. Conversely, adding more residential units to the neighborhood has benefits more broadly than for the owners; they're more customers for local businesses and possibly a larger addition to the city tax base.

Mostly, it sounds like you're using "condos" as a slur, and that rubs me the wrong way, because we should want more people to live here and work to make that possible, and that includes building more residences.

[ron_newman]

If you substitute 'apartments' or even 'offices' for 'condos', I'd say the exact same thing. This was a public building built for public use, and it should stay that way.

Perhaps Arts at the Armory needs to broaden its offerings to appeal to more people; their permit request will help them achieve that goal. The indoor farmers' market, though not an 'art' activity as such, attracts huge and appreciative crowds.

(I have nothing against condos in general.)

[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).

[ron_newman]

The noise issues should be addressed with appropriate soundproofing (and making sure doors and windows are closed at night), but I see no merit in any other complaints.

Thread High-jack: from Armory to benefit of housing...

[miss-chance.livejournal.com]

Frankly I can say without reservation, that more housing does not benefit the City of Somerville.

We are an extremely densely populated city. An overwhelming percentage of our properties are residences. What this means is that the majority of people who live in the city cannot also work in the city. The ratio of residences to business does not allow this.

A predominance of jobs outside of the city means more commuting: more vehicles on the roads (motor powered and human powered sharing a limited road-space without room for dedicated bike lanes, or simply more cars, either model of transportation you can see), higher load on our unreliable public transportation. The people have to come and go, during peak commuting hours. This means, too, higher pollution.

Too, because there is such a high residence:business ratio more residents leave the city for services such as dentist, physician, optometrist, camera repair, what have you. I have a great doctor in Somerville, but I've tried to refer my friends to her only to learn she's not taking any more patients.

Somerville as a City, then, too, has only its residences to rely on for taxes to pay for city services such as maintaining all those roads, inspecting those homes for safety, controlling rodents, pruning the trees we all love so much. So we have high property taxes because we do not have much revenue in the form of commercial taxes. Higher property taxes mean only more wealthy can afford to live in Somerville, robbing us of diversity.

When a City becomes that expensive to live in, the residents expect to be able to eat at restaurants, buy food, perhaps they hire house cleaners, gardners, handy-persons. But the people who work all those jobs get priced out of living in that neighborhood. So you have lower-income people having to come in by transportation... cars? buses? to do jobs that they can't walk to because the apartment they were renting got flipped to condos.

I could go on. A healthy city has a mixture of residences and business that co-support each other. Somerville is growing out of our colonial roots as a bedroom community for Boston. We have gone through phases of heavy industry, and now back to mostly residences. But smart-growth-money says plan for a more integrated and intentional approach.

The point being that, absolutely, more housing does not benefit Somerville.

[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]

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.

Every time people have spoken up in this LJ comm in support of the latest ZBA request from the Armory, supporters have pointed to how the new request isn't all that much, and, after all, they're not going to go further than that.

And, every time, that was incorrect.

But, also, it feels like a small handful of residents putting their heels in the ground and not being willing to budge.

Because it feels like they were lied to.

[pierceheart.livejournal.com]

they tried their best to live within the conditions, and found that it didn't work out financially.

They are too important to allow to fail, which they will do, if they continue within the regulations which they agreed to.

Re: Thread High-jack: from Armory to benefit of housing...

[pierceheart.livejournal.com]

What this means is that the majority of people who live in the city cannot also work in the city.

This is true of many towns near major metropolitan hubs.

Exactly what sort of tax code is the armory being taxed under?

[ron_newman]

They're not asking the city for any money. Approving the revised permit will cost the city nothing.