Don't Let The Armory Be Run Out of Town. ZBA Hearing for Somerville Armory, Oct 17 - 6PM @ City Hall

[mrbrandon]

ZBA Hearing for Somerville Armory, Oct 17 - 6PM @ City Hall

In my opinion The Armory has been pushed around by a few people using issues of little or no substance at ZBA hearings for years . It's in real danger of going away. 

If you enjoy having a winter farmer market, movie nights, local food and beer/wine tastings, educational classes, performing

 arts and many other things The Armory offers then show up at the hearing. Otherwise e-mail the ZBA.

When it comes to community matters a few people shouldn't be the voice for a whole neighborhood or a city of 75K. Most neighbors don't seem to have a problem with the Armory. There is no issue brought up that can't be solved. Judging by the large turnout for some events, it doesn't seem that area residents don't have a problem with The Armory either. Obviously they want it.

The public hearing process doesn't work too well in today's world. Some people aren't home from work when they start. If they are then it's a choice between skipping out on family time, dinner, chores, dog walking....you name it....all the things that fill up a persons day. Unfortunately the system is stacked in favor of people with a lot of time on their hands that have an axe to grind.

So...you really should show up in support of hearings about the Armory and/or e-mail the following people to express your support

dpereir AT somervillema.gov
mayor AT somervillema.gov
sean AT odonovanlaw.com
william.a.white AT verizon.net
AldermanSullivan AT aol.com
aldermanconnolly AT gmail.com

Comments

[ron_newman]

The Armory will be the FIRST item on tonight's agenda. So get there promptly by 6 pm if you want to testify in support of them tonight. See you there.

[pierceheart.livejournal.com]

hearind for years using issues of little or no substance.

That's bullshit.

[mrbrandon (from livejournal.com)]

Ya you're right. I made a spelling error. Corrected!

[pierceheart.livejournal.com]

No, your claim is bullshit.

[pywaket.livejournal.com]

No, yours is.

I find it rather curious that someone with a vested interest in a competing venue has such a grudge against the Armory....

[pierceheart.livejournal.com]

There is no issue brought up that can't be solved.

How about the abuse of public trust - how do you solve that?

[mrbrandon (from livejournal.com)]

OK I clarified it as a claim not an opinion.

If they violate public trust then sure, shut 'em down. Though it would take something drastic to upset me. Like learning they run a casino in the basement or a brothel, funnel funds to terrorists or some other crazy shit.

I see a rotting property bought by kind people and restored into something useful. A guy that's good to his neighbors and the community....I even saw the guy unplugging clogged storm drains when the rain water was backing up.

It won't be productive to debate any of it though. We each have our own opinion and obviously the only people that really care about either one is the Zoning Board.

[ron_newman]

I fully agree with the above. Even if there has been some insignificant minor 'abuse of public trust', it is totally overshadowed by the benefits that Arts at the Armory brings to the entire city of Somerville.

[pierceheart.livejournal.com]

I'm glad to know you, too, are a flip-flopper.

[jicama]

Can you clarify what you mean by "abuse of public trust"? I haven't been following the issues.

[ron_newman]

I suggest looking at older posts with the armory tag.

[jicama]

OK, thanks. So, to summarize:

The Arts at the Armory folks got initial approval based on certain conditions which, oddly, did not include daytime use.
Shortly before they opened they asked for additional permission for daytime use in order to allow already-scheduled ASP performances.
Now, 3 1/2 years later, they're asking for a number of additional permissions.

Am I missing anything?

I understand people feeling disgruntled that they had scheduled performances before getting the permission, but that seems more like optimism than abuse of public trust. Was there some commitment never to renegotiate the terms of their license?

I also understand people feeling that the new changes are going too far, but I don't see how just asking for the changes is a betrayal.

[pierceheart.livejournal.com]

I understand people feeling disgruntled that they had scheduled performances before getting the permission, but that seems more like optimism than abuse of public trust. Was there some commitment never to renegotiate the terms of their license?

To answer your last question, no, I do not think there was ever a commitment or promise that they would never seek to renegotiate.

However, when they opened up, it was under s specific set of conditions which were agreed to by all parties involved, in order to alleviate some of the concerns of the neighborhood. Not long thereafter, they went to the ZBA asking for the extension of hours, knowing full well they had already told a potential tenant they could operate during hours the site did not have approval for - to me, and to others, that looked that the Arts at the Armory group was intending to put the ZBA between a rock and a hard place: hold the Armory to their originally agreed to hours, and thus screw over the Actors' Shakespeare Project, or let the Armory get away with promising the ASP something they didn't have approval for.

During that situation, there were many here who said that the very reason they supported the expansion of early hours was because they wouldn't support the expansion of later hours.

We now see that the ZBA is taking a stand that the Armory is to function primarily as an arts oriented venue, not as a function hall ... yet at least one of the supporters of the Armory thinks that because of my support for the VFW post in its ZBA issues, I'm focusing on a competing venue ... except that the VFW, as far as public rental space is something that the ZBA says the Armory may not become.

We'll see how long that lasts.

[pywaket.livejournal.com]

Pierceheart has held a grudge against the Armory since day one (which you will see if you look back at previous threads about it on DSLJ). You won't get any sort of reasonable response out of him. Don't waste your time.

His unequivocal, unwavering support of the VFW in Davis, always dismissing any concerns of *its* neighbors, makes his attacks on the folks running the the Armory even more hypocritical. He has a vested interest in keeping down any competition for venue space in Somerville.

[pierceheart.livejournal.com]

Ah yes, the ad hominem attack.

As for the VFW, consider that in that situation, BEFORE the VFW was ever involved, the neighbors had the zoning changed for the parcel of land in question, which seems to be something that all of the supporters of that neighborhood gloss over.

I have no interest in the use of the VFW as a venue - my interest is because it happens to be my local VFW post, which provides services to me that the Armory never can, and never will.

And your characterization of me having an issue with Armory from day one is incorrect, which you WOULD see if you actually used some scrutiny in looking at the posts - my opposition came AFTER they opened and were beginning their renegotiation, after telling ASP to go ahead with matinee schedulings.
http://davis-square.livejournal.com/1619912.html
No comments from me in that first post about their hearing.
http://davis-square.livejournal.com/1533650.html
Nothing from me in that one, either.

But nice try.

[serious-noir.livejournal.com]

Casual observer here but from reading your comments over time you clearly seem to have a bee in your ...ahem troll bonnet regarding the Armory (or simply too much time on your hands).

[pierceheart.livejournal.com]

too much time on your hands

vice

reading your comments over time

Pot:kettle.

[pywaket.livejournal.com]

Really? Just because she's noticed the same thing a bunch of us have, which is that you get your knickers in a twist when the subject of the Armory comes up, doesn't mean we're spending loads of time on this. Your prominence in these threads is obvious to even the most casual observer.

[smoterh.livejournal.com]

If you can side with VFW even after it was found to be a danger to human lives for years because of inadequate fire protection, why can't you forgive the armory for something much more trivial than that? I may be in a minority here, but to me endangering the public with fire code violations that can result in gruesome death is actually much worse than zoning spats or having handicap ramp off by 6/8th of a degree.

[pierceheart.livejournal.com]

Let me ask you a question - when the fire codes were changed, over the years, with each increasing requirement, on the day before the code is changed, is a building that won't be in compliance with the new code endangering the public with fire code violations that can result in gruesome death, or isn't it?

And, if a building is brought into compliance with the new code, and the code is changed AGAIN, is that intermediate stage such an awful endangerment?

As for me siding with the VFW regarding the fire code issues, my issue has always been, from the start, that even before the VFW was involved, the rules changing which occurred at the behest of the neighborhood began the antagonistic and litigious issues - from that, it was clear the neighbors hardly acted in good faith. In the armory situation, it feels like the Armory organization has not acted in good faith.

[pywaket.livejournal.com]

Wow, you found two whole threads where you didn't comment. Bravo! And what about the many others in which you have? Frankly, I don't feel like wasting my time searching for the ones where you did, but there's plenty of them.

As far as complaints that I'm attacking you, well, tough luck. I was merely pointing out to the previous poster that engaging you on this topic is a waste of time, since you're rather a broken record about it. Additionally, that's pretty rich, considering that you've been calling other people names. You've called Ron a flip-flopper several times now.

I'm now going to take my own advice to jason237 and stop wasting my time on the likes of you.

[bombardiette.livejournal.com]

Venue space?! The space at the VFW has never been in competition with the Armory. Their uses and functions are so vastly different that you're basing your claim here on absolute rubbish. Looking back through the posts on both issues, I don't even see how you're drawing that conclusion since "venue space" was never brought up.

Perhaps you're the one who fears that the VFW will somehow end up competing with the Armory, but a VFW with a function hall that hosts wedding receptions, funeral receptions, birthday parties and baby showers (for the most part) is not now, nor has it ever been "competition" - and no one, until this comment, has claimed so.

Go fish and this time, try to catch something instead of frying up an old boot and calling it salmon. Sheesh.

[pierceheart.livejournal.com]

Considering pywaket's history with other people who had similar complaints to mine, he's hardly what one could call an un-biased observer.

[pywaket.livejournal.com]

And exactly what "history" is that?

[pywaket.livejournal.com]

The only two "old boots" I seem to have stirred up are you and Pierceheart. Since you're the other VFW shill, I'm not the least bit surprised you've jumped on the bandwagon.

FWIW I have no connection whatsoever to the Armory. I've attended precisely *one* event there since it opened. I just want to see more competition for venue space.

[bombardiette.livejournal.com]

If by shill you mean dues paying veteran, then fine. However, I'm not on any anti armory bandwagon. The only reason I responded to you in the first place is because of your implications that the 2 venues are somehow competing when in fact, they don't even tend to draw the same types of functions. I take exception to people creating adversity between the 2 when the reality is that there isn't any. Post 19 is more likely to lose business to the VFW than the armory is FFS.

[kelkyag]

Could you please remove the formatting that forces the text to show up on a white background? Switching from RTF to html should suffice.

[amy-s1.livejournal.com]

FYI - the "a" was missing. its DPereira AT somervillema.gov