Pinkberry trying again at ZBA hearing tomorrow night

[ron_newman]

Pinkberry (aka NE Frog Pond LLC) has re-submitted its application to open a frozen yogurt parlor at 263 Elm Street, formerly the office storefront of Massachusetts Insurance Agency. The Zoning Board of Appeals hearing will be tomorrow night (Wednesday 4/17) at 6 pm in the aldermen's chamber at City Hall.

As before, the city's planning staff have recommended conditional approval. Last time around, the ZBA appeared ready to reject the application despite the planning staff's recommendation, causing NE Frog Pond LLC to withdraw it before a vote could occur.

The new application includes "two petitions (with approximately 370 signatures) in support of the establishment of Pinkberry in Davis Square". I do not know if one of them is this online petition. In case it is, I have informed the ZBA that the online petition has no mechanism whatsoever for ensuring the validity of signatures, as shown by the fact that my own signature was forged onto it numerous times.

See the froyo tag for previous episodes of this saga.

Comments

[londo.livejournal.com]

So, I don't especially care about frozen yogurt, but I am sort of offended at the level of bullshit involved when they simultaneously argue that "the Pinkberry product and experience ... appeal to a clientele not currently being met by other businesses in Davis Square" and also that "the addition of another yogurt parlor will not increase traffic as patrons often frequent this type of establishment as a secondary trip".

Also their bullshit fake petition.

[ringrose.livejournal.com]

I wonder how many copies of "This signature is forged" we can get on the petition.

[srakkt.livejournal.com]

In other shenanigans, they've suspended viewing the "signatures" on that petition. presumably to keep people from checking to see if their names have been fraudulently added.

[ron_newman]

Ipetitions.com did that after my sixth complaint about my signature being falsely added to the petition. From their e-mail to me:

We have removed your signature from the petition, and disabled the signature display. Signatures will not appear on-line, nor will they be searchable. Hopefully, that will prevent spammers from posting bogus signatures.

They could do that, but they claimed that they had no way to log IP addresses of signers, or to require e-mail confirmation of signatures before they could be added to the petition.

[srakkt.livejournal.com]

It is absolutely bizarre to me that ipetitions.com would - ostensibly in an effort to legitimize their petition tool - absolutely ensure that there is no way to audit and verify the 'signatures'.

All of this is supersketchy.

I don't much care one way or the other if Pinkberry comes to the Square, or indeed whether iYo stays, or whatever. But all of this smacks so thoroughly of deliberate dishonesty on the parts of various businesses to defraud the community that it just makes me sick.

[ron_newman]

I don't think Pinkberry or NE Frog Pond LLC are doing anything deceptive or dishonest. But they unfortunately chose an online petition site that really shouldn't be allowed to keep operating at all unless they can install some elementary verification procedure for online signatures.

[rramdin.livejournal.com]

I don't understand the passionate resistance to Pinkberry. Converting an empty office space into a popular/luxury establishment with a lot of foot traffic will only serve to gentrify the Davis area. If Davis can eliminate these commercial dead zones, it'll be a more fun and more popular area. Pinkberry isn't another McDonald's or bar--the clientele it attracts are families and young people with disposable income. The more people spend money in Davis, the better it is for all the businesses, and ultimately those who live in the area, as property values will go up!

[ron_newman]

I have no strong opinion for or against Pinkberry. I'm just trying to keep folks here informed of current events. However, why is "gentrify[ing] the Davis area" something to be viewed positively?

[teko.livejournal.com]

I don't like intentional redundancy. Pinkberry's trying to open a block from an independent, locally-owned fro-yo shop and literally across the street from their biggest chain competitor, and the wording of their petition is almost insulting in pretending as if neither of those places actually exist. Given that it's difficult-to-impossible for indie businesses to afford rents in the Davis area right now, 'gentrification' from places like Pinkberry is the absolute last thing we need.

[mindstalk.livejournal.com]

Beats having empty storefronts.

[mindstalk.livejournal.com]

The redundancy seems silly -- cf. Walgreens going next to CVS in Porter -- but is natural; businesses go where the customers are.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hotelling%27s_law

[surrealestate.livejournal.com]

There's a Walgreens going in next to CVS in Porter? Where? Old Pier One?

[mindstalk.livejournal.com]

So people say, yes.

But like I said, this is everywhere. I remember as a kid in Chicago wondering why a McDonald's and Burger King were right next to each other, or why an intersection would have 2-3 gas stations.

[ron_newman]

Two stories, replacing Pier One and Blockbuster Video.

[surrealestate.livejournal.com]

I wasn't complaining. I don't think it's a problem for a major national chain to have competition. I suspect this is something that will benefit consumers. Personally, my experience has been that Walgreens photo prints are much nicer than CVS, so it'll be nice to not have to climb Winter Hill. :)

[ron_newman]

My old post about Pier One and Walgreens, from last February

[samcoren.livejournal.com]

Er...gentrification has already happened? Rising rents and property taxes have become a big issue for some. People just tend to have knee jerk adverse reactions in Somerville to national chains because they worry about the squares losing their character or uniqueness. Here there's also the issue that you have 3 other options for froyo in walking distance. I'm not really against Pinkberry at all - I just wish they would open in a part of Somerville that isn't already filled with other froyo places. Ball..Magoun...Union...?

[aedifica]

What are those (the indie and the chain)? I don't know that end of Davis Square well.

[m-b-w.livejournal.com]

The indie is iYO at 234 Elm Street (near Goodwill). The chain is Orange Leaf at 256 Elm Street (near Starbucks).

[aedifica]

Thanks!

[squirrelitude]

Davis already *is* a fun and popular area.

Property values going up is a *bad* thing.

[pekmez.livejournal.com]

I'm not thrilled with the color balance on some of the print batches I've gotten from Walgreens on winter hill, but when I'm going that way anyway, they are at least super quick with online orders. I miss Cameras Inc.

[fefie.livejournal.com]

Seriously, Magoun Sq could use some froyo. Both Pinkberry and World of Beer seems like non-unique options for Davis Sq, imo.

[ron_newman]

Besides the seasonal Louie's in East Somerville, and the three places already in Davis Square, I can't think of any ice cream or froyo places anywhere else in Somerville.

[axedmoon.livejournal.com]

I'm so confused at their persistence. iYo and Orange Leaf are already in the area, and JP Licks also serves frozen yogurt.

[tywysoges]

Oh neat. I've never been to an Orange Leaf, but it looks like they (unlike the other two) offer dairy-free options :)