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jdh0625 posted a link to this article in this thread earlier, but that thread is a few days old, and I wanted to give this more visibility:http://www.wickedlocal.com/somerville/news/x1655341061/Somerville-residents-slam-Beer-Works-proposal-for-Davis-Square
In summary, of the 75 residents who attended Monday night's community meeting, almost all were opposed to the Beer Works proposal, for numerous reasons that you may or may not agree with. The developer's plan B is to split the building into smaller units and lease them to a chain massage parlor, a tobacco store, a Subway, and/or a Burger King. The residents who attended were obviously also upset by this alternative plan.
There's also a thread on reddit here: http://www.reddit.com/r/boston/comments/1n4d83/somerville_residents_slam_beer_works_proposal_for/
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Date: 2013-09-26 12:28 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-09-26 02:31 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-09-26 02:59 am (UTC)housechain restaurant panic room.no subject
Date: 2013-09-26 01:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-09-26 12:53 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-09-26 03:21 pm (UTC)Or maybe just to make people laugh. I laughed when I read it, anyway. :)
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Date: 2013-09-26 01:44 am (UTC)What a crock of reactionary feel-bad shit. This is basically: “Instead of businesses that actually exist and want to move in, I want FANTASY BUSINESSES THAT DON'T EXIST, LIKE THE MOM-AND-POP GROCERY STORE I IMAGINE I RECALL FROM MY CHILDHOOD.”
I especially liked this one (emphasis added):
This is an Onion article, right?
If you're a glutton for this kind of punishment, I heartily recommend the Porter Square Neighborhood Association mailing list.
In other cranky old people news, I ran into the following gem in the Cambridge Chronicle "sound off" section the other day: First bicycles took over the streets, and now tables are taking over the sidewalks! I picture menacing tables pushing the writer off the sidewalk and into the street, to be savaged by vicious bicycles.
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Date: 2013-09-26 02:12 am (UTC)Looks like standard American fare to me. (http://www.beerworks.net/completemenu.pdf)
I'll show up on November 5 to vote for candidates other than Dempkowski and Connolly, if any are actually not opposing Beer Works, but I know for every one person like me who shows up 9 people who share my opinion will stay home and 10 Vanbuzzkills will show up and vote.
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Date: 2013-09-26 02:49 am (UTC)And really, someone is interested in opening a second tobacco store? Because Robbins Smoke Shop has lines out the door?
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Date: 2013-09-26 01:03 pm (UTC)Well, he probably is right, he doesn't know people who will use those stores. The question is whether the city should be reserved for people he knows, or whether other classes will be allowed to live there too.
I picture menacing tables pushing the writer off the sidewalk and into the street, to be savaged by vicious bicycles.
That would make a great stop-motion short!
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Date: 2013-09-26 01:15 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-09-26 04:38 pm (UTC)I've thought about getting more involved with community organizations, but I don't think my blood pressure could deal with all the B.S. that comes from just about every neighborhood association around here.
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Date: 2013-09-26 09:28 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-09-29 01:06 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-09-26 11:55 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-09-26 12:41 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-09-26 12:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-09-26 03:47 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-09-27 01:16 am (UTC)I will add that the food is not very good. I've been there once since the change to Beer Works from the previous incarnation (the Brewery Exchange, I think), and I haven't felt the need to go back.
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Date: 2013-09-28 07:36 am (UTC)I, for one, hope they build it, since it will attract the people who don't really care about decent food and drink all that much and thus make it easier for those of us who do to get into the other, already overcrowded places in the square like Posto and Spoke.
Yeah, a Trader Joes or something like it would be awesome, but the fact is, that's not what's going to end up at that site, and this is the next best option. At least it's not another froyo place...
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Date: 2013-09-26 12:46 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-09-26 12:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-09-26 01:08 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-09-26 01:32 pm (UTC)He said national massage parlor chain Massage Envy
This is why it's important to read the article to which the DSLJ post is referring.
It may be crappy reporting by Wicked Local (that's my personal opinion), however, it's problematic to simply say that the phrase used indicates criminal activity, especially when reading the original article could have cleared it up.
That's why I asked you to clarify - it could come across as an accusation.
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Date: 2013-09-26 02:06 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-09-26 02:13 pm (UTC)You said 'For the record, "massage parlor" is code for prostitution.'
Given the recent dust up this LJ community had regarding alleged defamation, one would think community members might choose their words more carefully.
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Date: 2013-09-26 09:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-09-26 12:59 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-09-26 02:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-09-26 01:04 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-09-26 01:30 pm (UTC)the Beerworks proposal and the other option presented.
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Date: 2013-09-26 01:55 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-09-26 03:52 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-09-26 05:23 pm (UTC)Agreed with others that the 1st option is definitely the more attractive, though that corner thing is sort of massive.
Boo, pbbbhtbthth, other farty sounds
Date: 2013-09-27 08:22 pm (UTC)Either that or they smoked some ugly weed when they drew this shit up.
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Date: 2013-09-26 02:20 pm (UTC)Can I get a copy of this menu? Need Halloween decorations, love spooking children.
"What are you dressed up as" / "Spinach and Salmon Salad" / "AIiiiiiiiiiiiieeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!"
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Date: 2013-09-26 02:47 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-09-26 05:24 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-09-26 04:01 pm (UTC)1). NIMBYism refers to the placement of necessary services that a city or community knows it needs, but that nobody wants to live near. As is "yes, we need a homeless shelter, but I don't want it next to my house." It is not NIMBYism if there's no actual need for the thing in the first place.
2). The invisible hoof of capitalism is not the same as a democratic process. If a person believes they can make a lot of money doing something in a community —especially, but not exclusively, in a community in which they do not live— and 75 residents, and their democratically elected leaders, all gather and say "we don't want this" that is not some ridiculous level of paternalistic controlling, that's the very basics of how democratic community and city planning should work.
3.) The desire of an owner of a commercial property to make as much money as possible off that property is not a special privilege, and does not take precedence over the parallel desires of residential property owners to make the best of the financial and domestic value of *their * property. It makes zero logical sense to assert that a commercial property owner should have more right to control what a region becomes than the residential property owners and voting residents have. How could that make any sense? It doesn't.
Now, go back to debating the city planning priorities for Davis Square, but do it from a more informed position, that includes in the discussion the basic right of residents to form and shape their own community, please.
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Date: 2013-09-26 04:12 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-09-26 09:27 pm (UTC)2) Somerville has, the last time I checked, 76,000 residents or so. Why do .01%, especially the .01% who have the time to attend a zoning meeting without being paid to do so, get to decide?
3) Butthurt is not integral to the city planning process. There are certainly reasonably objections one can raise about noise, as live music is supposed to be a part of this space, and if there was a problem with drunks in the area, I'd definitely understand it. Instead we have grown adults describing hamburgers as "terrifying." You want rational discourse, present a rational argument.
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Date: 2013-10-07 05:32 pm (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2013-09-29 08:07 pm (UTC)