Davis Square Task Force agenda for Wed 6/28

[ron_newman]

The Davis Square Task Force will meet Wedneday, June 28 from 7-9pm in the Tufts Administration Building, 167 Holland St. Everyone is invited. Here is the agenda. (I didn't write it up, I'm just passing it on from Chris Daveta, CDAVETA@ci.somerville.ma.us)

7:00-7:10 - Intros

7:10-7:25 - Adam Dash presentation on project next to the Bike Path

7:25-7:30 - Brief update on bike path plans with MBTA

7:30-7:45- DARBI [Davis Area Resident-Business Initiative] Update

7:45-8:00 - Michele Bisoce: Som|Dog presentation about off-leash areas
on bike path

8:00-8:30 - Traffic in Davis Square - Mark Chase, Davis resident and
traffic consultant to present (continued from previous meeting)

8:30-8:40 - Sara Rosenfeld about Community Servings

8:40-8:50 - Dunkin' Donuts' possible proposal for 24 hours
Mr. Crepe coming to Someday Café site

8:50-8:55 - Sign at Middlesex Bank in Davis Sq.

8:55-9:00 - Wrap up and next meeting

Comments

[ron_newman]

If we can have just one 24-hour business, I'd much rather have Store 24. In any event, come to the meeting if you'd like to have input.

[cleanup-davissq.livejournal.com]

Sorry, no to 24 anything -noise, loitering, taxis pulling up all night long and litter -lots of it...is there to be no peace?!!

[ron_newman]

I like Davis Square because it is lively. I don't see how my 1 am trip to Store 24 for bread and milk will cause noise or litter.

[cleanup-davissq.livejournal.com]

Ron, I'm sure you won't be a problem but the late night hangers on who buy a coffee and scratch their 4am lottery cards may be somewhat less well behaved! Add to that taxis pulling in for a taco and a rest stop chatting over a smoke might wake up some of the old people in the retirement home accross the street.

Trust me, with no one around to put a little social pressure on potential litter-louts, they'll be a dropping the Marlboro boxes and twix wrappers at a higher rate than they do now.

[ah42.livejournal.com]

Are people more likely to litter at 4am than they are at midnight or 6am?

[ah42.livejournal.com]

Especially now, in the modern world, where we have electricity and no longer rely on the sun and candles for light; no longer have to farm but can have other jobs; Not everyone keeps the same schedule anymore.

In my eyes, asking me to live on your schedule is as bad as asking me to believe in your God or wear the same types of clothes or only drink your type of beer or ... you get the idea.

[cleanup-davissq.livejournal.com]

maybe I'll move to Lincoln and open me a 24 hour hot dog truck outside your house!! Maybe when you are older, you'll want less noise at 4am.

[ron_newman]

but isn't Davis Square for people who want a lively urban environment? There are plenty of suburbs for people who don't want it.

[krystynayt.livejournal.com]

That and one can walk ten minutes away from Davis and get a quiet residential street.

I hundredth the comments about the pity of the loss of Someday Cafe. I haven't frequented it much since being pickpocketed but I have an enormous amount of affection for its laid-back atmosphere.

[cleanup-davissq.livejournal.com]

Not necessarily. Many of those that do are young students that go to Tufts and other local colleges. The rest of us live here long after the students move to the suburbs!

And it can and is a lively urban place but 1-2am endtime is fine. Why must we never listen to the quiet? We are always looking for stimulus. Can't we just calm down and switch off?

[watercolorblue.livejournal.com]

So you want everyone else to be quiet and go to bed at sundown just because you do? That seems unreasonable to me. You don't own Davis Square, and there's no reason why someone shouldn't be able to get food or convenience groceries at 4am. If you are that sensitive to the presence of people, go live in a suburb.

[push-stars.livejournal.com]

What if most of the people who live in the neighborhoods and own homes around the square decide they want it closed at 2am? You don't own it either. Not all by yourself. There is a bigger picture here in that the early residents and home owners helped create Davis square. They fought hard to make sure the T did not build a lot of parking lots for 'park and ride' commuters and they fought to stop 50 houses from being torn down by emminent domain. It was allways their neighborhood and These folks probably had a certain vision for what they wanted here.

Anyway if there is more of them, than you, it is not unreasonable.

Intersection-dweller seeks quiet

[futurenerd.livejournal.com]

If you are that adamant about peace and quiet, why are you living right on one of the busiest squares in town? I like quiet, too, just not always at the same times as you. And, I moved to a quiet street. To be fair, when you move into a place based on the rules in existence there, there is an expectation that they won't change capriciously.

A change that made Davis Square into a place where nobody wanted to live, would be a loss. Having good people living there is a part of that liveliness we're all talking about.

Maybe some of the concerns that have been raised, like taxis and people making noise, could be addressed individually.

[ah42.livejournal.com]

Some people have less of a choice of the hours they must work. You don't want a hot dog truck at 4am, and I don't want to hear traffic at 5pm.

I think some people just whine too much and expect everyone else to conform to their world, when they may be the odd one out, themselves.

Back when my neighbour was building an addition on his house while I was working third shift, I had no problems leaving my car stereo on loudly while I drove to or form work. But I also learned to DEAL WITH IT. and stopped trying to annoy him back after a week or so.

Also, I wouldn't have a problem with a 24-hour hot dog truck. The rest of the town might, however. I miss living in a town with a 24-hour grocery store, 2 24-hour dunkin's, etc. Before I moved to Davis, I'd always assumed *all* Groceries, Dunkin's, and gas stations, were 24/7 (Nevermind Store24).

[ayelle.livejournal.com]

Yeah, same here, where I come from Dunkin Donuts and Store 24s are all 24 hour and I was shocked to find that it was different here in Boston, where the T stops running before the bars close... 24 hour convenience places certainly never seemed to attract any kind of bad seed littering noisemaking 4am crowd, though. Or a lot of extra taxis or anything. Seriously, who would take a taxi to Davis Square at 4 in the morning to go to Dunkin Donuts? Or stick around for hours after all the entertainment places are long closed to buy some cereal? That makes the no sense.

[push-stars.livejournal.com]

There are zoning laws and different zones exactly for that reason. You can open a 24 hour store in this comercail zone or that buisness zone, lots of neighborhoods decide they don't want stores open past a certain times and they don't allow it. You are also not allowed to send tons of noise into your neighbors house either.

[siderea]

I think your imagination runs away with you. There are 24hr stores in Porter and in North Cambridge, and I can attest that they're both pretty amazingly quiet and low-key at all hours. By which I mean "between midnight and dawn".

[jellobiafrascat.livejournal.com]

you're joking right? Have you been to the white hen pantry at 3 in the morning? My boyfriend used to live in Porter and at the time, we both worked jobs that weren't 9-5. I was a video editor who went to school full time so I had to work overnights or late nights often and he was a musician who regularly came home at 2AM from late night gigs. We both frequented the White Hen between 2-4AM and there may be one person in there staring at the ice cream display and that was it. If Porter can handle it, I'm sure Davis Sq, a lot more urban and a lot less residential, can handle it.

Also, you choose to live in an urban area, you deal with urban life.

[cleanup-davissq.livejournal.com]

If we let one open 24 hours, we establish a precedent. If you want urban, rent in Allston.

[ron_newman]

Davis Square is just as "urban" as Allston. And what is so bad about setting a precedent?

[artic-monkeys.livejournal.com]

It depends on what you are setting the precedent for. Do you want to allow all the bars to stay open 24 hours? What if it becomes a combat zone and the demographics changes once again?

[ron_newman]

I'm pretty sure state law prohibits 24-hour bars.

[push-stars.livejournal.com]

People who own houses and people who rent have different perspective on a lot of issues. I have been a renter for most of my life. When I lived and rented in Brookline, I wanted a place that served food late at night and close by. I had a late shift and it was frustrating if you needed to get something like medicine or a burito and everything was closed. There was one 23 hour store nearby though. The streets were empty and quiet at night. And there was only one person in the store staring at ice cream. I look back on how quite and peaceful it was living there. Now that I own a house I am concerned about quality of life issues and crime. I don't know how bad the crime is in Davis Square but on my street there has been a recent rash of break-ins and several cars have had their windows busted. I can understand why having a lot of places open later at night would concern people.

[chumbolly.livejournal.com]

Hmmm ... interesting how owning can change one's perspective.

I spend a bit of time in the East Village of New York City, where I am often out at ridiculously late hours. I almost never feel unsafe there precisely because there are people on the street and businesses are open at all hours. The presense of people often precludes crimes from happening. Business owners don't want crime, so they'll often take an active role in discouraging it and they become "eyes on the street" whenever they're open. Not always (as the Somerville Home/Heroin Depot shows), but generally. Jane Jacobs, in her masterpeice "Death and Life of Great American Cities," described how a vibrant neighborhood requires different uses at different times of the day to keep it from being seedy--office workers on the streets in the morning, lunchtime and evenings; shopkeepers, parents and children during the day; and diners and bar patrons at night. The longer you extend the hours that people have a legitimate reason to be on the street, the better. There used to be a restaurant in Davis called Dolly's that was only open in the middle of the night. It was generally packed and it didn't cause any significant problems despite being a magnet for people with the drunk munchies. Just some food for thought.

[ron_newman]

Having more things open at night increases the quality of life in the neighborhood, by making the neighborhood more useful. I don't see how it affects crime in any way. My opinion would not change if I owned instead of renting.