The real deal with Somerville politics?

[wallacestreet.livejournal.com]

I read lots comments about pro-mayor this and anti-maor that, and there appear to be a good number of contested races in the city this election cycle. Anyone care to enlighten me (and hopefully others) on what the sweep of citywide politics looks like from where you sit, and maybe a little of the history that went into it? Major points of contention? Anywhere I can read more? Thanks in advance.

Comments

[ron_newman]

Do you mean the CVS? That's not what most people mean by a 'Big Box' store.

[heliograph.livejournal.com]

In that it isn't all one store?

[ron_newman]

I think of 'Big Box' as meaning a large one-story retail building surrounded by surface parking lots, like our K-Mart and Target. The new One Davis Square will be a three-story building with CVS on the first floor, Boston Sports Club on the second floor, offices on the third floor and basement, and no parking at all.

[heliograph.livejournal.com]

Soooo... the Ikea isn't big box because it has two floors?

No parking? Really? I missed that one!

[ron_newman]

The new One Davis Square will cover 100% of its lot, just as the old one did. I wouldn't say that Rebekah was 'proud' of it, but it was approved while the previous alderman was in office, and she couldn't do much to stop it even if she wanted to.

I guess there are a few multi-story Big Box stores such as the proposed Ikea, but nobody calls a CVS a big box store.

[turil.livejournal.com]

I do. It's big, it's boxy, it's a big box! :-)

Though, I think it's more useful to describe what we do want, rather than what we don't want.

And what I want is for the city to encourage a diverse range of locally owned businesses that try to source their products and services locally whenever possible, so that Somerville is more independent and self-sufficient and able to employ more people with meaningful jobs who can contribute a healthy tax base to the community.

[hrafn.livejournal.com]

*nod* One Davis sounds like mixed-use to me, or at least close to mixed-use. Not "big box," though.

[heliograph.livejournal.com]

I am not an expert in developer-speak, but the first hit I got from Googling "Big Box Development" seems to fit that building pretty well:

http://growthmanagement-icsc.org/bigbox/

[gildersleeve.livejournal.com]

The new One Davis Square may or may not be 'big box' by some definitions, but for some historical context it will indeed be a multi-use building - certainly the most uses for that piece of land in its recent history, for the whole old building was built in the 20's as Parke-Snow, a department store, and it was that one use for most of its existence. When the department store closed, it became strictly office space. The new building will have retail and office space together, so while CVS and a gym may or may not be the greatest use of the space, there is no denying that the new building has more variety than anything that has existed there for over 75 years.

[lena-a-mermaid.livejournal.com]

I don't think the description at that link fits that building at all.