Lowe’s meeting tomorrow

From AllstonBrighton2006:

Lowe’s will be presenting their proposed Guest Street project before
the BAIA this Thursday night (March 4th) at the Elks Lodge # 2199, 326
Washington St., Brighton at 7 p.m

I’m already double booked for the night, so give’m hell.  Although I’m usually pro-empty-building-development I think Lowe’s is a poor choice for that location.  That area of Market St is almost impassable on Saturday or Sunday via motor vehicle.  A trip to Brighton Center from North Allston would require a helicopter if this gets approved.

The New Balance plan sounds much better if they can get buy in from the owners of the land.  A collaspe of the Lowe’s deal - again - should hopefully speed up counter offers.

A local Lowe’s would be nice though.  It just needs to be in a lot already served by a 4 lane road…

Summer Community Meetings

Western Ave gets more art

I’d like to see a tenant there, but a little art in the windows is a step in the right direction.

Harvard cleans up for the BRA walking tour?

Harvard cleaning up for the tour tomorrow?

I noticed this at about noon today.  I hope Harvard cleans up before the walking tour (1).  For those that don’t drive by every day this is the empty building at 176 Lincoln St (2).

All teasing of Harvard and their empty properties aside vandalism and/or disrepair isn’t cool.   Since it was pushed toward the street either (1) someone pushed it over (vandalism) or (2) a Harvard contractor or employee with a key to the gate hit it backing out of the locked driveway (blatant disrepair).

In both cases this is what happens when properties are virtually abandoned.  I hope this starts and ends with an uprooted cosmetic post.  

“On Thursday, May 7, the BRA will lead a walking tour/site visit
of the Holton Street corridor.  We will meet at 4:00 p.m. at the
Allston-Brighton Resource Center, 367 Western Avenue. ”

(2) http://www.thisisharvard.org/3/harvards-empty-lincoln-st-in-allston/ 

Is this Lower Allston or Detroit?

Schools Out Forever from Vice Magazine BY JAMES GRIFFIOEN (external link)

Is this an empty Harvard property in Allston?  No.  Our diligence will prevent this from happening here.  It was left empty by a different set of problems with a different set of solutions, but led to the same outcome — or hopefully only a potential outcome in our case.

Remember to attend community meetings this Spring/Summer.  Its tough with the nice weather and competing interests, but its important.

On a sidenote after getting quite a few seemingly automated spam comments  (no, our readers don’t need Viagra from Russia) registration is required for commenting.  Its an easy, automated process and will be used for no other purpose than to stop bots.  As an added bonus your comments will no longer be held for moderation (unless they contain too many links) so you should see them post immediately.

New Use For Former Comcast Building

Travis St gate today

Comcast has since moved to the other side of the Pike… adding its foot traffic to the revitalized Cambridge St.  Given all the empty store fronts on Western Ave I think people would even welcome a tattoo parlor (no offense to Stingray Body Art) in North Allston.

Science center site map

Before the fence

Oldies, but goodies - Allston resists Harvard

Former Charlesbank Cleaners:

Former Citgo

 (1) http://groups.google.com/group/ABNNF/browse_thread/thread/38462be4dfe8e7bc

Dirty and empty at 168 Western Ave

The Boston Bulletin and What We Can Do Now

All April fooling aside, lets get back to business. We were recently interviewed by Scott Wachtler of the Boston Bulletin Weekly (1), where he wrote a a story about how this website got started. I recommend you read it. In the article he also asked for Harvard’s response, which was still the same old “85% are leased” line….

During the interview Scott asked us a really good question which didn’t end up making the cut, so I would like to discuss it here. I have to say that at the time, we didn’t have a great answer either, until we thought about it some more.

The question was “What can Harvard do, starting tomorrow, to improve Allston”.

Clearly, what we have been asking for all along, i.e. a plan to rent out the empty buildings soon, doesn’t mean its going to happen overnight. Especially in this economy, we expect that this is going to take some time, but the point is it has to get started soon.

In the meantime, with the clear goal of renting these spaces soon, there has to be some creative things we can do with the space that would both improve our neighborhood and add some economic activity.

We really liked the farmer’s market that took place at Barry’s Corner every Wednesday  evening during the summer. The only thing that would have made it better would have been more vendors, and a weekend timeslot . While Wed night from 6-9 isn’t bad, turnout might have been better had it taken place during the weekend.

Expanding on that idea, why not have a  ”Farmers / Flea Market” where we still have the dedicated and professional farmers in one section, but we expand it so that anyone can rent a table for $10 and sell whatever they like? We could invite more vendors to not only sell vegetables, but other items as well. If this took place on the weekends, perhaps in the Brighton Mills Parking lot or even using the old KMart building for part of the event, I’m sure it would draw a big crowd, and bring some activity to the neighborhood.

Running with this idea even a bit further (and now into the unlikely, I’m aware), I am a big fan of the farmer’s market because of locally grown, healthy food, and the fact that we are supporting local farmers and their business. I propose we setup temporary greenhouses in some of the empty parking lots or on the vacant building’s large, flat roofline, as many people are doing in NYC and elsewhere (2) to grow local, sustainable vegetables that could be sold at the said Farmer’s market. Part of the proceeds could pay back the loan that Harvard would underwrite to start the business, while the rest would go to pay for the part-time, local Allston gardeners who tend to those vegetables. Running this business as a non-profit, all money would stay inside the community. There you have it, wasted space turned into a business that supports the community, local residents, and provides healthy fruits and vegetables for many, many more.

Would something like this be a permanent fix? No, of course not. But it would bring activity to a part of the neighborhood that otherwise will continue to sit unused all summer long (and probably much longer than that)

(1) Boston Bulletin Article

(2) Manhattan Roof-top Greenhouse

Why can’t Allston be more like Beverly?

I’ve seen a number of comments defending the status of 176 Lincoln St status as not leasable.  The claim is even if it were fixed up no innovative company could rent that space in the current economic climate.

My questions is why can’t this building become another Cummings Park-like property?  In Beverly, Cummings (1) took a HUGE old factory and transformed it into 100s of small, medium and large office suites.  Small and start up businesses flocked to the complex.  Those who were successful moved into progressively larger offices or off campus to the local community.  Rents for small offices were reasonable.  Cummings made its money off many small tenants instead a small number of large tenants.  Locally a building on Braintree St is used for a similar purpose, but is more aimed at artists.

Some would claim that Harvard can’t afford to develop this property.  I would say how can they afford not to develop this property and others in Allston.  With minimal investment they could be revenue generating for the next 30 to 50 years until Harvard needs them back.  

No one expects Harvard to empty its endowment to rebuild Allston.  What people do expect is when you own that much property that you have a clear plan for it - both short and long term.  One would also expect some course correction due to changing circumstances.   There HAS to be a middle ground between doing NOTHING (the current short term plan) and building a $1 billion building (the old short term plan).

(1) http://www.cummings.com/