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February 9, 2013 - 10:11am
It's a fun and safe day so far. Thanks to my neighbor Peter Vellucci who cleared the whole block with his snow blower.
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January 23, 2013 - 6:36am
Public open space is always in short supply in a city as dense as Cambridge.To build an urban environment worth living in, parks and places to freely gather are one essential component. To insure that this happens in a reasonable way we have zoning and planning. In Cambridge, zoning is very often written by developers to enhance the value of their property.Providing open space is at odds with that goal and is generally minimized. There are exceptions, notably Alexandria’s provision of two plus acres and the funds for its improvement.
The city rarely adds to its inventory of open space. Parks and other city owned property do not generate real estate taxes and are near the bottom of the list when it comes to acquisition and improvements. They cost the city money. As anyone who pays attention to the goings on at City Hall knows, the top priority is keeping the city’s bond rating at triple-A. So, what do you do if your neighborhood wants a new park? While I’m sure there are many answers, some of us in East Cambridge have found one way to make it happen.
When of Lyme Properties bought land east of Third Street that would eventually become Cambridge Research Park, residents began...
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September 25, 2012 - 6:22pm
Today the groundbreaking ceremony for EF’s (Education First) new building on the Charles River was held in North Point Park. This was not what one usually expects of a groundbreaking. Far from a small knot of men in suits and a shiny shovel, it was a party for a thousand people. Attendees were given commemorative jackets, free beer and wine (at 11:00 am), pizza, sushi, a cold buffet, treats from a half a dozen food trucks, and a live set by Cambridge band Passion Pit.
There were videos and speeches by Governor Patrick, Mayor Davis, and many more praising EF and everyone involved in getting the project permitted. That process is an interesting bit of local history. The site which abuts the park is stats land taken as part of the Big Dig and designated for development when the final plans for the crossing to Cambridge were made. The project was complicated by several factors. Special legislation was required to convey the land to EF. It is within areas covered by the state tideland law (Chapter 91), and required a license and list of public benefits. It is within Cambridge’s North Point Planned Unit Development (PUD) zoning area which had to be amended to accommodate the building...
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September 4, 2012 - 5:30pm
Photo of Registry of Deeds at 208 Cambridge Street
My day job is being a title examiner, so I am extremely interested in one race that has not gotten much ink (although billboards, lawn signs and mass mailings are an entirely different matter). After 24 years, the current Register of Deeds for the Southern District of Middlesex County is retiring. Six Democrats are running, and the winner of Thursday's primary will have no opposition on the ballot in November. Few people outside my line of work have any idea what the registry of deeds is and what the register does, but the records in that building are nonetheless very important; they form the basis for the title to every piece of real estate in 44 cities and towns, including Cambridge. I have a few links to candidates nights and to interviews I conducted with two of the candidates (the others have not returned my multiple phone calls and/or emails) that may help you make up your mind:
http://www.newtv.org/video/decision2012/registerofdeeds/ (a candidates night sponsored by the Newton League of Women Voters at which Frank Ciano, Tom Concannon, Maria Curtatone, Tiz Doto and Maryann Heuston appeared; Robert Antonelli did not)...
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August 15, 2012 - 5:37pm
Last Saturday saw the second annual Hungry Tiger Food Festival held in Union Square, Somerville. I know this site is supposed to keep to topics within Cambridge, but “greater Cambridge” will have to be good enough here. After all, it is within walking distance for many of us, and it was way too awesome to miss.
Sponsored by the Somerville Arts Council and the Boston Circus Guild, the festival featured food stands from restaurants around the square and local crafts. The Square was decorated with Japanese lanterns and parasols with a huge open mouthed tiger at the entrance. There was some very tasty spicy grilled corn on the cob, but my fave was the fare from Dosa Temple down by Market Basket.
The main attraction had to wait till darkness fell. The performance of fire arts by members of the Boston Circus Guild was worth waiting a year to see. Play the slide show to see a few pictures of these spectacular performances. Some of the pics are a little fuzzy because of low light and no tripod, but I hope they will inspire you to be on the lookout for more of the same.
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March 22, 2012 - 12:14pm
I took a stroll to Northpoint Park yesterday to check on progress on the new North Bank Bridge that connects East Cambridge with Charlestown and Downtown Boston. The bicycle and pedestrian bridge which runs from Northpoint Park in Cambridge to Paul Revere Park in Charlestown is scheduled to open in June. This bridge forms another link in the network of shared use paths that line both sides of the Charles River, Boston Harbor, and eventually the Minuteman path to Concord, and the Grand Junction Path to Cambridgeport.
The good folks at Friends of the Community Path in Somerville have been working hard for years to get the portion of the path from Davis Square to Northpoint designed and funded. They could use our support. How nice would it be to be able to bike from North Cambridge to East Cambridge/Kendall Sq. and Downtown without using busy streets? Pretty nice I think.
The North Bank Bridge is a really interesting piece of architecture. The sinusoidal design makes for what I think is a visual delight. The attached PDF from the designer Ammann & Whitney gives a better explanation than I could of the details. Please take a look, it is a fascinating structure. Located near the...
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February 22, 2012 - 9:23am
The Cambridge City Council held a special meeting tonight, Feb 22 at City Hall to focus on the MBTA funding crisis. The location of the T's public meeting in Cambridge has been changed. MBTA officials will be at City Hall in the Sullivan Chamber Feb. 29 at 6:00 to discuss possible cutbacks. This was originally scheduled at the Citywide Senior Center at 806 Mass. Ave. and there was discussion at the Council meeting of moving it to the auditorium at the King Open School on cambridge Street to accommodate a larger crowd. This move doesn't really accomplish that, but perhaps the idea is that now it can be televised and webcast. I had to leave the meeting early to attend another meeting, so I may have missed something. Mayor Davis said in an email "With extra seating and tv monitors we can accommodate over 300 people." Wherever it is, be there. It's all about letting you have your voice heard and the more folks that show up, the stronger the message. But what should that message be.
After a conversation with Senator Jehlen's chief of Staff, Bob Fitzpatrick, I think I have some idea of an approach that might work to get us over this hump and put the state’s transportation sector on...
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February 15, 2012 - 6:14pm
The City Council has called a special meeting to talk about the T funding problem in response to an order proposed by the Association of Cambridge Neighborhoods and introduced in slightly modified from by Councillor Cheung The meeting will be held in the Sullivan Chamber in City Hall at 5:30 PM on Wednesday February 22 and will be televised. That is one of the actions that the Council has called for in response to the proposals for fare increases and service cut backs. They have also called for a series of meetings to be held in neighborhoods all across town to inform residents about the proposals and how we might work toward a better outcome. These meetings are yet to be scheduled.
Another important meeting is coming up on February 29th, 6:00 PM at the Citywide Senior Center, 806 Mass. Av. This is the MBTA’s chance to explain their fiscal quandry and their response in the form of cuts. Anyone who cares about transportation, the environment, or the economy should show up and tell them that what we need is a long term fiscal solution supported by the state legislature. Without that, the whole region will fail to thrive.
Transportation For Massachusetts, a coalition of policy and...
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January 31, 2012 - 4:15pm
Photo: "Lechmere with no buses" by Mark Jaquith
By now if you haven’t heard that the MBTA has a huge operating deficit and is proposing steep fare increases and service cutbacks that still won’t solve the problem in the long term, then stop reading and go back to the TV. Most of the coverage of this mess has concentrated on the impacts on T riders. Very little has been said about what it might do to cities like Cambridge. Certainly, cutbacks will reduce ridership, and that will negatively affect access to education, employment, commerce, and recreation. These reason alone should be enough to worry you, with the associated economic, social and environmental impacts. But wait, there’s more.
The City of Cambridge relies heavily on good public transportation in its planning, permitting, and development policies. North Point, Kendall Square, and Alewife are all conceived of as transit oriented development (TOD) areas, and the city is staking its economic future on projected commercial real estate taxes from these areas. TOD relies on good public transit for access, traffic and parking planning, density bonuses, and efficiencies in energy and financing.
At the latest Kendall Square...
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December 8, 2011 - 9:18am
For a year or so now the Chestnut Hill realty Corporation has been trying to pass amend the zoning law in Cambridge to allow them to convert the basements of their large apartment buildings into apartments. Also note that the Zuker family who owns Chestnut Hill Realty is a major contributor to several of our city Councillors’ campaign funds. Councillor Decker being the major beneficiary of their largesse.
When they first introduced this it was entitled the “Workforce Housing” amendment. Chestnut Hill claimed that this would allow lower income local workers to find affordable housing in our community near their jobs in local businesses and institutions. The problem is that nowhere in the new law was there any provision for all of these new apartments to be affordable. The Planning Board and many citizens saw through this hypocrisy and the amendment failed to pass twice. The latest version will likely come up for a vote before the City Council on Monday, Dec. 12. Although the pretense of affordable housing for workers has been dropped, the basics are still the same. The area covered by the proposal is now smaller now and would extend for several blocks along Massachusetts Avenue...
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