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-Im-A-Little-Teapot_ t1_ixkbxzn wrote

Reply to comment by poissonprocess in The lack of homes could strangle our life sciences industry: Why the concentration of biopharma in Cambridge and Boston would ratchet up costs, exacerbate the housing crisis, and pitch the region from its throne. by writethefuture3

What's it going to take to get through to some of you people that those of us that have been born and raised here, have roots and family here, and we were just fine and dandy until all this new development, gentrification and all the other associated crap took place and we're sick and tired of the shit?

Enough is enough.

Find some other place to move to with your biolabs, density, bike and bus lanes, luxury high rises,outdoor dining, etc.

As if totally fucking up Boston, Somerville, Medford, etc wasn't bad enough, now you want to spread the disease to the outlaying areas after we moved to escape from those places to get away from the bullshit.

If we can't stop it through grass roots action, community involvement and stricter zoning laws, at least we can make it as much as a PITA, expensive and time consuming as possible.

Maybe at some point developers will get the message that their presence isn't needed or wanted anymore.

Not saying that it's counter productive to job creation, just take them somewhere else. Anywhere but here

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poissonprocess t1_ixkeod7 wrote

Lol outdoor dining is on the list? Bike and bus lanes? It's a city, my friend.

Edit: I have sympathy for what you're describing but you lost me at outdoor dining, bike and bus lanes.

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-Im-A-Little-Teapot_ t1_ixkg8tz wrote

Up until a few years ago, it would have been fine if it didn't involve the removal of parking spaces and/or travel lanes that had been in existence for generations until the plague showed up and demanded it.

ETA: Ok, maybe I got carried away a bit with the outdoor dining, but the bike and bus lanes gripe still stands.

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Vassukhanni t1_ixki28p wrote

>Travel lanes that had been in existence for generations

My ancestral travel lanes, built in 1950 in order to evict the "undesirables," shall not be slightly narrowed.

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poissonprocess t1_ixkh7ov wrote

Working toward being less car centric is not unique to Boston, and is the greener way. A lot of cities are evolving this way, it's not necessarily tied to biotech.

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-Im-A-Little-Teapot_ t1_ixkrgyx wrote

I'm not blaming biotech exclusively for the current situation, but as the #1 growth industry in the region, they certainly have had an impact around here and not always in a positive way.

Think the cost of living and housing here is ridiculous? It's not because of Amazon or Google or Microsoft. Sure, they might have provided high paying jobs but it came with a cost to the rest of the communities they affected.

You know things are getting bad when we're outdoing San Fransisco and new arrivals from CA are flabbergasted by the availability and cost of housing here.

Personally speaking, I'm financially fine and living comfortably, but I'm not wealthy by any means. Others that I know aren't doing as well and even with affordable housing, it s not going to change their situation very much for the foreseeable future.

The last thing they're concerned about (and I don't blame them), is what other cities have done or "greener ways".

Example: The Western Ave Corridor study and rezoning plan in Allston I don't live there, but I do live close by, and this shit benefits no one but Harvard U and developers at the expense of lower wage earners and businesses in the area.

Eliminating 180-200 parking spaces for local residents and business, and creating an "innovation corridor" where cars are discouraged by diverting traffic and creating two one way streets and make way for bike and bus lanes for the sake of profit under the pretense of "greener ways" is pretty fucked up if you ask me.

In reality, its not really my problem, but it does piss me off

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dny6 t1_ixuhsps wrote

It’s a city dude. The whole thing with cities is that they change.

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wallet535 t1_ixlbe2d wrote

First off your username/handle is awesome, haha. More importantly, though, I think it's important that folks engage with your perspective. You're calling attention to practical issues like parking. Sometimes pro-growth folks don't give these concerns enough credence, but even when solutions to them are presented, they can exacerbate what is the bigger issue, which is the emotional connection to a place and how it's always been in their memories. Dismissing these perspectives as NIMBYism is unproductive; it just hardens old battle lines.

If we want to avoid Rust Belt-ish decline, we need to make room for new economic growth, recognizing the reality that knowledge-based industries are going to where the workers are, which is in metro Boston, and they need housing, and this means change. Wishing that they'd go elsewhere isn't going to change that; instead, this thought pattern is truly harming folks who are just trying to make it in today's economy.

It is also true that life is more than just economic growth. A sense of place is both important to everyone's lived experience and is part of what makes locations attractive in the first place. In many cases the folks who made places great aren't participating in the industries of the newcomers. Practical concerns of longtime residents shouldn't be glossed over, and even when they are solvable, the solutions often call for jarring changes that would be disruptive for anyone.

My point is obvious: These aren't black and white issues. Solutions are likely to be compromises that leave no one fully happy, with change occurring at a definite but measured pace. We should bicker this out like the Massholes we are with this perspective in mind. Pollyanna mode over.

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