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Condos for artists approved for Mission Hill street
By adamg on Wed, 11/14/2018 - 11:45am
The Zoning Board of Appeals yesterday approved plans for two condo buildings for artists on what are now city-owned vacant lots on Terrace Street.
Under plans by Terrace Bravo of Cambridge, the lots at 40-42 Terrace, between Alleghany and Tremont, and 132 Terrace, near Cedar, would each get a four-story building with seven condos and a shared first-floor work space for residents.
The units - with one bedroom each at 132 Terrace and with two bedrooms at 40-42 - would be sold at to people making no more than 80% of the Boston area median income. If enough artists cannot be found to fill all the units, they would be marketed, still as affordable, to the general public.
The roughly 500 square feet of shared studio space would be designed with special ventilation and to be opened up to the public for open-studio and other events.
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Comments
A Big Deal
A welcome initiative. In a sensible location. How is a person being identified as an 'artist' though? Will a City of Boston artist cerification be necessary? Will there be some kind of other vetting or jurying re who qualifies as an artist here?
(And from past experience I've seen, if someone who is not really a true working artist ends up in an artist designated unit, it's much more likely to be a white collar professional who slid in after a few occupancy changes, than some deadbeat making crap they call art.)
City of Boston has a
City of Boston has a designated list of artists that are producing work. In any event, sales are limited to those making 80% ami.
Well,
how about those who come with trust funds and/or where Dad and Mom are supporting their artistry with an open money facet while their little prodigies save the world through their talents as compared to some aging dude in his 40s still trying to get an gallery show somewhere, anywhere?
Aging dudes
Aging dudes in their forties? Really?
Artists can't struggle mid-life or in their senior years? How mistaken you are.
The bureaucrats decide
You can apply for an Artists Certification, which allows you to qualify for this subsidy.
"Your resume or CV needs to give evidence of artistic work over the past three years, and samples of your art work must be dated. You also need to be at least 18 years of old."
https://www.boston.gov/departments/arts-and-culture/artist-certification
Kudos
Something like this will just slide by with nary a complaint by the usual NIMBY crowd who loses their mind over a parking lot or abandoned property being developed into housing. But this right here is a good example of the good things being done by the city on housing that don't get much attention.
Actually this project was
Actually this project was held up for something like 5 years because of one specific family of NIMBYs which makes a lot of money filing nuisance lawsuits to collect settlements and delay projects.
Right Family Wrong Project
The couple that sues every development just to receive a payout did not hit this one but a larger project on the same street. They received a five figure payout to drop their appeal. These scumbags have made a fortune doing this but pretend to be doing it for the neighborhood. They are aging now and don't come to many meetings any longer thankfully.
Actually this project is the result of NIMBYs
As someone who went to nearly every meeting the City held on the disposition of city-owned lots in Mission Hill, neighbors resoundingly called for owner-occupied housing to be built on these lots. If we said "Not in my backyard" it was to yet another luxury rental/corporate short stay/illegal AirBnB hotels the developers are killing our neighborhood with.
When did building condos for specific people become a thing?
I'm not complaining, the Libertarian side of me say build whatever you like , it just seems like "Artists space" has become chic.
There's a real dearth of artists' housing in the Boston area,
and it's good that condos for artists are being constructed in Mission Hill. It's something that's long overdue.
"Dearth of artists' housing"
What about firefighter housing, or teacher housing, or social worker housing, or...
Let's Do It !
There should also be initiatives that make sure that Boston doesn't continue losing its teachers, firefighters, and social workers too!
You question should probably be - What about hedge fund managers, pharma executives, and Chinese investors? How are we looking out for them? - Except we already know what about them . .
love when people turn around
love when people turn around with comments meant to disprove the original idea but really just show how shit our society is and how much better we could be doing. a small supply of guaranteed housing for professions that are generally underpaid but highly important to the functioning of a society sounds like a great idea, I agree!
Someone should build
Condos for UPS drivers
old saying
Don't agonize - organize.
The artists organized.
Cool
Now they've got even more politics to play. And it can cost them the roof over their heads.
Lefties are all about sticking it to the man and demolishing the power structure...only to replace it with a brand new one. Meet the new boss, same as the old boss, eh?
Artist housing (or work/live
Artist housing (or work/live spaces as they're more commonly known as) is nothing new, especially in Boston. I live near a crop of artist housing that still exists in JP, next to the Brewery. There is (was?) also artist housing in Fort Point, but I'm fairly sure they were displaced a few yrs back.
The point is, however that
there's not enough artists' housing (i. e. living and working space) here in Boston.
As for Fort Point, a lot of people were displaced when the developers, attracted by the fact that Fort Point, as an artists' community was the holding point at one time, but there are still some artists down in Fort Point who own their places outright, and therefore weren't displaced.
Exurban expansion
I know people who moved to places like Lowell to find suitable spaces. It is kind of a specialty thing, as studios are best kept near, but apart from living spaces and sometimes have distinctly non-residential demands (fume hoods, etc.).
Tell us about the Green Glens
Tell us about the Green Glens of Medford as well, could you please, suburban swirly?
Is this a comment or a hicup?
Is this a comment or a hicup?
Why this comment?
What does this have to do with the needs of artists for living and studio space?
Huh?
Medford is a city. One of the 100 most densely populated cities in the country.
Huh
Looked it up.
It's #100.
Didn't know.
(Boston is 51, Everett 94, Chelsea 29, Cambridge 26, and Somerville 16.)
.
.
Given the Batshit Crazy
Given the Batshit Crazy nature of Everyone Commenting Here in the Name of Everyone Else, maybe Puppet Handlers / Marionettists should be getting the first dibs.