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Dumb Growth?

 
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john p



Joined: 10 Mar 2006
Posts: 1820

PostPosted: Mon Mar 26, 2007 3:35 pm GMT    Post subject: Dumb Growth? Reply with quote

"Smart Growth" at times, is playing out like nonsense. If the job centers are within Boston and you want people to commute less, where then, do you think the housing units ought to be? Boston. Hooray...

Where do young people have to move based on economics? Far, far away from Boston. Boooo

Where are the worst public schools in the state? In the cities. Crime? Cities again. Could we pile up any more reasons why young families would not want to live in the city? Hmmm

Now let’s look at those nice new fancy housing projects going in the City. Who are they trying to market too? Retirees. Can you believe it? They want to have people who don't need to work any more living in a housing unit that is right near the jobs. Why? Because it is more expensive in the city and retirees have money. Towns like retired people because they get their taxes and they don’t have to send their kids to school. So we have old school buildings that were built like tanks close to the city and we’re building new cheaply built schools with the stupid filed sub-bid laws which make all the new schools go ridiculously over budget. So we have to pay for new schools, new infrastructure 1 hour away from the city.

We also need to discuss some of the darker aspects of what stands in the way of directing growth. First, if you talk to enough people 50 years or older you’ll find out that many communities actually didn’t want public transportation in their town because it attracted the “wrong elements”. What are the new dark issues today, not wanting more families to keep the tax rate down, trying to get the retirees? Whatever we do, we need to get some of the darker stuff that the flowery politicians don’t want to touch on the table and out in the open, otherwise we have these ridiculous kangaroo courts in some communities where they use stupid reasons to torpedo a project.

Then, I read this other article about a group of "experts" that say we need 20,000 or so new starter homes in Boston. I think this was written about in the Herald... http://business.bostonherald.com/realestateNews/view.bg?articleid=188323

Newsflash everybody: We have the starter homes here in Boston. They were built after WWII for the GI's. If you take 128 and you do an offset about 2-3 miles east and west (north and south) you will see many of them.

When the baby-boomers retire we need to direct the growth to where it makes sense. Right now you have many elderly people living where working families need to be. The elderly and retirees have absolutely every right; they bought their homes and should be able to live wherever they wish. We need them to have a choice of cashing out on their great commuter location and having a fantastic quality of life close enough where they can enjoy the younger members of their families and still can see their friends and community. I kind of like the new communities that are catering to the younger generation out in the suburbs (in this weekend’s Globe). I think we’re halfway there on this… http://www.boston.com/realestate/news/articles/2007/03/25/get_a_life_in_suburbia/

My problem is that we as tax-payers are paying the salaries and initiatives for this Smart Growth concept and we do not have any incentives to affect very much. Further, this whole Chap.t 40B stuff has morphed over many decades of administrations in the State and sometimes policies get so twisted up over the years you need to step back and square it all up. So the whole thing seems like a waste of time and money. Impotent idea, no traction. We need to embrace capitalism and not resort to socialism. If we wait too long, we will have to resort to some form of socialism because we will have missed the wave of capitalism that we could have surfed right into the future totally cool and chilled out with style.

I subscribe to Pesa's plan Wink which we are promoting retirement resort type communities just outside the 495 belt. We cater to their needs, wishes, dreams, desires, etc. We do not resort to socialism, we intelligently use capitalism. We make those retirees want more than anything to get a unit is the coolest new community where they can hang out all day like little kids that have reached the finish line and can and deserve to just enjoy have fun and relax. We make incentives to loosen up the housing stock that exists and we hang a delicious carrot for the retirees to come out and enjoy. Yes, we have a wave of retirees coming around 2014 (nice recent article in the Globe), http://www.boston.com/realestate/luxuryliving/articles/2007/03/25/the_real_estate_generation_gap/ so we should start preparing now right? Wrong, we're sitting on our arses and letting economic forces direct the retirees to the city. How absolutely dumb is that? Not every retired person has to move of course, and if they wish to live in the city they have every right, but if you make the places so nice and affordable just on the fringe of suburbs it will draw out many. We all want our children to have their grandparents nearby and not have to have them move to a cheaper state because they refinanced the house to send us to college. We need to find a better alternative.

The most exciting part of right now is that Boston which seems to be very much stuck in certain mindsets is getting a taste of variety and diversity in housing and community type. My biggest hope for us is that no matter what people choose they elevate the quality to the best it can be. If people want to do the whole little league mom minivan thing, it is the best town for it, urban chic, the best possible. http://www.boston.com/realestate/news/articles/2007/03/25/the_manhattanization_of_boston/ We all know enough people that we’ll eventually be invited to different events in these different locations so it will benefit everyone if each place renders out in a cool and thoughtful way. My hope for Massachusetts, my home, is that we maintain a world class status and grow on it, and make the community affordable and maintain the values and traditions that got us to being world class. You’ll find that people even in one family can be very different and have different visions for how they want to live their lives. If we want to foster family values we should try to accommodate a variety of housing stock within our State so people don’t get priced out, cultured out, etc. We don’t do this by tearing the social fabric with poor planning which creates a lousy physical, unlivable, and unaffordable communities. We need to use our pioneering spirit, creativity, toughness, adaptability, openness, and common sense to prevail. Right now is the best opportunity possible for Massachusetts to achieve the best housing mix for its citizens. I am like the biggest meathead in the world and I can see this. I hope we end up punching this in the end zone.
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