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Meeting Monday to discuss landlord's plans for Tony's/Redd's building in Roslindale
By adamg on Sun, 11/16/2014 - 8:58pm
Vincent Marino wants to add two floors to the Washington Street building that houses Tony's Market and Redd's in Rozzie.
A meeting that starts at 6:30 p.m. at the Roslindale Community Center on Monday will be residents' only chance to discuss the proposal before it goes before the Zoning Board of Appeals on Nov. 25 - and will apparently be where Tony DeBenedictis of Tony's finds out what the proposal means for his store.
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Comments
This is the process?
Announcement of plans one week, a hearing the next week and then a decision two weeks later? I like clean processes by that seems very quick - is that normal?
If this was a three story building as recently as in the 60s is it quicker than the process when, for example, the gas station was turned into a 4 story apt. building?
I like the idea of more density 'downtown' if it can done w/o disrupting existing businesses. I don't like to hear Tony's wasn't told about the plans prior to public announcement.
Hey, it's Vinny Marino's building
Okay, so I know that it's "too soon" to speak ill of Vinny's good politically connected friend, but as you are relatively new, here's a story for you.
Back in the day, the Boston Herald owned Community Newspapers, which in turn owned the Parkway Transcript. When Vinny proposed tearing down his bucket of blood in the Square (the newish building on Washington Street at Lee Hill Road) everyone came to the community meeting gushing about how a mixed use building would be a great improvement over the existing bar, which was a haven for drug use. The reporter reported what the neighbors said, which incurred Vinny's wrath. Vinny called the reporter, giving veiled threats.
Unfortunately for Vinny, the reporter ran a followup and his company got his back. The result was a series about Vinny's ties to organized crime and his ties to a now deceased former mayor. The best part of the story was Vinny and the politician eating at the Howard Johnson's in Canton when Whitey Bulger came in, coincidentally, yet made a point to stop by and greet his friend. Okay, the best part is that Vinny and the politician have adjoining burial plots at St. Michael's cemetery (I've actually seen them), yet the news said the politician was buried at Fairlawn. Oh, well.
The moral of the story is twofold. First, don't piss off the press. Second, it's Vinny Marino. Some people get treated better than other.
And boy am I happy I use a pseudonym here.
How many neighborhoods are there around Roslindale?...
a) How many neighborhoods, that is, subneighborhoods are there around Roslindale depending on how you count them?....
b) What borders of Wards/Precincts could be changed more appropriately?...
Hard to say
Outside of Roslindale Square, um, Village, there's not much in the way of sub-neighborhood identification, at least not like there is in, say, Dorchester or East Boston.
You've got the Longfellow Area, which has its own neighborhood association. There's Grew Hill and Metropolitan Hill. The two housing projects - Washington/Beech and Archdale - are sort of sub-neighborhoods. The Dale Street area. And the kind-of-forgotten area down by American Legion Highway (the name of which I can't remember, which somebody who lives there would respond to by going "aha!").
I'm sure there are others, but again, there's not really an equivalent to the Jeffreys Points and Savin Hills of the world.
South Roslindale
I like to think of that area to the south of the West Roxbury Parkway, bounded by Washington St and the VFW as South Roslindale. That's not really official though...
Hoping for Win-Win
I won't be able to attend this meeting, but hopefully it will be informative and useful to all parties. Vinny Marino has a right to make improvements to his property, so long as it does not cause loss to his tenants. It is important that he provide reasonable assurances to Tony's Market, Redd's, and their loyal customers. If it is possible to add to the structure, that's probably some more shoppers for the two businesses in addition to rent for the land lord. This can and should be a good thing for all involved, let's hope that is the position staked out by folks who can make it to the community center tonight.
Alas, seems that is not the attitude
At least if Twitter is correct.
Nope
Marino came off as described above- a jerk. Not enough data was provided to make a fair assessment really, but people are really hung up on having enough parking when they drive to town and don't think Roslindale should have multistory buildings. Thankfully, Joe from Rosi Hardware pointed out that Rolsindale in fact used to be full of multistory buildings and that density was good for business owners.
Tony and his family felt they hadn't been properly informed about this. the developer claimed that this was because the building wouldn't impact the inside of his store.
I hope they figure out how to do this without hurting Tonys business and Redds.
Also several people were concerned about affordable housing while also complaining about more housing being built, which is funny.
That last paragraph kills me
How do we get people to understand that such a statement is completely divergent from housing economics? Rents are high because more people want to live here than the number of available housing units will allow. The only way to lower rent costs is to either increase supply of housing or reduce demand for housing. Are people really saying they want Roslindale to be a less attractive neighborhood? Because that's what it would take for us to reduce rents without building more units.