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The BPDA has its limits, and an Amazon distribution center off Dorchester Avenue in South Boston is one of them

The BPDA board is urging the Zoning Board of Appeal to reject a proposed Amazon "last mile" distribution center off Dorchester Avenue in South Boston because it doesn't fit with a city vision of a Dorchester Avenue as a walkable district of largely residential buildings to replace the current stretch of low-rise commercial and industrial buildings between Broadway and Andrew Square.

Core Investments wants to rent a former Blue Cross/Blue Shield Warehouse and nearby land on Alger Street, near Damrell Street, for use as a warehouse and loading and torage area for its delivery vans.

The zoning board is scheduled to consider the proposal at a Nov. 17 hearing. The BPDA board yesterday urged the zoning board to reject the proposal "without prejudice," which means Core Investments could come back with a different proposal for the land within a year.

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Comments

...doesn't fit with a city vision of ...

We have a city vision?

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Sure. Lots of cities aren't walkable at all. Walkability is definitely an integral part of Boston.

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but it doesn't include jobs within walking distance.

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If you work at an Amazon distribution center, your "walking distance" would have to be in Ware for you to afford housing.

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Technically we don't, but that section of DOT ave has a lot of new and planned construction for business and residences. Plopping a huge, blocks long, blank wall would kind of kill things in that area

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Although I sympathize with the BPDA's position, how do they get to rule at all on the transfer of a warehouse from one tenant to another?

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There is one of these places in HP or Wrox and the neighbors cant stand all the idling delivery worker vans.

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It's on Sprague Street in Dedham not that far outside of Wolcott Sq and the Readville MBTA station. The area is an industrial park that is on the edge of a residential zone.

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And we’ve been on good terms lately, but our first dustup was about the area where the Amazon warehouses are. Methinks you sometimes argue about places you are unfamiliar with.

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was my comment inaccurate?

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Bless your heart.

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Perhaps you're not very familiar with the proposed area.

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WWSLD?

What would Shirley Leung do?

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They just didn't get their bribe money.

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you jest but it's true...

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The BPDA/BRA or whatever they spend another 3/4 million $ on renaming themselves should not be the last decision here. They are not elected. Decisions at this level should be dependent on being re-elected. This is where Marty lied; he promised to reign in this Authority and didn't.

If by residential neighborhood BPDA means structures higher than 3 stories then they are gaslighting everyone. A "neighborhood" of that is composed of structures higher can not be a real neighborhood. In this case size matters.

That is why the Seaport will never be a true neighborhood.

And yet, Amazon, Target and Walmart create retail monetary vacuums that destroy local businesses. So whether the BPDA folks are thinking about this aspect or not, not allowing an Amazon warehouse in the city is at least one less nail in the coffin that buries locally owned retail.

Life can be complicated.

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If by residential neighborhood BPDA means structures higher than 3 stories then they are gaslighting everyone. A "neighborhood" of that is composed of structures higher can not be a real neighborhood.

Chinatown? Fenway? South End?

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Also Back Bay? Beacon Hill? The North End? Even Mass Ave between Harvard and Porter?

Plenty of lovely neighborhoods are taller than 3 stories. The key is to design them for people rather than cars.

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high as a kite? Because I'd like what you're having.

You have a very narrow view of what constitutes a neighborhood, and if that's your idealistic view, fine, just head off to the 'burbs and take your drivel with you.

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Apparently it is ok to have the Amazon delivery trucks along with UPS and Fedex clog up the streets, as long as they keep the jobs outside of Boston.

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If by residential neighborhood BPDA means structures higher than 3 stories then they are gaslighting everyone. A "neighborhood" of that is composed of structures higher can not be a real neighborhood. In this case size matters.

That's 100% hogwash. I used to live in one of ~250 units that made up three residential ~12 story towers, with a common lobby area. We, along with the single family houses and ~8 unit condo buildings in the block absolutely made up a neighborhood, complete with dogwalkers recognizing each other, showing up to NIMBY proposals, knocking on doors come election time, the works.

This is universalhub. Not universal I live in the burbs and eschew the city but still throw my 1950s post-WW2 suburbia opinions around anyway.

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You could tear down the upper portion of the Seaport above the 3rd floor and it would still be a fake place. Height isn’t the problem. It isn’t the answer either, as some people in this forum insist.

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Oh, we'll just take a pass on jobs and tax revenue.

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dEr GuD jErBz at an Amazon warehouse.

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...of the whole new development plan, even though I've noticed some of the new construction over time. Does this mean that one day soon one can walk down that section of Dot Ave and not see the name MARR even once? :-)

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