Owner of Brighton Center bar wants to replace it with an apartment building

(I mean the supporter in principle but not in particular, not Adam)

This is what leads to forced subsidies for cars. Why not let the new residents figure it out? Adding parking spaces simply raises the cost of the project, which will be passed on in rent, probably regardless of car ownership.

How about Boston comes up with an RPP system that allows "no RPP" zoning? Give the guy density with the understanding no RPP will be issued at those addresses, and let them choose how many parking spots they feel like building.

No car issue, the market sorts it. And if car ownership and parking spaces lead to traffic maybe the "locals" will clamor for less of it someday...

Edit: Looking around on street view I don't see any RPP zones,so I guess that idea is out! I wonder how this area will ever improve then... :(

If you don't think there are 34 families who could get by on 24 parking spaces (2 spaces for every 3 units approximately...or 10 car-free units and 24 1-car units), then the market will show as much and there will be cheaper units available to entice people willing to get creative with their cars/needs.

A UCLA professor wrote an interesting study on this that strongly argues that reducing the amount of parking available by default actually frees up parking counter-intuitively. In conjunction with incentives for neighborhoods to reduce parking (e.g., if you reduce parking, the city will prioritize increases in spending on public transit needs in your area), we can cut auto dependency and increase livability.

Also, to whomever said the Columbkille parking spaces are too far away...wow. Just wow. It's like a block, maybe 2. Park in a city much?

previously rosie o'grady's and mcmahons, both brighton institutions of long ago. rosie's blind pig saloon also had an "old man" bar, separated, on the left hand side that we always called the 19th hole. i had my first beer in a bar there with my dad, so yeah some of this stuff means something to people. the real brighton is gone forever, it was a great place to grow up.

Something to look at and admire from the street. Gardens, courtyard, features, some kind of personality. This just looks like cheap panels. It's better than a flat brick facade but let's get creative here.

I for one, like my $1500+/m drop in rent since moving 3 miles west and would like it to stay that way for at least a little bit.

...on the Arabella.

The prior residents kept it in great shape for a span of time equal to the age of the Sphinx.

Now, it boils down to reshuffling the wreckage in some cycle based on whims and dice rolls.

Agreed. The 'great migration" I find to be of the children that grew up in the city prior to WW2 and then started having families, wanting more open spaces. Remember that many of these kids grew up in real poverty and when they became of age, the ultimate goal was to live in the burbs with lawns, open spaces and the typical middle class home. The "American Dream" at that time. Also, many of this generation were the first American born kids in their families and they had opportunities their parents never had.

I know in my family, when my folks first moved out of the city to Braintree, my grandfather couldn't understand why anyone would want to live in the boonies, but my parents were just like the many Irish moving to Quincy, Braintree, whereas it seems the Italian families moved north to Everett and Revere.

When you think of it, I wonder if that generation is the last to realize their "American Dream" as a whole, where as today we seem to struggle and the goal posts keep moving.

I am agnostic as to whether there is parking provided, as it's not my direct neighborhood anymore. FWIW, I am confident, however, that if parking is not provided, you will have at least as many more cars on the streets around there as you have units in that building (some people will not have a car, other units will have 2, etc.). Whether or not this is a problem, I don't know, but I do not think that street parking in that area is so tight so as to have the new residents pay $XXX per month for an off-street spot versus "free" street parking. I suspect that the neighbors feel the same way, and are wary of "their" spots being taken up. This is not a new phenomenon.

As for passing judgment, well, I speak only from experience and observation. There has been much talk about the hollowing out of "attractions" (e.g., restaurants, bars, etc.) in Brighton Center. There is no supermarket (closest is probably Stop & Shop off N. Beacon and the WF on Washington St. on the Brookline line). While both of these are bikable (not walkable), not everyone (maybe even not most or many) is going to do that. They will not take a bus to go grocery shopping. They will use a car. This gets to the debate about building transit prior to demand - my feeling is people aren't going to invest in more transit-oriented living facilities unless and until they are absolutely certain that said transit will be there. There have been too many broken promises and people have come to realize that the legislative process is so broken that it is unlikely to improve soon.

I think my underlying feeling is that people in this particular area will find that they have use for a car frequently enough to want to have one, and frequently enough that something like Zipcar won't work for them. This is particularly true when the young couples that will move in there (and I definitely think this is who will move in there) have their first child. In my experience that's really when the whole bike/urban lifestyle thing gets thrown out the window in favor of doing anything possible to get 15 more minutes of sleep. (Incidentally, and again, in my experience, the couple with child won't move out of that apartment until it becomes too small for them, i.e., when there is a second kid - so they will adjust accordingly, e.g., by using a car more often). This does not happen to everyone, but in my experience (I am in that age cohort), it happens to most (e.g., we are the last holdouts amongst our circle, clinging to our condo in Brookline that, even though reasonably sized, will be too small when and if there is another body in the household).

I know that there are the die-hards who will talk about having 3 kids in a multi-family dwelling, Burley trailers, etc. (incidentally, I have one of those), but these people need to realize that they are outliers, not part of the majority or even a substantial minority, and it will take at least another generation or 2 of good urban planning and (most importantly) sustained commitment to urban and inter-urban transit (it's not looking good), before that changes.