Another condo building proposed for Egleston Square

“What comes back to the community? You’re asking for considerable zoning variances. What are the community benefits? This is a large imposition.”

The community benefits are places for people to live, plus new retail space, in a location that's not currently being used for anything better. But that's obviously not what's meant by this question.

Edit: erik g's post below is good and more appropriately empathetic.

...that you should follow the money to see where the opposition is coming from, but I honestly can't figure out who could be skimming money off of the obstructionism happening toward these developments. The only affected tenant for the 3200 Washington development was the auto repair place, and the developers agreed to relocate them to a better spot even before submitting plans to the BRA. There are no affected tenants at 3193 (the glass makers left years ago, and the bodega on the corner folded last year). Other than extracting promises from developers to throw money into the neighborhood foundation, I don't see any $ signs in the eyes of the protesters.

Which makes even LESS sense, because I don't think the opposition here even believes its own bullshit. Today they're clamoring for more 2- and 3-bedroom units. If the developer turns around and offers to build those, I'll bet you twenty crisp new American dollars that no one will skip a beat before insisting that the rent on them is too high, and that the building is too tall.

What I sense from these protests is a sense (which is very real!) of despair at the decreasing affordability of urban neighborhoods that are well-served by public transit. The trouble is, this isn't a trend that you can solve by restricting construction of new housing. If you leave this space undeveloped, those same people willing to pay $2500/month for apartments in JP are going to move into the existing housing stock in Egleston, and the same displacement is going to happen. I don't know if building lots of new units is going to depress prices (it passes the smell test, but I'd like to see some data before making any conclusions), but I do know that if you don't build new housing, prices are going to continue to spiral upwards at the alarming rate we've seen recently.

This section of JP is already out of reach for most people. I'm on Montebello, and the three condos that have sold around me in the past six months have all gone for north of $450K for 2 bedrooms. You can't un-ring that bell. We should absolutely be looking to set macro policy goals that address affordable housing shortages, but you can't fix a problem of this scale by protesting against individual developments.

I would have thought they were looking for goodies too, but I know the malcontents and outcasts involved in the Big Whine and it's really not about that or about the building. Life has passed them by, they're angry at the world, no one has the time of day for them, and this is the only way anyone will listen to them. It's a hobby. A way to have contact with people who have to listen and can't ignore them. It's sad really.

Who just oppose EVERYTHING. They want more buildings, but they can't be over three stories. And they have to be affordable for families but not bring in yuppies. Oh and they have to have parking because I don't want to lose my parking space, but not too many because that will bring more traffic. It's literally impossible to satisfy these folks--they just want to protest something.

"Easy Boston"? That's actually a quite apt description of how difficult it is to get your variances and developments through the BRA/ZBA process in EasT Boston...so maybe that name will catch on! (Better than EaBo...)