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Proposed Old Colony Avenue apartment building would come with a car for residents to share
By adamg on Tue, 03/12/2019 - 12:42pm
Architect's rendering
A developer has proposed replacing a nondescript, gray building that now houses a glass company with a 19-unit, six-story apartment building that would sit between Old Colony Avenue and West 9th Street, near their intersections with D Street.
The apartments would be split between one- and two-bedroom units, with three rented as affordable, according to developer Adam Burns's proposal, filed this week with the BPDA.
The building would have ten parking spaces - with one set aside for the car Burns said he would purchase for the building for residents to use.
Burns wrote that he hopes to begin construction of the $5.7-million project in early 2020, with units ready for occupancy by the middle of 2021.
142-144 Old Colony Ave. small-project review application (13.5M PDF).
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Comments
This is a really good idea,
This is a really good idea, which means old-time Southie residents will hate it.
The new Southie "residents"
Live there for like 3-4 years max, so frankly I don't give a damn what they think.
Remember
about 10 years ago when a local drinking establishment wanted to put an outdoor drinking patio abutting a bunch of residences? This yuppie chick said that it would be good for the neighborhood and her and her Muffy friends wanted to drink outside because her condo had no open space.
Well guess what? The patio was shot down and Miss Muffy doesn’t live in Southie anymore.
Keep telling yourself these
Keep telling yourself these people are transients as they have kids and send their kids to school there, etc. The resentment is so thick. It's embarrassing.
Old time Southie
Means families that have invested in their neighborhood over many years.
They looked out for each other, maybe coached kids, even voted.
Unlike the newbies who will high tail it out to suburbia as soon as their pregnant.
They'll brag how they live in SOBO but not know their neighbors.
19 units split with the potential of 45 people. 10 parking spaces and a prius given.
Sounds like your new Southie is no match for the old
Old time Southie
Many residents of old time Southie cashed out and moved to the 'burbs buddy. Your complaint is with them, not people who want to make a life in Boston.
Or did you mean new Southie is no match for patronage thugs who assault people in the middle of Savin Hill? That might be true.
Bix
Most of the old guard is either in Marion Mannor, Foley or down 3a in the Riviera.
Nope
I know plenty of yuppie families raising kids in southie.
Put the old-timers in VERY TALL GLASS retirement communities
Having lived in South Boston for eight years now, I have yet to meet any of these old-timers who so actively invest in their community and their neighbors.
If anything, the old-timers are more standoffish than the younger residents, harboring resentment because their friends and family long ago left the neighborhood for a comfortable retirement elsewhere.
And in the spirit of being neighborly, they of course rush to deride others as "yuppies."
I'm happy their expectations were formed in a post-White flight era that blighted our cities, but the reality is that times have changed.
Just move
Seems odd that he would be
Seems odd that he would be buying a car for residents to use. Why not just include space for Zipcar, etc.?
Because he will actually buy
Because he will actually buy two cars, a Bentley and a Corolla. The Corolla will be left for the residents to use, though the Bentley will be the one that actually gets written off as a business expense. /s .. I think.. wait, is that possible?
A Zipcar could end up booked
A Zipcar could end up booked by other people most of the time. A car reserved for building residents will have more availability. And it means fewer strangers in the parking lot.
On the other hand, a building car would have to be administered, maintained, and insured by building management. Does Zipcar do private fleet management?
Yeah, that should go over
Yeah, that should go over really well if its included in the condo fees. Who will do the regular maintenance and repairs. I can hear it now "why am I paying for a car that I use once a year when Karen in 2B drives it to McDonalds at 2am every Friday?!". No thanks.
No condo fees
These are apartments.
Indeed
The city where I worked in the past had its own small fleet of city vehicles, but they were managed by Zipcar - the booking site looked similar, and each car had the same tap reader on the windshield. So this building could do something similar and contract Zipcar to manage bookings and the technology. I wonder if they will need to hire someone to do cleaning and maintenance though, or if Zipcar provides that.
I'm borrowing the car
I can only imagine the families that allow their guests to borrow "the car" to run over to Medford for a play.
I laughed at this. Twenty years ago, townies would wonder what day you possibly would return, but forgot, now everything is new throughout the city.
The only reason I can think of...
If you housed a Zipcar there, then ANYONE (not just tenants) could take that car out. If they could have a "private" Zip car that only people from that building could use, then it would make a lot of sense.
OT: Can you change the setting so anon posts come AFTER mine?
My comment above now appears repetitive, but it was an original idea when I, a registered user, posted it.
Maven
It is a similar service but it can be restricted to residents of a building or complex.
An old clunker, I presume? With residents fighting over it?
"with one set aside for the car Burns said he would purchase for the building for residents to use."
I really, really, really do not see how that is going to work.
Fixing paragraph 1 for you
From looking at the picture and the preview of the 1st paragraph that I saw on the home page, I expected the first paragraph to read: "A developer has proposed replacing a nondescript, gray building that now houses a glass company with a nondescript, gray building that will house 19 apartments..."
:-)
This is a great idea.
Such close proximity to 2 transit stations makes this a very strong transit oriented development project. There's no need for building residents to have a vehicle unless they use it for daily commuting. Public transit, share use vehicles both in the building and located throughout the area provide shared cars on demand whenever they're needed and in nearly ALL cases, this will be cheaper per year than car ownership.
But I look forward to the kicking and screaming demands for 4 parking spaces per unit...
Yeah, you don't need a car at all, until
Yeah, you don't need a car at all, until your company moves to Braintree.
Or you meet someone, get married and they move in. And they work in Norwood.
Even though Braintree and Norwood have transit rail options, they don't generally cover that dreaded last mile very well.
There is obviously a huge concentration of jobs in the city, but there are also a ton elsewhere. And if mom lives in Plymouth and she's elderly and needs help.... Sorry Mom, can't come today, the bus stops running at 7pm!
And of course, we could insist that everyone sell their condo and move when their life or career changes, but that's pretty presumptuous of us...
I love living car-free and I know a lot of city-dwellers have cars buried in snow that they obviously don't use every day. But it doesn't always work and life throws curve-balls.
^Agree
Our car was cleaned off on the day of the storm. The car is used to get to Stoneham after I am dropped off at my in-Boston office. Plus I, too, have an elderly parent not easily accessed by public transport: Maine. Yes, we've tried to get them to move closer, but they love the deal they have on their health insurance and don't believe they can get the same low cost here.
Certainly respect those needs
Certainly respect those needs. My only question is to whether or not there are some folks who own a car and need it so rarely that they could realize tremendous savings annually by utilizing zip car, daily rentals occasionally. Avoiding costs of fuel, insurance, repairs and maintenance, monthly car payments, inevitable ticketing and towing Boston etc. As we continue to grow as a city AND a region, it's going to be something that we;ll have to look at more as parking becomes more difficult and traffic becomes gridlocked more and more often.
Agree (but)
Agree with everything you say. But many people here assume you live near X, therefore there is no excuse whatsoever to own a car, and anyone who does own one is a selfish A-Hole. In turn, I find those people overly judgemental (and annoying).
I love living car-free and I
And then people adjust accordingly. If you need ample parking, you won't buy a condominium with no parking. Why is this so hard for people to understand?
I personally don't own a car
I personally don't own a car and I will only choose to work for places where I don't need to drive. If my company moved to a location where I needed to buy a car, I would probably just change companies. But if I did choose to stick with them and buy a car, I'd just rent a parking space near my home either from a neighbor or a nearby garage.
I think most people wouldn't
I think most people wouldn't be so casual about changing jobs. You have to consider the benefits, professional relationships, etc. that you'd be leaving behind.
My condo came with a mountain bike
It was pretty much destroyed after 6-8 months of my stupid neighbors using it.
Tragedy of the Commons
I predict this car will be banged up, bombed out, and reeking of pot and dog urine within 6 months. No individual will have any incentive to keep it nice.
6 months??
I’ll go ahead and take the under on that, please.
Cheech and Chong
My sentiments exactly.
BUT, if you are paying $900K, I think there will be appealing lifestyle surroundings throughout