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Allston residents fed up, again, with development plans by the entity that owns a third of the neighborhood

By adamg on Thu, 03/24/2022 - 9:46am

And that entity is, of course, Harvard. The Crimson reports.

Neighborhoods: 
Allston
Topics: 
Development


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Comments

By Doug Meyer on Thu, 03/24/2022 - 10:41am.

That otherwise reasonably informative piece includes this entertaining gaffe:

"In the late 1980s, Harvard began expanding its Allston campus . . . Boston's mayor at the time, Thomas M. Menino, called Harvard’s acquisition strategy “the highest level of arrogance seen in our city in many years.'”

[italics mine]

To be sure, Menino's reign was legendarily long--but it would it certainly come as news to Ray Flynn that the Menino administration commenced in the late 1980s.

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By adamg on Thu, 03/24/2022 - 1:52pm.

Harvard may have begun their secret land acquisition under Flynn, but it came to light under Menino (who took office in '93).

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By Username Unknown on Thu, 03/24/2022 - 10:52am.

Remember when Harvard was discussing rerouting the Charles River to expand its Cambridge side campus? That's when you know you have money...

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By anon on Thu, 03/24/2022 - 2:35pm.

Yeah, that plan was quietly dropped. It's hard to find information about that plan by Rem Koolhaas, but here's one article.

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By Bostonperson on Thu, 03/24/2022 - 2:51pm.

Harvard has the largest college endowment in the country at over $50 billion dollars.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/hanktucker/2022/02/19/how-americas-wealthie...

There are also a lot of issues with how these endowments are taxed

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2020/02/18/wealthiest-universities-a...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/04/27/so-you-want-tax-rich-...

https://www.bloombergquint.com/amp/onweb/richest-u-s-colleges-would-bene...

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By Dexter on Thu, 03/24/2022 - 12:59pm.

"Keep Allston Grimey!"

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By Brightonian84 on Thu, 03/24/2022 - 5:28pm.

You know Harvard could care less about Allston when they removed all the resident parking signs on western ave after north Harvard and then changed the zip code to 02163, Boston. Not Allston. How little they care. Looks better for when you exchange mail. Harvard university Boston, ma 02163.

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By anon on Thu, 03/24/2022 - 2:36pm.

Isn't this what zoning is for?

What happens if Boston says, fine, this land is zoned residential? Problem solved?

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By adamg on Fri, 03/25/2022 - 11:09am.

Zoning is what the BPDA says it is. All Harvard has to do is file a "planned development area" proposal, which lets the BPDA throw out a given parcel's zoning completely and negotiate something with Harvard (any developer with plans for sites with more than a certain amount of land - an acre, I think - can do this). And, in fact, that's just what Harvard did with its 14-acre Harvard Enterprise Research Campus off Western Avenue.

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