The future of Fort Hill

Derek reports on a BRA meeting last week about new development on the west side of Roxbury's Fort Hill.

... Things started going downhill in my group when we moved on from the topic of parking to density. Personally, I'm a big fan of density. I loved it when I lived in London and Japan and enjoy walking through the Back Bay, Cambridgeport, and Jamaica Plain. From what I remember hearing, dense communities tend to be safer ones because the residents have a greater degree of familiarity with each other and they look out for one another more often. On a purely emotional level, though, I enjoy dense neighborhoods like Cambridgeport and Jamaica Plain because of the uniformity of appearance (all brownstones or all triple deckers with no breaks in between) and because I find the jumbled and varied sights and sounds to be appealing to the senses. Unfortunately, some of my neighbors don't share the same impressions. ...