The explosive growth that has made Cambridge one of the country’s foremost life sciences and technology hubs is meeting resistance from some residents who complain that commercial development is overwhelming city neighborhoods.
That opposition has already scored one major victory: stalling a proposed 246,000-square-foot office and lab complex near Central Square that would house drug maker Millennium Pharmaceuticals. And now more development could be in question as residents have submitted a petition to City Hall to “downzone” a number of parcels around Central Square, including the planned Millennium site, making them less suitable for large-scale development.
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I'm sure Somerville would love to have them--just a stone's throw from Cambridge.
Cambridge needs tax revenues and a great public school system. Why they would turn away Millennium is short sited. Attack Uber is another bad idea. No growth is not going to improve the lives of Cambridge citizens . Governor Patrick should get involved as this affects the entire state and not just Cambridge
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Short sighted indeed! A school department budget that spends almost twice the state per-student average. A city that still provides excellent services to its' residents. They fail to realize that biotech/Pharma is the economic engine of the city. They also forget they currently enjoy the lowest residential property tax rate in the commonwealth, due to the presence of such an industry.
Another way to look at it: tech colonized the working class neighborhood of East Cambridge to the point where there is not much working class left there. Now it's running out of space and oozing towards Central, which has the benefit of being home to more educated, middle- and upper-class families who have the clout and know the language to fight these behemoths. Ironic that a neighborhood first needs to be gentrified to a certain level before it can be saved.
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Why jeopardize the affordability that low property taxes have given to Cambridge? Real estate is high, but this is offset by low low taxes. I love living in Cambridge and don't understadn the anti-everything attitude. Millenium has been a pretty good neighbor thus far and Boston and every other area would love to have them. Big mistake, very short sighted. WHen we are #1 in number f $1 million plus houses (which we are now) and our taxes are like Wayland (OUCH!) then you'll see a real flight from Cambridge.
Mr. Weisman, it is obvious that you didn't even talk to your Globe colleague Michael Farrell, who reported on the Boston Properties/Google proposal, much less do any other research. Even your graphic makes it quite clear that the 26,000 square foot building BP wants to construct on the public roof garden is not a walkway. Had it been just a walkway, there would have been no problem with the neighbors that couldn't have been worked out easily. Like the Globe editorial board, you were misled by the intentionally deceptive rendering BP showed. The rendering was a lie, and it isn't the only lie associated with this exceedingly bad idea. Our two local papers, Cambridge Day (www.cambridgeday.com) and the Cambridge Chronicle (www.wickedlocal.com/cambridge), have far better information than anything the Globe has printed on the subject since Mr. Farrell's original stories. Instead of writing yet another simplistic and predictable NIMBY story of evil Luddites standing in the way of Progress (not to mention truth, justice and the American way), you could try subjecting the claims of both sides to a little journalistic analysis. It would make a better story and might even help people who don't know the area understand what's motivating people. For example, Susan Yanow filed her downzoning petition to force a discussion of what sort of development makes sense in Central Square, something the city council is generally allergic to doing, bent as most of them are on caving in to everything developers ask for, if not more. You could at least have reported that the petition was allowed to expire because Forest City came up with new enticements (possibly extending the affordability of some expiring use housing in University Park) at the last minute. There really are stories here, and both sides have reasons for what they're doing, but nobody will know about them if you don't do a little digging instead of stenography (thank you, Stephen Colbert).
the comment about "big glass buildings" says it all - these companies are building very unfriendly, architecturally cold buildings which do not add character to a neighborhood - they detract and repel people. Often they are totally dead after about 5 pm, an dif they do have anything "going on" it's more often than not a high end restaurant with valet parking - not very user friendly either. Or a bunch of banks and real estate agents.
I live in JP where we don't have any such big buildings and we like it that way - and I sympathize with Cambridge residents who are disinclined to allow the march of big cold lifeless glass buildlings further into their very lively community. Seaport is a fine place for them!