Harvard Proposes New McDonalds

[Bostonm...@aol.com]

Hello Everybody:

 

Hope you all have suntans and are looking good!

 

We are active again in AB North and need your input on an important issue..  Harvard has submitted an amendment to the BRA on the current Charlesview proposal.  As you know, the current Charlesview proposal has received final approval from the BRA.

 

The approved Charlesview project includes the demolition of the Western Ave. McDonalds.  This amendment requests that a new McDonalds be built, about 75 feet away from its current location.  Relocating McDonalds allows new Telford St. to be constructed  The amendment also allows Harvard to secure site control that allows the Charlesview financing to close. 

 

On this Thursday night, August 12th, Harvard will present this version of McDonalds to the community at a BRA sponsored community meeting, Honan Library at 6:30 PM.  Please attend.

.

While recognizing that McDonalds has been here for decades, they are part of the solution.  However, the community has been through an extensive community planning process with the BRA and Harvard for the last two years.  We have come up with design parameters for Western Ave. that includes a retail and commercial mixed-used Main Street that improves the quality of life for Allston and Brighton residents.  Our planning also includes a plaza, relocated Star Market, height requirements, and the like.  Unfortunately, a free standing, drive through McDonalds does not conform to the design ideas we've planned, and if developed as proposed, would preclude the right community development.

 

A reasonable short term goal is to engage the City and Harvard and revisit planning discussions to arrive at a mutually acceptable design for McDonalds.  We are hoping to "start a fire" on Western Ave. - birthing a new retail district and giving our community some economic life.  We don't feel the McDonalds building as proposed achieves that.

 

Can you attend the meeting and voice your ideas?

 

Gratefully,

 

Tim McHale, for the ABNNF Steering Committee

 

[johnath]

Are you sure you want to fight this? Moving an existing McDonalds 75
feet doesn't sound that dramatic.
Give a little and you may be better off.
John Thompson
Brighton

[colleen salmon]

Moving McDonald's 75 feet is not a big deal.  I think the resident's of Allston and Brighton (including myself) should not fight about insignificant changes in the area. --- On Wed, 8/11/10, johnath <joh...@comcast.net> wrote:

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[David Evans]

Is it just the moving or keeping a free-standing suburban structure and
not becoming part of an urban street?

[kmsl...@aol.com]

I am concerned about the lost opportunity to" build the street"as you point out. We won't see any development in Barry's corner for a very long time while the Science Complex site sits vacant and probably none at the other end of Western for a while. The Holton St corridor is likely to be our best shot at revitalizing a commercial district that Harvard decimated through landbanking. A free standing McDonald's doesn't constitute a catalyst the way the community planning processes proposed. Given the amount that will be invested to recreate the same type of McDonald's 75 feet down the street, why not invest in the kind of development that many neighbors supported in two planning processes?
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

[Wmami...@aol.com]

any truth to the rumor that Harvard has a purchase and sale with The Stockyard

[hynespb]

I don't think the fight is about moving the mcdonalds, the fight is
about the design and implementation of a new mcdonalds, and how it
should help the community reach its goals. A 1 story freestanding
mcdonalds does nothing to help the community grow, whereas, say the
mcdonalds was located on the ground floor of one of the new buildings,
it would create a more active, mixed use community.

On Aug 11, 2:52 pm, colleen salmon <colleen_sal...@yahoo.com> wrote:
> Moving McDonald's 75 feet is not a big deal.  I think the resident's of Allston and Brighton (including myself) should not fight about insignificant changes in the area.
>

> --- On Wed, 8/11/10, johnath <john...@comcast.net> wrote:

[John Eskew]

I won't be able to attend the meeting on Thursday night. But I am
opposed to re-creating the McDonald's in the asphalt-surrounded,
drive-thru-ready format that it's in now. This situation is the
perfect opportunity to create a retail section that caters to walking
city-dwellers more than commuters - let's attempt to make it better.

> --
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[Shirley Kressel]

This is the right approach -- make it an urban design re-do so it contributes to the pedestrian streetscape.

In Back Bay, Trader Joe's opened a store a few years ago, designed for the city instead of its usual suburban locations.  It has no parking, makes productive use of the basement of a row building, provides small-footprint two-level shopping carts.  It brought all the good and none of the bad.  I wrote a column praising TJ at that time.  (Since then, TJ also began a donation program for items at freshness date, more good.)  I think we need to work will businesses to make them part of the solution, so when a redesign opportunity arises, let's make good use of it.  We have row-building fast-food and convenience stores in Back Bay; it's all in the mix.

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Shirley Kressel
27 Hereford Street
Boston, MA 02115
617-421-0835 home
617-515-3403 cell
www.shirleykressel.com