City and Area 4 Meetings - Meeting Tonight

[Jules C]

To both Moore and Squirrel gardens,

There's been a lot of proposals, plans, meetings, zoning issues, etc. that both the major real estate holders of Central & Kendall, the city, and developers these days. This impacts both gardens in a few ways - our voice should be heard for more garden and open spaces, it impacts our ability to garden with 160 sq/ft tall buildings are being proposed and built by our gardens, and as many of you are residents within Area 4/Central Sq. area, that you are deeply impacted by these upcoming events, discussions, and planning. 

So I just wanted to say to both gardens is that from what I've seen and heard, there's been a lot of unease and unhappiness with what is being proposed right now. To leave politics aside here, it's just important for both gardens and residents of this area to be informed, share our opinions and thoughts, and have input into the ideas and plans. 

If you are interested:

1. Tonight there is a monthly Area 4 Coalition meeting, I've attached the Area 4 list email below. I will be there, I hope others can make it. 243 Harvard st., dinner at 6:30, meeting starts at 7. 
2. There is a central sq. study, kendall sq. study, and a K2C2 study that conjoins both. They have meetings all the time and they are interesting, important, and need resident and gardener's attendance. 
3. The City has numerous events going on now, which seek input from residents about proposed changes mostly in the central sq. area. 

So please pass this along to any cambridge residents and other public gardens. One thing I can tell you is if any group/club or neighborhood wants to have an impact in the city's big bold plans for cambridge and certainly central and kendall sq., they will listen and our city councilors must listen. So I hear a lot of this these days "well I want more gardens, I don't want 14 story buildings in central, I had no idea they were trying to do that, how do I get informed and involved."

To which I just say, come to meetings, meet some folks like you, and lets have a dialogue about what we would like in this area. If we do not speak, if we do not attend meetings, if we do not let our Zoning Board and City Councilors know that we support this and not that, then we will have a voice in crafting change. 

I can provide more meetings and lists, I can simply say that there's a lot of groups in this area that are upset if not outraged, so they all want to participate and this is a great start for some of us to be involved. I think that's what cambridge is all about, being and staying special. The way we have to get that is by showing up and asking for it. 

Julian

Garden Co-Coordinator Moore Street Garden

Area 4 Resident

Upcoming Events:

On May 4 you got a notice from Roscoe of the next Area 4 Coalition meeting on Thurs. May 10 at 7pm at the A4 Youth Center on Harvard St.at Essex St.  I want to clarify that the May 10 meeting will begin to address the development issues that we heard about at our April meeting.  The last section of the agenda is about forming committees that the Area 4 leadership thinks will be helpful in organizing the neighborhood to respond to the development threats we heard about in April. 

Because the Area 4 leadership knows we will not have enough time at the May 10 meeting, they scheduled a follow-up meeting about development on Thurs. May 17 at 7pm at the Pisani Center.   We will have a full two hours to work on the development issue. I have attached the flyer for the May 17 meeting, and pasted the content below.  I hope people will make copies of the flyers and distribute them widely in Area 4, posting them on bulletin boards in local businesses, and leaving copies in local non-profits for people to pick up.  (I had said at the April meeting that I would organize a meeting to respond to the upsetting development proposal we heard.  The Coalition leadership was concerned that the time was too short to do that before the May 10 meeting, so that is why the follow-up meeting is May 17.)

Lastly, the next meeting of the Central Square Advisory Committee: 2011 will be held on Wednesday, May 9,  6:00 – 8:30 PM, at the Cambridge Senior Center, 806 Mass. Ave.

Topics:  Understanding development economics; Urban Design & Public Space.  Information on the Kendall Square-Central Square Planning Study (K2C2) is available at http://www.cambridgema.gov/k2c2/index.  If you have any questions, please contact Iram Farooq at ifa...@cambridgema.gov or 617-349-4606.

Even though the idea of tearing down part of Newtowne Court has been dropped for now, the other changes proposed for Area 4 are huge, and there is a lot of money and power involved, so I urge you to participate in all three of these meetings.  I especially urge you to come to the May 10 and May 17 meetings led by the Coalition so we can start working together.

The elected Area 4 Coalition co-chairs are Richard Goldberg <Rich_G...@brookline.k12.ma.us>, and Annie Small <asm...@margaretfullerhouse.org>.  They are both unpaid volunteers.  As you likely know, Roscoe Thomas is the part-time paid coordinator for the Area4 Coalition.

I hope to see you and work with at these meetings,

Lee Farris

PS.  Since the Area 4 email list is mostly to announce things, feel free to reply to me at <lee.f...@verizon.net>, or contact Roscoe, Richard, and Annie.

ALSO TONIGHT

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Area 4 Coalition Meeting, email list, website below:

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Hello all, this is to remind you of our monthly Area 4 Coalition meeting being held this evening  at the Area 4 Youth Center located at 243 Harvard St.  we will begin at 6:30pm with a meal and starting the meeting itself at 7pm.  We have a full agenda so please  be on time.

 

Cordially,

 

Roscoe Thomas

Area IV Neighborhood Coordinator

Margaret Fuller Neighborhood House, Inc.

71 Cherry Street

Cambridge MA, 02139

(c) 617-308-6420

rth...@margaretfullerhouse.org

 

" A healthy community

is a garden that people

grow in"

 

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