Not a word about it in the Tab, although the Globe’s Ellen Ishkanian was there and did an article for the October 19 Globe West, but it was standing room only in the Aldermanic Chamber last week for the October 15 public hearing on Alderman Amy Sangiolo’s proposal for a moratorium through year-end 2015 on demolitions of single- and two-family houses. It may feel, as Obama once said about health care I think it was, that ‘everything has been said, and just about everyone has said it,’ but if you want to hear a lot of passionate people, here they (we) are, all three hours of us. This audio seems to be working. (Not all do; the yourlisten website is rather unpredictable) And there are tracks, so you can skip to your favorite people/topics, though I don’t get many characters of description, so these blurbs are just clues.
You can read Amy’s Memo to Zoning & Planning, and follow along with the audio of Amy’s presentation, and the sort-of rebuttal by Eve Tapper from Planning Department. I say ‘sort-of’ because they seemed to agree there was a problem, but the solution was Zoning Reform. And a lot of the houses in her pictures were really hard to see. (Just sayin’, being a photographer.) Amy’s presentation now has all the house by house detail on size and price changes, for those who don’t believe their own eyes.
I read Ald Sangiolo’s presentation. It contains good examples of the tear downs and replacements and where they are located. Thanks for posting it.
Julia, I commend you for your terrific journalistic expertise regarding this issue. In my neighborhood there have been some excellent renovation and tear downs. However recently we have also witnessed a one family lot replaced by 4 town house all squished together which is awful.
I do believe your aim is to slow down rapid change in the housing stock. However I do not think a moratorium will have the designed impact. The key component of economic growth is low interest rates. Until they go back to normal levels such as 6% this unusual growth pattern will continue at an unhealthy rate.
I attended this public hearing. I think these public hearings are my favorite time to be in that chamber.
The speakers, including the so-called “average” citizen, do such a great job stating their case with reasoned passion. Very informative and helpful.
Amy’s presentation was sharp, powerful and convincing. It’s what moved me in the direction of supporting the moratorium. That demolished giant Tudor on Sargent Street was one of my favorites and one I used to show out of town visitors.
I didn’t really understand eve tappers rebuttal presentation, it seemed to only reinforce the necessity of the moratorium. This was especially true when she showed a slide of some of the neighborhoods that have been hit with multiple builds and asking the question “what’s the character the neighborhood now?”
On page 7 of Ms. Tapper’s rebuttal, she includes a slide entitled “which house was demolished and rebuilt?” Well, that would be the enormous, out of scale house pictured in the center of the photograph with the 2 car, side-facing garage dominating the front yard.