Dan's profile - coUrbanize

Commented on Mary Ellen McCormack Redevelopment ^{3 months, 3 weeks ago}

This (above) is a crock of what makes the grass grow. All this takes money and employees!! Give the project five years and all the above will be boarded up due to a lack of staff and money! A garage in the middle of a hosing project is one of the worst things they could do! The drug trafficking will be tremendous. A supermarket where project ppl will be stealing from added the congestion/noise and ppl from outside the project coming in and out to do their shopping......it's a Columbia Point/Bayside all over again!! You'd think we would have learned once already developments this large just don't work!

Supported a comment by gelfi colon on Mary Ellen McCormack Redevelopment ^{3 months, 3 weeks ago}

gelfi colon
Every year is the same excuse, this is horrible for the oldest and largest project in Massachusetts.

Commented on Mary Ellen McCormack Redevelopment ^{4 months, 3 weeks ago}

I've heard from reputable source that MEM is not coming down, a new project is not being built! Reasons are several but logistics of such an undertaking is not fees able / profitable and the end result would be just another Columbia Point! Money always plays a big part!

Commented on Mary Ellen McCormack Redevelopment ^{9 months ago}

It's so political!!! As pockets get deeper the start date gets pushed further away!

Commented on Mary Ellen McCormack Redevelopment ^{10 months, 2 weeks ago}

They should keep the row houses! Remodel the facades! And grow Ivy along the walls as it was back in the 30's and 40's. We lived in a 5.5 room row house for 32 years, put a fourth bedroom in the basement!

Commented on Mary Ellen McCormack Redevelopment ^{1 year ago}

The project was built in 1932 the craftsmanship was excellent the project is built like the Roman Coliseum! It's all political it's coming down because of politics former Mayor Walsh was the head of the labor unions he's giving back work to the labor workers for voting for him. It's all politics their tearing down a 1,027 unit housing project and building a monstrosity of 3,000 units it's another Columbia Point! You can put in all kinds of stores, garages, senior center employment offices, supermarkets and clubs it's still a housing project. With a garage and a housing project drugs will be rampant! 10 to 15 years from now the stores will be boarded up and they'll be looking for ways to remodel it! Very sad State of affairs

Commented on Mary Ellen McCormack Redevelopment ^{1 year, 2 months ago}

Winn developments are known for their "popcorn architecture", the current MEM is still standing strong after 85 years! The craftsmanship that went into building the project back in 1932 can't be repeated. Irish and Italian laborers from the old country built the project with the best materials of the time. You can bet the new MEM will never stand 85 years and look as good as the current MEM!

Commented on Mary Ellen McCormack Redevelopment ^{1 year, 2 months ago}

If the first phase is to commence in the spring of 2023, and tenants are receiving a 12 month notice it's now summer 2022 have the tenants been notified yet? I've heard nothing yet!

Commented on Mary Ellen McCormack Redevelopment ^{1 year, 2 months ago}

Why are you putting all seniors in the same building? How depressing is that? Just because they're seniors doesn't mean they all have to be lumped together in one building! This shows the mentality behind this project! Will only apartments in this building be pre-wired for Life alert? How sad.

Commented on Mary Ellen McCormack Redevelopment ^{1 year, 2 months ago}

You said that the first construction will commence in spring off 2023 and tenants will be given a 12-month notice, it's now the summer of 2022 have they been notified yet?

Commented on Mary Ellen McCormack Redevelopment ^{1 year, 3 months ago}

Take the buildings down, but remodel the row houses with a new facade. We all know the existing MEM buildings and row houses are in excellent condition!! The project is being rebuilt to give laborers a big thank you to the former Mayor Walsh formerly the head of the labor union for voting him into city hall. The buildings/houses are in great condition. It's all politics!!

Commented on Mary Ellen McCormack Redevelopment ^{1 year, 3 months ago}

Keep the row houses!

Commented on Mary Ellen McCormack Redevelopment ^{1 year, 3 months ago}

It will be a shame to watch the row houses being demolished! They were built in 1932 and the craftsmanship can never be repeated! The new development will never stand 85 years.

Commented on Mary Ellen McCormack Redevelopment ^{1 year, 3 months ago}

I understand that there will be a washer and dryer in every unit! That will be 3,000 washers and dryers! This should keep maintenance busy IE plumbers everyday of the week!

Commented on Mary Ellen McCormack Redevelopment ^{1 year, 7 months ago}

Erin, the original Old Harbor Village had everything for children. Playgrounds, basketball courts, building basements had playrooms, lavatories, cooking classes (some of the old stoves are still in the basements), coin washers and areas to hang clothes in the basements as well. The home economics rooms were popular during WW2 teaching girls how to cook. Boy scout meeting rooms, and basement rooms for arts and crafts. All of this was left to rot as years went by. Drugs, crime and the type of element you'll hopefully not see again as a 3000 tenement monstrosity is built on acreage where and existing 1,027 units are currently built. Sad!

Commented on Mary Ellen McCormack Redevelopment ^{1 year, 7 months ago}

Erin, the original Old Harbor Village had everything for children. Playgrounds, basketball courts, building basements had playrooms, lavatories, cooking classes (some of the old stoves are still in the basements), coin washers and areas to hang clothes in the basements as well. The home economics rooms were popular during WW2 teaching girls how to cook. Boy scout meeting rooms, and basement rooms for arts and crafts. All of this was left to rot as years went by. Drugs, crime and the type of element you'll hopefully not see again as a 3000 tenement monstrosity is built on acreage where and existing 1,027 units are currently built. Sad!

Commented on Mary Ellen McCormack Redevelopment ^{1 year, 9 months ago}

Hopefully is a big word there!

Commented on Mary Ellen McCormack Redevelopment ^{1 year, 11 months ago}

This is a typical w i n n development. New single family homes, private Apartments condos and then the rest will low income housing. They do not want all SSI recipients living together all welfare recipients living together. At the end of the day it'll be less available for low-income housing
It will be like Harbor housing where the old Columbia Point project used to be

Commented on Mary Ellen McCormack Redevelopment ^{2 years, 1 month ago}

I can't see this happening for very long!! It's a new housing project where there was 1027 units on 27 acres. Now with the same acreage a 3000 unit housing project is going up. Garages, shopping center, and a host of stores, and other municipal / employment / senior center and counseling amenities. Sounds great! Spaces need to be rented, employees need to be found/hired and pay checks need to out weekly. This just isn't going to happen. Three years after opening stores and rented centers will be boarded up; lack of reliable personnel, lack of funding, and a high supermarket theft, forcing it to close its doors. This is Columbia Point/Bay Side Shopping Mall all over again! There'll be building and garage elevator problems, throngs of ppl from outside the project coming into the project to shop. On street parking will become impossible. A garage in a housing project is a recipe for crime. Thirty years from now, they'll want to tear it all down! Sad.

Commented on Mary Ellen McCormack Redevelopment ^{2 years, 1 month ago}

I can't believe what I am reading, all this lawlessness on o'callaghan way! Back in the 1960s we had a pizza truck that would come around through the project up and down the streets selling pizza way after dark never a problem! We had no cameras we had no security guys. You really have to think not too hard to see how things have changed

Followed Mary Ellen McCormack Redevelopment ^{2 years, 1 month ago}

Commented on Mary Ellen McCormack Redevelopment ^{2 years, 1 month ago}

We lived in a row house back in the 60s 70s and 80s it was the quietest neighborhood you ever lived in. Back in the 60s you could actually leave your door unlocked!

Commented on Mary Ellen McCormack Redevelopment ^{2 years, 6 months ago}

You can forget about washers/dryers, BHD has not the manpower to keep up the repairs. With 3000 units opposed to the 1027 current units there will be plenty of elevators, and garage doors to attend to.

Commented on Mary Ellen McCormack Redevelopment ^{2 years, 6 months ago}

The above comment is written in Spanish, yet you're asking for my response in English.

Commented on Mary Ellen McCormack Redevelopment ^{2 years, 9 months ago}

Lived in a row house 1942 to 1982. I remember when there was ivy growing up along the brick walls of the row houses. Nearly every front yard had a tree; with bushes and greenery everywhere. Will never see that again.

Commented on Mary Ellen McCormack Redevelopment ^{2 years, 9 months ago}

Maryanne. I lived in a townhouse 5.5 rooms, turned basement into another bedroom/study for 35 years. Plenty of space!! Note many of the two bedroom apartments have a balcony/porch. When my grandparents moved in in 1936, the building basements came equipped with washing machines, clothesline fencing. There were nursery school, playrooms, and bathroom facilities in the building basements. Some of the buildings came equipped with stoves/sinks where cooking classes/home economic classes were taught to mothers. Twenty, if that, years later all the facilities were boarded up due to a lack of maintenance, personnel, and funds. It's called housing project plight! I expect the new housing project in twenty five years to look no different than any other housing project. A 3000 unit congested project is really not the way to "house" people. I though Columbia Point was end to all of this.

Commented on Mary Ellen McCormack Redevelopment ^{2 years, 10 months ago}

They had a Stop and Shop, Almay's, and a Zayre's at the Columbia Point project fifty years ago. The project was demolished. The crime rate was out of control. The store's had to close the shop lifting was so bad. The high rise buildings, and the congestion was ghetto!! Here we go again. MEM housing project was built by the Irish and Italian immigrants. Their craftsmanship was that of perfection. MEM does not have to be torn down, this is a political move by Mayor Walsh to get his cronies ( labor unions ) work. He owes them a big thank you, Walsh was head of the labor unions before they all voted him in as mayor.

Commented on Mary Ellen McCormack Redevelopment ^{3 years, 1 month ago}

Anne, they are only building a housing project. Their starting off "grand", a year and half after opening I can only imagine that most of, garage included, amenities; stores, employment centers, vocational training sites will be boarded up. Again it's only a housing project, it's not Admiral's Hill.

Commented on Mary Ellen McCormack Redevelopment ^{3 years, 1 month ago}

This would be discrimination based on merit. Everyone is equal, there can be no preferential treatment for tenant longevity. Whether you've been on O'Callaghan Way thirty years or thirty days no one gets an apartment any quicker than anyone else based on merit. I lived in a row house for 35 years. I also know of third generation row house tenants whose family has passed down keys going back to the 1950's; on the same row house! We lived in a 5.5 room row house and turned the basement into a bedroom.

Commented on Mary Ellen McCormack Redevelopment ^{3 years, 2 months ago}

You're building a 3000 unit housing project. With a supermarket, garage, and dozens of other amenities. How long do you think it'll be before the supermarket closes, the garage is roped off, and all the other amenities are boarded up...with ghetto graffiti sprawled across the plywood? Look at COOP city in the Bronx it's a mess. Mixed income only puts frosting on the ghetto.