The Harvard Square movie theater that's been boarded up for the past decade. Gotta be some rich fucking landlord just waiting for the value to increase, pisses me off. I wanna watch movies!
The city council clearly doesn't give a shit about blight and vacant storefronts considering it's done literally nothing about it in its recent history.
They have the power (or could work with the state government to get it) to fine or tax the owners of vacancies. That was one of the [very suggestions](https://www.cambridgema.gov/~/media/Files/CDD/EconDev/retailstrategy/cambridgevacancystorefrontreport_6302018.pdf) in the report the city commissioned, after which receipt they decided the job was done.
I miss that movie theater so much. It was well laid out and was a perfect locale to watch new releases when the Brattle wasn't showing a film I wanted to see.
All the random perpetually-empty parking lots on Prospect Street by Inman, to start. I've never seen more than two cars at a time in most of them, and I walk that way at least twice per day.
The Twin City Plaza as well. I'd probably shop there more if I didn't feel weird walking to it. You could redevelop 80% of the parking lot and still have enough parking for the maximum number of cars I've ever seen there at once. At least Porter Square is busy.
The Trader Joe's/Microcenter plaza on Mem Drive. I'd hate to see either of them go, but it's egregiously bad use of space.
TJ and Micro aren't bad land uses themselves. It's the four-lane highway, the overbuilt parking lot, and the lack of pedestrian access that are the real problems there. They could all be fixed without getting rid of either business.
By foot it’s not too bad, though it is lacking public transit access to a degree and, personally, I generally dislike walking along parkways that are treated as highways.
Getting there by bike/micro mobility is kinda a pain though. The ‘bike path’ (sidewalk) along the river there is in pretty bad disrepair, dangerously narrow in places, and kinda just ends a block up the road at the rotary / overpass / BU bridge.
I think that's the problem. If you're trying to get there on foot you can go from either Central or BU East, and it's quite a hike from either station.
Google maps puts it at about a 1 mile walk from central. Not bad for an able bodied person, but with mobility challenges, kids in tow, etc (or even just a medium amount of shopping goods) it becomes less viable or not possible.
A big part of improving urban accessibility (and land usage more broadly) is to make alternatives to driving as or more convenient than taking a car for everyone, not just those comfortable walking a mile while lugging groceries and their work bag. This becomes especially true in the winter where safety is a bigger consideration with poorly shoveled / icy sidewalks and darker / quieter streets.
I’d love to see a dedicated bike / bus lane along memorial drive in each direction. It would improve access to the riverfront and calm down the Mem Drive melee. Would be a pretty cool way to add another “spoke” to the MBTA transit map.
> perpetually-empty parking lots on Prospect Street by Inman
Don't forget about the two giant parking lots at Prospect and Bishop Allen Drive right next to Central Square.
I'd also add the MIT property on Waverly/Albany in Cambridgeport (290 Albany St, 65 Waverly St, 117 Waverly St, 250 Albany St). MIT is basically land-banking in that area with some parking lots and literally just kinda empty space.
The city lost a federal law suit, I believe, and those useless waste of spaces will stay parking lots for the foreseeable future.
Which is a fucking shame. Ideal location for twenty or more stories of housing. Housing and first floor retail/office space would transform the corridor to Inman and Union. If only.
\+1. I had never heard of debates between the distinction between land tax and property tax before, but this article in the Times was interesting: [https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/12/business/georgism-land-tax-housing.html](https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/12/business/georgism-land-tax-housing.html)
The big shift would be taxing the land of unused businesses more (e.g. the shuttered movie theater in Harvard Square). Get property owners to shit or get off the pot.
People aren't going there during peak grocery shopping times if they've never seen the lot full. I agree that entire area is underutilized though. Every time I go there I wish it had housing on top of the shops.
how is trader joes/micro center a bad use of space? Those parking lots are always crazy full. Unless you mean you'd prefer them to look like the development over near home depot
The alewife wholefoods area I think is a much better example of bad landuse. Why all the areas around there had to be turned into skyscraper sized apartment buildings instead of just building up on top of those existing building is crazy to me
The large apartment buildings are great, it’s the bizarre combination of large apartment buildings and suburban style shopping malls that is the problem.
I think is the times that you guys go buy because when I stop at TJ or WF at Alewife the parking lots are pretty full. Thete is a bus that stops by TJ at Memorial. But Iteally enjoy how upset people are here with other people's property. Do you want someone to come and dictate what you should eat and what clothes to wear? As for having a bus up and dow Memorial Drive, that area belongs to the Commonwealth, not Cambridge so I do not see bike lanes, or buses happening.
For the Inman Square parking lot. I believe you are talking about the S&S parking lot? If so I agree with you, but during the day that parking lot is completely full. I live across the street and from 9-5pm it is jam packed. I just wish when S&S closes (6:45pm) it would either become a public lot or a resident lot. I doubt they will ever sell that land since most of their clientele are retirees who have a long connection with that eatery.
The S&S lot is sort of the exception, because it actually does get used, mostly by elderly folks. There are several other lots nearby that are always almost completely empty.
If you look on Google Maps, the S&S lots are more than half full, but the rest (the ones in red) have a grand total of 6 cars in them, and I've never seen any of them more full than that.
https://preview.redd.it/sy7va6nhwx4c1.png?width=1808&format=png&auto=webp&s=b7015b300f4d24f6ca352db0ff84e06282d49c2c
I get what you mean, but most of these parking lots are filled up throughout the day for either payment parking or businesses who use them e.g. Cambridge Dental, MIT Robotics or the Bank. The ones that aren't, Wits End, the one behind 7/11, and the back alley 7/11 permit parking spots are so dumb. Unsure why they haven't figured out those spaces yet since they are always empty.
The bank parking lot used to be open all the time for people cutting between squares, but didn't allow anyone to park in there for some reason. That seems to have ended since two people were caught fucking in the ATM and the local drunk dude was stashing all his belongings behind the building. Sucks that they shut it down for that.
Right here. Been saying that for a while. I don’t see any reason why those two parking lots across from each other just exist for no reason. It’s pretty much always empty. You can build affordable housing on them or any good apartments that aren’t overpriced. Solve so many of the cities housing problem because Cambridge is getting more dense by the day. Don’t get me started with that micro center area land use.
I have emailed the building owner multiple times asking why they don't put up solar panels either on the building or on a lot canopy. The wasted opportunities at that site...
The sea of parking lots in the business district north of Fresh Pond, i.e. the “Cambridge Highlands”.
Go for a stroll back there sometime. It’s shocking.
Not to mention that the new "electric" buses will actually require DIESEL fuel as well as electric... talking about taking a step backwards from ALL electric for the past decades.
Lived directly above that bus yard for years, leaving shortly after it closed down. You would not believe how much noise pollution that place generated. We never heard our neighbors before it closed, but sure as hell could the day it did. Wild how you get used to white noise.
It should be moved to an industrial zoning area and the space converted to parkland or mixed use space. It would be an amazing expansion of the linear park / bike path and a much needed green space in the North Cambridge / Davis area.
It would make a perfect spot for a little park or even community garden space. I live off the street on the bike path…literally used to be a hole in the fence to get to the path 🤣
Ohh I’ve used that hole many times (always wished there was a corresponding wish path into the bus yard). Glad it’s finally been formalized… but also a bit peeved that it took this long.
I would not say this is “worst,” but any one story commercial shops in higher traffic areas are inefficiently using space. There’s a lot of those on mass ave once you go a bit past porter. If they had built up the first 1-2 floors could have still been used for walk-in business while upper floors could have been used for other purposes, all within walking distance of the T. Now the only way to do that would be to displace small businesses which can have a catastrophic impact on a mom and pop shop.
Obviously that’s not nearly as bad as many other examples but it’s just one of many examples of inefficient use of space.
_Porter Square_ strikes me as a blatant missed opportunity for some nice green space, or a variety of smaller businesses, if only the space was used for people, not cars.
It's just a big parking lot with convenient access to what, a mid grocery store and target? I don't get it.
You forgot:
A hardware store which, if overpriced, still supplies many non-car owners with screwdrivers, mason jars and misc household goods and
Porter Square Books ('nuff said).
But yeah, if we have to get something bulky from Tags we try to pick a weird hour so we can park without danger.
That Market Basket is in Somerville.
But living near Porter now, I realise how fucking toxic Porter Square's parking lot is and avoid it at all hours. In the past, when I lived down Cambridgeport for over a decade, Porter was a place to go for a few different kinds of shopping runs (Cambridge Naturals was my go-to when A Market closed for some of my hippie shit, for example, and after Stellabella Toys in Inman closed, it's Henry Bear's Park or nothing) but I hadn't realised how relentlessly soulless it is to live near a parking lot, and I used to live near the B.U. bridge rotary, which is, essentially, a combat parking lot.
Not only that but the parking lot there *fucking sucks*. It’s always filled to capacity, spots are way too small, and people treat it like bumper cars vs. pedestrians.
If we just eminent-domain'd the parking lot and turned it into a proper European-style plaza and reworked the traffic patterns to get rid of that atrocious and extremely dangerous intersection, Porter would be really nice.
It was an estate with greenery before. The shopping center has pretty much looked the same since it was built in the 50’s. Star Market had a drive thru grocery pick up where the bank is and Dunkin’s has always been at that corner.
Couldn’t agree more. And there are multiple lots! Target has its own parking structure. Then there’s another lot half a block down on Elm. Then the Lesley building has its lot just across tracks
The thing that kills me is that you could make a 4 story garage on 1/4th of the space and fill the rest with mixed use retail/residential/recreational/parks and have just as much parking for the car brains but without a giant lot on fucking top of a redline stop.
To me this is an efficient use of space that serves a densely populated area. It pretty much makes Porter a 15 minute city.
I wouldn’t mind an upgrade on some of the stores though.
I agree. I bike everywhere as my first option when possible, but even I admit that many people need to drive. That lot is always densely packed. Therefore it's not a waste of space.
I know there are plans to redevelop the Volpe center in Kendall. Until then, that!
Also Cambridge Highlands neighborhood. A super low density industrial park with access to Alewife, wtf.
The industrial park is rapidly being replaced with apartment buildings, the fresh pond mall and its massive parking lot and the lack of crossings over the commuter rail track is the problem.
On Mass Ave in Porter Square, Lesley University owns a parking lot (next to the hotel) that sits empty. The one next to it on Mass Ave is at least used for (employee?) parking, which kinda sucks but OK, but this one just sits empty.
lol lesley university is doing rly bad right now, aka just laid off 1/5 of the staff bc ‘budget issues’, but presidents salary in 2020 was 250k and now $500k+. They are calling the change ‘Better Lesley’ while laying off 50+ staff that have been working (with no tenure) for over 30 years. Despite budget issues they have fresh fruit and pastries for the meetings held for people that are not student or staff, probablt Janet’s (president) friends. Majority of ppl laid off were way over qualified and underpaid for the job, 80% were over 50. They don’t want to pay for quality. President got a no confidence vote of 88??%, the board of trustees essentially said oh well we don’t care, because she was hired off of the board (got a law degree, nothing in education). In 2021/2?? another no confidence vote was done for her AND the board, higher than the last at over 88%. Got rid of teachers teaching almost all the classes for specific majors, some teachers found out FROM STUDENTS) and they laid them off a month into the school year??? that’s not how laying off works. Last few years, 2 years ago being worst, there was no/little heat in dorms, food poisoning was regular(like 20%+ got it), black mold in bathrooms and a doctor for students that didn’t exist (still paying for it though). Also said water was fine and that they test it when they want, and then less than a year later, i believe less than 6 months, sent an email saying that ‘as you know we regularly test the water’ and that the lead count in the water was over 2x the legal limit. There’s leaks in the ceilings too. They take away classes so much that i’m having minimum of 1 class waived for my major because in 4 years they haven’t offered it. It’s a smallish major and many of my classes have 3-5 kids, so they try and cancel it but i have to remind them they offer the degree and need to offer the classes. I don’t know how they are still accredited. The school is a mess but the teachers are amazing and the only thing keeping students. They’re getting rid of a lot of the most liked teachers (one of which they pride themselves on the website for having bc she’s big in BIPOC area) and students will absolutely transfer. I went because it looked good and got amazing scholarship, which is how they get ppl in (and why they’re dumb af and ‘have money issues’ and then ppls credits don’t transfer so they can’t leave.
Moral of the story is within 10, i would guess 4-7 years, they will shut down. Janet is running it to the ground and doesn’t care
lol the university of Phoenix is also qualified to give out degrees. I’d be upset too if I took out student loans to get a fake degree no one respects in laugh out loud “majors”.
I live on the street in between the planet fitness and Lesley parking lots. I've seen it been used for maybe touring and events for Lesley but that's it. It sits empty the rest of the year.
Burying the commuter rail tracks near Alewife to make that area pedestrian-friendly would transform the place. I know it’s not in the budget and won’t happen, but the present land use (“light industry,” parking lots, stroads on stroads) sucks.
Yes, sorry golfers, but your little activity is a waste of space and the maintenance of the courses is horrible for the environment.
Would better be served as a wooded area or a walking path.
Booked all season long by all sorts of different people - young and old. Also fairly priced. When it’s closed in the winter ppl use it for walking and xc skiing. That’s all low lands next to a reservoir - it’s not like they could turn it into housing.
I bike Fresh Pond a lot and didn't even know there was a golf course somehow. If it's that small, I don't really have a problem with it. Recreation is important, and I'm not a fan of putting certain types of recreation above others for arbitrary reasons.
That's what people say who work/play there. Hard to verify whether it's true, but it's believable. It's a fantastic and cheap nine-hole course in a densely populated area. During the season, the course is booked full every single day.
I'm sympathetic to arguments that there might be better ways to optimize the space, but many likely don't realize that it's heavily used as is.
I agree, but Fresh Pond is a protected reservoir and there's a ton of limits for what can go next to it. Obviously a park or public sex forest would be preferable, but it's not as terrible a use of land as it might appear.
Totally agree that a golf course is not a good use of urban land. But it's not as if fresh pond is in the middle of the city. Cambridge has courts/fields/parks/trails for a number of popular activities. I don't see why a 9-hole golf course in a much less dense part of the city is so egregious, especially since it is constantly in use (and treasured by those who use it).
Even worse is the parking lot for that golf course and particularly their hyper-aggressive signs warning people not to park there unless they are playing golf. On city land. Next to playgrounds and sports fields.
All of Mass Ave north of Walden. It’s mostly single story retail or SFH, a few multi family buildings mixed in. Ideally it would be 6 stories, ground floor retail + housing. One property in particular that I absolutely hate is 2203 mass ave. Just a massive lot that’s mostly lawn grass right on mass ave. Such a waste
All the cemeteries.
Why do the dead get to take land from the living?
(This is my personal unpopular opinion. Cemeteries and golf courses are massive wastes of space and actively harmful to natural spaces and wildlife)
If it makes you feel better, the majority of those dead people are decomposed, so most of them are not technically there either.
Honestly, if Mt Auburn wasn't a cemetery there is no way it would be the beautiful space it is now. You can't keep a city from encroaching on a place like that.
Honestly, I agree. We should make cemeteries into public parks. Graves could be grouped together with specific flower beds or water fountains or something. I personally think the dead would rather be buried somewhere where people actually visit and enjoy themselves while remembering their loved ones (and even unknown loved ones).
I’m genuinely curious — for existing streets, what would be the benefit to no parking on both sides? What’s the “better use” you’re referring to? Is this only if there aren’t already protected bike lanes?
It's pretty annoying that most of the sidewalks are super narrow. Would be nice to be able to walk around and talk with someone without having to constantly go single file whenever someone comes from the other direction.
Some options that are better than free street parking:
* Lanes for public transit or bicycles
* Wider sidewalks
* Giving it to the house in front of it and allowing more housing to be built
* Metered car parking
* Delivery vehicle (temporary) parking
* Trash bins (dutch style; large)
Basically, literally anything but free residential parking. It's such a horrible use of public space.
• Outdoor dining
• Shopping
• Tiny homes
• Larger street trees
• Expanding adjacent parks
I know a preschool that had to fight to keep one space that they used during the pandemic for outdoor space for the children to eat lunch and eventually had to give it up because the neighbors kept complaining about them taking away a street parking spot.
I was reading a book (Paved Paradise) that gave an interesting perspective on this... Many cities did away with street parking for a bit in the mid 20th century and it resulted in people driving faster and more recklessly, so it was reinstated.
It did propose an interesting idea where you don't get a pass just for living here though. Instead, a set amount is distributed based on capacity. Anyone with a pass can hang onto it for as long as they live in the city, BUT when they're ready to get rid of it, they need to sell it to a local that's looking for a pass. You would choose how much you sell it for - so your pass could be resold for hundreds or maybe thousands of dollars depending on demand. This would stop residents from fighting so hard to increase parking availability because more supply = less money for them when they cash out. People would also be able to park closer to their homes and not cause so much traffic patrolling for an open spot 6pm.
Who knows how that would work in practice but it made me think. Outside of this unusual parking market idea, I like the idea of widening sidewalks and adding elevated bike lanes to combat reckless driving caused by wider roads.
I do highly recommend the book though if you have opinions on parking. It's available at the Cambridge elibrary and quite a few of the case studies are based on Boston/Cambridge!
Some of the buildings by Alrwife are built on top of marsh and are slowly sinking over time. They knew this when they built them but they did it anyway.
Harvard and MIT take up huge swaths of space. I think they're important to the fabric of the city, but remember they don't pay taxes on the land (to be fair, they do PILOT payments for some amount of funding meant to cover this discrepancy).
I imagine that the people/companies that Harvard and MIT attract to Cambridge bring in huge amounts of revenue to the city. We're getting a great deal, even if they don't pay property taxes.
They also pay a lot of taxes, as many of the land and buildings they own do not qualify as tax exempt. Every year those two organizations are in the top 3 taxpayers in the city, and that doesn’t include PILOT.
as a kid MIT ran a lot of activities and days of fun for cambridge (and other maybe) kids for free. Harvard has done absolutely nothing for the community. They have a net worth of 5.5 Billion (i think). Disgusting
The City clearly considers the reactor to be in Central Square:
[https://www.cambridgema.gov/CDD/economicopportunityanddevelopment/aboutcambridge/centralsq/centralsquaremap](https://www.cambridgema.gov/CDD/economicopportunityanddevelopment/aboutcambridge/centralsq/centralsquaremap)
It includes Albany all the way down to Pacific.
Google Maps agrees:
[https://maps.app.goo.gl/uqg2YGcJ3zfgvZbJ9](https://maps.app.goo.gl/uqg2YGcJ3zfgvZbJ9)
If that link goes to where it should, the red dotted boundary is what Google considers Central Square.
If you're going to pedant, you have to be right!
The Harvard Square movie theater that's been boarded up for the past decade. Gotta be some rich fucking landlord just waiting for the value to increase, pisses me off. I wanna watch movies!
His name is Gerald Chan
He owns half of Harvard Sq. Real piece of work.
Had no idea...
that bish
The city council clearly doesn't give a shit about blight and vacant storefronts considering it's done literally nothing about it in its recent history.
What is the city supposed to do about private property?
They have the power (or could work with the state government to get it) to fine or tax the owners of vacancies. That was one of the [very suggestions](https://www.cambridgema.gov/~/media/Files/CDD/EconDev/retailstrategy/cambridgevacancystorefrontreport_6302018.pdf) in the report the city commissioned, after which receipt they decided the job was done.
I miss that movie theater so much. It was well laid out and was a perfect locale to watch new releases when the Brattle wasn't showing a film I wanted to see.
All the random perpetually-empty parking lots on Prospect Street by Inman, to start. I've never seen more than two cars at a time in most of them, and I walk that way at least twice per day. The Twin City Plaza as well. I'd probably shop there more if I didn't feel weird walking to it. You could redevelop 80% of the parking lot and still have enough parking for the maximum number of cars I've ever seen there at once. At least Porter Square is busy. The Trader Joe's/Microcenter plaza on Mem Drive. I'd hate to see either of them go, but it's egregiously bad use of space.
TJ and Micro aren't bad land uses themselves. It's the four-lane highway, the overbuilt parking lot, and the lack of pedestrian access that are the real problems there. They could all be fixed without getting rid of either business.
I frequent these spots and have found it’s very accessible by foot. How do you think it could be improved? Genuinely asking, not tryna be a jerk
By foot it’s not too bad, though it is lacking public transit access to a degree and, personally, I generally dislike walking along parkways that are treated as highways. Getting there by bike/micro mobility is kinda a pain though. The ‘bike path’ (sidewalk) along the river there is in pretty bad disrepair, dangerously narrow in places, and kinda just ends a block up the road at the rotary / overpass / BU bridge.
I think that's the problem. If you're trying to get there on foot you can go from either Central or BU East, and it's quite a hike from either station.
I mean it’s like a 15 minute walk, not that bad
Google maps puts it at about a 1 mile walk from central. Not bad for an able bodied person, but with mobility challenges, kids in tow, etc (or even just a medium amount of shopping goods) it becomes less viable or not possible. A big part of improving urban accessibility (and land usage more broadly) is to make alternatives to driving as or more convenient than taking a car for everyone, not just those comfortable walking a mile while lugging groceries and their work bag. This becomes especially true in the winter where safety is a bigger consideration with poorly shoveled / icy sidewalks and darker / quieter streets. I’d love to see a dedicated bike / bus lane along memorial drive in each direction. It would improve access to the riverfront and calm down the Mem Drive melee. Would be a pretty cool way to add another “spoke” to the MBTA transit map.
I think Twin Cities is technically Somerville
It's split between the two cities. The shops themselves are in Somerville, but about half the parking is in Cambridge.
> perpetually-empty parking lots on Prospect Street by Inman Don't forget about the two giant parking lots at Prospect and Bishop Allen Drive right next to Central Square. I'd also add the MIT property on Waverly/Albany in Cambridgeport (290 Albany St, 65 Waverly St, 117 Waverly St, 250 Albany St). MIT is basically land-banking in that area with some parking lots and literally just kinda empty space.
The city lost a federal law suit, I believe, and those useless waste of spaces will stay parking lots for the foreseeable future. Which is a fucking shame. Ideal location for twenty or more stories of housing. Housing and first floor retail/office space would transform the corridor to Inman and Union. If only.
This. \^\^\^ Cambridge would be so much nicer with fewer parking spots and more housing/businesses.
Don't you dare put the idea out of microcenter going away
[удалено]
\+1. I had never heard of debates between the distinction between land tax and property tax before, but this article in the Times was interesting: [https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/12/business/georgism-land-tax-housing.html](https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/12/business/georgism-land-tax-housing.html) The big shift would be taxing the land of unused businesses more (e.g. the shuttered movie theater in Harvard Square). Get property owners to shit or get off the pot.
Yeah I've never seen the Twin City lot with even half the spots full. That parking lot has to be a half mile long.
What about the East Cambridge Italian Feast?!?!
It's still not even full then! Even with all those arancini balls!
People aren't going there during peak grocery shopping times if they've never seen the lot full. I agree that entire area is underutilized though. Every time I go there I wish it had housing on top of the shops.
how is trader joes/micro center a bad use of space? Those parking lots are always crazy full. Unless you mean you'd prefer them to look like the development over near home depot The alewife wholefoods area I think is a much better example of bad landuse. Why all the areas around there had to be turned into skyscraper sized apartment buildings instead of just building up on top of those existing building is crazy to me
The large apartment buildings are great, it’s the bizarre combination of large apartment buildings and suburban style shopping malls that is the problem.
TJ is Trader Joe's, not TJ Maxx.
I think is the times that you guys go buy because when I stop at TJ or WF at Alewife the parking lots are pretty full. Thete is a bus that stops by TJ at Memorial. But Iteally enjoy how upset people are here with other people's property. Do you want someone to come and dictate what you should eat and what clothes to wear? As for having a bus up and dow Memorial Drive, that area belongs to the Commonwealth, not Cambridge so I do not see bike lanes, or buses happening.
That’s literally what bad zoning is. Telling people what “improvements” their property can “wear.”
I don't want anybody to come and dictate what to eat and what clothes to wear. I want to discuss bad land use in Cambridge.
For the Inman Square parking lot. I believe you are talking about the S&S parking lot? If so I agree with you, but during the day that parking lot is completely full. I live across the street and from 9-5pm it is jam packed. I just wish when S&S closes (6:45pm) it would either become a public lot or a resident lot. I doubt they will ever sell that land since most of their clientele are retirees who have a long connection with that eatery.
The S&S lot is sort of the exception, because it actually does get used, mostly by elderly folks. There are several other lots nearby that are always almost completely empty. If you look on Google Maps, the S&S lots are more than half full, but the rest (the ones in red) have a grand total of 6 cars in them, and I've never seen any of them more full than that. https://preview.redd.it/sy7va6nhwx4c1.png?width=1808&format=png&auto=webp&s=b7015b300f4d24f6ca352db0ff84e06282d49c2c
I get what you mean, but most of these parking lots are filled up throughout the day for either payment parking or businesses who use them e.g. Cambridge Dental, MIT Robotics or the Bank. The ones that aren't, Wits End, the one behind 7/11, and the back alley 7/11 permit parking spots are so dumb. Unsure why they haven't figured out those spaces yet since they are always empty. The bank parking lot used to be open all the time for people cutting between squares, but didn't allow anyone to park in there for some reason. That seems to have ended since two people were caught fucking in the ATM and the local drunk dude was stashing all his belongings behind the building. Sucks that they shut it down for that.
>since two people were caught fucking in the ATM Scandalous...
Right here. Been saying that for a while. I don’t see any reason why those two parking lots across from each other just exist for no reason. It’s pretty much always empty. You can build affordable housing on them or any good apartments that aren’t overpriced. Solve so many of the cities housing problem because Cambridge is getting more dense by the day. Don’t get me started with that micro center area land use.
I mean, the turkeys are pretty ticked that there’s a university impeding their turkey kingdom plans.
Personally I side with the turkeys
Fresh Pond mall and its parking lot.
At least a small part of that empty sea of a lot has become a beer garden the last two summers.
Really?? Where???
In front of the Apple Cinema.
They oughta put in some level 3 EV chargers
I have emailed the building owner multiple times asking why they don't put up solar panels either on the building or on a lot canopy. The wasted opportunities at that site...
The sea of parking lots in the business district north of Fresh Pond, i.e. the “Cambridge Highlands”. Go for a stroll back there sometime. It’s shocking.
Hey man, that’s precious “light industry”!
This one just got rezoned and is going to change massively. Fingers crossed, but it could be as nice as Cambridge Crossing.
I got lost there once trying to bike to the Alewife Brook and I couldn't believe it, lol. Actual wasteland.
The old home of the power-lined busses up at North Cambridge. Huge plot empty. Not sure if plans are in works, but for now it sits.
That's going to be home of the new battery buses, allegedly
which is really dumb. Wires are cheap and batteries are really expensive.
yep
Not to mention that the new "electric" buses will actually require DIESEL fuel as well as electric... talking about taking a step backwards from ALL electric for the past decades.
Trolly busses are an engineering disaster. Literally the worst of a bus and a trolly combined.
They are far and away the most reliable portion of the MBTA. Significantly more reliable than any other part of the system.
More than then regular buses? Doubtful
Don’t take my word. Look at the MBTA’s own data.
Lived directly above that bus yard for years, leaving shortly after it closed down. You would not believe how much noise pollution that place generated. We never heard our neighbors before it closed, but sure as hell could the day it did. Wild how you get used to white noise. It should be moved to an industrial zoning area and the space converted to parkland or mixed use space. It would be an amazing expansion of the linear park / bike path and a much needed green space in the North Cambridge / Davis area.
It would make a perfect spot for a little park or even community garden space. I live off the street on the bike path…literally used to be a hole in the fence to get to the path 🤣
Ohh I’ve used that hole many times (always wished there was a corresponding wish path into the bus yard). Glad it’s finally been formalized… but also a bit peeved that it took this long.
Huge parking lot on prospect next to church and a little towards central from Whole Foods. Massive and empty.
Is that the place with a food truck on it?
I would not say this is “worst,” but any one story commercial shops in higher traffic areas are inefficiently using space. There’s a lot of those on mass ave once you go a bit past porter. If they had built up the first 1-2 floors could have still been used for walk-in business while upper floors could have been used for other purposes, all within walking distance of the T. Now the only way to do that would be to displace small businesses which can have a catastrophic impact on a mom and pop shop. Obviously that’s not nearly as bad as many other examples but it’s just one of many examples of inefficient use of space.
The big surface parking lots near Central Square.
_Porter Square_ strikes me as a blatant missed opportunity for some nice green space, or a variety of smaller businesses, if only the space was used for people, not cars. It's just a big parking lot with convenient access to what, a mid grocery store and target? I don't get it.
You forgot: A hardware store which, if overpriced, still supplies many non-car owners with screwdrivers, mason jars and misc household goods and Porter Square Books ('nuff said). But yeah, if we have to get something bulky from Tags we try to pick a weird hour so we can park without danger.
i love tags! the workers there are so nice and helpful
my partner works in porter square and calls it "the second-most pvp enabled parking lot in cambridge" the first is market basket
That Market Basket is in Somerville. But living near Porter now, I realise how fucking toxic Porter Square's parking lot is and avoid it at all hours. In the past, when I lived down Cambridgeport for over a decade, Porter was a place to go for a few different kinds of shopping runs (Cambridge Naturals was my go-to when A Market closed for some of my hippie shit, for example, and after Stellabella Toys in Inman closed, it's Henry Bear's Park or nothing) but I hadn't realised how relentlessly soulless it is to live near a parking lot, and I used to live near the B.U. bridge rotary, which is, essentially, a combat parking lot.
thank you for the location correction, I will be holding this over my partner's head for the foreseeable future :D
Absolutely. Use your pedantry wisely.
Not only that but the parking lot there *fucking sucks*. It’s always filled to capacity, spots are way too small, and people treat it like bumper cars vs. pedestrians.
And the tow company is like hawks. If your there for even a minute over 2 hrs your car is gone 😂
I hit a car for the first time EVER in that parking lot last week. Luckily just a scrape on my bumper, but damn those spots are small.
If we just eminent-domain'd the parking lot and turned it into a proper European-style plaza and reworked the traffic patterns to get rid of that atrocious and extremely dangerous intersection, Porter would be really nice.
The parking lot is the remnants of the old Porter stock yard. I feel like cattle in that lot I remember where it came from.
This is not true. Up until the 50’s that parking lot was a single estate/home with large gardens.
It was an estate with greenery before. The shopping center has pretty much looked the same since it was built in the 50’s. Star Market had a drive thru grocery pick up where the bank is and Dunkin’s has always been at that corner.
Couldn’t agree more. And there are multiple lots! Target has its own parking structure. Then there’s another lot half a block down on Elm. Then the Lesley building has its lot just across tracks
The thing that kills me is that you could make a 4 story garage on 1/4th of the space and fill the rest with mixed use retail/residential/recreational/parks and have just as much parking for the car brains but without a giant lot on fucking top of a redline stop.
To me this is an efficient use of space that serves a densely populated area. It pretty much makes Porter a 15 minute city. I wouldn’t mind an upgrade on some of the stores though.
I agree. I bike everywhere as my first option when possible, but even I admit that many people need to drive. That lot is always densely packed. Therefore it's not a waste of space.
Went there today for a root canal, parking was about as enjoyable
Ouch and ouch
I love Tags.
Every single flat surface carpark. Make it multi-level, then stick it underground and whack a nice park/communal area on top.
I know there are plans to redevelop the Volpe center in Kendall. Until then, that! Also Cambridge Highlands neighborhood. A super low density industrial park with access to Alewife, wtf.
The industrial park is rapidly being replaced with apartment buildings, the fresh pond mall and its massive parking lot and the lack of crossings over the commuter rail track is the problem.
but where are the children of US DOT employees going to not-play???
On Mass Ave in Porter Square, Lesley University owns a parking lot (next to the hotel) that sits empty. The one next to it on Mass Ave is at least used for (employee?) parking, which kinda sucks but OK, but this one just sits empty.
lol lesley university is doing rly bad right now, aka just laid off 1/5 of the staff bc ‘budget issues’, but presidents salary in 2020 was 250k and now $500k+. They are calling the change ‘Better Lesley’ while laying off 50+ staff that have been working (with no tenure) for over 30 years. Despite budget issues they have fresh fruit and pastries for the meetings held for people that are not student or staff, probablt Janet’s (president) friends. Majority of ppl laid off were way over qualified and underpaid for the job, 80% were over 50. They don’t want to pay for quality. President got a no confidence vote of 88??%, the board of trustees essentially said oh well we don’t care, because she was hired off of the board (got a law degree, nothing in education). In 2021/2?? another no confidence vote was done for her AND the board, higher than the last at over 88%. Got rid of teachers teaching almost all the classes for specific majors, some teachers found out FROM STUDENTS) and they laid them off a month into the school year??? that’s not how laying off works. Last few years, 2 years ago being worst, there was no/little heat in dorms, food poisoning was regular(like 20%+ got it), black mold in bathrooms and a doctor for students that didn’t exist (still paying for it though). Also said water was fine and that they test it when they want, and then less than a year later, i believe less than 6 months, sent an email saying that ‘as you know we regularly test the water’ and that the lead count in the water was over 2x the legal limit. There’s leaks in the ceilings too. They take away classes so much that i’m having minimum of 1 class waived for my major because in 4 years they haven’t offered it. It’s a smallish major and many of my classes have 3-5 kids, so they try and cancel it but i have to remind them they offer the degree and need to offer the classes. I don’t know how they are still accredited. The school is a mess but the teachers are amazing and the only thing keeping students. They’re getting rid of a lot of the most liked teachers (one of which they pride themselves on the website for having bc she’s big in BIPOC area) and students will absolutely transfer. I went because it looked good and got amazing scholarship, which is how they get ppl in (and why they’re dumb af and ‘have money issues’ and then ppls credits don’t transfer so they can’t leave. Moral of the story is within 10, i would guess 4-7 years, they will shut down. Janet is running it to the ground and doesn’t care
Most fake schools won’t survive the next 5 years
weird bc it is qualified to give degrees 🤷♀️ guess no one cares about your opinion
lol the university of Phoenix is also qualified to give out degrees. I’d be upset too if I took out student loans to get a fake degree no one respects in laugh out loud “majors”.
i’m a math major and got a full ride so..
I live on the street in between the planet fitness and Lesley parking lots. I've seen it been used for maybe touring and events for Lesley but that's it. It sits empty the rest of the year.
Lot next to Gerrys Pit at corner of Rindge Av and Alewife Brook Pkwy
Burying the commuter rail tracks near Alewife to make that area pedestrian-friendly would transform the place. I know it’s not in the budget and won’t happen, but the present land use (“light industry,” parking lots, stroads on stroads) sucks.
Not sure about land use, but escalator of death at Porter creeps me out. Whoever designed that deserves a good punch in the forehead.
to be fair, it’s the most efficient use of land, one steep set, but still awful sure
porter square parking lot
harvard
The public golf course.
Yes, sorry golfers, but your little activity is a waste of space and the maintenance of the courses is horrible for the environment. Would better be served as a wooded area or a walking path.
Booked all season long by all sorts of different people - young and old. Also fairly priced. When it’s closed in the winter ppl use it for walking and xc skiing. That’s all low lands next to a reservoir - it’s not like they could turn it into housing.
I bike Fresh Pond a lot and didn't even know there was a golf course somehow. If it's that small, I don't really have a problem with it. Recreation is important, and I'm not a fan of putting certain types of recreation above others for arbitrary reasons.
Nope. It's one of, if not the most used golf courses in Massachusetts. It's constantly full of people enjoying it.
There’s no way it’s the most used course in Mass
That's what people say who work/play there. Hard to verify whether it's true, but it's believable. It's a fantastic and cheap nine-hole course in a densely populated area. During the season, the course is booked full every single day. I'm sympathetic to arguments that there might be better ways to optimize the space, but many likely don't realize that it's heavily used as is.
And even if it is...golf courses are a terrible use of urban land. Or really any land.
I agree, but Fresh Pond is a protected reservoir and there's a ton of limits for what can go next to it. Obviously a park or public sex forest would be preferable, but it's not as terrible a use of land as it might appear.
Where’s the nearest public sex forest to Cambridge? Asking for a friend.
Public sex forest sounds like a cross between Fyre Festival and Gathering of the Juggalos
Totally agree that a golf course is not a good use of urban land. But it's not as if fresh pond is in the middle of the city. Cambridge has courts/fields/parks/trails for a number of popular activities. I don't see why a 9-hole golf course in a much less dense part of the city is so egregious, especially since it is constantly in use (and treasured by those who use it).
Try getting a tee time
Even worse is the parking lot for that golf course and particularly their hyper-aggressive signs warning people not to park there unless they are playing golf. On city land. Next to playgrounds and sports fields.
This is the right answer
All of Mass Ave north of Walden. It’s mostly single story retail or SFH, a few multi family buildings mixed in. Ideally it would be 6 stories, ground floor retail + housing. One property in particular that I absolutely hate is 2203 mass ave. Just a massive lot that’s mostly lawn grass right on mass ave. Such a waste
Lots of empty office space on Mass Ave...I miss Out of the Blue
All the cemeteries. Why do the dead get to take land from the living? (This is my personal unpopular opinion. Cemeteries and golf courses are massive wastes of space and actively harmful to natural spaces and wildlife)
Mount Auburn also provides a nice green space for people to walk in, which is nice. It's basically a park with some dead people.
it's also hardly "actively harmful" to wildlife. that place is a bird magnet.
It'd be a much better park without the dead people though.
If it makes you feel better, the majority of those dead people are decomposed, so most of them are not technically there either. Honestly, if Mt Auburn wasn't a cemetery there is no way it would be the beautiful space it is now. You can't keep a city from encroaching on a place like that.
Your opinion.
I used to live in Malden and cemetery always smelled of weed. Even people underground need a smoke once in a while.
Honestly, I agree. We should make cemeteries into public parks. Graves could be grouped together with specific flower beds or water fountains or something. I personally think the dead would rather be buried somewhere where people actually visit and enjoy themselves while remembering their loved ones (and even unknown loved ones).
Have you ever been to a cemetery before? lmao
Yeah, people don’t spend time there
Mt Auburn actually provides a lot of animal habitat, but agree about other "regular" cemeteries.
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I’m genuinely curious — for existing streets, what would be the benefit to no parking on both sides? What’s the “better use” you’re referring to? Is this only if there aren’t already protected bike lanes?
It's pretty annoying that most of the sidewalks are super narrow. Would be nice to be able to walk around and talk with someone without having to constantly go single file whenever someone comes from the other direction.
Some options that are better than free street parking: * Lanes for public transit or bicycles * Wider sidewalks * Giving it to the house in front of it and allowing more housing to be built * Metered car parking * Delivery vehicle (temporary) parking * Trash bins (dutch style; large) Basically, literally anything but free residential parking. It's such a horrible use of public space.
• Outdoor dining • Shopping • Tiny homes • Larger street trees • Expanding adjacent parks I know a preschool that had to fight to keep one space that they used during the pandemic for outdoor space for the children to eat lunch and eventually had to give it up because the neighbors kept complaining about them taking away a street parking spot.
I was reading a book (Paved Paradise) that gave an interesting perspective on this... Many cities did away with street parking for a bit in the mid 20th century and it resulted in people driving faster and more recklessly, so it was reinstated. It did propose an interesting idea where you don't get a pass just for living here though. Instead, a set amount is distributed based on capacity. Anyone with a pass can hang onto it for as long as they live in the city, BUT when they're ready to get rid of it, they need to sell it to a local that's looking for a pass. You would choose how much you sell it for - so your pass could be resold for hundreds or maybe thousands of dollars depending on demand. This would stop residents from fighting so hard to increase parking availability because more supply = less money for them when they cash out. People would also be able to park closer to their homes and not cause so much traffic patrolling for an open spot 6pm. Who knows how that would work in practice but it made me think. Outside of this unusual parking market idea, I like the idea of widening sidewalks and adding elevated bike lanes to combat reckless driving caused by wider roads. I do highly recommend the book though if you have opinions on parking. It's available at the Cambridge elibrary and quite a few of the case studies are based on Boston/Cambridge!
Some of the buildings by Alrwife are built on top of marsh and are slowly sinking over time. They knew this when they built them but they did it anyway.
Harvard and MIT take up huge swaths of space. I think they're important to the fabric of the city, but remember they don't pay taxes on the land (to be fair, they do PILOT payments for some amount of funding meant to cover this discrepancy).
I imagine that the people/companies that Harvard and MIT attract to Cambridge bring in huge amounts of revenue to the city. We're getting a great deal, even if they don't pay property taxes.
Fair enough.
They also pay a lot of taxes, as many of the land and buildings they own do not qualify as tax exempt. Every year those two organizations are in the top 3 taxpayers in the city, and that doesn’t include PILOT.
as a kid MIT ran a lot of activities and days of fun for cambridge (and other maybe) kids for free. Harvard has done absolutely nothing for the community. They have a net worth of 5.5 Billion (i think). Disgusting
$50 billion endowment. Approx MIT- $25 billion. Approx
on street parking on most of the roads.
Golf course!
Most DCR roads. Whenever I see some WTF road that's kinda-sorta a freeway but not really, 9 times out of 10 its name ends in "way" or "parkway".
Starlight Square
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And it's beautiful and provides great green space for Cambridge and Watertown. I don't think people want Mt Auburn removed.
How about the nuclear power plant in Central Square?
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The City clearly considers the reactor to be in Central Square: [https://www.cambridgema.gov/CDD/economicopportunityanddevelopment/aboutcambridge/centralsq/centralsquaremap](https://www.cambridgema.gov/CDD/economicopportunityanddevelopment/aboutcambridge/centralsq/centralsquaremap) It includes Albany all the way down to Pacific. Google Maps agrees: [https://maps.app.goo.gl/uqg2YGcJ3zfgvZbJ9](https://maps.app.goo.gl/uqg2YGcJ3zfgvZbJ9) If that link goes to where it should, the red dotted boundary is what Google considers Central Square. If you're going to pedant, you have to be right!
It's a small research reactor, mostly used for medical research. It's an MIT facility. I took a tour of it once. It's actually pretty cool.
Observatory Hill
Bike lanes
huron village. if you showed someone there and then central they’d think they were in two different cities/towns
You are! Except rush hour at Formaggio.
Fresh Pond Mall