February 03, 2010

Inquiring minds

Excavating crews working at the site of the old gun range on Chandler, behind the Walgreens. Anyone know what is going on.

Maybe Winn wants to build a low-mod housing development??

15 comments:

Paulie's Point of View said...

lets hope not:>)

I went out with a gal years ago who is a big wig with Stop & Shop..and was involved in S&S going in there..member when S&S wanted in but were stymied by west side little leaguers..something about the bldg blocking the natural sunlight onto the ball parks on the other side...how many jobs on this side lost...how much revenue in taxes to the city lost..future positive development on our side of Chandler lost...and Park Avenue...whatever it is lets hope those of us impacted 24 7 have a say and not little league parents effected 1 hour a day for two months

David Z. said...

Does anyone know if more LL fields are going in? Which league owns the other fields? If anyone knows, there may be some info on their website if they are in fact building out more baseball diamonds.

Sean Dacey said...

I've been down at Ted Williams Little League since 1983. I've never heard anything about our league stopping construction on the site due to sunlight. It's an illogical argument anyway- the majority of the games are played in the afternoon, where the sun sets in the west. The empty lot is to the east.

The city owns the entire park. I'm on the board of TWLL, and nothing has been said to us about developing fields on privately owned property abutting the park.

The rumor I heard about that whole parcel being undeveloped for so long had to do with wetlands protection signed into law during the Weld administration. S&S couldn't develop their site as quickly as the Big Y over on May Street.

Sean Dacey said...

Also, the property between Walgreens and Beaver Brook is owned by the Kroc family trust. Until two years ago, it had been the stalled under family differences, creative 'accounting' and lawsuits. That's why that property is vacant.

Paulie's Point of View said...

this was ten years ago when walgreens was built not recently...Kroc had a deal with S&S..west side LL had a big say in conversation..and light on fields was mentioned..no jive here as I followed the issue a lot...

Paulie's Point of View said...

S&S had the zoning Big Y did not and needed a varience which it got

not gospel but I have no doubt politics played into this with Big Y being a central mass biz and S&S hailing out of Quincy..kick in the animosity between the Kroc family and the city and walllalla a vacant lot for 10 years

Sean Dacey said...

There is no West Side LL. Ted Williams LL is at Beaver Brook. Do you mean Ted Williams LL as your West Side LL?

When exactly did this happen? I've been on the board at TWLL since 1998, and never had a discussion about S&S.

I remember the old factory being torn down in '93 or so, and discussion about a supermarket in the following years.

Paulie's Point of View said...

SFD..I call anything west of Park Avenue the west side...it has been ten years since S&S was denied the spot...I do not have a file on it handy..the LL that uses the adjacent fields wasn't the only factor but they were vocal about the proposed S&S building proposed..

Paulie's Point of View said...

not meant to besmirch LL...point was meant to translate out that more were effected by S&S and the other development that would have come with it during a good time than those who were against it and for the reasons they were against it..

Jahn said...

Paulie my limtied recollection of the proposed S&S was that too many folks in Wormtown were using excuses not to build that S&S which excuses were all a crock of you know what.

IMO, a few pols were also doing all they could to hold it up.................poss. some bad blood there.

Then a few years later the code dept warriors went over to a nice west locale possibly owned by same certain unfavored players and busted up what they euphemistically referred to as Ba++ys Frat house. Seems the poor owner had 4 unrelated Assumption students alllegedly living in a certain single family house and like all college kids they like to imbibe a few on weekends..........West siders are not exactly enamored with that kinda behavior in their 'hood...so they had the place busted as an alleged illegal, unlicensed roomming house.

The Worc Zoning ordinance deems more then 3 unrelated people living a dwelling unit to be a lodging house. My recollection is that City inspectors were scoping the place out at night and taking down license plate numbers to determine who lived there and their relationship (or lack thereof) to each other. Seems it got even worse on weekends when these students imbibed and then decided to engage in the horizontal bop, resulting in 8 cars on teh site all night and 8 unrelated (hopefully) occupants.

BTW Marsha Croakley says this limiting of occupants based on realtionship is unconstitutional and last I heard a group of city taxpayers were suing the city over this very issue in other locales. I have wondered what happened to the case and I also wonder if the city just let it ride until the semester ended knowing they may be on weak legal ground.

Myself, I often wondered how 4 cars registered to 4 unrelated people posits that are necesarily 4 unrelated people living at a particular site. Ever see how many names are certain Piedmont are mailboxes. Ya suppose they all live there? It was even worse years ago when the monthly checks came via snail mail vs teh electronic deposits now used.

Meanwhile so many city owned properties are crumbling and no one ever seems to see them. Dittos for so many uncut and unshoveled CDC owned properties.

Paulie I make a motion that the littel league area henceforth be called West Piedmont as it is still kind of a commercial and 3 decker hood

Sean Dacey said...

I only ask about West Side LL because Ted Williams draws most of our kids from the Village of Piedmont. I can guarantee you that most of the West Siders don't consider Beaver Brook to be part of the West Side.

If S&S truly happened in the past 10 years, no one from TWLL officially opposed the development. It never came before our board. As a matter of fact, the City has a sterling reputation for ignoring us on everything regarding Beaver Brook, even when they are redeveloping the fields we maintain for them.

(However, 10 years ago Wayne Griffin, former D5 City councilor was president of the league, and he had a habit of making statements on behalf of the league).

Paulie's Point of View said...

is the Ted Williams LL loking for team sponsors?

Paulie's Point of View said...

I may be interested in sponsoring a team...if a need what is the cost and what else would I have to do?

Sean Dacey said...

We always are looking for sponsors, whether it is team sponsors or sign sponsors.

Shoot me an email and I can give you the details.

unfashionablesentiments@gmail.com

Jahn said...

SFD, did these statements have anything to do with illegal tree houses on the Little league site?

Hey it coulda been worse .....ya coulda had Spellane as your LL spokesman (alleged)....complete with the Spellane drama played out right on Chanlder St.