PunishedDommyMommy t1_jbua7ny wrote on March 11, 2023 at 7:38 PM

Reply to comment by ClarkFable in Board of Zoning Appeals shutting down Starlight Square, rejecting city council & Central Sq. Business Improv. Assn. requests to renew by Cav_vaC

You mean like the organization offered to do? With no response from residents?

AMWJ t1_jbvbynv wrote on March 12, 2023 at 12:22 AM

I get that, but I don't think it falls on residents to figure out how to provide a noise-proof community. This is on the zoning board, and on Starlight for not handling those inevitable concerns from the very beginning.

PunishedDommyMommy t1_jbvd8ef wrote on March 12, 2023 at 12:32 AM

> noise-proof community

How can you possibly expect to live in a noise proof community in Central Square? In any major US metropolis for that matter? That's an absurd bar to reach.

They repeatedly reached out to neighbors directly to ameliorate the issues as much as possible though:

> Through dialogue, we would be able to better understand what those one-on-one fixes might be,” Monestime told the board. Though his organization had reached out to neighbors to make these assessments, “no one has taken us up on it.”

What more do you want from them? Noise reduction strategies would be a one-on-one fix. Whether it's better windows for one apartment, better insulation for another, etc.

Events also ended at 9pm and earlier on some days.

AMWJ t1_jbvjgsx wrote on March 12, 2023 at 1:22 AM

I didn't mean fully noise-proof, but noise-reduction to what the levels were before Starlight opened.

What more do I want? In addition to the one-on-one fixes, they mention some structural solutions, like barriers, that I wanted them to consider proactively, rather than now that they were being shut down.

And, while I understand they did everything they could do to reach out for one-on-one repairs, I can also sympathize with a resident who doesn't want to engage with the institution that made their living space louder: if my next door neighbor started playing drums throughout the day, I'd be skeptical of their attempted solution of "thicker doors", and be more in favor of "stop playing drums".

The Starlight should've reached out to the building owners, and the city, proactively before these noise concerns started. Maybe they did, but the article's quote makes it sound otherwise.

some1saveusnow t1_jbw1dnm wrote on March 12, 2023 at 3:53 AM

You’re lucky this is only the Cambridge sub or else you’d be -35 by now. Reddit is super anti-NIMBY. You make good points, and I’m someone that enjoyed Starlight. But yes they obvi aren’t getting that noise down to at or below starlight levels, and for that poster to suggest that residents who may have been there before have to just deal with it cause “that’s what central square is”, don’t understand how residential neighborhood politics work, or local politics in general. I mean, half of Reddit doesn’t either. In the city subs it’s like 75%

PunishedDommyMommy t1_jbwyy37 wrote on March 12, 2023 at 10:41 AM

> don't understand how residential neighborhood politics work, or local politics in general.

Bemoaning the extreme NIMBYism in Massachusetts does not indicate anything about my understanding of local politics. Believe it or not local politics takes many forms, and I believe Cambridge and Boston in general get it wrong, both structurally and on many individual issues.

I am also not telling them to "deal with it". I'm asking them to engage in good faith with the offers put forth by organizers to mitigate noise issues.