Booming Beacon

1. All this overdevelopment is ridiculous! It drove me out of my hometown. How many apartments and condos do you need? Who will buy or rent them with the prices so high? Will never understand how and why all these projects were approved.

2. I feel very sad that the Beacon I loved no longer exists. The prices are incredibly high and the town has lost its quirky, lovely mix of people to become a wealthy, dull, overcrowded and overblown place. Why did this happen? There is no vision of beauty but greed took over once again.

3. It looks like all the planning over the years is finally paying off. More and more run-down properties are being purchased and renovated, along with the new buildings Beacon property values are finally increasing and the city is looking good.

   There will always be people who complain the prices are too high, but at least the people that took the gamble years ago in the 1980s, 1990s and early 2000s are finally reaping the benefits of their investments. Living here for over 40 years I do believe the change is for the better, and sure more traffic, more congestion and new issues come along with the changes, but at least Beacon seems to be moving to a higher class of life.

4. People are interested in moving to Beacon, and up until this development happened, there was nowhere for them to move to. At one point, Beacon had a less than 1 percent vacancy rate. Prices rose. Supply and demand. Now, with more places to live, prices should stabilize, at least through the next economic cycle. Beacon is better than ever! It’s still lovely, quirky and awesome; and now there will be tax income to fix infrastructure and to bring Beacon up to speed. There is now a possibility of economic development and good paying jobs. I’m optimistic. I love living here; I love our community. Overall, I believe that there is a lot more positive than negative generated by the development detailed in this article.

5. I have a doctorate in public health with an emphasis in community building. I have lived in Beacon for 20 years and have watched and participated in the changes.

   Transitions are always fraught with unintended or unexpected consequences and must be managed correctly. Beacon has narrow roads and an increasing traffic problem and an acute parking problem. We need multi-leveled parking structures. Why not have the developers help pay for the parking structure rather than hope it disappears?

   Another option is to vary the scale and height of buildings, shorter in front and higher in back so that many more have a view.

   One should read Jane Jacobs, The Death and Life of Great American Cities. First the poor occupy unneeded land, then the small business and artists move in because space and rent is cheap. Then the wealthy move in because of the culture, rent goes up and the poor and the artists and the businesses move out and everyone wonders what happen?

   This process must be regulated and one must have a plan. Our plan is not even finished. Variances are easily obtained and the process is chaotic, to say the least.

   We are losing the diversity of the community. A third of black residents have moved out, and many Hispanic residents are following suit. Diversity makes the community stronger and better. We are also losing the retired and elderly because they cannot afford the rents.

   1. Rather than multi-level parking structures for Beacon, first the city needs better public transportation, including more and better useful sidewalk space along Main Street.

      While The Death and Life of American Cities is a must-read for any discussion of how communities can (and in retrospect, sometimes do) defend against destruction, it must be seen in the context of when it was written — the singular age of Robert Moses. This book was written in a far more optimistic times (1961). Moses was, in fact, after decades, on the cusp of being stopped.

      A somewhat more-recent book, Human Scale, by Kirkpatrick Sale, is perhaps more immediately relevant to the circumstances in which Beacon is faced today. New construction that is (and continues to be out-of-scale) with existing is having a vast transformative effect on Beacon as a community. It’s mostly a deleterious one. However, it’s probably yet to be seen by new residents and by new students most clearly, and only after the perspective of time. The vast changes to New York City from to the last few decades of building can however by studied today.

      A far more recent book, How to Kill a City, by Peter Moskowitz, is useful though far more dismal in the sense that it describes the situations of the communities within four cities largely after their “destruction,” after they were too late to stop.

      I also recommend Jane Jacobs’ last book, Dark Age Ahead (2004). But note the complete difference in the tone of this title. The title is indicative of how the alignment of political and economic forces have shifted in favor of the wealthy and against the more common interest.

      There is a vast literature on urban studies and on urban sociology. It is only peripherally my field. I find it difficult to believe no one currently resident or active in Beacon has seriously studied this field, and applied the study locally with appropriate public recognition. But apparently not.

      Regardless, up till now the mass of interested and active parties within Beacon have not been sufficiently critical to prompt an adequate study and response. Partly it may be that as changes occur many who are impacted are too busy dealing with them at the local or detail level to have the time or energy to do a more thorough study of the larger picture (as did Jacobs). Beacon is a small city, and therefore the number of residents and local stakeholders has been very limited. The forces driving change in Beacon are far larger and more powerful: regional and larger economic circumstances and associated decision makers. A more powerful response and critique to these changes (one from, if you will, a more alert and informed Greater Beacon) is desperately needed.

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