Lydia Edwards joined the North End / Waterfront Neighborhood Council meeting on Monday, February 12, to provide city council updates and answer questions from attendees. Watch the full video here and follow along with the summary below.
(0:13) Lydia Edwards is the Chair of Housing and Community Development for the City of Boston and has been appointed to the “linkage fund”. If developers choose not to put affordable units in a building (13% is required), they can pay into this fund. Edwards is now one of the trustees who votes on where this money goes – job creation and training or affordable housing.
(1:06) Edwards believes the housing policy in the city should be three-fold:
1. Building – hold developers to standards that are sustainable, environmentally friendly and reflect the character of our neighborhoods.
2. Protecting our neighborhoods – make sure current residents aren’t pushed out in the rush to build.
3. Ownership – create more owners of all generations to stabilize neighborhoods. Provide opportunities for rent-to-own to expand our economic diversity.
(4:59) Short-term rentals – In response to an earlier question, the 90-day limit was set because it was thought of as a tipping point for what would make people select AirBnB as opposed to renting out long term.
(6:10) The proposed AirBnB ordinance doesn’t have a notice component. Edwards would like to see this amended so that community members receive a notice that their neighbor has a license to have an AirBnB.
Editor’s Note: A public hearing was held regarding the short-term rentals ordinance on Tuesday, February 13. You can watch the hearing here.
(8:15) The possibility of parking fees – some people feel this is another form of taxation, others worry about an over abuse with free permits. Edwards will be at the hearing on this as part of the committee for Planning, Development and Transportation.
(11:03) Edwards addresses concerns about the rat population and garbage situation in the North End.
[hr]
All “linkage” does is kick the building affordable housing further down the road. What has been created with all of the “linkage” money that was collected in South Boston over the years?
Trash really should be picked up three times a week. It is a heavily populated residential area and Monday to Friday trash pick up is not adequate. What they expect us to do keep the smelly trash in our apartments for 5 days?
How do you figure 5 days? It get picked up Monday so nothing you dispose of Monday is going to be “smelly trash” until Tuesday at the very earliest. Then, trash is taken out on Thursday at 5PM. I count 2 days. Also, if you rinse out things like chicken wrapping before you throw it away, it won’t smell.
As it is now, people put trash on the streets earlier than allowed. If we go back to 3 days, those same people will just throw their trash out everyday.
Couldn’t disagree more with more trash pickups. More pickups puts more trash on the streets more often…..we’d be walking down the streets with trash out every day of the week, all the time. Literally every day of the week, Sunday evenings, Monday mornings, Tuesday evenings, Wednesday mornings, Thursday evenings, Friday mornings. EVERY DAY except Saturday!
These are very good points Anonymous.. I’m always amazed at the amount of food waste in trash. Are there that many people without garbage disposals. I see that they are just not being used in my building while every unit in the building has a disposal. I attribute this to extreme laziness.
You can take most of your food scraps to the composting bins in front of the Nazarro Center. And you have access to these bins 24 hours a day, 7days a week!
It’s good for the city: since we pay per pound for trash removal.
It’s better for the environment: composting decreases Co2 levels the landfills while creating nutrient-rich soil for our farms.
It’s a way to decrease a food source for rodents: Fewer food scraps on the streets to attract rats.
Two days a week is enough!
You can have Trash Pick Up Seven Days & Seven Nites a week, we are dealing with Residents that will manage
to put out their Trash whenever they want. When we had Trash Pick Up 3 Days a week, don’t you remember
seeing Trash on our streets after the Trucks left. What is the Solution? It is very simple. Landlords must be
compelled by the City to have Cameras to determine who the Culprits are that put the Trash out whenever &
wherever they want. The Fines have to be Outrageously Costly so that the Fine is imposed from the Landlord
to the Disrespectful, Non-Abiding Resident, and that is where the City has to step up to the plate & ENFORCE
IT. Cameras are not all that expensive & you don’t have to pay a monthly charge, unless of course, you want
a State of the Art, all Expensive Sytsem, which is entirely up to the Landlord. People only get away with what
you Allow them to get away with. The No. End is Home to a lot of us, but to others, it is just a Pit Stop &
they could careless about the community, and that is where Enforcement comes into Play. This is not
Rocket Science, it is Common Sense; and we have been talking about this for over 20 years. Wow!!!!!!!!
Good point Joan Of Arc.Too many of todays residents are transients who are not vested in this neighborhood and aren’t here for the long haul.They didnt grow up seeing residents and store owners sweeping and mopping the stairs,sidewalks where they lived or the stores they owned.Their most likely the same people who refuse to pick up after their dogs.
Sorry, MichaelD, but I see plenty of “non-transient” residents not clean up after their dogs. Honestly, there is no 1 group that’s guilty. Long time residents and newcomers alike have been seen doing it.
JD i agree with I wasn’t implying that the problem is exclusive to only transient residents.Some non transient and “long time” residents are just as guilty .
Thank you for the clarification, MichaelD. 🙂
😁
The second floor of the New Dog Park (formerly the “flights”) could be used as a place to dump trash.
Dog owners can use the first floor which has been completely rehabilitated. It looks great. The top level should house and store large state of the art trash and recycle bins. Residents can dump their bagged trash their throughout the week.
It would promote recycling and keep the streets cleaner. It would also make the jobs of the trash companies easier. This would relieve the neighborhood of traffic.
If done right this would be a great improvement to our neighborhood.
Joseph: Your idea is good enough, but do you think residents will walk up Hull St or Snow Hill Rd or any nearby street to put refuse in bins? I think you have the right solution. Would it work? I don’t know….
Trash and recycling pickup 2 x a week is ample. The problem is, we don’t comply with rules of when and when not to put stuff out.
I agree 100 % Heather.If people refuse to pick up after their dogs and put out trash whenever they feel like it they certainly arent going to lug a trash bag up to the Gassy or flights.