Conference 7.286::maynard

    
    Not that I don't believe you, since there are only a few stores
    in the mall and it's never crowded in there, but what is your
    information source for the impending mall auction?

    I don't read the local papers... was it in one of the Beacon publications?

    I don't have any idea what the impact on the existing businesses
    will be.
            
    Pete

	It was in the Beacon.  It will go to Auction in January.

	Personally I don't think it will hurt the present businesses,
	there is usually a 10 year lease involved - unless the sale
	voids the lease?

	- Linda

rep .0:  

It does include the Fitness Corner.

- Linda

    I have gone into the mall a few times, and I'm surprised that the
    places stay in business, period.  My feelings are that unfortunately
    for the shop owners, they suffer from both an out-of-the-way location
    and, as important, the shops duplicate existing stores in town that
    are well established.  the defunct sandwich shop was almost next
    door to The Copper Kettle and the Deli, both of which were more
    evident to the casual stroller.  There's a card shop there --- but
    the Paper Store is just up the street.  There's a photo shop, but
    Creative Camera is present on Nason Street.
    
    I'd say that for a shop to survive in the Mall, it'd have to offer
    something significantly different from the established shops (e.g.,
    a health-food shop like The Alchemist [now in Marlboro, but once
    of Maynard] _might_ make it; a Fanny Farmer's _might_ make it,
    etc.).
    
    Steve Kallis, Jr.

    My wife's hairdresser told her that "the bank" now owns the mall.
    Apparently, the original owners went belly up, if the information
    is genuine.
    
    He also told her that he heard Digital was going to buy it.  I don't
    believe it for a minute, but it's the kind of rumor that floats
    around when people are whistling past a graveyard, so to speak,
    and know someone with deep pockets lives nearby, to mix my metaphors.
    
    Steve Kallis, Jr.

    It's too bad the landlords were so greedy when the streets and
    sidewalks were torn up for so long.  At a time when no customers
    could get to the dress shop, shoe store, Brooks, the rents went
    up $100 a month.  That's why we have to leave town now to buy anything
    other than hardware and make-up.
    

    Re .6:
    
    The rent went up and drove Brooks, etc., out before the sidewalks
    were torn up, if I recall correctly.
    
    Re topic:
    
    I saw the sign on "office space for rent" being prepared once more.
    
    Steve Kallis, J r.

	I talked to Donna Fuller (Fitness Corner manager) and asked how
	the auction would effect them.  She said there was a lease, and
	the lease would remain intact with the sale.  She's looking 
	forward to the sale, mainly because the heating/plumbing system
	is in desperate need of repair.  The new landlord will hopefully
	solve their problems.   

	Good news for those of us that just took advantage of their 2 year
	membership offer.

	- Linda

    
    If the town of Maynard had not decided to alter the traffic (and
    parking) patterns in such an unrealistic way, then the Mall could
    have had half a chance (aside from the other problems that the Mall
    inflicted upon itself).
    
    This, of course, has always been the problem in this town that
    continues to "shoot itself in the foot".  The powers that be
    in this town need a good dose of fiscal good management and just plain
    common sense.  Witness the "sore thumb" parking garage.....
    
    Who thinks up all these ideas anyway?
    
    
    
    
    

Do you live here?

If you don't, I suggest you find out more about what you are talking about.  
If you do, I suggest you get involved if you have the right answer.

We have a sewage treatment plant that other towns are petitioning to tie 
into.  We have sufficient space to expand our school complex.  And we have 
many other things that show good judgement.

I'm not saying it's perfect, it is a small town that went through growing 
pains.

But, I do not know how much of the downtown arrangement is decision, and 
how much is federal regulation in exchange for getting the money; do you ?

I'm sure that many of the sizes of things (sidewalks, etc.) are federal regs.

What is wrong with the parking garage?  It's not gorgeous, but it suits the 
purpose and it is usually filled (even on the days when inconsiderate 
Digital employee are not parking there becasue they don't want to walk).

Besides, it was built so that it could be expanded without rebuilding it 
should we need more space - good foresight I believe.


The mall went bad for numerous reasons, some internal, and some external.

But I think it is unfair to blast the overall planning ability of the town 
and the downtown renovation for the mall problem.

And, if you are so intent on stating your opinion, you could at least 
sign your name.

Karen 

    RE: 10
    
    HI Karen
    
    No, I don't live in Maynard (in Stow), but I have been around for
    a long enough time (16 years), worked in Maynard, worked as a reporter 
    at the Beacon for a number of years.  The tone of your note leads me to
    believe that I offended you.  I'm sorry if it seemed that way...didn't mean
    too....Perhaps my title <MAYNARD'S A JOKE> was a little too harsh.
    
    But, the overall impression one gets from the news in the papers,
    from many disgruntled residents (taxes too high) and from just
    observing the way the downtown has evolved makes one conclude that the 
    town is mismanaged.
    
    One example:  Why is it that both the Mall and the Maynard Marketplace
    went out in just a short time.  The Maynard Marketplace seemed like
    a bad bet from the start - the architecture is, in my opinion, not
    in keeping with the small-town, storefront business all along there
    Shame on the builder/architect who conceived this brick eyesore.
    And who on the Planning Board or any other groups in town is looking
    at the aesthetic merits of anything in Maynard?  It all appears
    to be a hodge-podge, a kluge....
    
    And what other small town anywhere in this area has a parking garage
    anyway?  
    
    Believe me, I am not just being critical as a distant outsider.
    I would really like to see Maynard looking and running well....It's
    the closest place to my town where there is any shopping at all
    and I am not the Stow elitist who wants to keep her town uncontaminated
    by growth...I am just as critical of some of the no-growth attitudes
    and policies in what I refer to as Saint Stow..you know, the hallowed
    ground....
    
    - Mary B
                                                   
    
     
    

It was your title that set my tone for reading the message.


From what I understood,  The Maynard Marketplace = 'the mall'.  
It was the revitilization of the original building, plus the 
addition of the new part,  and it was the same people 
doing the whole project.  They said they needed to build the new part 
in order to make the revitilization of the old part profitable.

There was already vacant store space available in the main road
triangle, why anyone thought they would fill up that much new store
space is beyond me. 

Aside from the need analysis, it was obvious that they ran out of 
money because work stopped for the longest time.  The old drugstore 
was never finished.  So it never looked like a healthy project to 
prospective tenants.

Additionally, it was mentioned in an earlier note that the stores in 
there were duplicates of established ones already in town, thus 
unnecessary.

I have personal experience with the builders and the processes they 
use to run their business because they are the same ones that did 
another project in town.  I will hold my personal opinion to myself, 
but I am not suprised it went south.  


It just seems as though a lot of people blame a lot of things on the 
'downtown project', and I really can't see where it had anything to do
with the demise of the mall.  I guess that remains to be seen when
whoever does whatever with the property.  I am close enough to walk
everywhere I want to go downtown and I still never went in there,
nothing captured my curiosity enough. I don't think it would have made
it with town the old way, but we'll never know. 


Personally, I think downtown looks and works much better now.  If I 
have to give up the ability to go 2 ways on a street to get that, so 
be it.  It seemed like town was split on the idea, but personally, I 
think its fine.  

As for the parking garage, on non-DEC days like weekends and holidays, 
there are no spaces to be found.  I guess that means we need the extra 
parking the deck gives us because it would be worse without it.  It's 
not really obtrusive, although not attractive.   It's there, it works 
well, and I think there are a lot more visually violent structures on 
the list before that.



I agree that Maynard needs better planning and control processes.  On 
some things they seem way ahead of their time, then others the 
reverse.  I can't say much though, as I had every intention of 
getting involved and have not as yet.
    
   

Growth is change and that often does not come easily.  Maynard is
adjusting to it with it's difficulties.  It seems from your memo that
Stow is trying to deal with it by not letting it occur.  There is just
no easy way to go through it. 


Obviously, your title really set me off.  It just did not seem like 
constructive criticism.   


Karen 

    RE: 12
    If you think downtown works much better now try asking the people
    at Mascarelli's Jewelry store, Irene's Stitch It, the Beauty Salon,
    and all those business that lost parking spaces in front of their
    stores.  They are not to pleased with the situation, especially
    stores like Irene's where it's a quick drop off or pick up.  There
    is absolutely no reason for the sidewalks on Main Street to be
    as wide as they are.  Maynard should take a hard look at the people
    that OK'ed this project without giving much thought to the businesses
    it will be effecting.      
    
    PS -- I am a Maynard resident.

I refuse to get into a debate about this,  opinions of the 'downtown 
project' have already been discussed at length somewhere else in 
here.  We spend negative energy talking about something that is already 
done, rather than spending positive energy on projects that have not 
yet begun.  I was just stating my peronal opinion, not the concensus 
of the town.

Nothing they have done to the traffic pattern prevents me from getting 
to a store I want to patronize, either by car or by foot.  I don't get 
there the same way as I used to, but I get there easily none the less.

Have a good weekend,

Karen

    I want to clear something up about the town's planning and approvals
    process.  As far as I know, the town has no control whatsover over the
    aesthetics of private buildings (including retail space).  The town
    (through its boards and inspectors) enforces the state building code,
    the town zoning bylaws, wetlands regulations, and probably some others;
    these determine structure and location, not style or appearance.
    
    The only case I know of where any governmental body has any say over
    the appearance of a private building is when that building is an
    officially declared historic building, or when it's located in an
    officially declared historic district.  I haven't heard of any of 
    these in Maynard.

                First of all I'm not from Maynard, although I worked for
        for about 9 years.
                
                The comments on the parking garage struck a kind of
        funny note to me (as a Framingham resident - 23 years) since
        Framingham has just built one for downtown parking. Built in a
        stupid place (too far away in a "not nice" area), for too much
        money (multiple times its estimated cost), and now that it is
        built, it isn't even open for use (they can't get anybody to run
        it!). To top it off, it's "falling apart" already. One of the
        stairwells has tilted slightly and the builder has blamed it on
        the temperature differences between winter and summer
        (especially this summer) as if we had never had seasons around
        here before.
                
                At least yours is in a location where it gets used. As
        for its looks, when did you ever see a parking garage that
        looked good?? (Some look better than others, but I've never seen
        one that looked "good".)
                
                /s/     Bob

    re: .13
    
    The width of sidewalks was dictated by the State.  It was a choice or
    either getting State money for the project and playing by their rules,
    or using Town money.  Yes, the local businesses affected have good
    reason to be unhappy. 
    
    The State also required the "no parking between x, y and z" signs in
    front of Salamone's and the Party Store, which local people didn't
    want, either.  Somehow I don't think that the Maynard Police Dept.
    considers enforcement of those signs to be its highest priority. 
    
    -Steve    

> < Note 133.17 by THRUST::RUZICH "just ask for Omsk information." >
>                         -< It's the State's ballgame >-
>    The width of sidewalks was dictated by the State.  It was a choice or
>    either getting State money for the project and playing by their rules,
>    or using Town money.  Yes, the local businesses affected have good
>    reason to be unhappy. 

The simple answer is not to take money if the strings on the money
violate the goals of the project the town wishes to undertake.
More honestly, the amount of money will come into play, and one's values
can be compromised.  Don't say "It's the state's ball game" or the like
when it is a matter of compromise.  Say what the compromise is.

Ten or twelve years ago Sudbury repeatedly turned down state money
to renovate Landham Road from Route 20 to Framingham because
the state would have required widening the road by 8 feet or so.
Granted, this was before Prop 2�, but the town stood by its principles
and paid the price.
This is not to sneer at Maynard for taking the state money.  I don't know the
whole package, but I do know that towns DO have the right and responsibility
to make such trade-offs.  When they do, and when we talk about it,
tell the whole story.  Maybe the state contribution for losing on-street
parking paid for an equal number of spaces in the parking garage.
Even if they did, that's hard to weigh against the loss to people
who never drop off dresses for alterations at Irene's or shoes to repair
at Taurus Leather because it now requires a special trip.
(And, of course, to the stores affected.)

No, I don't live in Maynard, but I worked there (in the Mill) for over ten
years and still drive through every day, and I stop and run errands when
I can.  Lack of on-street parking does make this less convenient.

- tom powers]

I live in Maynard, shop in Maynard, and wish I still worked in Maynard.

- I LIKE the parking garage.  It's almost buried, without being
basement-like underneath, so I find it pretty attractive as far as
parking garages go.  It sure beats the just-plain-pavement that it
replaced!

- I LIKE the wider sidewalks.

- I don't think the current on-street parking is unreasonable.

- I hate the one-way streets, but it's a reasonable price to pay for
on-streen parking in those areas (Nason St, and Main St.).

    One of the problems is that a lot of people do not seem to be aware 
    that there is parking that extends from behind the China Ruby to the 
    back of Gruber's Furniture.

    And, as it looks now, the chances are good that there will be a
    "riverfront" park in this area, which will create more parking spaces
    behind the Post Office.  But, we all know that these spaces will be 
    scoffed up by DEC employees Monday through Friday.
    
    My understanding is that the owners of the establishments that were
    affected by the loss of parking spaces, had a chance to voice their
    dissaproval during the planning stages of the project and they never 
    did, except for the owners of Salamone's Market.  Everyone started
    bitching after the project was completed.

    					Steve

    I may be wrong and someone please correct me if I am, but didn't Maynard
    have to compete with other towns for the money (from the state) to
    revitilize downtown?  The downtown area definately needed a major 
    facelift and as far as I can see the only way to get the money was from
    the state.  So, that leaves me to reply to .18's comment that Sudbury
    repeatedly denied money from the state to make Route 20 wider.  Maynard
    is not Sudbury.  Maynard right now is in financial trouble that will
    probably take years to resolve.  People in this town can't refuse free
    money even if it does mean doing it their way.  I think Sudbury is in
    a much better position financially to deny state funds.  (even 10 years
    ago this was true).  It's almost like comparing apples to oranges.
    
    Bridget  

    I recall reading something in the paper a few years ago --  
    when folks started complaining about the streets and sidewalks being 
    torn up and access to stores denied -- 
    on the flavor of:  'Where were you when these plans were proposed,
    approved, and submitted to the state 7-8 years ago?  Don't cry now.
    You don't come to town meetings... we told you so.'  
    
    The impression I got was that objections had been raised at
    the time of proposal, but the rationale seemed to be that it would
    be years before any money showed up to do the work with and in the
    meantime there was plenty enough time to work on solutions before
    the problems became reality.
    
    Anyone else remember seeing/hearing this?
    
    Karen

                 I think everyone in Maynard hopes the Mall & marketplace
     get straightened out soon. I am learning to live with the other
    changes, but hope I'm around 75 years from now when they do it all
    over again. It's one of the things that's prompted me to getmore
    involved in Town business. Nice thing about a small town is the
    impact an individual who's involved can have on it.
                 I love to shop in downtown Maynard. I have very little
    time and freedom. And I hate big malls,Rte 9,and Rte 128. With all
    that space downtown if they could just fill it up with a variety
    I'd never leave town.
                 A Master Plan committee is just forming. An Open Space
    Plan by the Conservation Comm is almost done and there is a petition
    going around to form a charter committee to rewrite the town charter
    which hasn't been done since 1871. The charter comm. in particular
    is looking for volunteers to carry petitions and people interested
    in being appointed to the committee. It will take approx a year
    to rewrite. Here is an excellent chance for someone to participate
    in a very important part of Town Gov't. You might also want to check
    to see want positions are open in Town Gov't this year.
                 There has been a facade survey done of the downtown
    area and it will probably be used by the Master Plan committee. 

    How about joining the Finance Committee

    Yesterday, my wife was hasving her hair done at Fantasies.  She
    cut through the Mall to get there (she was the first customer).
    After her hair-stuff, she tried to enter the Mall and found its
    entrance doors were locked.
    
    Anybody know what's up?
    
    Steve Kallis, Jr.

    Re .25 (Me):
    
    Since nobody else seems to know, I checked around.
    
    Apparently, there was a herating-system failure and the stores (what
    few there are left) had to close.
    
    Steve Kallis, Jr.

    Latest news:
    
    Innovatia, the high-tech gift shop, is moving.  They're having a
    reduction sale and will relocate.  Precisely where isn't clear;
    Acton looks like the most probable new location.
    
    That leaves but two shops left....
    
    Steve Kallis, Jr.

(221.70 mentioning vacant buildings brings this up)

What is the current status of the Mall?  Last I heard it was being foreclosed,
is this sorted out yet?  Does it have a new owner looking for tenants or is
it still hanging in legal limbo somewhere?

-Mike

    RE: previous reply...
    
    As far as I know, the most recent action occurred at a Planning Board
    meeting I attended several months ago.  The bank has possession of the
    Mall, and they were trying to sort out the issue of parking spaces
    (the Mall had to provide a certain number of parking spaces, and has
    not yet), plus the Bank was looking for a couple of variances to
    complete the project.  At that point, proposals were on the table, but
    much was unresolved.
    
    The Bank wants to complete the work so they can try to unload the
    property.
    
    There is a guy who wants to open a bagel shop in the Mall, so this
    suggests that the Bank is in favor of renting space out and earning
    some money.
    
    -Steve