Coffee Emporium Closes

The former Coffee Emporium in Billerica Center

Billerica’s town center took another step down as the pleasant Coffee Emporium closed recently.  The little breakfast and lunch place was in the “old” section of the center, one of the tenants in building on the east side of 3A, across from the common and next to the cobbler and Athletic Sports.

A sign is in the window announces Liberty Bell Roast Beef coming soon.  I wonder if it’s the same folks that own the Liberty Bell in Stoneham.

I’m sure that Liberty Bell is a fine company.  (If it is the same as the Stoneham place, I have eaten there, and they make a mighty fine plate of fish and chips.)  And I have nothing against roast beef — my favorite outside of Kelly’s in Revere is Royal, also in Stoneham — but this is not progress in the growth of our town center.  Coffee Emporium — a true, independent coffee shop — was a unique meeting place in a town full of fast food joints.  The atmosphere reminded me of a place in Davis Square Somerville.  If you sat at the front window, you got a ton of sunlight from the winter sun at lunch time.  They made a great turkey club, by the way.

I will miss Coffee Emporium, and I’m nervous about how many other gems in town are endangered.  For those of us who prefer the higher-end independents — and I don’t care if you call me elitist — this is a big shame.  Now, your only choice is between Dunkin Donuts (x5) and Starbucks.

Aside from the food, it was also a great, quiet meeting place.  I’ve seen people play cards there.  I’ll bet small organizations met in there, too.  I had a lunch meeting with the town’s Economic Development Director (Stephanie Cronin) about a year and a half ago.  Very easy to have a business meeting in there.  Can’t say the same about a roast beef place.

So the center continues its slide.  It’s up to us to stop the bleeding.

Open Season on Taxes

I enjoyed the story by Charlie Pierce from the Sunday Globe Magazine on taxes.  He opens with the thought that since the sales tax hike in Massachusetts, people are now crossing the border to shop for food — which is not taxed in Mass, either.  So these angry taxpayers are paying more (after shelling out for gas) for groceries because they are upset about paying more.

This, ladies and gentlemen, is why we need more intelligent people writing about issues like this, and we need to read more.

This is a great subject for a newspaper column (maybe after the election), but I wanted to point you to this story and hear your reaction to it.

February 4 column

This will be a lively election season in Billerica.  There are races for Selectmen, Planning Board, and School Committee.  But let’s not forget Town Meeting.  While we froth over the big races, TM gets little attention.  But it should, since this body makes, arguably, as many important decisions as the top three elected boards.  It’s too bad that in many precincts there are fewer candidates than open seats in the TM arena.

So this week I urge voters to Run for your life.  Serving TM is an excellent, low time commitment way to directly improve the quality of life in your hometown.

I will be spending a lot of time in this space shining a light on the quality of TM leadership and giving you as much information as I can about the people who hold seats.  Then you can decide for yourself if your interests are truly being represented and that TM is going in the right direction.  US Congress regularly gets poor approval ratings, but most of us are powerless (or not wealthy enough) to challenge them for their seats.  What do you suppose TM’s approval rating is?  If you do not approve of TM, you can do something about it — run for a seat yourself.

Chili Truck House — Update

Last weekend Eric Gremm chomped on chill and crashed his lumber truck into a house in Lowell.  The news story persists, though, because the truck can’t be removed or else the house will collapse.  So it’s still there, as we learn from the perfect headline in the Sun, Truck remains stuck in house.

This homeowner, who did not speak to the press (good for her), has lost the house.  The entire structure will have to be demolished.  I hope she is getting the same support from her neighbors as she would had if her home had burned to the ground.  At least she is able to carry out her belongings and store them while she waits for a new one to be built.

By the way, I wrote a letter to the Sun and so far, two of the comments are on Mr. Gremm’s side.  I suppose either of these people would feel differently if Mr. Gremm’s lumber truck was parked in their driveway.  Nevertheless, it demonstrates how high our tolerance is for the poor driving behavior of others.  I don’t think that’s this is because, on the surface, people aren’t scared by scenes like a truck in a house.  Rather, deep, deep down, everyone is afraid that if we do raise our standards of acceptable behavior behind the wheel, they will lose their own license.  Which leads us to find ways to rationalize things like drunk driving, texting while driving, speeding, and eating a bowl of chili in the cab of a lumber truck.

State of the Center

Here is where we stand with regard Billerica Center.

This time last year I was in the middle of holding a series of public meetings and presentations which were intended to introduce the concept of Smart Growth and how it might apply in Billerica.  Since then, a mixed use overlay district has failed twice in Town Meeting.

Spring 2010 will be the first time in five meetings that the overlay district was not in the warrant book.  (It was withdrawn the first two times.)  While the zoning change has not made it into the code yet, support is steadily growing.  The first step was the Planning Board itself, which voted 3-3 the first time around to not recommend the article in Spring of ‘08 (then 6-0 the second time), and then with TM.  The first vote was 91-89, but the second was 99-63, 8 votes short with 77 TMMs missing from the vote tally.

Our former Town Manager quit after negative comments about the appearance of the town’s commercial districts (“to them, Wendy’s is a wonderful thing, etc.”).  The new Manager, John Curran, expressed support for mixed use during the interview process and comes from a town (Maynard) that has a large and thriving mixed use center.

And now we have elections coming up for the first time since both TM votes.  Will the town center be an issue for voters?  Growth strategy may be an issue for the two Selectman’s seats.  The Planning Board Chairman (Paul Marasco) will challenge the two incumbents.  Will Marasco’s interest  in improving the center attract voters?  What about the PB race, where no fewer than six people are running for three seats?  Who will have a viable vision for the center?

How long will shoppers put up with old Billerica Mall?  The Mall lost a tenant since last year (Lincoln Liquors), which was replaced by a dollar store.  The landlord has made some improvements, but also got in trouble for mold and had a carbon monoxide leak.  Otherwise, very little has transpired at 480 Boston Road, except that the place is another year older and closer to a roof cave-in.

That brings us to this question:  Will we ever have new development in the center, and what will it be?

The answer lies in the gap between the “build nothings” and the “Smart Growthers.”  The “build nothings” have dug in their heels and have decided to hold up progress on any zoning change, while the “Smart Growthers” are closely watching the elections to see if the political climate will change enough this April to try TM again.

At this point, each side should ask themselves the following:

1. Do you want the center to improve?  If yes, what is that improvement (the vision)?

2. If so, how can this be done without a zoning amendment?

Most of “build nothings” don’t want to improve at all.  They believe there is nothing wrong with the center and it should be left alone.  Others cling to the old Home Depot model (Billerica Mall 2.0) for a quick spruce-up.  The problem is, though, that the abutters don’t want Billerica Mall 2.0, as we learned during the HD process, and the PB backed them up.

After cries of “Have you got a better idea?” the “Smart Growthers” stepped forward with a vision of mixed use.  But they were rebuffed.

So we are now at a classic political impasse.

The root of this difference in perspectives can be articulated with a horse and cart analogy.  Those opposed to the zoning amendment want to see the developer’s project first (the horse) and then they will vote the overlay district (the cart).  This, they believe, will give them an iron-clad guarantee that the project is acceptable and will not ruin the town.  (There is also a palpable anti-developer sentiment in this group, and they see a zoning change as somehow playing right into developers’ devious hands.)

But this plan is not feasible because no developer will spent dime one on a proposal that needs a 2/3  approval from a body that can’t agree on what it wants.

That is why the zoning amendment is the horse, not the cart.  Once the town leadership sends the message to the development community that we want Smart Growth, only then we will see some activity.  In the meantime, we are dangerously exposed to an “as of right” retail explosion on Boston Road at the hands of a drag-and-drop developer.  Billerica Mall 3.0, in other words, which may be worse than the last, may be coming and we would be powerless to stop it.

In summary, I hope that this issue will be a big one this election season, and that it catches the attention of voters.  If instead it turns out to be the same old boring campaign, we will be left with more of the same in the center for at least another year.

Which is nothing.

Chili + Numbskull Trucker = Truck in House

Yes, that is a lumber delivery truck in a woman's living room

Eric Gremm, a 59 year-old truck driver, was hungry.  So he stopped at Wendy’s for snack.  He went with the chili.  (Did he use the drive-thru?)  Then he climbed back in the cab of his giant lumber delivery truck and fired up the diesel.  Then, while driving through the streets of Lowell, he chowed down.

Trouble is, eating a bowl of chili is a two-handed operation — at least the way I eat it anyway.  So that left Mr. Gremm with no hands remaining to steer and operate the gear shift.  Or maybe he was steering with his knees and shifting with his — never mind.

And he must have been very hungry or in a hurry because he choked on it, suddenly blacked out, and, as you can see here, rammed through a house.

Not a great weekend for this homeowner.

Nobody on the property nor the public street was hurt.  Mr. Gremm had a small cut on the bridge of his nose.  He was well enough to joke with emergency personnel and the Sun reporter, saying, “I’m glad I didn’t knock two houses down. I sure wrecked that one.”

Ha ha!  Boy, I bet you’re glad there weren’t any children building a snowman in the front yard either!

Meanwhile, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety says states that have banned texting have not seen a decrease in crashes.  IIHS thinks maybe drivers are ignoring the ban or switching to hands-free, which some science shows is just as dangerous as hands-on.

But IIHS is missing the fundamental problem here.  People who think it’s OK to send a text message while operating a speeding car will make other poor choices if texting is no longer available to them.  In other words, it’s the predisposition of some people to make poor decisions while driving that is the problem.  Sure you’ve gotten them to put the phone down today, but they will just do something else just as stupid tomorrow.

Like eat a bowl of chili while hauling lumber.

While I support any law banning stupid behavior that will result in death or injury to uninvolved, innocent people, we are not taking the right approach to the problem of bad driving.

To demonstrate, I ask you: what will happen to Eric “Dollar Menu” Gremm?  Well, his employee’s insurance company will pay for the damage to the house and maybe he’ll get some sort of minor moving violation.  He’ll pay a fine, but he’ll keep his Commercial Driver’s License.  If his company fires him, he’ll get a job driving a truck somewhere else.  A year from now you’ll see him munching on a Frosty as his lumbers by.

Which puts us back where we started.

A better way to address the problem of bad driving is not by issuing fines or even jail time.  Rather, we need to take away the one thing they value most: their car.  Under the tier system I have proposed, Mr. Gremm would lose his CDL (Tier D).  I might also knock his regular driver’s license down to Tier D also.  We should hold all drivers to a high standard, to be sure, but professional drivers, such as Mr. Gremm, should be held to the very highest standard.

Because no one anywhere should have to think about being injured by a vehicle while safety on one’s own property, much less their living room.

January 21 Column

Today begins a series of columns looking at Town Meeting.  Part 1 is called Where is Town Meeting? in which I ask why TM has no written voting record for individual TMMs on voice votes.  I also look closely at the lackluster attendance record of TM, especially on the last night of the Fall 2009 meeting.

I made a mistake in the column: I said that Precinct 5 covers part of the town center.  That is wrong — Precinct 4 includes most of the town center parcels that would have been included in the proposed mixed use overlay district.  P4 was decently represented that night — 17 of 22 TMMs attended, 1 excused absence, 4 unexcused.

In part 2 of the series, I will look at the demographics of our representatives in government — age, occupation, and political party affiliation.  Is TM truly representative of the diverse general Billerica population?  Or is it somewhat homogeneous?  Stay tuned.

Fall 2009 Town Meeting Attendance Record

I obtained the attendance logs from the Billerica Town Clerk for the 2009 Town Meeting.  These logs show which TMMs signed in for each of the four nights.  TMMs are encouraged to notify the clerk of they will not be able to attend, and the logs show the reasons for their absence.  The reasons on the log include work, out of town, sick, and family obligation.  (I am calling these “explained absences.”)

The overall attendance record for Fall 2009 TM is shown below by precinct:

Precinct	Attendance Rate	Unexplained Absense Rate
1	86%	5%
2	89%	6%
3	75%	18%
4	86%	11%
5	78%	10%
6	83%	2%
7	90%	3%
8	75%	13%
9	85%	3%
10	74%	15%
11	85%	2%

[Notes:  "Attendance Rate" is defined as the number of TMMs in attendance divided by the total number of seats in the precinct.  "Unexplained Attendance Rate" is the number of TMMs who failed to appear or notify the Clerk divided by the number of seats in the precinct.  Attendance rate + explained absence rate + unexplained absence rate = 100%]

Now here is the attendance record for all precincts on each of the four nights:

Meeting Night	10/6/2009	10/8/2009	10/13/2009	10/15/2009
Attendance Rate	84%	87%	78%	73%
Unexplained Absence Rate	5%	3%	8%	16%

Very good attendance on the Parker School night (10/8), but awful on the town center mixed use night (10/15).  Only 162 votes were cast on this big article out of a total of 240 TM seats.  The article, needing a 2/3 majority, failed by 8 votes.  One-sixth of the TM body just didn’t bother to show up on that night.

If there is enough interest from readers, I will post the attendance information of all 240 TMMs, which is public record.

This Thursday’s newspaper column will comment on the lack of a recorded voting record for TMMs and the disappointing attendance record.

North Shore Town Pays Attention to its Center

We now take you to Hamilton (population 8,000), which made the paper recently because it is making plans for its downtown.

Of course, eastern Mass towns improving themselves is not exactly news — especially around these parts, where I’ve been reporting on it for a year with no shortage or stories.  But I wanted to share this one with you because of what leaders in Hamilton are saying about its downtown.

Look at these quotes:

Chairman of the Economic Development Committee  Bill Gisness: “Hamilton is 80 percent open space, and the majority of the town is residential, except for a small part of the downtown.  It’s been very difficult to find opportunities to create tax revenue.’’

Board of Selectman chairman David Carey: “That’s what’s driving this.  When we look at opportunities, generating a commercial tax base does address that, whereas a residential [tax base] doesn’t necessarily.’’

Selectman Bill Bowler:  “Taxes are certainly the primary driver for the Board of Selectmen.  But there are some quality-of-life benefits. We have a lot of nice stores and such, but people don’t say, let’s go to downtown Hamilton and wander.’’

Finance Committee and Economic Development Committee member Bob Bullivant: “We’d like to make it more of a destination.  The kind of place where you think, ‘Wouldn’t it be nice to spend a Saturday morning in Hamilton, just walking around?’ ’’

Bowler again: “It doesn’t have the visual appeal or anything to make you want to stroll to the Cranberry Quilters or the gym.  There are stores, but people get in their cars and drive there.’’

And how about Planning Board chairman Marc Johnson: “An important part of the question for the downtown is, ‘What do we want?’  If we want something a little different than what we have, let’s put in the laws to allow that to happen.’’

Sounds a lot like what I’ve been saying about Billerica for almost 3 years.  Nearly verbatim, in fact.  Tax revenues: there are those of you out there who don’t believe or don’t understand that attracting new business can bring in appreciably more money.  Hamilton thinks it can!  Quality of life: Almost none of the TM debate time was spent on making the town center “nice.”  Hamilton sure thinks it’s important.

But the biggest reason I wanted to show you this is that here are 5 leaders in a small town who “get it.”  They are all positive about possible changes, upgrades, improvements, etc. that they think can help.  You don’t hear people in Billerica talk like this.  One exception: former Town Manager Bill Williams, who had the right idea but was run out of town for the hurtful way he expressed it.

Will new Town Manager John Curran, who talked about improving the town center in his interview with the selectmen, fare any better?  Will this spring’s election campaign — 2 BOS and 3 Planning Board seats are open — generate the kind of thoughtfully-crafted quotes I pasted above?

I hope so.  Part of that depends on us to ask the right questions.

Livable Communities

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.  Come January 1, we will be opening the book on a brand new decade.  In 2010 I will be spending a considerable amount of this space talking about how to make Billerica a “Livable Community.”

I was thinking about this after I read a story in the Globe about what happens when senior citizens give up driving.  At least one study suggests that it leads to depression, loneliness, isolation, and moving into assisted living sooner.  The story described alternate ways of getting around, such as shuttles and ride services.  These are good ways of keeping older people mobile, but there is a better way: Put the things people need within walking distance from home.

This is one of the biggest components of Livable Communities.  It solves several problems at once.  Aside from reducing risk of people driving with diminished capabilities and improving mobility without automobiles, walking is excellent exercise.  You rarely hear people in, say, Cambridge, complaining that they can’t get where they need to go.  Transit service is outstanding and in many cases stores, doctors, and dozens of other services are within a ten-minute walk of home.

I appreciate that Cambridge is a city and that most of us moved out here to Billerica to get away from the city.  But we can take advantage of most of the concepts of Livable Communities to improve the quality of life for everyone.

While this is a phrase that hasn’t made it into the mainstream yet, those of us in the planning, transportation, urban design, development, and land use business have been talking about Livable Communities for a few years now.  I wrote an article for Public Roads, a publication of the Federal Highway Administration, in 2006 on the subject.  The AARP has a Livable Communities Team.

We have some work to do to meet the challenges coming our way over the next ten years.  By 2025, one-quarter of all Americans will be over 65.  We need to find a way to keep them mobile after they are no longer able to drive.  How will we account for rising gas prices — what do you suppose a gallon of regular will cost in 2020?  Ten dollars?  We are running out of land to build new roads.  In short, we need to shift some of our travel away from the driving mode and onto others (transit, bicycling, walking) and we will have to shorten our trips.

This all points to building neighborhoods where everything is closer to home.  The is the opposite of the Wal-Mart model, of course, where you build one giant store far from everything.  This model won’t survive rising energy prices and more crowded roads — it’s not “sustainable.”  As we move through the next decade, people will begin to choose smaller (smaller houses, smaller cars) and closer (closer shopping and shorter commutes).  People will return to quality over cheap.  The answer to these choices is Livable Communities.

Former Globe urban design writer Anthony Flint agrees, and wrote about “infill” recently.  Currently the director of public affairs at the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, Flint says we should take advantage of vacant and underused lots and put together mixed-use developments.

I don’t have to tell you how many blighted properties are begging for attention in Billerica.  There are two ways to approach this problem.  One way is to build more of the same fast and cheap strip malls, office parks, and apartment buildings (hello Aspen)–  places that cannot by reached without driving.  The other is to weave these places together as Livable Communities.  Imagine a retiree living a full day without having to worry about turning left onto the 4-lane section of Boston Road or waiting for a ride.  For people on a fixed income, making most of their trips free — as walking is, of course — is a huge benefit.

Billerica in 2009 looks mostly the same as it did in 2000.  But in 2020, this town will have to be much different to keep up with the changing times.

Are you excited by the future?  Or afraid of it?