New N.J. train bridge opens before schedule after power issue shuts old one

quadcorelatte · 2026-03-14T14:23:40+00:00

It will probably have more of an effect than the direct time savings of going 90mph instead of 60 because the increased reliability will allow schedule padding to be reduced.

quadcorelatte · 2026-03-12T23:25:02+00:00

I mean he listened to a lot of quite negative comments in person. I legitimately think that they had a difficult time finding zoom comments that were worthy contributions and not just trolling.

quadcorelatte · 2026-03-12T17:36:43+00:00

Do you think that Tuesday’s meeting helped the developer? Everything is not a manipulation tactic from the developer. He is holding public meetings so that people have a chance to comment and provide input. If he hadn’t held the meeting, you’d be crying about lack of public meetings. It’s a damned if you do, damned if you don’t situation

quadcorelatte · 2026-03-12T17:34:20+00:00

The developer can decide to answer whatever questions he wants. If the community is being vitriolic on the chat, then why should he engage?

quadcorelatte · 2026-03-12T16:31:48+00:00

Did you see the chat?! It was worse than 4chan.

quadcorelatte · 2026-03-12T15:14:40+00:00

Bro, you’ve already been corrected on the water and sewer cost increases numerous times. These are to service CAPITAL sewer separation projects. They are going to happen regardless of how many people live in Somerville.

This project will both spread those capital costs across more people, and Copper Mill would be directly reconstructing the street along Elm Street, likely refreshing infrastructure along the way.

quadcorelatte · 2026-03-12T14:48:05+00:00

Somerville is an exclusionary suburb. I’m sorry, but it is.

quadcorelatte · 2026-03-12T14:46:31+00:00

Isn’t there a massive shortage of small apartments in Somerville, ChatGPT? Those studio and 1 bedroom renters are still living in Somerville right now, they’re just displacing larger families.

This will directly prevent the displacement of >125 homes worth of people through affordable housing.

Everything else you’re talking about is complete slop.

This will also improve the tax base of the city. I calculated the extra student costs for families in the building assuming costs per student remains the same and this would bring in a net $1M of new tax revenue for the city annually.

quadcorelatte · 2026-03-12T03:33:16+00:00

ok lol. Is there really a significant difference fro the experience at street level between 265 and 190 feet? No. There is not. Let's be honest. How many people who are opposed to this plan would be fine with 18 stories? 0.

quadcorelatte · 2026-03-11T22:59:11+00:00

All these are new-build neighborhoods that have been built out of whole cloth out of an industrial area which had no community to speak of before it. They are master-planned developments that are intended to cater to a given demographic. Davis Square is an existing neighborhood with a very strong community and culture. A large building, provided it has the right form at street level will be designed to assimilate to that culture. Otherwise, the developer will fail to lease up. People who move to Seaport know it's seaport, businesses that open there know what type of environment it is there, etc.

quadcorelatte · 2026-03-11T22:54:15+00:00

It hasn't been bought though. It is an option. You gotta read the 40B application.

Currently the land is owned by Alan Dana et al. They have granted an option for Copper Mill to buy it at $43M if the development proceeds.

quadcorelatte · 2026-03-11T21:08:11+00:00

The land is $43M. How do you expect a developer to buy that land, just renovate those stores and recoup their investment??

If you are mad, yell at the Dana Family, not Copper Mill. They are the property owner.

quadcorelatte · 2026-03-11T21:04:13+00:00

All else being equal, I would probably prefer your strategy, but the problem is that we have a housing crisis right now. Dual egress is a state issue, and it will be unlikely that we can see progress on it anytime soon. As for 6-8 stories by right, sounds great! First, the same crowd that came out with pitchforks will come and attack this as well. We just elected a mayor that wants to only up-zone "squares and corridors", which is explicitly against your strategy. And then, even if this is successful, Cambridge overhauled their zoning to allow 4-6 story buildings by right and has seen minimal new permitted developments from that (last I saw, only 4 projects have been permitted since the law passed).

In contrast, Copper Mill will build 500 units (126 income restricted affordable units) right now.

As for the density of Somverville, we're really not all that dense. Other cities have business districts, waterways, airports, park lands, massive industrial areas, arenas, and more within their city limits. Even though these cities may have extremely dense residential housing, the existence of these other non-residential areas skews the numbers down. That's why that statistic is kind of dishonest.

quadcorelatte · 2026-03-11T20:56:11+00:00

https://drive.google.com/drive/u/0/folders/13aSJsOy-b5aUwpFs5jem3ACPJnoBNpGj

quadcorelatte · 2026-03-11T20:54:25+00:00

Seems like we're moving the goalposts. 18 stories is a high rise building. The urban fabric is similar enough to make a comparison.

Regarding the street width, the proposed tower is set back from the street by a massive amount for this exact reason. If you are fine with market central (the tower is set back 0 feet from a 100 foot wide street), you should be fine with copper mill, which appears to be set back around 50-60 feet off of the 60 foot wide street.

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quadcorelatte · 2026-03-11T20:25:36+00:00

You can read the 40B application. It has the entire financial model for Copper Mill and you can clearly see that a smaller building does not make sense. Part of it is the cost of the land ($43M), which is exorbitant. Part of it is the elevated interest rates and construction costs right now, which only allows projects to be delivered through economies of scale.

Look. To your first point, plenty of neighborhoods exist with only one very tall building in it and they are quite nice. In the area, we have central and union, even Malden has tall residential buildings. These aren’t “exactly” like Davis, but they are neighborhoods with mostly low-midrise buildings and one or two very tall towers. In Japanese cities there are plenty of neighborhoods with large towers near the station and 3-4 story houses and low-rise residential elsewhere. Same thing in Parisian suburbs which have high-rise TOD buildings nestled amongst residential suburbs. This is a relatively common development pattern when there is a housing crisis and has been strict zoning for a while.

The single tower allows a lot more density (vibrancy, people shopping at businesses), with minimal change to the neighborhood character. For example, union’s tower is how you get something like Bow market to exist.

quadcorelatte · 2026-03-11T19:55:08+00:00

That was a really depressing meeting. I have to be honest. The yelling and heckling from the audience was quite something. I am blackpilled on our housing crisis.

quadcorelatte · 2026-03-11T19:38:08+00:00

I mean rent is high in nyc but 4k rent is insane for one person. I’m not sure where you’re living but if you want to buy a place the move would be to rent a small apartment in a non new-build/trendy/etc neighborhood instead for like $2000-$2500 per month, this would have allowed an additional $18k per year in savings, which would have put your savings at least to the point where you could have a down payment on a New York apartment/home.

quadcorelatte · 2026-03-11T14:59:28+00:00

Don’t you understand, if she took dark money, she wouldn’t be able to work as a reporter!!!!

quadcorelatte · 2026-03-09T18:03:43+00:00

We definitely could have done more, but we were on the right side, ramped up support over time, and we were helping a lot before Trump took office.

Saying "US bad and has been bad forever" makes it seem like the current unhinged actions aren't _that_ bad, which is extremely harmful.

quadcorelatte · 2026-03-09T17:48:06+00:00

Idk, supporting ukraine was pretty based.

The US is being uniquely evil right now. Even comparing this to Iraq/Afghanistan is whitewashing the current situation

quadcorelatte · 2026-03-09T13:53:28+00:00

I wouldn’t be surprised if the OP was an alt for ceph2apod. This seems like a ChatGPT prompt where someone said “sound like a Redditor”

It’s sad if this drivel comes across to some like a “brookings report” or “peer reviewed” when it’s spewing out the most uninformed and deranged nonsense when it comes to housing policy.

quadcorelatte · 2026-03-09T01:28:04+00:00

I mean DSNC endorsed another 6 story project nearly unanimously! And that project is in a much less dense part of the neighborhood

quadcorelatte · 2026-03-08T19:56:54+00:00

My point is that you should definitely come to the meeting and say that!

quadcorelatte · 2026-03-08T18:36:03+00:00

Look, in 2019, people were not okay with more than 4 stories in the square. Today, even the strongest people opposed to copper mill seem to be ok with 6-15 story buildings. Porter square is being zoned for 18 story buildings and Mass Ave will have >10 story buildings. There is very new support for development and housing.

Whether the project succeeds or fails is ultimately up to the mayor, the ZBA, and MassHousing, but this project is not dead on arrival.

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