Monthly Archives: July 2006

Newburyport, 30-32 Marlboro Street — Sold

For those of us who have wanted to know what was happening to 30-32 Marlboro Street, the property between Purchase Street and Hancock Street that goes all the way back to Madison Street, well, it sold on June 30, 2006.

Not to keep anyone in suspense or anything, this is all public record that can be found on Salem Deeds Online, www.salemdeeds.com (see link at the side of the Newburyport Political Blog,) the property sold to the neighbor at 36 Marlboro Street (who lives on the corner of Marlboro and Hanock) on June 30, 2006.

Well, relief, relief. The neighbor, Mr. Matthew Pieniazek, reportedly has tried to buy the property for years. Well yeh!

Mr. Pieniazek has done a beautiful job restoring and adding on to the other property next to his house on the corner of Hanock Street and Madison Street across from the “Neps.”

The house on 30-32 Marlboro Street is in pretty bad shape. It is a two family and was built I think in 1850. I have no idea if a demolition permit will be sought, but if the house on Hancock Street is any indication, well, Mr. Pieniazek appears to care a lot.

The neighbors say that a saltbox is going in on the Madison Street side of the property. This, however, has not been verified.

Mary Eaton
Newburyport

Newburyport, Accurate Information on Open Space

What a relief it was to read Mary Harbaugh’s Letter to the Editor in today’s Newburyport Daily News. Mary Harbaugh is the chairperson of the Newburyport Open Space Committee. And a very knowledgeable and intelligent woman she is.

The Letter to the Editor corrects a great deal of misinformation that was in the Editorial about Open Space that I found so objectionable — the one that basically said enough with open space (see earlier post.)

I thought I would quote part of Mary Harbaugh’s Letter to the Editor that addresses the 126 acres being considered by the City of Newburyport.

“You take issue with the $392,000 sought by the Open Space Committee for the 126-acre Wet Meadows project in the Common Pasture. (The correct amount is $392,000, not the figure you used; the correct acreage is 126 acres, not the 26 acres you mention.) First, of the $392,000, some $150,000 comes from a prior-year CPA open space allocation; more specifically, from a reimbursement grant. It is “recycled” open space money. That means that our request in current-year CPA funds is really for $242,000. In addition, we and our highly experienced non-profit partners are optimistic that about $200,000 of that will be reimbursed by grants and private fundraising. So at the end of the day, our true current-year CPA open space amount is likely to be about $42,000, including legal fees and other acquisition costs. That’s less – much less – than 10 percent of the total current-year CPA fund.”

(Editor’s note: “You” refers to whoever wrote the Editorial in the Newburyport Daily News. And “CPA” is the Community Preservation Act.)

Mary Eaton
Newburyport

Newburyport, Open Space, Not Only Passion but Also Reason and Money

Dear Mary,

I hope many residents will phone their councilors in support of the proposed addition to the Common Pasture project. It is not only passion for open space for its own sake, it is also reason.

Reason tells us that protecting this open space will ultimately benefit the City economically – few cities have their gateway gift-wrapped in beautiful vistas like those of the Common Pasture.

There have been many letters written in support for the various grant monies that have been applied for – grants that have brought a million dollars or more home to this community – and more grant dollars will come.

I am hoping someone will provide you with the money numbers.

Folks will be surprised when they learn how much money has come to the City in support of this project, and how little it will really end up costing the City to protect one of their most important economic, historic, landscape and environmental assets.

Marlene Schroeder

Newburyport, Passionate about Open Space

I’m still thinking about the editorial in the Newburyport Daily News, saying basically, enough with the open space (see earlier post.)

And I think that so much emphasis has been place on open space because there are so many people in Newburyport, Massachusetts who are passionate about open space.

Getting anything done civically or politically takes an enormous amount of time and energy. And people just don’t spend that kind of energy unless they are passionate about something.

People in Newburyport are beginning to get passionate about affordable housing, and because of that, affordable housing is going to get a whole lot more attention, which is a great thing.

Marlene Schroeder is one of those people who is passionate about open space.

Marlene sent me a map that shows a little better the 126 acres of open space that are being considered by the City of Newburyport.

The area in the dark green on the map is the 126 acres. This area, if purchased would be called “Wet Meadows.”

map.jpg
Map showing what would be “Wet Meadows” in dark green

As you can see from the map the area abuts Rt. 95 and Hale Street.

When you come from the South on Route 95, getting off at Rt. 113, it is your first glimpse of Newburyport. It is the pastoral land with the cows. And it is stunning.

It is a pastoral gateway, if you will to the City of Newburyport. It speaks of our agricultural heritage.

It brings me a sense of peace and relief every time I pass it. One of the things I love about Newburyport is its wonderful balance of these pastoral scenes, combined with the historic district and historic downtown.

I would disagree with the editorial in the Newburyport Daily News. I think one of the things we’ve learned over the past 10 years, Cherry Hill being the most extreme example (see earlier post on the history of Cherry Hill,) is that when opportunities like this come along, we as a City dare not pass them up, because we will have one chance and one chance only, and we can never, ever get that opportunity back again.

And I for one am very grateful to all the people who have worked so hard to make this a possibility. And I hope that the Newburyport City Council would also agree.

Mary Eaton, Newburyport

Newburyport, Massachusetts, Infill, Magical Places

There are absolutely magical places in Newburyport, Massachusetts. And many of them are hidden away in Newburyport’s Historic District. They are often found in side yards and backyards.

And yes, many of them are in danger because those spaces are just so juicy for the possibility of development.

And as an artist, I often go hunting for those magical places, and I’ve included two in this post. A hidden garden treasure on Milk Street.

garden-1.jpg
Milk Street Garden
Oil on Paper 7” x 7”
Mary Baker © 2005

And speaking of Milk Street, in Newburyport Massachusetts, there is a rumor there that very much upsets the neighborhood. The rumor is that 22 Milk Street is for sale. That alone is no problem. What has neighbors worried is that the property contains one of those large magical places, a large back yard that is ripe for development.

And what really has the neighborhood worried is that to get to that juicy back yard, part of a very historic home would have to be demolished.

Now this is all rumor, but the neighborhood is extremely concerned. And if anyone out there in web-land could offer some concrete (no pun intended) information that would be most helpful.

The magical garden depicted in this post is right next to the area that the neighborhood is so concerned about. If there is any truth to this rumor, you can see that not only an historic home would be endanger, but yet another one of those amazing Newburyport magical places would be effected as well.

Garden-2.jpg
Milk Street Garden
Oil on Paper 5” x 10”
Mary Baker © 2005

Mary Baker Eaton, Newburyport

Newburyport, Open Space

I don’t know who wrote the editorial in the Newburyport Daily News, Wednesday, July 5, 2006, but let me tell you I was offended.

The editorial was talking about the possible acquisition of 126 acres between Hale Street and Scotland Road, along Route 95, that is owned by Arturo Gutierrez, if purchased by the City of Newburport it would be called “Wet Meadows.”

The editorial seemed to say, enough with the open space, let’s concentrate on affordable housing (this of course is a very rough paraphrase.)

Of course I’m for a whole lot more affordable housing in Newburyport, Massachusetts, who is not. And good people are working on making that goal a reality.

But, the Open Space folks have been working on open space really, really hard and they deserve a whole lot of credit. And to quote Mayor John Moak in the Newburyport Daily News, June 27, 2006:

“It seems like a good space to buy. It’s not a priority of mine, but its timeliness and availability means it has merit to it.”

Good for Mr. Moak. He’s right, the land is available and it has merit for all kinds of reasons, the subject of which could be a whole variety of posts in itself.

But since a picture is worth a 1000 words, I’ve put up a map showing the parcels that are owned by Mr.Gutierrez. They are kind of hard to make out. Mr. Gutierrez owns 3 large parcels and they are in a bright turquoise color on the map and they have his name on them.

The map is courtesy of www.ceport.org. I downloaded the map, I didn’t tell them, but I thought that they would not mind. You can see a bigger and much better version on their website under “Common Pasture.”

In the “Common Pasture” section look under maps and try: “Newburyport parcels and GIS Layers with Vernal Pools.”

The “Newburyport parcels with SLUC Baseline Report Map 9 and GIS layers Document” will download, and that is the one I used.

I’d definitely go and take a look.

Wet-Meadow.jpg
Map Showing Wet Meadows

Mary Eaton, Newburyport

Newburyport, An Infill Inhabitant

It’s been nice to take a vacation from local political blogging. Happpy 4th of July everyone out there in web-land.

I did work on my art blog, trying to spiff it up a little bit and blog on it a little bit.

And as I’ve been enjoying Newburyport in its very quiet state on the long 4th of July weekend, I realized that I live in what one could call 1950’s “infill.”

Where I live used to be part of a large field near a fire station. And sometime in 1950’s, someone bought the property from the City of Newburyport, put a road through it and plopped in 3 little houses, capes to be exact.

So, I live in 1950’s South End infill. And for some reason I find this to be somewhat ironic.

The street on which I live has evolved over the last 10 years. You could call it “infill” I guess, but I like it.

The family next door grew and expanded their cape. And I thought it was great.

And I expanded my little cape.

And the garage on the street recently got turned into a very nice cape indeed.

And none of this bothers me.

All the changes were gradual, seemed intrinsic and organic to the existing neighborhood. And I think, although all the modifications changed the neighborhood, I liked it before and I like it now. It’s just different, but it’s still the same neighborhood.

Earlier (and I don’t know exactly when “earlier” was) there was infill, but it didn’t seem as offensive as it does now. It was gradual, and some wasn’t so good, but some of it of it even made the neighborhoods much better places in which to live.

So when did “infill” become a “dirty word?” It certainly is not perceived as a positive thing in Newburyport, Massachusetts any more.

I think “infill” began to be a dirty word when it started to change the intrinsic value of the different Newburyport neighborhoods. When it no longer seemed gradual. When it seemed like Newburyport was being descended by building projects and everywhere you looked it seemed like something else just went up.

I’m still thinking about Bonnie Sontag’s and Sue Grolnic’s post on the positive aspects of infill. It seems as if at some point we turned an infill corner. And it seems as if in Newburyport, when it comes to infill, our “luck” has changed.

Mary Eaton
Newburyport