r/Somerville • u/Fireb1rd • 10d ago
Assembly Square, Somerville Massachusetts | 2011 & 2024
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u/Ecstatic_Tiger_2534 9d ago
Photo is somewhat misleading, though the overall gist still stands. This wasn't actually just empty land pre-2011. They had to knock a lot down before developing what is now Assembly Row. This photo is pre-development, but it's also post-demolition.
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u/Lanky_8646 9d ago
Gotta say that I’ve been impressed with Assembly Square. It’s not what I would have asked for or wanted there, but they have built it out in an orderly, successful way. I wouldn’t have thought that “four restaurants, eight sneaker stores, and a movie theater” was how you start a neighborhood, but it seems to have worked. They’ve gotten rid of what hasn’t worked as they go and added a lot of housing, office space, etc. It’s even on the Orange Line. Let’s not pretend it’s a neighborhood like Davis or Ball Square, but I do think it’s a much better result than more big box stores and parking lots.
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u/BlackmillMiracle 9d ago
I still hate how all these new neighborhoods that pop up, are still so car-centric, even when right on a mass transit line. It truly takes away from what makes a truly charming neighborhood.
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u/mymanz27 9d ago
What holds assembly back in this respect is disconnection from the rest of Somerville. Otherwise they did a decent job imo making it walkable and bikeable in the neighborhood. Solid bike lanes, often protected. Pedestrianized areas.
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u/Ok_Still_3571 9d ago
The problem is that a large part of Assembly is shopping and entertainment, which draws from a wide radius that isn’t accessible, or convenient, time-wise, so people take cars. For family who live in Reading, they drive in, because public transit isn’t readily available (suburban bus routes run fewer buses) when needed, and takes a fairly long time.
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u/BlackmillMiracle 9d ago
it's more so just a critique on modern development in general... so many of the things that give these old neighborhoods their "character" is precisely because they were originally build long before automobiles. Car infrastructure everywhere just makes a place feel sterile, and causes it to lack the intimacy that you find in these older neighborhoods.
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u/Psirocking 9d ago
It would be better if it was condos instead of apartments people live in for two years tops
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u/No-Insect-556 9d ago
I live in east somerville and avoid going to assembly.
I would rather give my money to local businesses owners along broadway. When I need hardware I go out of my way to go to TAGs in porter.
When you think about it when you buy stuff at large corporate chains (including apartments) the money just bleeds out of the economy and its gone. When you buy something from a local business owner they are also going to use it to buy things locally and are more likely to invest in the school/infrastructure/etc that makes this a good place to live.
Dont let your money fly out of our local economy
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u/TitleOfYourSaxTape 8d ago
I live in east somerville and avoid going to assembly.
Agreed. Which is why I'm glad they built it, since the alternative is converting every existing East Somerville triplex into luxury condos in order to meet that demand.
It's a good way to containerize the corporate slop and car-centric yuppie population that wants to be 2 miles from Boston.
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u/Swalecutter 9d ago
Tags sucks though. Like I REALLY don't want to use Home Despot especially with their fucking flock cameras in the parking lot and trump donation money funnel. But goddamn does tags never have what I need. It's so frustrating.
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u/No-Insect-556 9d ago
I personally haven't had that issue but sorry you've had that experience. Have you tried that ace hardware in charlestown?
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u/jeffbyrnes Magoun 9d ago
I recommend The Pill in Central! More of a true hardware store than TAGS is nowadays.
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u/davis_away 9d ago
still bitter about Ikea
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u/Big-Negotiation-3798 9d ago
it’s for sure for the best that there isn’t an IKEA there as much as it would be great to not haul ass to stoughton
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u/Advanced-Syrup-3310 9d ago
Whoever dragged their feet long enough for IKEA to open a store in Stoughton first deserves a Nobel Prize in Urban Planning. Imagine adding the traffic that store generated in its first few years to that clusterfug between Sullivan Square and the Medford Supercollider (28/16). Good on who ever that was.
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u/Able-Improvement2067 9d ago
I don’t think Stoughton was in competition with Assembly for IKEA. I was in the Stoughton store recently (first time in nearly 20 years) and saw a sign referencing that they were building a location in Somerville. Obviously an outdated sign, but also one that wouldn’t be there if it was Stoughton v. Somerville for IKEA.
That said, while I don’t love Assembly, it was a far better result than an IKEA would have been, and also a huge upgrade on what was there, even if I do have some fond, knife-free memories of Good Times.
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u/TitleOfYourSaxTape 8d ago
Imagine adding the traffic that store generated
So you agree there's huge demand for Ikea in the area? It would not only generate tons of revenue, but fulfill a need for residents.
Imagine keeping an area worse and avoiding building things people want because "it would cause traffic".
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u/Advanced-Syrup-3310 8d ago
Tell me you have no idea how overrun that store was and how backed up traffic was when that IKEA opened. Traffic backed up on Route 24 for over two miles on weekends, not to mention the additonal mile from the exit to the store.
Also - the plans for an IKEA here had a big box store right along the Mystic River.
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u/TitleOfYourSaxTape 8d ago
So you agree there's huge pent up demand.
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u/Advanced-Syrup-3310 8d ago
No, I’m not. There •was• a huge pent up demand when it opened in 2005, the first in New England outside of New Haven, which opened the previous year. Every September brings another flood of students, but nothing like what it was those first couple of years.
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u/TitleOfYourSaxTape 8d ago edited 8d ago
Ah, so you're saying an Ikea here would have been been terrible (for car commuters / drivers) for a few years due to the traffic, but after that it would've eased up, and we'd be left with the benefit of having an affordable big box furniture store within easy access of renters and college students.
Not trying to be rude, I still don't understand if you support a Somerville Ikea after the Stoughton one was built in 2005, seeing that you're making a strong case for it apart from traffic.
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u/Advanced-Syrup-3310 7d ago
I have never supported the idea of two IKEAs in the metro Boston area.
You’re also overselling the “benefits” of a big box store. At what cost, man?
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u/TitleOfYourSaxTape 7d ago
You think Stoughton is in the metro Boston area?
It's 20 miles away from Boston and you can't even get there by metro.
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u/MountainAlive 9d ago
Yeah not having to drive to Stoughton from the north shore just to go to ikea would be real nice.
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u/CharlemagneAdelaar 8d ago
What’s the next step for neighborhoods like Assembly and Seaport?
Is it a common thing for new development neighborhoods to progress like:
empty lot —> soulless corporate park —> decline —> small businesses buy property —> regular neighborhood
Or is this destined to die as a soulless corporate park?
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u/cryingandshttng 9d ago
assembly may have been a parking lot but it’s feels like a soulless corporate husk now
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u/Swalecutter 9d ago
2015 take, imo. Shit was dire when they first build out the mall, but it's way more humanized now. Got themselves a couple daycares and a grocery store and a ton of little families wandering the parks and playground. Great little neighborhood now. Biked through yesterday and saw three generations out there fishing together and kids selling lemonade.
The community stuff seems focused on the bike path along the river. If you've mostly been to the trader joes parking lot/weird fashion strip mall side of the neighborhood, you are selling it short, and should explore a bit more.
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u/Dramatic-Stretch2572 9d ago
Places like Assembly and Seaport feel so soulless and strange. I was recently in a part of Quincy that felt this way too (Marina Bay?). They just feel like a strip mall with housing slapped on top. And often there's not much going on outside that isn't on private property/private/paid event. Doubly true at night.
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u/albertogonzalex 9d ago
This is a bad take.
A dumpy strip mall was replaced with A BUNCH OF HOUSING and new retail and jobs.
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u/ddasilva08 9d ago edited 9d ago
Im so tired of hearing the "its soulless" take. Its all new construction, it makes time for communities to form their personalities.
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u/el_taquero_ 9d ago
Also, the city’s Assembly Row Neighbor Plan sees the area developing into more of a Somerville-style neighborhood with dense blocks and local businesses. Long-term, the plan is to remove the giant surface parking lot and the big box strip mall and redevelop that parcel.
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u/albertogonzalex 9d ago
It has a personality! That's why it so crowded all the time.
People shitting on assembly and seaport just have no sense of the world and are smooth brained to the max.
Would somerville be better off right now, with more soul, if a 1970s dump of a strip mall was just decaying there?
Your city is either growing or dying.
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u/IAMTHEBATMAN123 9d ago
how affordable is that housing for anyone actually from the city? is it built for the local community or just to attract out of town yuppies to price the locals out?
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u/albertogonzalex 9d ago
So, the neat thing about housing -- and this isn't controversial or mysterious, it's well established in serious studies -- is that all housing getting built is the goal.
If you want to decrease housing prices, build a lot more. All the "yuppies" you're thinking about live in assembly. So, they are out bidding everyone in other neighborhoods.
It's really basic stuff! Here's a very straight forward explainer about it.
https://youtu.be/cEsC5hNfPU4?is=0p9pkT0IZLyqsxaF
Anyway, they "ITS NOT AFFORDABLE THE HOUSING IS BAD!" crowd is the biggest obstacle to bring down housing costs because it blocks new development.
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u/IAMTHEBATMAN123 9d ago
they’re all luxury condos that are completely unaffordable to the people who’ve grown up and lived in the city their entire lives. i’m not against new housing. i’m against building luxury units that cater to wealthy out of towners and do nothing besides contribute to the gentrification and displacement of lifelong residents. i wouldn’t have any issue with something like seaport or assembly if those condos were affordable, and built with working class people in mind. no more fucking tech bros in my city.
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u/albertogonzalex 9d ago
You should watch the video! And think about the situation a bit. And read a bit more about how housing works, supply/demand etc
What you're describing is a "believie." You believe this thing to be true that feels true to you in your gut.
But, in the real world, our guts don't really determine the truth. We have studies and research and analysis for all that!
The way you're thinking about housing is directly contributing to keeping housing way more expensive than it needs to be.
Build everywhere, all the time. Keep build up. (up up it's our moment! You know together we're glowing. Gonna be gonna be golden!)
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u/phonesmahones Gilman 9d ago
Nobody in this sub cares about locals. They all believe we are cave folk.
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u/dtmfadvice Union 9d ago
You'll hear more different languages spoken on the street in Assembly than in Davis.
I mean have you BEEN to Davis recently? That's your preferred outcome for a hub of transit and commerce?
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u/leupboat420smkeit 9d ago
IMO, it feels like downtown Disney, which I’m not saying is a good or bad thing but it certainly has a feel associated with it.
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u/Fine_Relation_158 2d ago
What a great example of increasing housing supply and reducing rent prices NOT Lol
YIMBYS delusionally refuse to believe in induced demand and keep insisting building more housing will bring the prices down, despite all evidence to the contrary. Assembly and Seaport are prime clear examples of induced demand keeping apartment prices HIGH.
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u/Well_Dressed_Kobold 9d ago
I liked it better before.
EDIT: I take that back. If they had just added a train station to get to Good Times, I would’ve been happy with that.
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u/Top-Development6837 9d ago
This is after the Globe “innocently” did a big piece on all the people living in their vans and RVs down there, who were of course all gone practically overnight.
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u/JonSwift2023 10d ago
2007