Proposed Mirak Development

As a full time working artist, business owner and Arlington homeowner for about 40 years, I am writing to express my interrelated concerns over the proposed Mirak development of 1165B Mass Ave. I am disappointed that this plan would eliminate the last real artist studio space in town, along with many small business spaces. I would like to see the town give more support to keeping artists and small businesses in Arlington. It is not possible to have art without artists. An article in a recent issue of Commonwealth Magazine on the devastation of the arts and culture sector during this time of covid-19 provides a wake-up call about how much this sector of the economy has been decimated and the anticipated 5 or so years it will need to recover, while recognizing that many small businesses and artists won’t survive here. But even before the pandemic hit, artists had been getting priced out and closed out all over the area, due to escalating real estate prices that hiked rents, and the conversion of former studio buildings into housing. My own studio rent has tripled in just 8 years, while the property taxes on my home have more than doubled.

A CBS piece from July 8states that Boston is the third most gentrified city in the country. Arlington is one of the two densest towns in the state already. The areas available for development are extremely limited. It is for this reason that we should not be prioritizing luxury housing, or increasing density for density’s sake. Arlington has very diversified housing stock. According to the recent Suffolk University study, our neighborhoods lack diversity, not by design of our housing stock, but rather as a result of subtle racism.

Ironically, since our town was designated an Arts and Cultural District by the State we have had less and less space for working artists, as well as less commercial space to ease the tax burden on homeowners -despite the fact that the town’s Master Plan affirms the need to increase our commercial tax base. We must rethink our development projects, so that they will both increase diversity and protect or expand our commercial tax base. Residential development needs to allow for a range of truly affordable units at 30, 40, 50 AMI, rather than just “market rate affordable” units at 80 AMI (which given their income, would be beyond reach for both the average person of color and the average artist).

No part of the proposed plan for 1165B Mass Ave discusses Arts and Culture, even though there have been artists working in that complex for over thirty years. The Arts are mentioned only in passing, lumped together with recreational plans for the milldam, as if art and recreation are the same. Can artist studios, artist live/work units and small business spaces be added to the plans to keep this a mixed use complex? If we are dreaming big, might there be a theater space, to replace the theater lost by ACA, when it was moved out of the Gibbs School? And maybe add a gallery space that could be used by the whole community?

Finally, while there has been outreach to some of the neighboring properties, the plan was presented to the town at large and the Select Board on the eve of the July 4th holiday -a time when most people are on vacation. I know of no additional outreach or town wide notification concerning the plans for 1165B Mass Ave. I’d like to see more time devoted to community input on this project, so that we end up with a plan that truly meets our needs as a town: increasing diversity, affordability, our commercial tax base and contemplates the needs of its working artists.

Robin Bergman