"Brownstones and brick row houses"
"Bloom's off the brick row house; Buyers picking modern high-rise over classic style" by Kimberly Blanton, Globe Staff | July 21, 2008
Brownstones and brick row houses - Boston's signature architecture - are losing their cachet among the buyers driving the city's busy downtown real estate market. Despite their elegance and authenticity, these older buildings don't have the modern features and amenities of the fancy condominium buildings sprouting up all over downtown: elevators, covered parking, soundproof walls, and personalized services such as catering and concierge.
High-income professionals with demanding jobs also found the older buildings were too much work. John McManus, 38has a litany of complaints about the renovated brownstone he owned for three years in the South End: smelly trash in the alley, burglaries, and a neighbor's noisy dishwasher. An idle dishwasher did not offer a respite: He could hear mice scampering in his ceiling. His most unpleasant memory was having to pour so much time into maintenance.
"I've got enough stress with work and everything else in my life," said McManus, a money manager.
McManus moved to the Trinity Place Condominiums in 2001, where the taste of full-service life in a modern building converted him. He and his wife are now selling that residence to buy a 1,400-square-foot condo on the 20th floor of one of Boston's hot new addresses, the Clarendon in Back Bay. The condo listed at $2 million.
Designed by architect Robert A.M. Stern, the 33-story Clarendon has a 24-hour concierge, underground parking, catering services, and a private library. The privacy and anonymity that comes with living in a high-rise appeals to buyers such as Robert Tito, a real estate broker with NAI Hunneman Commercial. He is considering buying downtown, but the Westford resident said agents kept showing him row houses in the $700,000 range that either were ground-floor units with "subterranean" bedrooms or lacked elevators. Another downside of living in a small building, he said, is that only a handful of people own it, meaning privacy is more elusive.
I'm really tired of hearing about the elite and their problems, know what I mean?
Fuck YOUR PRIVACY, bub!
And is it just me, readers, or are two gay men the only condo buyers they could find?
In June, Moore, a computer programmer, and his partner, Michael Olinger, a flight attendant, purchased a one-bedroom in a new midrise building on Shawmut Avenue in the South End with central air conditioning and a clean, dry basement.
--MORE--"When you consider the record of agenda-pushing I have established, no way that's a coincidence; the Globe and government are promoting gay marriage as an economic boom to the state, right?
And this is the PAGE ONE FEATURE!
Case closed, readers!
Hey, it is not that I am against the idea per se; I am just TIRED of having the GAY AGENDA rammed down our throats by the divisive, agenda-pushing AmeriKan MSM while ANTIWAR and other sentiments that gather 80% approval (like universal health care) are IGNORED!!!
Besides, marriage is a PERSONAL ISSUE of which the state has NO BUSINESS!!!!
