This Is Framingham

On Tuesday, September 16th, elections for State Representative will be held.  For what it’s worth, I’m voting for Chris Walsh.  I put a lot of thought into this, I have friends who are voting for other people and enjoyed learning about all of the candidates and while all three have good qualities, I ended up deciding on Chris because of his spoken interest in making downtown a better place which, as many readers know, I live downtown and that’s really important to me. 
You can check out his website to learn more about him: http://www.electchriswalsh.com/

I guess it’s been weeks now since I took this picture but Ethan and I have walked by here a few times and noticed this residential building being constructed, and now finished, downtown on Beech St.
I was curious enough to go on the website posted on the sign out front and I was impressed.  It looks like a nice set up.
I wish them luck, especially in this market selling the units here but I just thought I’d share this since it’s kind of easy to miss unless you’re going down that street.  I hope if these sell, more developers will build nice residences in the area that are multi-family but not cramming as many units as they can into the building.
Here’s a link to interior photos: http://web.mac.com/seanwilder/BEECH/Gallery.html

According to a comment on a previous post, Judith says she learned that our shiny star of downtown,  Fabric Place, will close it’s doors for good on December 31st.  I can’t even begin to say how dissapointed/devestated I am by this as a quilter and a resident of downtown.  Just what we don’t need, a great business in a large building closing up shop.  This is a dark day for Framingham. 
 I shall miss ye Fabric Place!

This is an old car dealership on Rt. 135 in front of Walgreen’s.  I don’t know much about it except that it has been vacant for a couple of years and someone fought to save it from being torn down because they considered and proved this is a historical building worth saving.
I’m all for saving historic structures, Ethan and I have traveled around the country to photograph old buildings, but I don’t really “get” this one.  I honestly don’t mean to offend the person who fought to have it saved and I commend their efforts but, I would never have guessed by looking at it that there are any overly impressive qualities about it.  The fact that it has been sitting vacant for some years doesn’t help either but maybe someday some business will move in or someone can enlighten me on it’s history and I’ll have more of an appreciation for it.

Almost a year ago,  I posted about the Salvation Army placing potted trees outside it’s window base where people would sit.  It seemed like a great way to make the corner look nice and obviously Salvation Army wanted to discourage people from sitting there.
Months later, I noticed people were sharing the pots with the trees and sitting in them.  Also, the condition of the trees was deteriorating.  Mid-summer, I noticed the trees were completely dead and anything that was green was a dry rusty orange.  Finally last week I noticed that they just got rid of the trees and people are sitting on the pots. So the progression was like this:
1.   :/
 
2. 

3.  :/

4. 

I hope the Salvation Army tries again to make it’s entrance look nice.  They chose to put those trees there in the first place so they must have wanted it to look nice.   I know someone will say I’m anti-helping people or something but I thought it looked nice with the trees there and think picture 2 looks better than picture 1 (or 3 or 4).  I’m not saying there shouldn’t be organizations that help people who need it, but I thought it was nice that such an organization was trying to improve it’s appearance in an area that could use a facelift.
 

We were driving down Rt 9 this weekend and noticed the signs at this year’s location for the Halloween outlet at the old Saab dealership.
From the east-bound side:

I thought it was slightly interesting that they chose another Tudor style building like they did 2 years ago at the old Border’s Books building. I think they skipped a Framingham location last year, maybe because we got Halloween Express (which was awesome) but glad to see they’re back and interested to see what they do with the space inside.

Last May I was all excited at Town Meeting that we approved funds for repairing the crumbling steps in front of Town Hall/Memorial Building.  As the months went by I figured there must be some plan in action but then a whole year went by and still here in August 08 nothing seems to have changed except the arrangements of the cones and the deteriation of the steps.
I’m sure other people have noticed too since it is such a visable structure representing the town and they have done such a nice job with the landscaping and brickwork in front of the building, it’s a shame the steps remain neglected.
I went to the Christmas tree lighting ceremony in December ‘06 where everyone crowded around on the frontsteps and people had to watch where they were standing and make sure they weren’t on a piece of crumble.  I can’t imagine the challenge of what that was like last year or what it will be like this year if they are still not repaired.
I’m starting to investigate and will post any information about progress on this I can find out if anyone is interested.