While officials in the deep-blue town in the shadow of Cambridge are adept at spouting platitudes about the need for affordable housing, their actions show otherwise as their battle against a Chapter 40B proposal approaches its seventh year.
Last week’s groundbreaking at St. James Place, three blocks from the MBTA’s Porter subway and commuter rail station in Cambridge, is a “feel good” real estate story: a car wash and parking lot replaced by an attractive mixed-use development
Gwendolen Noyes grew up on an organic farm in Illinois in the 1950s “long before organic farms were something that was ‘cool,’” she said with a laugh. More than being uncool, Noyes described the lifestyle as “fairly isolated” for a kid. “I didn’t have a neighborhood. … So, I started drawing and thinking about [ways to create] community for farming-oriented people.”
