That's such BS. Look at the retail demographics for Tenley View. There's already a population of over 30K within 1/2 a mile. Adding 270-290 apartments and 700 (more) school kids at the GDS site isn't going to transform the retail environment -- it's just going to eliminate a neighborhood grocery store and create a clusterf*ck of traffic in the immediate vicinity a couple of times a day.

Anonymous wrote:Sure, awesome. Like Cityline has been awesome. Boarded up storefronts and a mattress store.

Anonymous wrote:Harvard Square, GDS Commons, the name doesn't matter. Can't wait for this to be built. It will be awesome for the community!

With additional residential density in the neighborhood, retail spaces on both sides of Wisconsin will have the critical mass of traffic to be successful. That's a win-win.

Sure, awesome. Like Cityline has been awesome. Boarded up storefronts and a mattress store.

Anonymous wrote:Harvard Square, GDS Commons, the name doesn't matter. Can't wait for this to be built. It will be awesome for the community!

Harvard Square, GDS Commons, the name doesn't matter. Can't wait for this to be built. It will be awesome for the community!

Not Sidwell-wannabe Square?

Anonymous wrote:Come to think of it, Harvard Square would be a good, aspirational name for the auto dealership site development.

There is a certain affinity with Harvard. To have a vibrant, urbanist Harvard Square directly across the street from the "GDS Yard" would be affirmatively reinforcing for academically ambitious students.

Come to think of it, Harvard Square would be a good, aspirational name for the auto dealership site development.

They are bar-b-que kings. http://www.hillcountryny.com/about/marc-glosserman Look for some carcinogenic finger food on Wisconsin! Vibrance, yeehaw!

Anonymous wrote:GDS has an uber-talented board and group of backers. If anyone can make this successful, they will. They've got this.

Yeah, the developers who did Cityline were idiots. GDS' board and backers are the smartest guys in the room.

Anonymous wrote:GDS has an uber-talented board and group of backers. If anyone can make this successful, they will. They've got this.

GDS has an uber-talented board and group of backers. If anyone can make this successful, they will. They've got this.

Good thing the transformative cityline smart growth initiative transformed that part of Tenleytown from Mattresstown to Vibranttown. I personally can't wait for GDS to do the same.

Anonymous wrote:Without Harvard, Harvard Square would likely be just Lynn Square. And without GDS' transformative smart growth initiative, Tenleytown is likely to remain Mattresstown.

Without Harvard, Harvard Square would likely be just Lynn Square. And without GDS' transformative smart growth initiative, Tenleytown is likely to remain Mattresstown.

Having recently been to Harvard Square, I can attest that it increasingly resembles Tenleytown. Its most prominent retail includes CVS, Starbucks, and Panera. All GDS would need to add is a huge Au Bon Pain with outdoor seating! Tenley already has a subway station, smoothies, fro-yo, pizza and mediocre Chinese food, as well as lots of HS and college students milling about.

Look at how much like Harvard Square the more than 500 GDS kids who come to Tenleytown every day have made Tenleytown like Harvard Square. I guess we just need more of them and two residential towers to get there.

That and for everybody to throw away their glasses. That would do it.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Many of us (including GDS parents) would love to see Tenelytown be more like, for example, Harvard Square.

There are many GDS families with Harvard ties, who no doubt miss the buzz of Cambridge. Harvard Sq. wasn't always so upscale, but at least it didn't have a lot of mattress stores like dumpy Tenleytown.

GDS students and their parents look pretty "dumpy" as they traverse through Tenleytown.