Charlesview update from the Herald

Harvard moving housing complex to mall - BostonHerald.com

This story about the Charlesview relocation starts with "The struggling Brighton Mills shopping plaza will find new life..."

The use of the adjective "struggling" is an incomplete way to describe the situation at Brighton Mills. Harvard, the owner of Brighton Mills, has contributed to the departures of the OfficeMax, Frugal Fannies, and KMart that once made Brighton Mills a decent local place to purchase a wide variety of useful products. Bringing new life to this core location in our neighborhood is a good thing, but the Herald could have given a more complete description of Brighton Mills has the problems that it has.

The story also notes that "The new [Charlesview] project will also include significant parkland, with 3.6 acres of parks, courtyards and children’s play areas." The new Charlesview proposal has been described in past news stories as being built on a 7 acre site. If their architects have found way to use more than 1/2 of the site for parks, courtyards and children’s play areas, that seems like a pretty impressive feat.