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| Esther Hanig |
ESTHER HANIG: The New Executive Director of Union Square Main
Streets talks about changing the face of Union Square
By Doug Holder
I met Esther Hanig, the new Executive Director of Union
Square Main Streets at my usual comfortable perch at the Bloc11 Café in Union
Square, Somerville. As head of Main Streets, Hanig will oversee the continued
advocacy and promotion of the Union Square business district and neighborhood.
The organization’s mission is to preserve the vibrancy of Union Square and
promote dialogue between business owners, landlords and residents.
Although Hanig is from Cambridge, she told me she has a lot
of friends in Somerville, and loves the vibe in the community. She also loves
the diversity of the neighborhood, and hopes the Square will maintain its feel
of a Jane Jacob’s- like urban village.
Hanig brings a wealth of experience to her new position. She
was the deputy director of the Massachusetts Non-Profit Network, a member of
the Central Square Advisory Committee in Cambridge, and Executive Director of
the Allston Brighton Healthy Boston Coalition, and the list goes on.
When I asked Hanig about gentrification, and how she would
help maintain “diversity,” when history has clearly shown that gentrification
brings big rent increases, displacement of mom and pop and their stores, as
well as low and moderate income tenants, and artists—the very people who
created this vibe that has made it so attractive to developers, Hanig said,
“There are no simple answers.” Hanig rattled off the standard talk of inclusionary zones,
and other zoning to protect innovative venues like the Artisan's Asylum, and
other artist enclaves that dot the Square. There was talk
of tax incentives for landlords to keep the rents down for merchants, efforts
for businesses to cross market and cross sell, and a strong effort to bring
outsiders to the Square to shop, etc…
According to Hanig,
the new demographic in Union Square are the millennials, and to a great extent
these new initiatives, this new “vision” will be geared to them in the form of
hip new venues like Union Square Donuts, tony shops, cutting-edge eateries,
etc… with international cuisine, all
this altering the face of the 'Ville.
Hanig talked about the upcoming FLUFF festival that Union
Square Main Streets promotes, as well as SNAP, a program that helps folks on
food stamps get more for their buck at the farmer’s market-- if this population
even exists here in years to come.
Hanig is early in her tenure, and she is still in the seminal
stages in the process of figuring out her game plan—a plan that many of us await
with hope and not a little anxiety—here—in the—Paris of New England.
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