Seaport Neighborhood - Infill and Discussion

Re: Innovation Dist. / South Boston Seaport

It goes all the way around umass to savin hill cove then links up with morrissey blvd.

Let's not get carried away. Where is the Harbor Walk in the Massport controlled dry docks, ship yard and industrial park? I've done the walk several times down there and you'll be jumping fences to access the water. What about the Harbor Walk at the Reserved Channel? Doesn't exists.

Fact is, the Harbor Walk is broken from WTC until you reach the beaches in Southie.
 
Re: Innovation Dist. / South Boston Seaport

Let's not get carried away. Where is the Harbor Walk in the Massport controlled dry docks, ship yard and industrial park? I've done the walk several times down there and you'll be jumping fences to access the water. What about the Harbor Walk at the Reserved Channel? Doesn't exists.

Fact is, the Harbor Walk is broken from WTC until you reach the beaches in Southie.

This was my exact point to FK4 in my post up-thread where I provided all of the google map links to places much closer to downtown / with skyline views where vast swaths of land are inaccessible (or accessible but dangerous) to the public.

The Whiskey Priest battle is political/ego driven/elitist bullcrap when one looks at the bigger picture. If they REALLY cared about the public, these activist groups would fight to open up the 100-acres of shore accessible space further down the same stretch of seaport, rather than to wage WWIII over 50 feet at Whiskey Priest.

Make no mistake, this is resources being thrown at an ideological war...not resources being applied to what would really help the public and the city. Hence my point about the time variable. WTF is the point of an ideological war when we'll all be dead before it is resolved, when one can make a lasting impact for one's children in the same time span? I actually agree with the ideology, but take exception to the approach. I'm not saying Cronin's development shouldn't have an adequately wide harborwalk - we must have that. I am saying to SHOW the city, in parallel, that the abandoned drydock can be turned into a beautiful 10-acre park with skyline views and shore access.
 
Re: Innovation Dist. / South Boston Seaport

This was my exact point to FK4 in my post up-thread where I provided all of the google map links to places much closer to downtown / with skyline views where vast swaths of land are inaccessible (or accessible but dangerous) to the public.

The Whiskey Priest battle is political/ego driven/elitist bullcrap when one looks at the bigger picture. If they REALLY cared about the public, these activist groups would fight to open up the 100-acres of shore accessible space further down the same stretch of seaport, rather than to wage WWIII over 50 feet at Whiskey Priest.

Make no mistake, this is resources being thrown at an ideological war...not resources being applied to what would really help the public and the city. Hence my point about the time variable. WTF is the point of an ideological war when we'll all be dead before it is resolved, when one can make a lasting impact for one's children in the same time span? I actually agree with the ideology, but take exception to the approach. I'm not saying Cronin's development shouldn't have an adequately wide harborwalk - we must have that. I am saying to SHOW the city, in parallel, that the abandoned drydock can be turned into a beautiful 10-acre park with skyline views and shore access.


Well said. Guess the CLF and Barr are afraid of taking on Massport
 
Re: Innovation Dist. / South Boston Seaport

BP7.... nicely done with so few words.

i believe it's all to create a "see, we're the good guys" narrative.

i think this is the prelude,

so this son of a bitch can drop an atomic bomb on the Harbor Garage.
 
Re: Innovation Dist. / South Boston Seaport

This is were the CLF & Barr are being hypocrites. Lets not discuss all the open space being built or proposed to being built. Lets take on the projects that are already blocking the space and access to the public.

Where were these groups when SEAPORT was a bunch of parking lots full of open space?
Why did they allow the IMAX to get built to block even more space in that area?
Plenty of opportunity at the time to help plan the area with the BRA, Menino and other groups.

Now they want to use unlimited resources to stop Cronin's and Chiofaros Development which add no value to the public anyway.

That is why there is no creditability at this point. What is the real agenda here.
 
Re: Innovation Dist. / South Boston Seaport

Just curious, how is this more 'resource wasting' than say 121 Seaport, are you referring to the additional glazing required for the twisting section?

Additional everything.

- Structure
- Piece Count
- Hvac connections
- Glazing unit connections
- Skin surface area

A move like this needs to have a damn good reason. It is a hard-core trendy gimmick that is on its way to being played out. I would recommend against it but hey ... if you want a lava lamp ... buy a lava lamp. To each their own. I am just stating an opinion, not trying to convince anyone of anything.



cca
 
Re: Innovation Dist. / South Boston Seaport

Jl326: I wrote out a really long response but deleted it to save the board some drivel… Then I wrote this… What I will say is that there's a big difference between hating on all development incentives, period and questioning the ways in which the seaport was done. Sadly, on this board just as in national debate, one is forced into taking an extreme position on everything. I'm not against all development incentives, and I'm aware that for certain projects, the government has to give something to get something from the private sector. That in no way remove the fact that private enterprise is always looking, as they should, to get the very most they possibly can for their money. And developers in these cases are powerful entities. And, if you think there aren't back room sweetheart deals being done all the time, and that this whole process is totally transparent and fair, you're crazy! As citizens, we all have a right to question how exactly the government is going to give benefits too large, corporate entities. And again, I want to make clear that I don't say this as some communist, or someone who hates free enterprise. As an aside, I think it's bullshit how the way these things usually turn out is the government grants a big incentive, and then the masses henpeck the living shit out of the developer to get all sorts of gimmies. I'd rather see less of both.

As I already said, an alternative to having a private park is to have a public one with some sort of partial funding contribution from the corporate or real estate entity that benefits from being adjacent to said park.
 
Re: Innovation Dist. / South Boston Seaport

^^Sublime, fantastic photography. You find all the angles, Beeline. :)
 
Re: Innovation Dist. / South Boston Seaport

That last pic is amazing! I can't quite place exactly where Beeline was standing (I'll guess on Northern Ave between The Benjamin and Via looking towards Fan Pier) when he snapped this pic, but not many years ago, on that spot, looking in the same direction, almost nothing existed except barren land, parking lots. We literally witnessed the building of a new mini-city. Love it or hate it, it's still quite amazing.
 
Re: Innovation Dist. / South Boston Seaport

One Marina Park Drive is also the most unique looking building in the near to mid depth of that last shot.
 
Re: Innovation Dist. / South Boston Seaport

i believe Menino's bold moves might have started a small tidal wave that may have actually saved Boston. I love the Son of a Bitch for saving us from becoming the next Pittsburgh. ....Build baby build and force State legislators to make major improvements to the T.

Walsh '17.

Odurandina, this is the first comment I disagree with. Pittsburgh doesn't have MIT, Harvard, BC, BU, or the other universities platform for the city. If anything Menino should have supported KRAFT's idea from the get go ----patriots place and stadium that supported bothe football and soccer in the seaport. Along a strip of buildings that could have been an entertainment venue in the city of boston Incorporated with residentials, convention center, along with a massive transit overhaul which the city of Boston in this area would have been a revenue machine for the city.

If anything our politicians are complete failures in a vision or development policy over the seaport giving away the prime real estate with tax incentives to the biotechs (what happens if the biotech sector really blows out or consolidates). The seaport turn into an abandon Box buildings in the future vs entertainment district that would never die,
 
Re: Innovation Dist. / South Boston Seaport

^ as beautiful as that stadium would be it would have been a traffic DISASTER. 70,000 more people on the road over a few hours before the game then 70k after. I would have put up with it for the shear amazingness of the stadium, but it would have been rough.
 
Re: Innovation Dist. / South Boston Seaport

You'd be talking about 10 days a year for Patriots home games where the area would be a cluster with traffic. Is Fenway and Kenmore any better? The Sox also have 81 home games a year.

A modern stadium in the Waterfront would have guaranteed Boston would be in the regular rotation to host the Super Bowl and Mens Final Four and would host other big events like Wrestlemania. Yes the weather would not be ideal for the Super Bowl outside, but much lesser cities like Detroit, Atlanta, Dallas, Indianapolis and Minneapolis have all hosted.
 
Re: Innovation Dist. / South Boston Seaport

You'd be talking about 10 days a year for Patriots home games where the area would be a cluster with traffic. Is Fenway and Kenmore any better? The Sox also have 81 home games a year.

A modern stadium in the Waterfront would have guaranteed Boston would be in the regular rotation to host the Super Bowl and Mens Final Four and would host other big events like Wrestlemania. Yes the weather would not be ideal for the Super Bowl outside, but much lesser cities like Detroit, Atlanta, Dallas, Indianapolis and Minneapolis have all hosted.

No thanks.

If the Pats stadium were in the Seaport instead of Gillette we might get what, one extra big event per year over what we get now in Foxborough? That just isn't worth it. Big football stadiums don't create nearly as much economic activity as the general public thinks they do. Even if a Seaport stadium landed every big event on its radar, it'd still sit empty probably 300+ days a year. As you say, the Pats only play about 10 home games a year.

I bet that the buildings we have now in the Seaport generate much more overall economic activity than a stadium would in their place.
 
Re: Innovation Dist. / South Boston Seaport

Enough sobriety.

Drink, drink, drink to the stadium, the Superbowl, and the Final Four. (And the Olympics too!)
 
Re: Innovation Dist. / South Boston Seaport

They do plnety of things at the various stadiums besides just games and concerts. For example, I've been to probably half a dozen trade shows over the years at Gillette. While a stadium is not the best fit for that purpose, it works pretty well, and everyone likes having a trade show somewhere with windows (and lots of them). So, the place wouldn't be empty.

That said, I think such prime real estate is better used for something even desner. Suffolk Downs would have been s great spot for a stadium. The general footprint is similar, its not right downtown, but still has subway access.
 

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