City Hall Plaza Revamp | Government Center

Fortunately, the new towers draws your attention away from the blight of Gov't center
 
My opinion is the JFK tower being generally good architectural form is the fact the Sudbury echoes it heavily and successfully. I don't even mind the low rise - it all just needs a really good cleaning.

My personal Government Center bugbear is Center Plaza. We've talked about all the other under activated plazas - Hurley/Lindemann, City Hall Plaza, but Center Plaza is architectural ennui that commits the unique sin of blocking off the John Adams Courthouse. Opening up Pemberton Square and reframing it would do a world of good around here.
 
New fixture 3/14.
 

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^^ Amazing how well-activated and loved by the people the plaza is after the city's recent investments. Clearly now living up to the stated vision in the 1960s that it would be the Piazza San Marco of Boston.
 
MjolnirMan said:
Thank goodness the recent $95 million makeover ensured that City Hall Plaza could remain a beloved central location for an events venue when the need arises

https://twitter.com/x/status/2071632285259219022
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What specifically is the complaint here?
From the clips I've seen, City Hall Plaza seemed lively. Lots of people went. People seem to be having a good time. The post-makeover plaza is accommodating large crowds just fine. If you couldn't get in there, or wanted a less cramped spot, the city has been having watch parties elsewhere at the same time, including a bunch on the Common.
 
ritchiew said:
What specifically is the complaint here?
From the clips I've seen, City Hall Plaza seemed lively. Lots of people went. People seem to be having a good time. The post-makeover plaza is accommodating large crowds just fine. If you couldn't get in there, or wanted a less cramped spot, the city has been having watch parties elsewhere at the same time, including a bunch on the Common.
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Yeah, my perception has been that City Hall plaza has been a huge success as a centerpiece for World Cup related festivities, and that it spills out in every direction from there. All of downtown was incredible last weekend, whether at City Hall, the Common, Greenway, Copley, Seaport, it was all really packed with joyful celebration.
 
ritchiew said:
What specifically is the complaint here?
From the clips I've seen, City Hall Plaza seemed lively. Lots of people went. People seem to be having a good time. The post-makeover plaza is accommodating large crowds just fine. If you couldn't get in there, or wanted a less cramped spot, the city has been having watch parties elsewhere at the same time, including a bunch on the Common.
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That is absolutely not what I've been hearing from the vast majority of people interacting with it. I'm sure some of the tourists are super into the game and would watch it from a garbage dump, but many people had what they believed were early-reserved tickets canceled shortly before the event, and those who were there were not very impressed by the density. And now it's been closed permanently for some unknown reason.

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MjolnirMan said:
That is absolutely not what I've been hearing from the vast majority of people interacting with it. I'm sure some of the tourists are super into the game and would watch it from a garbage dump, but many people had what they believed were early-reserved tickets canceled shortly before the event, and those who were there were not very impressed by the density. And now it's been closed permanently for some unknown reason.

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Sorry, as a personal policy, I try to not read AI generated slop. If you've got some real sources I am interested to check them out.

As for why Boston is shutting down the event, this says it has gotten too expensive and FIFA has refused to chip in. I agree that's a bad outcome. I don't know what that has to do with the Plaza redesign.
talksport.com

Host city cancels $1m fan festival but still has two more World Cup matches

The city of Boston have made a decision that directly goes against FIFA’s requirements as a host city. FIFA mandates that host cities must organize and run fan festivals for every single matc…
talksport.com talksport.com
 
ritchiew said:
Sorry, as a personal policy, I try to not read AI generated slop. If you've got some real sources I am interested to check them out.

As for why Boston is shutting down the event, this says it has gotten too expensive and FIFA has refused to chip in. I agree that's a bad outcome. I don't know what that has to do with the Plaza redesign.
talksport.com

Host city cancels $1m fan festival but still has two more World Cup matches

The city of Boston have made a decision that directly goes against FIFA’s requirements as a host city. FIFA mandates that host cities must organize and run fan festivals for every single matc…
talksport.com talksport.com
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Sorry, as a personal policy I don't read "web sites." Please snail mail me a newspaper clipping to back up your comment.

It's 2026, buddy. If you Google a topic, you get a Gemini summary of Boston.com and WCVB news articles, and Reddit and Facebook threads of human beings discussing it. Since you seemed unaware of the controversy surrounding it, I figured that was the fastest way to get you up to speed.
 
The whole things stinks, frankly. Show me in real numbers how this expenditure benefits the taxpayer and then I will be compelled to support it. Otherwise, it is the same bulls#$% as the NFL owners expecting the taxpayers to pay for their stadiums without having to prove that it would be a fair deal for them
 
MjolnirMan said:
Sorry, as a personal policy I don't read "web sites." Please snail mail me a newspaper clipping to back up your comment.

It's 2026, buddy. If you Google a topic, you get a Gemini summary of Boston.com and WCVB news articles, and Reddit and Facebook threads of human beings discussing it. Since you seemed unaware of the controversy surrounding it, I figured that was the fastest way to get you up to speed.
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I asked google if the Boston FIFA Fan Fest was a success, and it says Yes, it was a "major success." I asked if the Fan Fest was well liked. Google saw through my typing error and told me that Yes, it was "highly popular and praised for its electric atmosphere." There were some complaints about ticketing but people were mostly upset that it ended too soon.

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If you trust AI summaries, that should be case closed. The Fan Fest was a well-curated experience, had unbeatable energy, and provided an economic boost.

I do not trust AI summaries. They are made by a text-generation computer that has no concept of "truth" or "fact checking." It just spits out text that sounds good. People find it useful for some research, and that's fine. If you treat the output as a source, then you fundamentally don't understand how these programs work or how to evaluate sources. Or maybe you just don't care too much about getting the right answer.

Since Gemini already told me the Fan Fest was a major success, I asked it if the Fan Fest was a failure. Sure enough, it tells me that Yes, it "was widely considered a failure." Because these AI bots are fucking stupid.

I will now go back to avoiding reading AI generated slop.

1782836684225.png
 
ritchiew said:
I asked google if the Boston FIFA Fan Fest was a success, and it says Yes, it was a "major success." I asked if the Fan Fest was well liked. Google saw through my typing error and told me that Yes, it was "highly popular and praised for its electric atmosphere." There were some complaints about ticketing but people were mostly upset that it ended too soon.

View attachment 73655View attachment 73656


If you trust AI summaries, that should be case closed. The Fan Fest was a well-curated experience, had unbeatable energy, and provided an economic boost.

I do not trust AI summaries. They are made by a text-generation computer that has no concept of "truth" or "fact checking." It just spits out text that sounds good. People find it useful for some research, and that's fine. If you treat the output as a source, then you fundamentally don't understand how these programs work or how to evaluate sources. Or maybe you just don't care too much about getting the right answer.

Since Gemini already told me the Fan Fest was a major success, I asked it if the Fan Fest was a failure. Sure enough, it tells me that Yes, it "was widely considered a failure." Because these AI bots are fucking stupid.

I will now go back to avoiding reading AI generated slop.

View attachment 73657
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Very cool! Let me know if you find any other neat ways to use a computer! I hear you can play videos on them now too.

Hey, what's that last bullet point on your first screenshot say?
 
Anyways....

Out of curiosity I went looking. Here are some pictures from the Fan Fest. Here are people watching Ghana v England in the rain. It's from an article on the Fan Fest, everything that happened there, the politics around it, some of the criticisms, and calls it the "one of the defining gathering places of Boston's World Cup experience." https://www.boston.com/news/world-c...close-with-some-world-cup-games-left-to-play/

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This is from a FIFA instagram. More pictures there.
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The Fan Fest after Scotland won a game, from the Globe, which includes a bunch more pictures and videos https://www.bostonglobe.com/2026/06/15/sports/world-cup-boston-fan-videos/
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Here's a walkthough of the surrounding area, which was also incredibly lively.

There are a bunch of valid criticisms. But it seems like it was fun and popular and served a ton of people (almost 10k per day, on average)
 
MjolnirMan said:
The Fan Fest that was pitched:


The Fan Fest we got:
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^One of the biggest issues (aside from cost), to me, is that they walled off the entire area with non-transparent fencing/barriers. I swung through there "to check it out," but that was impossible. You were either all-in, or you didn't get to participate. This was, in essence, not a public event. It might as well have been in TD Garden. Sorry but I'm pretty sure that's not how City Hall Plaza events are conceptualized to be.

EDIT: for completeness, I did not walk the full perimeter, but much of the perimeter, at least, had high green opaque fencing.
 
thanks for doing some research and sharing the actual positivity that was around the area for a few weeks.

ritchiew said:
There are a bunch of valid criticisms. But it seems like it was fun and popular and served a ton of people (almost 10k per day, on average)
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are there though? Valid?

Here are the criticisms Ive seen and the complaining responses people would have come up with if things were done as per the complaint. ("All the negativity that's in this town sucks ... and it stinks")

1, it should have been on the Common so more people could have gone
'these people killed all the grass'
'its too loud and too bright for adjacent neighbors especially at MIDNIGHT!'

2, the tickets shouldnt have been free because people reserved and then didnt show up
'your excluding poor people'

3, there shouldnt have been tickets at all
'I went all the way down there and I couldnt even get in'

4, why did they close it early?
they didnt. it was scheduled to end before July as per the approved street modifications and temporary signage that was installed.

5, why are tax payers paying for this
we didnt. FIFA and the local organizers did and then sold food and drinks to make a profit. who knows if they made their money back, but Im guessing they didnt and thats why they had not interest in extending it further after it was up and running.

Just say that was awesome and be happy about it. and for the love of God keep enjoying the games and continue to support you local establishments.
 
bigpicture7 said:
^One of the biggest issues (aside from cost), to me, is that they walled off the entire area with non-transparent fencing/barriers. I swung through there "to check it out," but that was impossible. You were either all-in, or you didn't get to participate. This was, in essence, not a public event. It might as well have been in TD Garden. Sorry but I'm pretty sure that's not how City Hall Plaza events are conceptualized to be.

EDIT: for completeness, I did not walk the full perimeter, but much of the perimeter, at least, had high green opaque fencing.
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what cost?

and there is #6 for the list.
6, I couldnt see in
'it is so crowded there are people standing in the middle of Cambridge St. Somebody is going to get hit' or 'they closed Cambridge St during a weekday evening commute?'
 
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