Quincy Infill and Developments

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Quincy builds SO much transit oriented development, why do they all have so many parking spaces? Its so frustrating. But man that density is starting to look very nice from a street level, it feels like a legit city
My hope would be that these parking facilities are either standalone and easy to replace with something else, or could be converted to something else when the politics and demand align.
 
Quincy builds SO much transit oriented development, why do they all have so many parking spaces? Its so frustrating. But man that density is starting to look very nice from a street level, it feels like a legit city
Quincy is getting a lot of transit proximate development built. To your point, I wouldn't call it transit-oriented for that exact reason.

Unfortunately the Quincy mayor and planning chief are absolutely backwards and behind the times when it comes to urban planning. We've seen it again and again. If he had AICP credentials I would have petitioned them to be stripped following the Acapulcos taking via abuse of District Improvement Financing. The folks in TPAL (traffic, parking, alarm, and lighting) are much more forward thinking but have no jurisdiction in these areas and also still answer to the mayor at the end of the day. Deeply sad to say that after almost a decade in Quincy I am likely moving elsewhere but I hope the city follows up the city council sweep from last year with a new executive next year.
 
Quincy is getting a lot of transit proximate development built. To your point, I wouldn't call it transit-oriented for that exact reason.

Unfortunately the Quincy mayor and planning chief are absolutely backwards and behind the times when it comes to urban planning. We've seen it again and again. If he had AICP credentials I would have petitioned them to be stripped following the Acapulcos taking via abuse of District Improvement Financing. The folks in TPAL (traffic, parking, alarm, and lighting) are much more forward thinking but have no jurisdiction in these areas and also still answer to the mayor at the end of the day. Deeply sad to say that after almost a decade in Quincy I am likely moving elsewhere but I hope the city follows up the city council sweep from last year with a new executive next year.
Thats the sad reality. It feels like the transit is an excuse for the mayor to build rather than the reason he does it. Unfortunately it feels like that describes the majority of developments in Massachusetts, its really disappointing how bad our transit oriented planning here. It would require a more standardized top down approach from the state that boils down to more than just "allow up to 15 units/acre in an extremely limited portion of your town." I have no hope of seeing any real attempt under Mariano and Healey's leadership, and local governments are still infested with hardcore NIMBY's
 
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https://www.bostonglobe.com/2025/11/15/metro/new-park-dedication-quincy/
Am I missing something or is eminent domaining a 2 story mixed use building so you can demolish it and turn it into a mediocre plaza a poor use of public resources? Especially when there are 4 great plazas and parks within a 1 minute walk of here, and a handful of underutilized surface parking lots. I actually like the statue but I don't see why it needed a perfectly good building torn down to make space for it.
 
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https://www.bostonglobe.com/2025/11/15/metro/new-park-dedication-quincy/
Am I missing something or is eminent domaining a 2 story mixed use building so you can demolish it and turn it into a mediocre plaza a poor use of public resources? Especially when there are 4 great plazas and parks within a 1 minute walk of here, and a handful of underutilized surface parking lots. I actually like the statue but I don't see why it needed a perfectly good building torn down to make space for it.
Even better, it was "paid for" with district improvement financing. They're pretending this is going to raise property values enough to make up the $7M property taking price and (I think) $1.5M parklet construction cost.
 
Is trying to raise property values right now even a good idea lol? Property values are as high as theyve ever been, they cant get any higher, how is that a good use of public money? Property values have damn near doubled in 10 years is that not enough?? I thought weve been half assedly trying to find a way to make houses more affordable…

-Whats even crazier is there was a spot directly across the street that was the exact same shape and was just a patch of grass with a couple trees that they could have used for this instead and wouldnt have had to demolish part of the streetwall and someones business.
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Its already being turned into a new park anyways with macarther landing thats u/c, they could have just put the statue in there… Its kind of redundant to have 2 tiny parks separated by a street, that are across the street from another park, which is next to the common. Ah well…
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Oh AND taking a tax paying, high value property on prime real estate off of the tax rolls. This was my radicalizing moment against Koch and Fatseas.

Another, not quite as egregious, example is this stupid park they put at the corner of Burgin and Centre. Because everyone wants to hang out wedged between the highway viaduct, a carwash, and all the crown colony traffic. Great use of a MBTA zoning district property.

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Another, not quite as egregious, example is this stupid park they put at the corner of Burgin and Centre. Because everyone wants to hang out wedged between the highway viaduct, a carwash, and all the crown colony traffic. Great use of a MBTA zoning district property.

ROI is high though since it means less Section 8 kids.
 
The amount of daydreaming I did staring at that site while waiting for a light to turn...

The potential there was ridiculous. And they just.. wiped it away. For another statue. I've never looked but guessing it's the same guy who's made all the other statues on the city's dime under Koch's watch?

The amount of people who credit this mayor for the city's run of success is baffling, as though literally every other city that borders Boston hasn't also taken strides in the same timeframe he's been in office.
 
Oh AND taking a tax paying, high value property on prime real estate off of the tax rolls. This was my radicalizing moment against Koch and Fatseas.

Another, not quite as egregious, example is this stupid park they put at the corner of Burgin and Centre. Because everyone wants to hang out wedged between the highway viaduct, a carwash, and all the crown colony traffic. Great use of a MBTA zoning district property.

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Theres also this one along the southern artery, it was a gas station before so whatever, but the park design is just awful. The trees are are in the far interior of the park while the grass and path are directly next to two roadways with no bushes or trees to muffle noise
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ROI is high though since it means less Section 8 kids.
Schrodinger's multifamily - gentrifying luxury apartments for tech bros pushed by the city for the tax receipts and at the same time neighborhood destroying blights that attract UnDeSiRaBlEs
 

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