Well, I think that much of the southwest corridor and lynn speak volumes for what happens when an area doesn't have highway access.
Ar things Changing
- Thread starter whighlander
- Start date
Well, I think that much of the southwest corridor and lynn speak volumes for what happens when an area doesn't have highway access.
BostonUrbEx
Senior Member
- Joined
- Mar 13, 2010
- Messages
- 4,340
- Reaction score
- 128
Lawrence has MA-213, I-93, and I-495, what happened there? I'd sooner live on the SW Corridor or in Lynn, than Lawrence. Haverhill also has 495. Brockton has 24. Fall River has 24, 79, I-195. Holyoke has 91, 391. Springfield has 90, 91, 291, 391.
Also note that Salem kicks ass despite being a bit of a pain to drive to.
whighlander
Senior Member
- Joined
- Aug 14, 2006
- Messages
- 7,812
- Reaction score
- 647
Urb -- Can't compare cities outside of Rt-128 with those within -- the history of development post WW II is still the key to "Location, Location, Loation"
Imediate post WWII all of the development emphasis was industrial concentrated in the sector of Rt-128 from just SE of Rt-9 to right about Rt-1 in Peabody - ot much happened closer to the coast either N or S
Within that sector of Rt-128 the development concentrated in pockets close to the major intersections in Nedham, Newton, Waltham (already had a major Raytheon presensence), Lexington, Burlington, Woburn and in Peabody later Wakefield
Growth then progressed outward into Industrial Parks:
S on Rt-1 Norwwood (e.g. Analog Devices)
W on Rt-20 (e.g. Raytheon), Rt-9 mostly retail), i-90 (data General, Prime),
NW on Rt-2 in Concord (e.g. GenRad),
N on Rt-3 in Burlington ( ), I-93 Wilmington & Andover (Raytheon)
NE on I-95 Danvers (Analogic)
Some other places had either successful or dying old industry - howerver they mostly did not grow:
Nothing ever happened in Lynn except for what already was there with GE
Salem had some pre WWII industry mostly lighting connected with then Sylvania now Osram
Brockton, Fall River, New Bedford had nothing new just dying shoes and textiles
Lawrence and Haverhill had nothing except dying textile and shoes - see Brockton
North Andowver had the huge AT&T Merrimak Valley Works of Western Electric & Bell Labs
Lowell had nothing until Wang built the towers and re-launched it for MACOM and a few others
And then came DEC which started in late 1950's in Maynard (old mill town) and rapidly developed major sections of I-495 (including taking over an old RCA facility) and Rt-9 West of I-495, and I-495 North -- DEC in turn spawned the rest of the Minicomputer companies and the beginning of the 90's telecom / networking companies which mostly developed along the Rt-3 & I-495 region around Westford / Chelmsford
Boston began to grow in the office market starting in the 1960's with the Pru and State Street Bank -- this then accelerated during the 1970's and 1980's and continues
The biggest recent development (last decade) is the explosive growth of Cambridge as the home of R&D
Those areas aren't the same as the urban core of boston-- the areas that remained the nicest after the decline of manufacturing around Boston are generally the places with easy highway access-- W. Roxbury, Newton, Brookline, Arlington, etc. all come to mind. The nicest and most expensive places in MA, are all places with easy relatively easy transportation to skilled jobs.
Haverhill has largely turned around as a result of the proximity to 495 and 93. Lawrence is better than it was, but these areas were completely gutted of industry because they were solely dependent on low-value add activities and lacked the institutions to move up the value chain (as boston has with educational facilities, financial services). Now, the prospects for these areas are the best they have been in years as a result of sprawl and highways-- but the core issue of travel time to the highway/job remains a reason why they aren't attracting more demand from suburbanites that want to live in a more walkable area.
Also, many of the places on the Merrimack were declining in economic power as far back as the 1910s-- as a result of being on a river without major rail or road facilities and far from population centers as well as union agitation. I believe that at one point there was a proposal to dredge the merrimack river all the way to Lowell to make the area more hospitable to business.
whighlander
Senior Member
- Joined
- Aug 14, 2006
- Messages
- 7,812
- Reaction score
- 647
Kahta -- this dynamic goes back many many years -- its always about where to live that is pleasant and where to work which often depends on access to long-distance transportation / communications
Boston has always been the Hub for working, transpoting and living in New England -- but until very recently people wanted to move away from where they worked -- hence commuting patterns, traffic and demographics which we have today -- note there have always been a few outliers for various reasons (e.g. WWII based industry) -- but the fundamentals are essentially given by the following:
1) in the 1600's and 1700s working was connected with ships and trade thus Hancock worked over by Faneuil Hall but he lived on Beacon Hill -- other rich forlk did the same in Salem -- think PEM
2) 100 years later -- for people in the upper crust such as Jack Gardner working was shuffling money on State St. -- but you lived on Beacon or Commonwealth in the Back Bay, or you took the commuter rail to home on the North Shore, South Shore or West to Wellesly
3) meanwhile the not so rich involved in white collar work in Boston's FID and managers at the Hub's factories moved to Sommerville, Medford, Arlington and took the troley home
4) Blue collar folks working in the port, or shoes or other small scale manufacturing moved to Southy and Dorchester and took the trolley
5) with the advent of cars and highways the diaspora expanded futher out to R-128 and beyond -- where for the most part there were never any commuters -- just farmers and hence no CR
6) meanwhile starting in 1820's people realized rivers were power and so industry grew in places such as Waltham, Lowell, Lawence, Taunton, Fall River -- providing both power and transport to Boston and then to the rest of the world
7) Late in the 19th Century steam took over for water for power and rail took over from harbors for transport -- the rest of the map of industrial eastern Massachusetts was essentially set by 1900
8) Starting in the early 20th century electricty took over from steam for power and in the post WWII auomobiles and trucks took over from a lot of rail for transport of people and goods
a) many of the mills moved out to places where the raw materials were located (e.g. Carolina) -- thus the downsizing of Lowell, Lawrence, Haverhill, Brockton, Fall River, New Bedford, Lynn
b) later in the 1960's the rest of Blue Collar industrial companies began to leave Boston, Cambridge, Sommerville -- either go far away, or in many cases to move to where there was good highway access and lots of accessible land in the western suburbs to build more effecient industrial facilities
c) some of the big industry such as GE in Lynn transformed to do new things -- but typically they shiftd up the curve to higher skill and higher education employees and typically they got smaller in numbers of employees
9) Starting with DEC -- the minicomputer companies built in the west and northwestern suburbs -- mostly abandoning the biggest cities, and even when they located in places such as Waltham or Lowelll it was in places centric to hightways and away from downtowns and rails -- e.g. Winter St. in Waltham or Wang towers on Rt-3 in Lowell
10) finally New factors which have entered the mix in the past 20 years:
a) information technology and new digital communications companies (some spawed from the Minicomputer companies and some such as Sun / Oracle as imports) are starting to move back inside the Rt-128 loop
b) Bio / Pharma is bound to Cambridge and Boston with some "not quite R and D + production locating out on Rt-128 and up I-93
c) white collar / Knowledge Economy people are starting to want to live in the Hub and susidiary cores such as Waltham Moody St. -- in many cases the only way to get to where they work is by car
d) some of the KE companies are starting to locate in Cambridge and Boston -- offering the potential for transit commuting
e) Huge growth of almost all of the colleges and universities as both the initiation and beneficiries of the KE
Unfortunately - a lot of planning by the various entities -- doesn't seem to realize that plans drawn-up by the T in 1968 are nearly irrelevant today