Re: Parcel 9 - The Greenway
So we should design our cities based off pandering to only the rich? Not sure RR is the best person to quote for anything, tbh.
Data -- perhaps you'd prefer Abe Lincoln who said No one ever got a job from a poor man
If you are developing a piece of property anywhere - you build as constrained by the authorities (we call it zoning) and by the opportunities to sell, rent, or use it yourself (we call it the market)
So, on desirable property you will pay more for the privilege of ownership and hence you will build bigger and more extensively than you would on a similar size property in a less desirable location
More concretely, you buy an acre in Readville near the tracks for X -- its fairly cheap -- you would not put luxury-quality housing there without some tremendous sense of guilt or ignorance of reality
Alternatively, you pay 10X for an acre of land in the Back Bay - you will try to maximize your height to maximize the square footage of your building and you will also build in a more expensive style to attract the customers who will pay more
Right-now the Greenway parcels are between the two examples though closer to the Back Bay in cost and potential return on your investment
Sure, build a dorm or a rooming house on Parcel #9 -- you probably wont have too many complaints about the Hay Market -- but you had better be a "Not-expecting any kind of profit" developer. Alternatively, build what the Greenway market will support, and you will instantly have an on-the-scene constituency trying to "improve the retail environment" for the Hay Market --perhaps couched in terms of preserving the near-by Historic Blackstone Block and Creek Square -- essentially its a cease and desist order for Hay Market's traditional business.