Cities that are not Boston and may or may not be better.

czsz said:
Shorter version of article: Vancouver is great because it doesn't impede densification, like Boston, which is an absurd place. Oh, but Vancouver has a homeless problem, which is not related but makes me seem more balanced.

"Didn't most livable used to be our title?" No.
Click to expand...

Having recently visited Vancouver (not for the Olympics), I can say that it is much more a "Dallas by-the-Sea" than Boston, and I mean that both positively and negatively.
 
The Globe published a letter from Palmieri responding to the op-ed posted up thread, "What's Vancouver got that we don't":

John F. Palmieri via the Boston Globe said:
?Pokey? pace of Hub development? More like deliberate

March 1, 2010
IN HER Feb. 26 op-ed column ?What?s Vancouver got that we don?t??? Ren?e Loth suggests that Boston?s economy and livability are being held back by a ?pokey?? development process, and that development along Boston?s waterfront is ?stalled?? because of a lack of political will or certainty, or a fear of density.

Nothing could be further from the truth, especially relating to the Greenway Planning Study. The guidelines we have developed will have an impact on this district for generations, and we need to get it right. Citizen input has been critical to the process.

The Boston Redevelopment Authority takes great pains to consider community impacts when development proposals are being vetted; neighborhood issues demand our most serious attention, and often result in better design and implementation.

Pokey? Under Mayor Menino?s leadership, more than 32 million square feet of development (that?s about 30 Prudential towers), including more than 7 million square feet on the South Boston Waterfront, have been approved and are ready to begin construction.

Projects such as Fan Pier and Russia Wharf are already underway, bringing new jobs, density, and public amenities to our waterfront for all Bostonians to enjoy.

The global economic slowdown has affected the pace of development all over the world, not just in Boston.

The mayor and our agency continue to do our part to ensure that when the economy rebounds, there will be no shortage of new density and place-making in Boston.

John F. Palmieri
Director
Boston Redevelopment Authority
dingbat_story_end_icon.gif
Click to expand...
LINK

Also, WBUR's Radio Boston discussed the topic on a recent show on "Vancouverism in Boston" featuring Vancouver's former Co-Director of Planning, density advocate, and Chiofaro consultant, Larry Beasley:
http://www.radioboston.org/shows/2010/02/19/vancouverism-in-boston-revisiting-the-zone/
 
I think I would have rather had the 30 Prudential towers.
 
I'm afraid the BRA found the hole in her argument and punched right through it. Roth's argument should have been about how the development process is not only slowed down by NIMBYs, but shaped by them, to the extent that the development we get is crap compared to Vancouver.
 
czsz said:
I'm afraid the BRA found the hole in her argument and punched right through it. Roth's argument should have been about how the development process is not only slowed down by NIMBYs, but shaped by them, to the extent that the development we get is crap compared to Vancouver.
Click to expand...

Vancouver's development is just a different kind of crap. Montreal and Toronto have a much higher standard, at times.
 
Last edited:
Well, I just spent 4 days in West Palm Beach and Boca Raton and I can't wait to get back to my BEAUTIFUL city! Besides the weather, I don't understand why people love South Florida; it takes a half-hour to get anywhere by car, it's the land of strip malls and never-ending super roads, and the aesthetics suck.
 
armpitsOFmight said:
Well, I just spent 4 days in West Palm Beach and Boca Raton and I can't wait to get back to my BEAUTIFUL city! Besides the weather, I don't understand why people love South Florida; it takes a half-hour to get anywhere by car, it's the land of strip malls and never-ending super roads, and the aesthetics suck.
Click to expand...

There ya' go. Most people don't care about much else. Sorry to say.
 
^^^That's exactly why I moved back to the Northeast. I don't really like driving and was sick of sitting in my car for an hour a day. What's really fucked up is that my family member's condo complex is right across the SUPER street from a Publix grocery store and is a pain in the ass to cross without getting killed. Oh yeah, and their zoning laws suck pussy. Their two most recent developments; the lifestyle center "Downtown," and the quasi-fake city center/strip mall like place called "The Legacy," are pathetic. Both the residential, commercial, and retail spots are full of fucking fail because over half is vacant. I think it would be better if they built that shit on top of each other without separating them .4 mies apart from each other. Florida is fucking ugly. Fuck the weather. FUCK FUCK FUCK.
 
And yet Miami Beach regularly gets lauded here as a good example of town planning and architecture.
 
^Miami Beach and West Palm Beach may as well be on different planets.

That said, West Palm Beach's downtown infill projects, CityPlace you are referring to armpit, is considered one of the most successful urban infill projects of it's kind in recent years. It is not all new development, either, including it's centerpiece, the masterful church that was redeveloped into a performing arts center.

CityPlace_Live_Stage_2.JPG


I believe CityPlace was designed by a Boston based firm, and has many similarities to Quincy Marketplace.

Hopefully you made it to Palm Beach while there? That would have been worth your whole trip.
 
Last edited:
bdurden said:
CityPlace you are referring to armpit, is considered one of the most successful urban infill projects of it's kind in recent years. It is not all new development, either, including it's centerpiece, the masterful church that was redeveloped into a performing arts center.
Click to expand...

I'm not referring to City Place, and yes that is one of their only well developed places in West Palm Beach (there's one other that's nice and a lot of rich people live there but I forgot the name of the street and you have to drive 2 miles to get there from City Place). The developments I mentioned on the other page are in Palm Beach Gardens, 10 miles North of City Place. If you ever want to check it out; take 95 North and get off at PGA Blvd and you won't miss the horrible developments.
 
It's probably more an irony of timing than anything else, but it always strikes me as silly that in cities with nice climates the typical mode of transport takes you from your McMansion garage, into your car, and right into the shopping center garage - all without breathing fresh air. Meanwhile, in our dense Northeast cities, even the affluent walk miles in the freezing cold and wait in sleet and hail for the bus that never comes...
 
Shepard said:
It's probably more an irony of timing than anything else, but it always strikes me as silly that in cities with nice climates the typical mode of transport takes you from your McMansion garage, into your car, and right into the shopping center garage - all without breathing fresh air. Meanwhile, in our dense Northeast cities, even the affluent walk miles in the freezing cold and wait in sleet and hail for the bus that never comes...
Click to expand...

Maybe because "nice" climates were, before the advent of air conditioning, stultifyingly hot most of the year, and are only tolerable today owing to that air conditioning. :rolleyes:
 
That's part of what I meant by "irony of timing" - you can also say it's an irony of technology. The decades of their development, in most cases not coincidentally, coincided with the rise of car culture.
 
Boston, Providence, New Haven, NYC, Philly, DC, Chicago, Los Angeles -- all have made major investments in their classic old railroad stations during the Amtrak era. Even Worcester has. What's wrong with Detroit?
 
There is no one living there to use it.
 
armpitsOFmight said:
I'm not referring to City Place, and yes that is one of their only well developed places in West Palm Beach (there's one other that's nice and a lot of rich people live there but I forgot the name of the street and you have to drive 2 miles to get there from City Place). The developments I mentioned on the other page are in Palm Beach Gardens, 10 miles North of City Place. If you ever want to check it out; take 95 North and get off at PGA Blvd and you won't miss the horrible developments.
Click to expand...

Then what are you referring to if not Cityplace and downtown, which are essentially one and the same?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top