City Hall Discussion - Redevelopment - Preservation - Relocation

Re: Menino Proposes Selling City Hall

I can't quite tell, is the Blackstone preserved in these models or slated for demo?
 
Re: Menino Proposes Selling City Hall

Blackstone was to be left alone. The low building (I believe it was planned as a hotel) in the right background would have occupied the space where the CA/T Vent Building (with the mostly unoccupied first floor and Haymarket T entrance) currently stands, dead-ending Hanover and covering the entire area of the Holocaust Memorial.

From Pei Cobb Freed & Partners site.
 
Re: Menino Proposes Selling City Hall

It still is an object in a plaza with no urban context. Did the planning committee really only the zone the building to be in the extreme back of the site? From the site models, it looks like they had the whole site to build with and every single architect made a huge barren plaza.
 
Re: Menino Proposes Selling City Hall

'Urban' was a pretty dirty word back then. They were trying to make it a open and detached as possible.
 
Re: Menino Proposes Selling City Hall

correct me if I'm wrong but was the surrounding area was not as integrated or built for foot traffic then as it is now...so opening up the 'back end' of city hall plaza was not really seen as necessary? leading to designs that were heavily 'forward facing'?
 
Re: Menino Proposes Selling City Hall

Bubbybu said:
correct me if I'm wrong but was the surrounding area was not as integrated or built for foot traffic then as it is now...so opening up the 'back end' of city hall plaza was not really seen as necessary? leading to designs that were heavily 'forward facing'?
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That is true... Quincy Market/Faneuil Hall Marketplace hadn't been revived yet.
 
Re: Menino Proposes Selling City Hall

Sorry, boys, my second act of business as mayor will be ordering the demolition of City Hall, right after dissolving the Boston Redevelopment Authority and right before declaring a three-day city-wide celebration in my honor.
 
Re: Menino Proposes Selling City Hall

This might need to be its own thread, but I always wondered if we got rid of the BRA, what would replace it? Would it just be a matter of getting approval from the zoning board?

If you were starting from square one, what would the agency that does BRA-esque activities look like and what authority would they have?
 
Re: Menino Proposes Selling City Hall

Starting from square one, you'd probably just do what almost every other city does and have some sort of zoning board and some sort of business development board. Back in the day, combining the two as the BRA made at least a little bit of sense. Today? Not really. There are even arguments that it gives the agency conflicting interests.
 
Re: Menino Proposes Selling City Hall

JohnAKeith said:
Sorry, boys, my second act of business as mayor will be ordering the demolition of City Hall, right after dissolving the Boston Redevelopment Authority and right before declaring a three-day city-wide celebration in my honor.
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Third act needs a massive 10 -25 Billion dollar upgrade to the MBTA Orange, Blue & Red lines

***Which would include massive Expansions
TRANSIT is KEY to the success of a cities accessability
 
Re: Menino Proposes Selling City Hall

TheRifleman said:
Third act needs a massive 10 -25 Billion dollar upgrade to the MBTA Orange, Blue & Red lines

***Which would include massive Expansions
TRANSIT is KEY to the success of a cities accessability
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I wasn't aware Boston's mayor controlled the MBTA.

Huh.
 
Re: Menino Proposes Selling City Hall

^^^^
I think the city & state leaders need to understand that MBTA is key for major developments and city expansion.

Orange, Blue & Red are completely outdated at this point. And what scares me is as we continue to build future projects like Filenes, focus on the Seaport that we are not using that opportunity to upgrade the T.

This could pose a big financial risk to the city & state not understanding this concept.

OUR Boston Mayor controls the BRA and the BRA can work with MBTA officials on how to plan and upgrade the MBTA at certain development sites.

It's called city planning working with other agencies to make sure the city runs efficient
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Re: Menino Proposes Selling City Hall

Anyway...

John, would you move City Hall or rebuild on the same spot?
 
Re: Menino Proposes Selling City Hall

TheRifleman said:
^^^^
I think the city & state leaders need to understand that MBTA is key for major developments and city expansion.

Orange, Blue & Red are completely outdated at this point. And what scares me is as we continue to build future projects like Filenes, focus on the Seaport that we are not using that opportunity to upgrade the T.

This could pose a big financial risk to the city & state not understanding this concept.
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The OL seems to work quite well, which makes sense, since it's the newest of the three, if we date it by when the El sections were replaced. The Green Line could use some work.

As for the idea suggested by others that the Mayor has no control over MBTA funding, while technically true, I think the Mayor could have a great deal of impact as an advocate. Menino just hasn't been one. Contrast him with Joseph Curtatone, for example. Also, if the city was really serious, it could help find funding for expansions within city limits, such as an extension of the OL to West Roxbury or Hyde Park.
 
Re: Menino Proposes Selling City Hall

^^^^

My point is the city & state officials along with our development planning organization team need to get together and understand that our MBTA infrastructure is becoming very outdated especially with major projects that are proposed in the city. It might be time to organize with city planning agencies along with the MBTA finance committee, with state leaders to figure out how we will pay for a massive overhaul. The T still looks the same since the 70's. I actually thought the Green-Line was the most updated.

#1 Filenes
#2 Entire Seaport district
#3 Congress & harbor Garages
#4 South Station.
#5 Casinos

I would consider at this point that the MBTA infrastructure should be this state’s first priority now.
This is were the taxpayers money should be focused.

The warning is out..........
 
Re: Menino Proposes Selling City Hall

My point was just that when John becomes mayor he can't just will a new Orange Line into being by fiat like he can a new City Hall building.
 
Re: Menino Proposes Selling City Hall

I find your lack of faith in John disturbing.

forcechoke.jpg
 
Re: Menino Proposes Selling City Hall

^^^

Statler,

I believe the BRA should be getting together with Developers, MBTA officials, and City Agencies to map out a complete new grid.

***#1 Improvments (especially to new development sites) Kill two birds with one stone.
***#2 Expansion
***#3 New updated cost efficient Cars

Maybe the developers can throw the taxpayers a bone to help with some improvement costs to those areas.

John you have my vote.
 
Re: Menino Proposes Selling City Hall

ant8904 said:
That one kinda cool. It has a retro-futuristic feel (probably just futuristic feel at that time). It looks like something that could be on Star Trek. Plaza might still ruin it by all its cold winds, but it photo look cool.
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I think while it looks cool in the rendering and in massing...I think this baby was almost definitely pure concrete. The massing is really, really creative and interesting but its skin was probably pretty tough to look at.
 
Re: Menino Proposes Selling City Hall

SF just lost their agency...

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/01/16/BAU91MP58K.DTL

Thousands of city workers empty their desks. Offices go dark. Rows of deteriorated buildings may sit untouched.

This is how California's redevelopment program dies.

Six decades ago, redevelopment agencies were formed across the state to revitalize blighted neighborhoods and create low-income housing. By Feb. 1, as a new state law requires, all 400 of them will be gone.

Killing off a multibillion-dollar program is a messy, unprecedented process. The way it unfolds depends on the city - and the day.

On Friday, lawmakers introduced legislation to preserve redevelopment agencies until April 15. Assuming the original deadline stands, however, officials will spend the next two weeks scrambling to close and hand off their final projects.

"These are very difficult times for people," said Tiffany Bohee, San Francisco Redevelopment Agency's interim executive director.

Last summer, the Legislature and Gov. Jerry Brown agreed to ax redevelopment to help solve the state's multibillion-dollar budget deficit. The agencies annually received about $5 billion, which Brown said should go to education and public safety.

Cities and counties sued. But in December, the California Supreme Court sided with the state and struck down a compromise law that would have allowed the agencies to exist in smaller form.

Redevelopment agencies grew out of federal urban renewal programs and formed in California in 1945. They combat urban blight by purchasing property, renovating commercial areas and developing affordable housing, among other actions. The intent is to encourage the development to include private investors.

When the property values of those areas rise, a portion of the increase in property taxes goes to the agencies. Critics contend redevelopment has strayed from its original mandate, putting taxpayers on the hook for costly projects without oversight.

Impacts will vary
In cities where those funds paid for more than fixing neighborhoods, the pain will be especially acute.

Oakland used nearly $30 million of its redevelopment funds to support salaries in almost a dozen departments, including the City Council, the mayor's office and public works. Without the money, up to 200 city workers will lose their jobs.

In San Francisco, the future of the city's roughly 100 redevelopment workers is uncertain.

Under a proposal pending before the Board of Supervisors, the agency would transfer its debts and obligations to the city. A transition period means workers would stay until the end of March.

"We don't know what staffing level we are going to require to continue the projects, programs and services currently provided by the redevelopment agency," said Christine Falvey, San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee's spokeswoman.

At least 1,500 jobs are at risk statewide, according to the California Redevelopment Association.

"It's demoralizing because people who have, for years of their lives, committed themselves to improving communities are seeing their efforts stop short for not very good reasons," said John Shirey, Sacramento's city manager and former executive director of the California Redevelopment Association.

Some cities are shuffling staff into departments such as planning, economic development and administration, said Jim Kennedy, the lobbying group's interim executive director.

He added, "If all the institutional capacity walks out the door and moves on to other career tracks, it's very difficult to achieve anything in the short term, in the next year or two, exactly when California needs it."

A transformation tool
Over the past two decades, redevelopment money has helped Emeryville transform from an industrial wasteland into a thriving retail hub with stars like Best Buy and Ikea along Bay Street.

But as those funds vanish, millions of dollars' worth of planned construction will probably never materialize.

"It's a really huge impact on what Emeryville's done, and what it can do," said Helen Bean, the city's economic development and housing director. Emeryville's redevelopment budget this year was less than $30 million.

At stake, for instance, is a transit center planned for 59th and Horton streets, near the city's Amtrak station. Of its $60 million price tag, $4 million was going to come from redevelopment, Bean said.

Other projects at risk include the planned Emeryville Center for the Arts, whose $12 million budget relied on $8 million in redevelopment money. Then there is the South Bayfront Pedestrian-Bicycle Bridge, which would arch over the railroad tracks near the Bay Street mall.

It would have cost $13 million in redevelopment money, and the city had already spent more than $1 million designing it. But now it won't be built, Bean said.

"It's a key infrastructure project that will just not go forward," she said.

While Emeryville expects to abandon some of its long-term plans, cities can continue with projects that are significantly under way. In San Francisco, for instance, Mission Bay, Hunters Point Shipyard and parts of the Transbay Terminal project can keep going. Under a proposal before the Board of Supervisors, the city would take over low-income housing, local hiring efforts and neighborhood revitalization programs.

But other projects that haven't made substantial progress, such as the planned police substation on Sixth and Mission streets, are in limbo.

State Sen. Alex Padilla's (D-San Fernando Valley) bill to give redevelopment agencies an extra 2 1/2 months would, in his words, "address serious issues resulting from the recent state court's ruling."

Yet even if agencies win the delay, they acknowledge they've already lost.

"There's so much more to do," Bean said.

E-mail Stephanie M. Lee at slee@sfchronicle.com.



Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/01/16/BAU91MP58K.DTL#ixzz1mNVfdQrc
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