Columbus Center: RIP | Back Bay

[TetOff]

Re: Columbus Center

Once all-electric transportation is achieved, the issue will be moot, not mute.

Actually, Ned, since you choose to be a pedant, I must point out that it won't be moot either:

moot |moōt|
adjective
subject to debate, dispute, or uncertainty, and typically not admitting of a final decision : whether the temperature rise was mainly due to the greenhouse effect was a moot point.

? having no practical significance, typically because the subject is too uncertain to allow a decision : it is moot whether this phrase should be treated as metaphor or not.

verb [ trans. ] (usu. be mooted)
raise (a question or topic) for discussion; suggest (an idea or possibility) : Sylvia needed a vacation, and a trip to Ireland had been mooted.

 

[KentXie]

Re: Columbus Center

Re: Dirty air stuff

By the time this is built, shouldnt we expect that a decent portion of the cars on the highway will be partially or fully electric, thus causing the particle effect to be a mute issue?

If only the government can curb the usage of gasoline car like they do with smoking. It would take almost not time to convert most car to electric if that happens, or other source of energy.

 

[Ned Flaherty]

Re: Columbus Center

Actually, . . . it won't be moot either . . .

Yes, ?moot? does mean ?subject to debate.?

The issue that will become moot several decades hence is what level of environmental constraints should have been imposed on a proposal, 30 years before it got built (when the completion date was unknown), decades before particulate matter air pollution was eradicated (when that date was also unknown).

The issue will become moot because after defining multiple scenarios ? the one that occurred and the others that didn?t ? and then comparing the profits made from lives lost versus the costs of lives saved ? nothing will change, because it will all be occurring after the fact, when the outcome can?t be altered.

Whenever that moot argument occurs . . .

■ I will still argue that environmental constraints were justified and necessitated because they reduced birth defects, incurable illness (lung disease, heart disease, cancer), and premature death for people who worked or lived above the rail/road corridor.

■ Others will argue that perhaps some mitigation should have saved some lives (and not others), but that the full solution ? building un-filtered buildings elsewhere or building filtered tunnels over the corridor ? would have had a higher cost-per-life-saved than the owners wanted to pay for.

■ Apologists for the real estate development industry will still argue that the structures were not yet illegal when first proposed in 1996, even though they became illegal by the time they were finished in 2026, and that the structures where their customers got sick ? and died sooner ? were profitable.

 

[tommym96]

Re: Columbus Center

I've never read a more tired thread. Ned, I admire your will to keep debating such a ridiculous argument that is going nowhere and has gone nowhere in months.

 

[Ned Flaherty]

Re: Columbus Center

I've never read a more tired thread. Ned, I admire your will to keep debating such a ridiculous argument that is going nowhere and has gone nowhere in months.

You?ve gotten the thread, the issues, and the project all mixed up._ They?re 3 different things.

The Thread ? The variety of different posters, the quantity of posts, and the total number of visitors and viewers all show that this thread is one of the most popular and active ones._ So the thread isn?t ?tired? at all._ What did get tired out, though, were those members who were so overly focused on start-of-construction that for them everything else went pale.

The Issues ? Closer inspection of the public records shows that the points which I argue are continuing to be evolve under attention from lots of people other than me._ And as Boston?s longest running urban planning failure ever, this proposal will remain a great textbook case study for years to come, because people learn far more from difficult failure than they do from easy success._ So it?s not the issues which are ?going nowhere.?

The Project ? What is going nowhere is the project since the BRA approved it ? 6 years ago._ It?s natural for anyone who is obsessed with start-of-construction ? or who equates a ?project? with ?construction? ? to get discouraged reading this thread._ There are more interesting issues covered here, but if they don?t interest you, then the easiest way for you to avoid the fatigue is to just stop reading.

Articles slated for the near future are definitely newsworthy, though probably of no value to people who mainly want to know ?When can I watch it start?? or ?When will a foreman call me??

I?m not criticizing those whose main interest happens to be construction start-up, it?s just that this really isn?t the best thread for reading about that.

 

[Ned Flaherty]

Re: Columbus Center

[size=+2]State pushes a wave of construction[/size]

[size=+1]Public outlays could spur private projects[/size]

By Casey Ross ? Globe Staff ? June 18, 2009

Governor Deval Patrick?s administration will spend hundreds of millions of dollars this summer building roads and highway ramps for at least five struggling private developments - from the former Naval air station in Weymouth to Somerville?s Assembly Square - in hopes of jump-starting construction and the local economy.

The money, a combination of federal stimulus money and state funds, will not go directly to the private developers, but rather for public works that Patrick aides said they expect will make it easier for companies to arrange financing in otherwise tight credit markets. That, in turn, would kick off construction of the planned office parks, shopping centers, housing, and hotels that will create new jobs.

Although more projects may be chosen later, the ones already approved include not only SouthField in Weymouth and Assembly Square, but a new business park in Fall River that will recruit biotech companies, the Westwood Station project, and Waterfront Square at Revere Beach.

The state?s immediate goal is to start work in the current construction season, with the first five projects receiving $20 million to $60 million in public works improvements. Patrick officials expect to officially announce the funding commitments over the coming weeks.

?The projects we will be announcing will change the way we grow and develop over the next 10 years,?? said Gregory Bialecki, the Massachusetts secretary of housing and economic development. ?What we?re trying to do is create the places that will be our new employment centers.??

The federal funds will come out of an $800 million allotment for transportation projects Massachusetts received from the stimulus package.

Initially the Patrick administration used some of that federal money for simple projects such as road paving. But it now wants to target improvements that have the ancillary benefit of creating additional economic growth.

?Now, we?re able to look over the horizon and go after the big picture things we?re trying to do,?? Bialecki said.

In Somerville, Mayor Joseph Curtatone called the selection of the Assembly Square project a major benefit for his city, which like many communities is struggling to fund public services with less money.

?This project will do a lot to stabilize our future,?? Curtatone said of the proposed development. ?It will allow us to invest in education, public works and public safety. It?s the most important project in the city.??

The state is still sorting through the list of projects that have applied for public aid, and more may be added in the coming months.

But Bialecki indicated several high-profile stalled developments have needs the state cannot accommodate.

One is Columbus Center, an $800 million condominium, hotel, and retail project over the turnpike in Boston that has been unable to arrange private financing.

Another request that is too large to fill came from Gale International and Vornado Realty Trust, developers of the Filene?s block in Downtown Crossing, which Bialecki said were looking for as much as $300 million in assistance.

Neither set of developers returned calls seeking comment.

In downturns in the early 1990s and 2001, Massachusetts lagged the national economy in its recovery, taking months longer to restore jobs and production lost during the contraction.

The new spending initiative is an attempt to reverse that trend, although it is unclear just how quickly some of these private developments can get underway and contribute to the economy.

The five projects chosen so far are all ambitious:

■ The Assembly Square project in Somerville includes retail stores such as Ikea, office buildings, and more than 2,000 residential units.

■ The former South Weymouth Naval Air Station would become SouthField, a minicity with more than 2,800 housing units, golf course, stores, offices, and movie studios. State officials are arranging financing to build an access road that would connect the development with routes 3 and 18 and cost about $60 million.

■ At Waterfront Square at Revere Beach, Eurovest Development is planning to build a $500 million mixed use project that would include more than 900 housing units, a hotel, and 200,000 square feet of stores, restaurants, and offices. The state is considering upgrades to the MBTA?s Wonderland Station as well as the network of roads around it.

■ For Fall River, the state will build an off-ramp from Route 24 that would allow officials to add new space next to the city?s 500-acre Industrial Park for biotech companies.

■ The $1.5 billion Westwood Station project includes hundreds of housing units, retail stores, and offices on a large site opposite the Route 128 Amtrak station. The developers want help building a new highway interchange at interstates 95 and 93 that would improve traffic flow around the project, which is projected to create about 3,700 construction jobs and as many as 9,000 permanent jobs.

?We have one or two critical tenants that are still waiting to see what happens with the road system. And if these commitments come through, we can get financing to move the project forward soon,?? said Jay Doherty, chief executive of developer Cabot, Cabot & Forbes.

http://www.boston.com/business/arti...projects_targeted_for_stimulus_aid/?page=full

 

[Ned Flaherty]

Re: Columbus Center

[size=+2]Turnpike's Development Blunders Boggling[/size]

Banker & Tradesman ? By Columnist Scott Van Voorhis ? June 15, 2009

-----From the folks that gave us the Big Dig, here?s another costly screw up: the $500 million airrights fiasco.
-----That was the Massachusetts Turnpike?s estimate more than a decade ago of what it could reap from the development of the air-rights over the highway?s Boston span, which slices through such real estate hot spots as the Back Bay and Fenway.
-----But pretty much nothing got built, leaving the rest of us across the state to bail out the floundering state authority, drowning in billions in Big Dig debt, with ever-higher tolls.
-----The city of Boston came out of this empty handed as well, losing out on the potential for tens of millions in new taxes from millions of square feet of new air-rights development that never materialized.

All The Wrong Moves

-----The story of what went wrong is a case study in state bureaucratic arrogance and a penchant for making all the wrong real estate moves ? over and over again.
-----But if that were not bad enough, the embattled Turnpike, after laying off its real estate chief and his assistant for good measure, appears determined to pursue a downsized version of its already discredited air-rights development strategy.
-----It?s time to apply a little common sense to this government orchestrated-mess.
-----?There really was no coordinated methodical strategy for these sites,? notes David Begelfer, chief executive of NAIOP Massachusetts. ?It was back-ended. They figured, ?We need money. This is one way to get it.??
-----James Kerasiotes, the Turnpike and Big Dig czar who got dumped in 2000 after, among other things, calling the head of another state agency a ?reptile? in an interview with The Wall Street Journal, was sure one abrasive guy.
-----But one thing Kerasiotes got right was his belief that the air-rights over the highway?s Boston span were a potential gold mine. Now it?s a fair question whether Kerasiotes was padding the numbers here a bit ? the $500 million was based on 14 million square feet of new development.
-----Yet even two thirds of that ? $300 million ? would make a big difference right now.
-----The same is true for all the potential tax revenue that cash-strapped Boston never saw.
-----Just take Columbus Center, local housing developer Arthur Winn?s ill-fated plan to build a condo and hotel high-rise complex on a deck over the Turnpike near the Hancock Tower.
-----That project, which has been delayed for years and may now never happen, has the potential to produce a cool $4 million to $5 million a year in new city taxes. That?s a lot of teachers and firefighters. It?s still a lot even after you subtract for a planned tax break to spur construction.
-----But the Turnpike managed to take what should have been a home run for its own troubled balance sheet and for the city of Boston and run it into the ground.
-----The setbacks have been so thorough as to discredit the idea of air-rights development in a city that boasts a pair of landmark projects built over this very same highway, the Prudential Center and Copley Place.

No One To Take The Call

-----But possibly the Turnpike?s biggest problem has been its unwillingness to devote the kind of attention ? and resources ? needed to oversee the development of millions of square feet of new development.
-----The cash strapped authority, until recently, delegated the brunt of this monumental task to a single real estate executive, his assistant and two other staffers. (The director and his assistant, half the department, were recently let go).
-----Unable to handle this massive workload, the Turnpike?s harried real estate duo were constantly juggling different projects ? and too often making the wrong choices.
-----Back when housing was hot, the state authority strung along an array of developers eager to bid on Turnpike-controlled sites near North Station.
-----Instead, then-Turnpike chief Matt Amorello rolled out a ludicrous plan to build one of Boston?s tallest office towers at South Bay.
Amorello had dreams of netting as much as $200 million for a mix of land- and air-rights parcels near the highway interchange off Kneeland Street by South Station.
-----The lucky bidder, as the Turnpike?s pitch went, would then have a shot at building one of the city?s tallest towers and a new, multibillion-dollar neighborhood.
-----There were a couple tiny little problems with this, though. One was the smokestack bedecked steam plant that overshadows the site. The second was the Turnpike?s insistence of a big, upfront cash payment for a development site that could take years ? or decades ? to build out.
-----Begelfer, the NAIOP Massachusetts chief, remembers trying to talk some sense into the Turnpike crew. He urged the authority to focus on its parcels near North Station where there was lively interest from potential bidders ? to no avail.
-----?Their response was, ?We are doing just fine,?? Begelfer recalls.
-----The Turnpike ended up with just one bidder, a local builder who amazingly had never attempted a major high-rise, let alone a multibillion-dollar mega-development.

Did Someone Say ?Change??

-----Amorello is long gone, of course.
-----And there are even some hopeful signs that change may be on the way.
-----The Patrick administration has just delegated Peter O?Connor, a deputy secretary for real estate and economic development at the Executive Office of Transportation, to help revive the Turnpike?s faltering air-rights.
-----?I agree with you completely,? O?Connor said of my assessment of the Turnpike?s dismal history in the air-rights business. ?The way I put it, you guys have deals papered from the Zakim Bridge to Brighton, but no one has built anything. Clearly, whatever construct you were using didn?t work.?
-----Amen to that.
-----Still, there?s also a danger of history repeating itself as harried state officials like O?Connor are forced to play triage and decide which projects to spend time on, and which to put on the back burner.
-----Just look at the mixed signals being given to a group of deep-pocketed developers, a who?s who of Boston real estate dealmakers, who are lobbying for the chance to bid on a series of air-rights parcels not far from the Hynes Convention Center in the Back Bay.
-----O?Connor says he plans to meet with these developers, who submitted bids in December, and evaluate whether they are still interested. He holds out the option of a six month breather.
-----Maybe it will all work out ? O?Connor has a long background in state and city economic development and it certainly does not hurt to have a fresh set of eyes assessing the air-rights development mess.
-----However, maybe it?s time to take a walk on the wild side here, and remove an embattled and nearly bankrupt state authority from a job that is clearly way over its head.

http://www.bankerandtradesman.com/news133353.html

 

[tommym96]

Re: Columbus Center

You?ve gotten the thread, the issues, and the project all mixed up._ They?re 3 different things.

The Thread ? The variety of different posters, the quantity of posts, and the total number of visitors and viewers all show that this thread is one of the most popular and active ones._ So the thread isn?t ?tired? at all._ What did get tired out, though, were those members who were so overly focused on start-of-construction that for them everything else went pale.

The Issues ? Closer inspection of the public records shows that the points which I argue are continuing to be evolve under attention from lots of people other than me._ And as Boston?s longest running urban planning failure ever, this proposal will remain a great textbook case study for years to come, because people learn far more from difficult failure than they do from easy success._ So it?s not the issues which are ?going nowhere.?

The Project ? What is going nowhere is the project since the BRA approved it ? 6 years ago._ It?s natural for anyone who is obsessed with start-of-construction ? or who equates a ?project? with ?construction? ? to get discouraged reading this thread._ There are more interesting issues covered here, but if they don?t interest you, then the easiest way for you to avoid the fatigue is to just stop reading.

Articles slated for the near future are definitely newsworthy, though probably of no value to people who mainly want to know ?When can I watch it start?? or ?When will a foreman call me??

I?m not criticizing those whose main interest happens to be construction start-up, it?s just that this really isn?t the best thread for reading about that.

Thanks for the breakdown. When I said the thread was tired I meant the content within as well as the actual subject.

 

[Ned Flaherty]

Re: Columbus Center

[size=+2]Columbus Center support vs. new bids[/size]

South End News ? 25 June 2009

[size=+1]Columbus Center support[/size]
For two years I have been reading comments by Ned Flaherty in regards to Columbus Center. For some reason, Mr. Flaherty decided to become the de facto spokesperson for all who live around Columbus Center. He does not speak for me.

Mr. Flaherty states the "Columbus Center is opposed by adjacent communities." I would like to make it clear that is indeed not the case. As a resident of Cortes St. directly across from the largest parcel of the project and perhaps most affected by any construction, I am totally in support of this project. In addition, most all that I have spoken to in Bay Village are in favor.

Mr. Flaherty also implies that $79 million has been given to the project from the city and state. If that was the case this project may have gone forward a long time ago. This project is just the type that should be receiving support to stimulate our local economy. It will create potentially thousands of jobs in construction and would certainly appear to be shovel-ready. The resulting completion connecting the Back Bay, Bay Village and the South End while covering the Mass. Pike. will improve the quality of life for all neighborhoods.

The trees are torn down, the grassy knoll is now a big pit and several million dollars of support are already placed in the ground. It is time for the city and state to step forward and assist in getting this project moving forward. Whatever past negative feelings towards the developer or politicians need to be put beahind us. Nothing ever gets accomplished by continuing to point fingers. Now more than ever, someone needs to step forward and make Columbus Center a reality.

Artie Rice
Cortes Street

[size=+1]Open the Columbus Center parcels to new bids[/size]
The community lost 24 mature trees from Cortes Street when workers for the Columbus Center proposal chopped them down in 2007.

A few Cortes Street residents still think the fastest way to get their street restored is to keep waiting for someone to build the now defunct project. They?re wrong, for two reasons.

First, the latest proposal includes a 30-year calendar that lets the owners finish as late as 2026. That schedule allows tunnel construction 2010 - 2011; all construction stalled again 2013 - 2023; and skyscraper/garage construction 2024 - 2025. This 10-year delay was reported over one year ago ("Another delay for Columbus Center," South End News, June 5, 2008).

Second, the Columbus Center project is insolvent: the current owners (California pension plan) stopped funding it in September 2007, the former owners (Winn Development) ran out of cash in February 2008, state government rescinded the public subsidies in April 2008, and no commercial bank ever issued a construction loan.

The fastest way to get this property developed ? and the surrounding streets restored ? is for the state to declare the current owners in default, evict them, and then get qualified developers to submit competitive bids, with full financial disclosure, that comply with the Turnpike Master Plan. State Representative Martha Walz recommended this over one year ago ("State pulls $10m slated for Columbus Center," Boston Globe, April 8, 2008).

That would fix Cortes Street for free, and a lot sooner than 2025.

Elissa Pogorski
St. Charles Street

http://www.mysouthend.com/index.php?ch=opinion&sc=letters&sc2=news&sc3=&id=92932

 

[KentXie]

Re: Columbus Center

Developers of Pike site told to act
Show Columbus Center will be built, or remove staging, state officials say

By Casey Ross, Globe Staff | July 2, 2009

The Patrick administration has ordered developers of the $800 million Columbus Center project to either move forward with construction or spend millions of dollars to remove staging at the site - an ultimatum that could be a death knell for the foundering Boston development.

State officials expect the developers, the real estate arm of the California state pension fund and Boston-based Winn Cos., to remove barriers and take other steps to clean up the Back Bay work zone within several months, but officials also hint they will remove the team if it doesn?t soon produce proof it can build the massive project.

?At some point we need to call the question and say, is this really going to happen??? said Jeffrey Mullan, executive director of the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority, which has leased the site to the developers.

He did not give a deadline, but said the state cannot wait indefinitely while valuable property lies fallow, depriving taxpayers of millions in potential revenue and inconveniencing pedestrians, commuters, and nearby residents.

The state?s demand to restore the property puts Columbus Center on even shakier legs, as it adds millions of dollars in costs to a project that already cannot go forward for lack of funding.

The development team also includes the Beal Cos. and the Related Cos., which were brought in last September to see if they could devise a way to make the project viable.

In a statement yesterday, the team said it had no plans to bow out. ?We continue to work diligently to develop a viable strategy to move this important project forward,?? the statement said. ?We are best positioned to make this happen given our expertise and investments in the site.??

The statement said the developers are talking with city and state officials about further restoration of the site.

Given the weakness of the housing market and of the general consumer economy - as well as the difficulty of raising money to fund real estate construction - specialists said the prospects for a complex that includes condominiums, a hotel, and retail outlets are not promising. Developers will have to spend tens of millions of dollars to build a platform across the turnpike just to support the 35-story tower and other buildings that are planned between Arlington and Clarendon streets.

?It?s a visionary project, but it also carries construction costs that are very difficult to sustain in the current economic setting,?? said Richard Gollis, principal of Concord Group, a real estate advisory firm.

Conceived in 1996, Columbus Center was supposed to show that large-scale developments built over the highway would generate jobs and millions of dollars in tax revenues. But the project has suffered a series of setbacks and management changes. After finally breaking ground in late 2007, the developers halted construction a few months later when the economic downturn prevented them from lining up enough financing to continue. They were then required to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on interim repairs to clean the site, fix fencing, and remove parking obstructions.

So far, the second look undertaken by the Beal-Related Cos. venture has produced little public progress, and the team has otherwise kept a low profile.

Mullan said the state cannot wait any longer. He said the developers must restore the site to its original state or they will be in violation of their agreement with the Turnpike Authority.

Construction barriers near the Arlington Street onramp make it difficult for trucks and snowplows to navigate. State and Boston officials also want the developers to stabilize a slope along the ramp and remove unsightly construction fencing along city streets.

The Turnpike Authority could take the developers to court to enforce this demand. But Mullan acknowledged that the lease does not require the developers to post a bond or make other payments if they are unable to do the work themselves.

As for the more fundamental question of whether Columbus Center will ever be built, that remains uncertain, Mullan said. But, he added, the state will move to find new developers if officials don?t see progress in the next couple of years.

http://www.boston.com/business/arti...timatum_to_columbus_center_developers?mode=PF

 

[Ned Flaherty]

Re: Columbus Center

[size=+2]Pike?s pushing cleanup of Columbus Center site[/size]

By Thomas Grillo ? July 11, 2009

STAFF PHOTOS BY JOHN WILCOX

Massachusetts Turnpike officials will meet with Columbus Center consultants next week to get a commitment to clean up the stalled construction site.

?We will have a list of potential safety, aesthetic and quality of life issues that need to be addressed,? said Peter O?Connor, the state?s deputy secretary for real estate. ?I don?t know why the site has not been cleaned up yet.?

Columbus Center, the 1.3 million-square-foot, mixed-use development to be built on a deck above the Massachusetts Turnpike was approved in 2003. MacFarlane Partners, the real estate arm of a California state pension fund, and Boston-based Winn Cos. broke ground in 2007 but work was halted several months later when the credit markets dried up and the state withdrew financial incentives.

Last fall, MacFarlane hired Beal Cos. of Boston and New York-based Related Properties as consultants to see if the $850 million project, in the works for 13 years, could be saved.

But the firms have not produced a promised report and have reneged on a pledge to remove construction staging and refurbish the site.

In April, Alan LeBovidge, the Pike?s former director, said he asked Beal to remove Jersey barriers along the Pike extension, but was told the developers needed more time.

Peter Spellios, Beal?s attorney, declined to comment. In an e-mail statement, a spokeswoman said, ?We continue to discuss with the city of Boston and the Turnpike additional items that will further secure and restore the site.?

O?Connor will do a walk-through at the construction site with residents Monday at 7 p.m.

http://www.bostonherald.com/busines..._columbus_center_site/srvc=home&position=also

 

[Ned Flaherty]

Re: Columbus Center

[size=+2]Columbus Center walk-through gives residents a chance to voice their concerns[/size]

South End News ? By Bessie King ? July 16, 2009

New deputy secretary of real estate and economic development Peter O?Connor led a walk through of the Columbus Center project site on Monday evening. (Photo: Rick Friedman)

Since the beginning of construction at the proposed Columbus Center project site, residents of Cortes Street have had to deal with the nuisance of development noise and aesthetic decline caused by the work that was done. That work has long since ceased, leaving the site in limbo. On Monday, July 13 residents toured the site with John Romano, municipal affairs liaison at the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority (MTA), William Tuttle, director of real estate at the MTA, Peter O?Connor, deputy secretary of real state and economic development for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and Aaron Michlewitz, the newly sworn-in 3rd Suffolk state rep.

Luis Gomes, a Cortes Street resident, said the construction has negatively altered the area.

?Before there used to be a park and it had trees as tall as our buildings,? said Gomes. ?The trees would act as a barrier and break down the noise from the Turnpike but now we have nothing and these fences only take space and nobody sees what happens because they block the view. They should put the park back and put the trees back if they are not going to do anything else because this could last another three, five or more years.?

Organized by neighbor Lynn Andrews, the informal tour brought out approximately a dozen neighbors, who voiced their concerns and comments as they walked through the fenced and jersey barrier-filled section of Cortes Street, asking for improvements on cleaning and safety measures.

?This conversation is not about what is going to happen with the project, it?s actually about what is going to happen on our street because I?ve seen other streets, even Clarendon, that are cleaner and look much better than ours,? said Andrews.

During the meeting O?Connor, a South End resident, said he will do his best to get the Columbus Center project owners to clean up the area and better the conditions of the fences and barriers on the street. He also said, after being asked why the obstacles have not been removed completely, that they are there because construction will happen at some point since the city is not willing to give up on the project, ?just yet.? Neighbors pointed to the trash that accumulates on the sidewalk where the fence is and images of mattresses that were left as trash against a jersey barrier by people who don?t live on the street, and even one image of a couch that was left during the night as trash on the fenced side of Cortes Street.

The lack of visibility is also affecting the driving situation, according to Fayette Street resident Susanne Wadsworth.

?People who are used to coming down the other side of the Turnpike make an illegal right turn on Arlington Street to turn on this island and go through Cortes Street, I don?t do that,? said Wadsworth. ?I have to go around to make it to Berkeley and then over my street. Through the years that is a fair amount of gas and hassle and accidents that have occurred or almost did.?

Some residents on the side of Cortes and Berkeley Street are preoccupied with the increase of prostitution they have seen due to the fact that the fence in place blocks visibility across the Turnpike Bridge for police.

?We live on the side of Isabella Street and we see what is happening from our basement window and we call the police but it keeps going on,? said a female resident and mother of one who wished to remain anonymous.

An increase in car and bike burglary has also been noticed and in the past two weeks two cars have been keyed, according to Andrews and other residents. Although no promises or deadlines were given to residents on Monday night, O?Connor, who was appointed to his position two weeks ago, promised again to try his best and better the situation without discussing previous statements from the MTA or others.

?I want to know what the effect of this is on your way of life and see how we can work with the developer to improve this,? he said.

However, after such a long period of inaction, the South End?s new state rep. thinks it?s time for a new direction for the project.

?For not being on top of this during five months, due to the campaign and election period, and come back to see it in the same state I left it I feel truly disappointed,? said Michlewitz. ?This has put a lot of communities in limbo for well over a year and with no movement I just think it?s time to reshuffle the deck and start looking for alternatives.?

http://www.mysouthend.com/index.php?ch=news&sc=&sc2=news&sc3=&id=93747

 

[Ned Flaherty]

Re: Columbus Center

[size=+2]Do we need a Milena Del Valle tragedy to get the Columbus Center site cleaned?[/size]

South End News ? By Co-Publisher Sue O?Connell ? July 16, 2009

Not a pretty sight. (Photo: Rick Friedman)

It?s human nature. We joke about the sloppy construction of our Big Dig, or walk around the deteriorating Columbus Center construction site. We throw our hands up in the air in helplessness. Too much corruption to fix it-too little money, we say.

The Big Dig and Columbus Center have a lot in common. The biggest difference, however, is that one project was completed, and the other remains in unfinished limbo. The apathy toward the Big Dig resulted in the death of Milena Del Valle in July of 2006 when a concrete slab of a poorly constructed tunnel robbed her husband, Angel, of ?the woman of [his] life,? as he told the Boston Globe. She had three adult children living in Costa Rica at the time of her death. Fortunately, the apathy toward the Columbus Center hasn?t resulted in death or injury-yet.

Why hasn?t the site been cleaned up? Perhaps because the Columbus Center occupies a site neither here (the South End) nor there (Back Bay); or maybe because it?s over the Mass Pike (theoretically); or maybe because there aren?t a lot of residents to keep watch. The Mass Pike, the city, our elected officials and the myriad developers and consultants of the project have managed to avoid cleaning the site and making it safe. The aesthetic and quality-of-life issues should be reason enough for all to act, but they haven?t. In new deputy secretary of real state and economic development Peter O?Connor?s walk-through on Monday night with a small number of community activists no guarantees or promises were made.

We?re told the city hasn?t given up on the project yet. Sure looks that way. In fact, two important figures, Mayor Thomas Menino and 3rd Suffolk State Rep. Aaron Michlewitz, have openly expressed their frustrations with the project?s failings.

So, what will it take? A bad car accident due to the poor visability around the site? An attack on one of the prostitutes who now frequent the area? A tragedy??

Contact Michlewitz, Menino, O?Connor, or even Governor Deval Patrick and ask how you can help. It might be the only way the site is ever restored.

http://www.mysouthend.com/index.php?ch=opinion&sc=editorial&sc2=news&sc3=&id=93754

 

[type001]

Re: Columbus Center

Thank you for posting those hilarious articles. I was having a pretty sour day so far, but those articles cheered me up.

Too bad that none of the residents asked "Do you think this would have happened if we just let the development go as planned?".

 

[pelhamhall]

Re: Columbus Center

If Beal had devised a viable plan, he would have released it by now.

My guess is that after much study it's quite obvious to everyone who's seen the books that nothing can be built here at a profit without government money. I'm sure they've studied mid-rise stumps, low-rise townhouses, everything... if there was a solution, they would have proudly offered it up by now at a press conference with lots of poltiical hand-shaking and mugging, and they would have been heroes to everyone.

This is probably not a viable development site. For anything.

Asking other developers to submit their own bids to go through their own process to determine the same conclusion is really funny and can only prove to be a fruitless (and costly) endeavor to the state. We aren't dealing with Mickey Mouse developers here, Beal/Related is a very successful and experienced team, so if they can't devise a plan that works, why should we assume some other developer magically can?

That being said, my guess is Beal ends his "study" with a "can't do anything" conclusion, and the entity that controls the site is kicked out without ever improving the site, and the residents in the area can wait around for the state to fix the site back up to its previous condition, some time around when the economy recovers after either 2012 or 2016 (depending on if this new Jimmy Carter gets re-elected or not)

Good luck to the residents in the area - a classic case of cutting off your nose to spite your face.

 

[tobyjug]

Re: Columbus Center

The site ought to be cleaned up.

That being said, the article didn't layout any chain of potential causation that justifies the headline.

 

[pelhamhall]

Re: Columbus Center

I'm not saying it shouldn't be - it's a travesty, and Winn should be personally ashamed. I'm just saying it probably ain't gonna happen for a long, long time. Who do you go after? Who do you blame?

 

[tobyjug]

Re: Columbus Center

I'd go after whoever underwrote the performance bond, or in the (unacceptable) alternative, blame whoever waived a performance bond requirement.

 

[bbfen]

Re: Columbus Center

I don't see how, even if Beal wanted to do anything now, that anything could be accomplished. Wasn't the development branch of the turnpike authority uncerimoniously detached from the MTA six weeks ago?

 

[Ned Flaherty]

Re: Columbus Center

. . . Too bad that none of the residents asked "Do you think this would have happened if we just let the development go as planned?".

Actually, all 12 of the Cortes Street residents who wanted this event did ?just let the development go as planned.?_ Virtually none of them participated in public meetings, or testified, or wrote comment letters, and the project just went ahead:_ the fences and trailers arrived in spring 2006, the owners halted funding in September 2007, Governor Patrick halted state subsidies in 2008, every lender who was asked to finance the project refused, and nothing was ever built.

The Columbus Center proposal has never been helped ? or hampered ? by Cortes Street residents._ Likewise, the halted construction isn?t causing car scrapes, car/bicycle burglary, near vehicle accidents, or prostitution, any more than completed construction would prevent such things.