Downtown Crossing/Financial District | Discussion

^^^
Why only $500? Harvard has a lot of money, shouldn't it be more? And why does Lenny down the street get the $500? He has only lived here for a few months, I've lived here my whole life!
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Those people can move to the suburbs. There is a college right next door, did they honestly expect that it would never ever ever grow? I hope for the love of god that suffolk gets their dorm in downtown crossing, because i think it is the perfect place for it.
 
The Herald said:
NIMBYs of Boston, unite!
By Boston Herald Editorial Staff
Wednesday, March 21, 2007

We were hardly shocked when the Beacon Hill crowd sniffed disapprovingly at plans for a new Suffolk University dorm in their neighborhood. Now Suffolk is looking for a new location and is eyeing a building on West Street.
But to our surprise, another not-in-my-backyard crowd has set up shop in Downtown Crossing, where the tumbleweeds outnumber the pedestrians once darkness falls.
?I want to see (Downtown Crossing) continue to grow into the great residential community it is becoming,? said Greg Selkoe, a resident and critic of Suffolk?s plans. ?This puts a damper on it.?
To critics, well-heeled neighbors living in luxury are preferable to nocturnal 20-somethings. But hey, at least credit Selkoe for candor in admitting he wanted to move into the building himself before Suffolk staked its claim.
But one wonders whether the dorm opponents would have been willing to even set foot into this neighborhood had students not already livened things up. The section of the city from Boylston Street to Downtown Crossing feels a lot safer these days thanks in part to the presence of students from Emerson and Suffolk.
Yes, Suffolk needs to do a flawless job at communicating its plans and building support among its potential neighbors - something critics say so far it hasn?t.
But if the university is driven out of this neighborhood, the city, which wants more student dorms to relieve pressure on overall housing costs, will be the loser.
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:evil:

If NIMBYs have their way, the city will be reduced to single rich white people and nothing else. Students bring a lot of good things to a neighborhood, I don't see how this is a bad thing.
 
This is one of the most ridiculous arguments I've seen so far. What do students do? It's ironic that an area was once one of the most thriving areas of the city, then it started to become deserted after dark, and now something that would turn this place back into a thriving area again is facing opposition.

Even though this guy is raising a stink, I wouldn't be surprised if he's out of the picture pretty quickly. This project is too good and too beneficial to the community for a couple people to shoot it down.
 
thankfully, it sounds like most people realize this. I truely think suffolk will get their dorm here, and if they don't, then god help boston....
 
yet another pro-suffolk article, things are looking pretty good.


GLOBE EDITORIAL
A ladder for Suffolk U.

April 9, 2007

SUFFOLK UNIVERSITY officials have dusted themselves off after being driven from Somerset Street on the edge of Beacon Hill, where they had hoped to site a 22-story dormitory. Now the university is concentrating on the Downtown Crossing/Ladder District, where a Suffolk dorm could serve both the interests of the university and revive a stale area of the city.

Everything that Beacon Hill neighbors deplored about the Somerset Street proposal -- building size, location, student density -- is addressed for the better in the new proposal. The proposed dorm at 10 West St. would utilize an existing eight -story building and accommodate 270 students, about half the number planned on Beacon Hill. And unlike Beacon Hill, there is a dearth of night activity in Downtown Crossing. Students would make the area both livelier and safer.

Mayor Menino and the Boston Redevelopment Authority have given their blessing to the West Street dorm proposal. But they had also backed Suffolk's earlier plan on Beacon Hill. When opposition intensified, however, city officials backed away, leaving the university in the lurch. Some opposition to the latest project already has been heard from nearby residents who worry that Downtown Crossing could become too much of a student center. The Menino administration needs to remain stalwart this time. Its own sound policy, after all, encourages universities to house their own students as a means to lessen pressures on rents and housing costs in the surrounding neighborhoods.

Suffolk University now houses just 19 percent of its 4,500 undergraduates. In a college town like Boston, a school can't maintain its competitive edge if it can't do a better job than that at providing housing. It's the responsibility of the university to ensure that its students behave in such a way that they are welcome in the neighborhood. Suffolk must also choose wisely when leasing the commercial spaces on the ground floor of the proposed dorm. But it is the responsibility of City Hall to see that Suffolk is given a fair chance to gain the permits necessary to open the dorm in September.

Unlike most universities that favor contiguous expansion, Suffolk sees opportunities in various parts of the city that fall under the general rubric of downtown, including Government Center and North Station. What Emerson College did during the last decade to revive downtown areas near the old Combat Zone on lower Washington Street, Suffolk could do for other underdeveloped or rundown sections of the city.

The future of Downtown Crossing is often debated in Boston's planning circles. Topics range from how to attract the right commercial mix to the best way to configure the pedestrian mall along Washington Street. It's still talk. A Suffolk dorm is real and ready.
 
I wonder if stories about Suffolk moving into 10 West should be in this thread, the Suffolk Dorm Tower/Garden of Peace thread or it's own thread. :?:
The Herald said:
Suffolk rehab under way before OK?
By Scott Van Voorhis
Boston Herald Business Reporter
Thursday, April 19, 2007

A neighborhood watchdog is accusing Suffolk University of trying to pull a fast one by quietly moving ahead with plans to build out a controversial dorm before it has won a green light from City Hall.
Greg Selkoe, a former City Hall development official, turned Internet entrepreneur who lives in Downtown Crossing, contends he was told by construction workers at 10 West St. they are converting the building into a dorm. A similar story was also told to a Herald reporter by a security guard at the building?s entrance.
Suffolk recently unveiled plans to acquire the building near the Ritz-Carlton towers. At that time, the West Street building was in the process of being converted into high-price condos.
While saying it hopes to move more than 200 students into the building this coming September, Suffolk has also pledged to have its plans thoroughly vetted by the neighborhood. The university is also required to obtain a number of approvals from City Hall, including a change in zoning rules to allow for student housing.
Yet in the the weeks since Suffolk?s announcement, work has continued on the building, stoking the suspicions of Selkoe and other Downtown Crossing residents.
?What happened to the full process (of) getting a full review and feedback first?? Selkoe asked in a letter to Suffolk officials.
John Nucci, Suffolk?s government affairs chief, said the university, even as it proposes moving into the building this fall, does not own 10 West St. and has no control over it. The construction inside, Nucci said, is limited to basic building systems and common areas.
A member of the limited liability corporation that owns the building, Ron Gold, said work on converting the building into an upscale residence has not changed, despite talk of a Suffolk deal. He said workers at the building were mistaken in describing the construction inside as dorm work.
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Of course, this is such a non-story it probably shouldn't be posted at all. :roll:
 
Luxury housing ... dormitories ... what's the difference ...?
 
i was thinking.... suffolk seems to need these dorms pretty badly, what if they made a deal to make the dorms here honor students only, or some high percentage.... i remember when i was in school, you never heard a peep from the honor floors, they were very docile.

Maybe that could be some common ground for everyone as long as you could get these asshole neighbors to understand the idea and that it really wouldnt be that disruptive.
 
lexicon506 said:
the Downtown Crossing/Ladder District, where a Suffolk dorm could serve both the interests of the university and revive a stale area of the city...
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... aka "the revitalized theatre district."



As a street-life enthusiast, I find myself longing for the return of the Combat Zone and of Ben Sack's movie theatres.

This area used to be lively at night, and all the expensive theatre restorations can't conceal the fact that as an entertainment district, it is presently a flop.
 
Not all the theatre restorations are done. Emerson College is just getting started with construction on the Paramount, which closed over 30 years ago.

More students are a good thing.
 
Ron Newman said:
More students are a good thing.
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Unfortunatly, every resident of downtown boston would disagree with you! :evil:

I really see students as the best solution to dtx.
 
But there are no non-student residents of downtown Boston, except for Manny Ramirez and the other folks in the Ritz Towers.

Emerson College is the best thing to happen to the Theatre District in decades.
 
Ron Newman said:
More students are a good thing.
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Sure, anything to get more people out on the street in the evenings.

Never in my born days have I seen a place so drained of its nightlife. You shoulda seen it.
 
Aren't there a few bars on that street as well? West Street Grille comes to mind and that gets pretty packed practically every night. Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers!
 
is "The Good Life' still there it used to be a good place to get a bite, have a couple drinks and hear live music after work. I dont know which street it was on but was a pretty cool place. I havent been there in five years. it may be gone. But i remember being a bit nervous walking out of there alone after dark.
 
The Herald said:
Fix needed for downtown: Activist: Drug deals increase in district
By Scott Van Voorhis
Boston Herald Business Reporter
Friday, April 20, 2007

The gleaming Ritz Carlton Towers near Boston Common may be Mayor Thomas M. Menino?s signature project.
The mayor championed the New York-style, upscale condo residences in hopes of transforming the traditionally seedy lower Washington Street area.
Yet while the streetwalkers are gone, drug dealing is on the rise in the neighborhood around the glamorous Ritz Carlton Towers, home to multimillion-dollar condos and local celebrities like Sox slugger Manny Ramirez [stats].
Police say they are making roughly 600 arrests a year on drug offenses in the emerging new neighborhood, which runs from Downtown Crossing down to Stuart Street and the Theatre District.
And the level of drug activity has been on the rise over the last 18 months, contends neighborhood activist George Coorssen, an investment executive who?s spent years trying to clean the area up.
?A lot of people are coming from a lot of different locations using Downtown Boston as their (place) to buy drugs,? said Capt. Bernard O?Rourke, who oversees downtown policing.
The contrast between these two worlds - sordid street dealing under the nose of fancy condo high-rises - comes to life on a walk through the area with Coorssen.
Tremont Street, the area?s front door just across from the Common, has seen its share of new development, from a Loews movie complex to the pricey Grandview condo high-rise.
But condo owners on what could be Boston?s Champs-Elysees have to put up with a daily grind of drug activity.
There?s the 11 a.m. ?heroin run? not far from where Tremont approaches Downtown Crossing, where addicts cluster for a fix.
Farther down Tremont, toward Boylston Street, it?s crack territory, culminating in ?crack corner? next door to the Wilbur at Tremont and Stuart streets, Coorssen says.
?This whole street should be a showcase for Boston,? Coorssen said.
Instead, around the corner where the Ritz Carlton towers front on Washington Street, police have been playing a cat-and-mouse game with various pushers.
The small red-brick Liberty Park has been cleared out, with the clever placement of sharp black iron points on places previously used as unauthorized stoops.
The entryway to the Ritz Carlton garage was also a favorite of the druggies until no trespassing signs were posted, helping police to arrest violators.
No one faults the police, who have responded by sending in more uniformed and undercover officers. Instead, neighborhood activists point to City Hall?s increasingly muddled development strategy for the area.
The Ritz Carlton Towers alone can?t be a cure-all. Activists say more condo projects, which will attract residents committed to the area, are needed.
After all, asks Coorssen, how many drug deals do you see taking place on Marlborough Street in the Back Bay?
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Well, at least it adds to the street life, eh?
 
Totally accurate

It's a totally accurate portrayal of the area.

The last two times I have been at the Loews AMC theater (including last night), I have noticed how terrible the neighborhood is.
 
This area totally needs more upscale drug dealers. I just can't imagine that the Liberty Park crew can provide the level of service or quality that the new residents of the Ritz and the rest of the Ladder District require. The Mayor should get on this.
 
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