Downtown Crossing/Financial District | Discussion

Jesus, I can't believe I'm subjecting myself to this, but here goes.

xec said:
The chances of you being killed by an assault rifle in Downtown Crossing — or anywhere in Boston — or anywhere in Massachusetts — or anywhere in the US — are probably just as low as having your purse snatched. So why all the constant hoopla about the need to ban assault rifles?
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Because the former results in the instant death and dismemberment of dozens of people, terrorizes entire communities, forces municipalities and private entities to install costly security infrastructure to make people feel safe, and leaves its victims with years of psychological trauma the likes of which you can't even imagine and which can completely incapacitate a person and prevent them from living a normal life. While the former results in a loss of, like $20 and a Charlie Card.

xec said:
The chances of an unarmed black man being killed by the police in Boston — or all of the US — are probably way way lower than Charlie's chances of being the victim of a crime in Downtown Crossing. I saw some stat that less than 25 or so unarmed black men are killed by the police each year in the whole US. So why all the BLM protests and riots and demands to defund the police? In the US more black men are killed by other black men in one weekend than unarmed black men are killed by the police in one year. Maybe BLM should stop trying to defund the police and try to find some way to "defund" black men instead. One thing they can be sure of is that "defunding" black men will save a lot more black lives than defunding the police.
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Because what BLM is protesting is not the mere fact that death occurs, but that the lives of black people in America have been both systemically and personally devalued in the name of creating a de facto apartheid state. In fact, their lives have been so devalued that some people even equate the killing of an unarmed black person with mere purse snatching! Can you believe that shit?

xec said:
Feminists complain that women are paid some 30% less than men for doing "equal work", but some 92% of the people killed on the job while doing "equal work" are men. Maybe feminists should focus on increasing the number of women who get killed on the job until they're about the same as men. Then we can be sure that women are doing equal work and should be paid the same, and the difference in pay feminists complain about isn't the result of men doing more difficult or dangerous jobs, for which of course they should be paid more.
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Ok, so there's hardly any actual logic or reasoning to actually grapple with here, BUT you did seem to intuit something important: historically speaking, women and men have tended to perform different jobs! Do you have any guesses as to why that might be? Do you want to consider the difficulties that might pose for a woman who now wants to do a job not historically available to her sex? I highly suggest you take some time to think about this. Because I gotta tell you, dude, the fact that you have this statistic readily available and you eagerly apply it to a conversation that has absolutely nothing to do with women shows that you might have some weird hangups.
 
BronsonShore said:
Youre not being “not PC,” you’re just being ignorant. Your chances of being the victim of a street crime in Downtown Crossing - or anywhere in Boston - are incredibly low. Youre probably way more likely to be hit by a car in the parking lot of a suburban big box store than you are to have your purse snatched in Downtown Crossing.
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You're right. Sorry I misstated what I did about crime in DTX. I was wrong on that.
 
In fact here are about 20 robberies per year in DTX Station alone (more in the area).
 
Scott said:
In fact here are about 20 robberies per year in DTX Station alone (more in the area).
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Ok, so that means that there's an average of 1 robbery in DTX station every 18.25 days. Meanwhile, during those 18.25 days, approximately 430,000 people board a train in DTX station (pre-pandemic numbers). So there's your back-of-the-napkin odds of being robbed: 1 in 430,000. As I said, extremely unlikely.
 
Yes unlikely, but we can't suggest it doesn't happen or that DTX is just as safe as the rest of the T or city, that just isn't true. Also, that's merely the statistics for the T station alone and not all of DTX.
 
BronsonShore: Stop. Smoking. Crack. This is an architecture forum, not an Antifa summer camp.

BronsonShore said:
Because the former results in the instant death and dismemberment of dozens of people, terrorizes entire communities, forces municipalities and private entities to install costly security infrastructure to make people feel safe, and leaves its victims with years of psychological trauma the likes of which you can't even imagine and which can completely incapacitate a person and prevent them from living a normal life. While the former results in a loss of, like $20 and a Charlie Card.


Because what BLM is protesting is not the mere fact that death occurs, but that the lives of black people in America have been both systemically and personally devalued in the name of creating a de facto apartheid state. In fact, their lives have been so devalued that some people even equate the killing of an unarmed black person with mere purse snatching! Can you believe that shit?


Ok, so there's hardly any actual logic or reasoning to actually grapple with here, BUT you did seem to intuit something important: historically speaking, women and men have tended to perform different jobs! Do you have any guesses as to why that might be? Do you want to consider the difficulties that might pose for a woman who now wants to do a job not historically available to her sex? I highly suggest you take some time to think about this. Because I gotta tell you, dude, the fact that you have this statistic readily available and you eagerly apply it to a conversation that has absolutely nothing to do with women shows that you might have some weird hangups.
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itchy said:
BronsonShore: Stop. Smoking. Crack. This is an architecture forum, not an Antifa summer camp.
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Oh, believe me: I don't want to be discussing this. I entered this thread to talk about the state of Downtown Crossing, which is exactly what we were doing until XEC popped in and turned it into an excuse to air his grievances against black people, women, and people who don't want their kids to get shot in school. I truly wish the contemporary right didn't have such a strong propensity to find their own personal boogeymen in every online corner, only to then refuse to actually enter into good-faith debate and instead toss around meaningless Facebook phrases like "antifa summer camp," thereby demonstrating that they don't actually know what any of those words mean ("summer" and "camp" included). But c'est la vie, I guess.
 
Scott said:
Yes unlikely, but we can't suggest it doesn't happen or that DTX is just as safe as the rest of the T or city, that just isn't true. Also, that's merely the statistics for the T station alone and not all of DTX.
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No one did suggest that it doesn't happen, or that DTX is any more or less safe than the rest of the city. All I suggested was that your odds of being the victim of a crime there are extremely low, and that avoiding the area because someone's purse was snatched in 1972 is completely illogical. And it is.
 
Found out today that Primark at DTX has about halved their store size, they've moved out of the 3rd and 4th floor of Filene's/Millennium. Just a sign of the times I suppose, unclear what will replace it as they've kept the ground floor so it would be hard to sell for any retail.

Did some digging and it looks like when they opened in 2015 the store was 4 stories and 77,000 sqft, they then expanded in 2017 into the area above the Old Navy which brought the store to 93,000sqft. They've now undone all that and more by dropping to just 2 stories. Bit sad for America's first Primark and their "flagship" store.
 
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Charlie_mta said:
It's best to leave political discussions off this board. People's feathers get way too ruffled and there are other discussion boards elsewhere for people to do battle over their political views. I really value AB for its architectural and city planning input from everyone on here, but the politics gets messy very quickly.
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It isn't possible to not discuss politics on this board because the built environment of a metro area is directly shaped by politics. This includes crime, and the often racially-biased perception of crime (I mean, that's literally why the highway system in this country exists in its current form).

The discussion that you and I originally had about crime in this thread was a perfectly fine discussion, and one that's appropriate for this board. It was relevant to the topic, it was respectful, and it was directly related to the built environrment. The problem was that @xec then came in and decided to air his grievances against a whole host of his perceived enemies, despite the fact that none of what he said had anything to do with the topic. As I said at the time, I didn't want to discuss that stuff, but I'm also not going to let someone blast the concept of equal rights for women and belittle the murder of unarmed black men without responding. He came in here, dropped a bomb, and then ran off, refusing to engage with anyone who called him out. It's that type of bad faith posting that really kills a message board.

This discussion didn't go off the rails because of politics. It went off the rails because some people suck at posting.
 
BronsonShore said:
It isn't possible to not discuss politics on this board because the built environment of a metro area is directly shaped by politics. This includes crime, and the often racially-biased perception of crime (I mean, that's literally why the highway system in this country exists in its current form).
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Agreed. Architectural and city planning themselves are deeply political.

And @vansnookenragen why are these posts still tolerated? Seems to be highly selective enforcement here tolerating the worst actors while a response that focused on responding to points someone actually made and the clearly racialized undertones in it is "nonsense."
xec said:
I've noticed that progressives like to use this sort of vague statistical argument to win an argument. But there are similar statistical arguments they'll never make:

The chances of you being killed by an assault rifle in Downtown Crossing — or anywhere in Boston — or anywhere in Massachusetts — or anywhere in the US — are probably just as low as having your purse snatched. So why all the constant hoopla about the need to ban assault rifles?

The chances of an unarmed black man being killed by the police in Boston — or all of the US — are probably way way lower than Charlie's chances of being the victim of a crime in Downtown Crossing. I saw some stat that less than 25 or so unarmed black men are killed by the police each year in the whole US. So why all the BLM protests and riots and demands to defund the police? In the US more black men are killed by other black men in one weekend than unarmed black men are killed by the police in one year. Maybe BLM should stop trying to defund the police and try to find some way to "defund" black men instead. One thing they can be sure of is that "defunding" black men will save a lot more black lives than defunding the police.

Feminists complain that women are paid some 30% less than men for doing "equal work", but some 92% of the people killed on the job while doing "equal work" are men. Maybe feminists should focus on increasing the number of women who get killed on the job until they're about the same as men. Then we can be sure that women are doing equal work and should be paid the same, and the difference in pay feminists complain about isn't the result of men doing more difficult or dangerous jobs, for which of course they should be paid more.

And so on....
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This one is even on this page:
itchy said:
BronsonShore: Stop. Smoking. Crack. This is an architecture forum, not an Antifa summer camp.
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Just chiming in because this thread got bumped recently but if you are passing through DTX, Ogawa Coffee on Milk St is absolutely worth a visit! Some of the best coffee in Boston.
 
BronsonShore said:
It isn't possible to not discuss politics on this board because the built environment of a metro area is directly shaped by politics. This includes crime, and the often racially-biased perception of crime (I mean, that's literally why the highway system in this country exists in its current form).

The discussion that you and I originally had about crime in this thread was a perfectly fine discussion, and one that's appropriate for this board. It was relevant to the topic, it was respectful, and it was directly related to the built environrment. The problem was that @xec then came in and decided to air his grievances against a whole host of his perceived enemies, despite the fact that none of what he said had anything to do with the topic. As I said at the time, I didn't want to discuss that stuff, but I'm also not going to let someone blast the concept of equal rights for women and belittle the murder of unarmed black men without responding. He came in here, dropped a bomb, and then ran off, refusing to engage with anyone who called him out. It's that type of bad faith posting that really kills a message board.

This discussion didn't go off the rails because of politics. It went off the rails because some people suck at posting.
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I agree (sort of). However, I don't like getting into arguments over political ideology because it usually goes nowhere. In my long life I've personally known very well a lot of self-declared communists, far-right conservatives, and everything in between, So, I've learned there are usually many sides to any political argument, all justifiable to an extent, and most having a grain of truth to them. I'm attracted to ArchBoston because of the architectural, city planning and transportation information and viewpoints shared by the posters, and that's it. Political/ideological debates are boring and tedious to me, and more suited to other boards devoted to that realm. That's my humble opinion.
 
BronsonShore said:
It isn't possible to not discuss politics on this board because the built environment of a metro area is directly shaped by politics. This includes crime, and the often racially-biased perception of crime (I mean, that's literally why the highway system in this country exists in its current form).
Click to expand...

I'll counter that assertion by pointing out that the built environment of a metro area is directly shaped by innumerable factors other than politics and crime, such as the price of construction materials, but this board finds it possible to not discuss whether the price of steel or concrete will go up or down and how that will affect construction projects in Boston.

Anyway, I apologize for upsetting you, it was unintentional. I'm 61 and accustomed to old-style impersonal no-holds barred debate, and I keep forgetting that we now live in the age of microaggressions and trigger warnings. It's a whole different mindset as to what's allowable in a debate, but I'm afraid I'm too old to change my ways.
 
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