East Boston Infill and Small Developments

He said a draw bridge, which would not interfere with ship traffic.
 
whighlander said:
...without Massport there wouldn't be any reason at all to go to East Boston --- its essentially a company town for Logan
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Over 40,000 people live here. What the fuck are they putting in your water-supply?

Ron Newman said:
He said a draw bridge, which would not interfere with ship traffic.
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But it would be extraordinarily costly to maintain, and for negligible benefit.

I'm all for better solutions to commute from and visit East Boston, with an added focus for bicycles and pedestrians. Better to reconfigure one or two cars on every Blue Line train-set to be more bike-friendly, and run all-night bus shuttles between Downtown and the Blue Line stops in East Boston and Revere, with provisions for bicyclists.
 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wards_Island_Bridge

This is what I would want to connect East Boston to the North End. This pedestrian/bicycle bridge, a 380 meter vertical lift bridge, opened 62 years ago.

By the way, the distance between the end of the Coast Guard Pier and Lo Presti Park is about 481 meters, so it can be done (even if it's to Battery Wharf or something of the like).
 
coleslaw said:
I see no reason why this couldn't be done except the cost but there would definitely be economic benefits as residents of East Boston could much more easily come downtown and going downtown generally means spending money. it would also improve the livability of East Boston because right now if you don't have a car or money for the T you can't really get down town unless you want to walk all the way to somerville and back. It is about 500 ft from downtown but extremely inaccessible.
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I live in eastie. Better accessibility would be excellent for everyone. But it would make more sense to run a free ferry 24 hours a day for 100 years than to build a lift bridge across the main channel of the harbor.
 
I am all for opening up east boston, but the talk of a bridge seems crazy and that it would never justify the expense. It is not as accessible as the back bay, but it has 2 tunnels in both directions, the blue line and silver line. Eastie is not like jersey city where they will build a bunch of apartment towers and hold an additional 75k people. Think of how everyone complains about traffic for suffolk downs, now a bridge from maverick to the north end- seriously?

East Boston will have its day in the sun, but I don't think it will ever justify the expense. Like if we build it, will hundreds of thousands of people be walking home to eastie from work and bars across the harbor, or will they still just hop on the one stop blue line ride?
 
choo said:
East Boston will have its day in the sun, but I don't think it will ever justify the expense. Like if we build it, will hundreds of thousands of people be walking home to eastie from work and bars across the harbor, or will they still just hop on the one stop blue line ride?
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The answer is yes. I walk home to Charlestown via the pedestrian walkway occasionally and I do see other people doing so, too. Granted that the distance between Charlestown and North End is probably half the distance of East Boston to North End, but if you're looking for a comparable distance, just look at how many people cross over from Boston to Cambridge via the Harvard Bridge and Longfellow Bridge when they could have easily used the #1 bus or the Red Line.
 
A free 15 minute walk vs. a $2 10 minute T ride twice a day... might ease congestion on the blue line during rush hour. I'm not sure how busy the blue line gets but if it's anything like the Orange, Red or Green lines at peak hours it might be a nice alternative
 
hockey92 said:
A free 15 minute walk vs. a $2 10 minute T ride twice a day... might ease congestion on the blue line during rush hour. I'm not sure how busy the blue line gets but if it's anything like the Orange, Red or Green lines at peak hours it might be a nice alternative
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From my experience, the trains can become incredibly packed.
 
Living in Eastie, I would love a pedestrian/bike connection across the harbor. But it would be very hard to make the numbers work. Since people already on the Blue Line traveling inbound would be unlikely to get off at Maverick and finish their trip on foot, you're probably looking at a market consisting of those who are currently boarding at Maverick (about 8k per day) and then however many people are driving their own cars to downtown from the Maverick area of East Boston (relatively few, and those who exist would be unlikely to switch to walking), and those taking taxis from the Maverick area (my guess is fewer than 1k per day).

Most of this potential market of 10k/day people have destinations that aren't along the water's edge in downtown. So, in addition to their 2/3 mile walk, they would still need to travel deeper into Boston. If that trip is long enough that it requires the subway, they they will probably choose the subway for their entire trip.

No question it would be great to have, but it would be very hard to justify. Also, Blue Line capacity is much better since 6 car trains--I get left on the platform during the peak at Maverick maybe once every couple months, it was a regular occurence before 6 cars.
 
Shipping and boating interests will never let a bridge from the North End to Eastie. A supplemental bridge from Charlestown to Chelsea is probably a non-starter too. Boston Harbor is not busy like it used to be, but there's still a lot of auto-carriers and LNGs coming through.
 
^ Exactly, it would be great, but I just don't see the marginal benefit there for what is a huge cost. If they were going to remove logan and build dozens of 30 story complexes, then yes. But this is really marginal mode shift rather then entire change. You probably would be better with near free ferry service that circles eastie, seaport and long wharf.
 
Choo, you could be right about the numbers not making it worth it, but there is decent evidence that you could be wrong. It is clear that something like this is feasible to build, so I would like to see a study on the expected patronage of such a build. I think a pedestrian/bike connection to Eastie warrants that. Similar projects have been built in many cities. Boston Harbor is not nearly as large of a physical barrier as it is a psychological one.
 
bigeman312 said:
I think a pedestrian/bike connection to Eastie warrants that. Similar projects have been built in many cities.
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Have any been built where there was parrallel rapid transit service? It's a serious question (my knowledge of recent bike/ped bridges is limited).
 
A pedestrian bridge to Eastie would be a game changer...unfortunately I think t would be too expensive and too long.
 
Its great that some of you guys are living over there and dealing with the situation as it exists now, but I don't think you have any idea how many more people want to live in eastie, but don't because of the lack of a direct pedestrian connection to downtown. I'm one of them. I know so many people who are living in watertown, malden, etc who said they strongly considered eastie, but didn't because of the accessability. The housing stock is great, so is the food, view, and distance from downtown. But not being able to walk or bike makes it a non-starter
 
I also fall into that category, I would happily live there if the transportation to downtown was a bit more readily available, especially walking distance. Which may seem far, but depending on where you put the span, it would be about the distance of the brooklyn bridge. The only thing is, what are you giving up for that? A pedestrian bridge would be minimal, but I can't see it being worth the $$$. Pedestrian tolls maybe? EZpass on your forehead?


Not that it really helps the ped/bike issue. But i know the BRA has had an RFP out for two "Inner Harbor Passenger Water Transportation Vessels". Not sure if these would be used for eastie or not, but it makes sense that they would be.

If I had the money, I'd be buying up some property and just sitting on it, rent it out for a decade, cause the value over there is only going to go up.
 
davem said:
I know so many people who are living in watertown, malden, etc who said they strongly considered eastie, but didn't because of the accessability. The housing stock is great, so is the food, view, and distance from downtown. But not being able to walk or bike makes it a non-starter
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It's definitely a negative, and I admittedly didn't start riding a bike again until after I had moved here 10 years ago (maybe bike access to downtown would've factored into my decision if I had already been biking).

I do think that sometimes too much can be made of the lack of a bike/ped connection though. If you live near Maverick you can be in downtown in one subway stop. And for all but two hours a day you can bring your bike on the T. My guess is that people living in Watertown or Malden (both places I like a lot) are much less likely to find themselves on a bike or on foot in downtown within 15 minutes of leaving their house than I am. Certainly downtown isn't the center of gravity for every activity (Cambridge, Fenway, etc), but other than the late night cab issue (soon to be mitigated by later subway service) Eastie is more convenient to places like the North End, Faneuil Hall, DTX, Financial District, the Common than any other neighborhood that's not in downtown.
 
davem said:
Its great that some of you guys are living over there and dealing with the situation as it exists now, but I don't think you have any idea how many more people want to live in eastie, but don't because of the lack of a direct pedestrian connection to downtown. I'm one of them. I know so many people who are living in watertown, malden, etc who said they strongly considered eastie, but didn't because of the accessability. The housing stock is great, so is the food, view, and distance from downtown. But not being able to walk or bike makes it a non-starter
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I was one of them, until I got a job in Waltham and Blue->Orange->Red->bus or Blue->Orange-> Commuter Rail is not something I wanted to deal with every day. So I guess Blue-Red as well as lack of bike/Ped connection and Government Center shut down all seemed to add up to Eastie being regrettably eliminated. I love visiting though and think it's a great neighborhood but there is no denying the lack of transportation options when comparing to other areas.

If I worked downtown, Eastie would probably be my number 1 choice. The issue is that for anybody who works on the Red Line or Green Line (I.e. Kendall, Longwood, Harvard, etc.) Eastie just lacks commuting options. It's basically many transfers via public transportation or drive. If the Blue Line went to Charles/MGH and Government Center wasn't closing for years, the bike/Ped issue would not be as big of a deal.
 
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