General Boston Discussion

George, could you or one of the other mods please move these related posts?
btw, congrats on becoming a mod.
Well deserved.
 
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Thanks. Moved most over. Left a pair here. I'll explain if you want, but it goes along with my previous statement.
 
QUOTE stick n move


HYM_NorthPoint_Aerial_FINAL+(Clean).jpg




can't wait to see a re-do of this shot in about 3 years!
 
I wonder if that's why Maps was so slow yesterday. Maybe they were updating the bird's eye?
 
I wonder if that's why Maps was so slow yesterday. Maybe they were updating the bird's eye?

Dunno, but I'm a little sad we didn't get more recent imagery with the long wait. Usually it's about a month to process, IIRC.
 
I believe that in the near future the city will develop only for the better and give joy to its inhabitants.
The odds don't favor it.


Yes, Boston has added significant housing in the past few years. The activity is praiseworthy. But, recent experience doesn't provide abundant evidence to support your optimistic opinion. Quite the contrary.

First, outside Boston, Cambridge, Somerville, etc, Greater Boston has virtually stopped building homes. This is creating a huge distortion in our marketplace; especially for the area of affordability.

Boston continues to build far too much in an archaic, land-scraping mindset--worse, from an abusive process, where bitterly waged neighborhood fights have brought about delays, ultimately ending with failures. The process leans far too much toward the interests of anti-development. Boston housing development is clearly trending toward much lower heights and modest scale in the near future, while peer cities are stepping on the gas.

Roxbury, Charlestown, The Fenway, Mission Hill, and most of the neighborhoods aren't building or urbanizing nearly fast enough to meet the real, critical need. Thousands of affordable units have been lost by 20 (or more) failed or endlessly delayed towers in the last few years. The gloomy turn of events will clearly have a chilling effect going forward.

Lost or delayed (many years):
Tremont Crossing, (2 highrises)
Andrew Square (2 highrises + midrise)
Columbus Ctr (iconic, 420' + 4 mid-rises, 1000 housing units/hotel keys lost)
no takers for parcels 25, 26, 27 & 28, (2 highrises)
2 highrise projects in Chinatown appear to have been vaporized
South Boston power station (over 1000 units lost)
One Charlestown (3 highrises gone, well over 1000 thousand units lost)
2 Charlesgate W (several hundred units lost)
45 Worthington St (several hundred units)
1 Bromfield St (hundreds of lux units and housing linkage payments lost)
Copley Tower (hundreds of lux units and housing linkage payments lost)
1000 Boylston (~170 lux units and housing linkage payments lost)
Fenway Ctr air rights (probably never will be built)
Dudley Square (hundreds of units delayed)
Harbor Garage (hundreds of lux units and housing linkage payments delayed)
housing costs spiraling out of control,
if anything, affordability is becoming a pipe-dream,
with a housing start process slower than molasses,
A transit system not delivering w/ serious challenges increasingly met by
gross incompetence, and under-performance--
all added to endless nimby bullshit.
 
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I agree with you.

The challenges Boston is facing are very daunting between affordability and traffic.
welcome to LA of the East Coast.

Hopefully we don't become accustom to the tent cities in the future.
 
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LA and Boston traffic comparisons seem like apples and oranges to me. Both hard, sure. But worthy comparison?

Recent experience: 11PM Tuesday night Boston - 93 southbound into the city, through the tunnel, headed to the Pike, westbound, passing Back Bay Station, the road almost entirely to myself. (Possibly speeding. Don't tell anyone.)

Week before: 11PM Tuesday night Los Angeles - 405 headed south, downhill, pass the Getty, on my way to Westwood - it takes me 35 minutes. For what, three miles, no, less. It's not rush hour and it's a slow moving parking lot. This is every day, every hour, in LA.

Boston is bad, no doubt. LA is different.

Don't get me started about LAX! (We beat LA easily.)

Apologies for the rant.
 
Looks like there was some minimum scale, vaguely measured in "anticipation", required to make the list. Couple of my favorites from this year (Pier 4, Whitney Hotel) are smaller and probably not nominated for that reason. And I'm not sure how the Sudbury still being u/c is going to impact the voting, but the jury's still kinda out on that one.
 
Twin City Plaza Somerville has been active with a boring truck taking samples in the parking lot from McGraph Hwy all the way over to the Gore St entrance, any ideas of what is being considered for development?
 

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