General Boston Discussion

stick n move said:
Lol I feel this. I wish we still had some bad parts left that were cheap so we could have somewhere where rent isnt so insane. Looking at baltimore on zillow where you can buy a brand new waterfront condo for 250k killllls me.
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My younger son lives in central Baltimore in a fairly nice neighborhood, but he says the city is horrible with lots of crime. He won't even let my wife and I visit him in town. So it is cheaper, but an uncomfortable environment.
 
chrisbrat said:
Having visited Baltimore last winter for a convention, I can vouch that much/most of the city is varying degrees of dangerous -- WAY moreso than Boston.
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I’m in the DC suburbs now, but lived in Catonsville (SW Baltimore) in the late 80’s/early 90s. I can vouch, it is a big Newark. Tragic for it once was a great city with remarkable architecture.
 
The extremely hacky, cheap "rennovation" of the Bromo-Seltzer Tower in Baltimore -- which was, and could be, really cool -- makes me very grateful that Boston usually (not always...) has reverence for its historical landmarks.
 
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Longfellow said:
We need more slums, I would live in a slum if we actually had one close to transit. Sick of the rent prices
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It's not a slum, but there are parts of Dorchester and Roxbury where you can find deals on shitty old triple deckers that are not far from transit. Just so happens to overlap pretty well with the crime map of Boston. The tradeoffs are real.

The way you protect Chinatown or wherever from changing is building as much goddamn housing as possible where transit is good and jobs are close by. Yet another reminder to fight for PLAN: Downtown and shame the high rise-living NIMBYs who are fighting to protect their views.
 
The genesis of NIMBYism in a neighborhood is different from those who mostly live in hi-rises. They believe that all that will be built is luxury apartments, and that they will be rich people's investments, so they see no reason to support it. However, I personally think that you can't stop a neighborhood from changing and you shouldn't even try
 
Generally I agree with you and you're absolutely right.

The PLAN: Downtown debate is different though and is absolutely being thwarted by two groups:

1, the historic preservation people who think shadows over old buildings are somehow bad or detrimental to historic structures (and they're wrong, see amazing pic below)

2, residents of Millennium and 45 Province who have organized letter-writing campaigns and a neighborhood group that is doing everything possible to block upzoning of the Washington St corridor despite living in highrises themselves. They are bad hypocrites who should be shamed publicly. The last place we should have conservative zoning is downtown.

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Yes, I agree quantity of housing supply is the operative overarching consideration. Honestly, though, I think the set of issues in the downtown core are somewhat different than in the outlying urban areas.
Outside of the core, "Organic affordability" = sh!thole apartments continuing to rent at sh!thole rent prices because they are able to remain as (somewhat) sh!itholes
This is clearly a double-edged sword: no one wants unsafe buildings, rodent infestation, etc., etc.
But, if every time a landlord needs to do minor upgrades it triggers a $500k+ renovation because of building code requirements, most of those landlords are just going to gut and flip their property and quadruple the rent (or sell their sh!thole to a developer who will level it or flip it).

When it comes to the outlying urban areas, part of the solution we need is building code reform to enable more of a gradient of code compliance statuses for older buildings. I agree with what I think Longfellow was (over dramatically) saying: if I am a young adult, especially pre-family, I am more than happy to live in a sh!thole for low rent if it is well located/on transit. I'd prefer that over an equivalent rent new cardboard 5-over-1 where everything is shiny but it's freaking in the middle of nowhere any day. In fact, I made such choices when I was younger and they were great. I kept my bedroom clean and comfortable for living, yet the rest of the building was a total disaster and my view was a cinder block wall -- yet the rent was CHEAP and it was on transit and I was happy as a clam. (I am glad I have since moved on from such, but it was perfectly reasonable when I was in my 20s). And, case in point, that building has since been flipped.
 
Justbuildit said:
Generally I agree with you and you're absolutely right.

The PLAN: Downtown debate is different though and is absolutely being thwarted by two groups:

1, the historic preservation people who think shadows over old buildings are somehow bad or detrimental to historic structures (and they're wrong, see amazing pic below)

2, residents of Millennium and 45 Province who have organized letter-writing campaigns and a neighborhood group that is doing everything possible to block upzoning of the Washington St corridor despite living in highrises themselves. They are bad hypocrites who should be shamed publicly. The last place we should have conservative zoning is downtown.

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..........not to mention the Undisputed World Champion Residents of Harbor Towers!
 
KCasiglio said:
www.theguardian.com

How flood-ravaged Boston took on the climate deniers – and won

As the Trump administration dismisses global heating, the coastal city is getting on with becoming one of the most climate resilient in the world. Here’s how
www.theguardian.com www.theguardian.com
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From the article: "Sea levels have risen 25cm over the past century but half of that is from subsidence."
So, about 5 inches rise due to climate change over the last 100 years. Not a huge amount, but it's probably accelerating, and also hurricanes have increased in intensity.
 
Business leaders have criticized Wu for not using her bully pulpit — as some other big-city mayors have — to prod employers to bring workers back to the office.
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If they think that it's possible to return to a pre-covid dynamic of workers who primarily live outside of downtown flooding in for 9-5 jobs downtown 5 days a week, they're out of their mind. The only future for downtown is live-work-play, and I don't expect any major rebound for downtown until there's a residential infusion. I think the mayor gets this, but the comms haven't been great, as I think a lot of people still expect an eventual return to the status quo ante bellum

EDIT:

“It’s just a question of how realistic is it to bring that idea to scale. Is there enough demand [for housing downtown]?”
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Demand is so pent up you could stack shipping containers on deer island and people would be lining up around the corner.
 
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Charlie_mta said:
From the article: "Sea levels have risen 25cm over the past century but half of that is from subsidence."
So, about 5 inches rise due to climate change over the last 100 years. Not a huge amount, but it's probably accelerating, and also hurricanes have increased in intensity.
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I think the way to best way to frame how dire the situation is to contextualize things within the context of the Halloween '91 aka Perfect Storm. We know that storm was highly catastrophic in terms of the coastline damage it incurred here. It also created the highest tide in Boston since the Blizzard of '78--14.3 feet, per that Wikipedia entry.

Well, that was when Boston Harbor's level was 4 inches lower.

So even in the "best-case" scenario, if a storm of that magnitude hits again tomorrow--and we know it can, and we know it's increasingly likely as we load more volatility and energy into the atmosphere--then that storm will have a storm surge of 4 more inches. how many more millions of dollars in damages would just 4 additional inches translate to? It could be a ghastly and utterly dispiriting amount.

But what if a Perfect Storm-magnitude storm hits us in 2035? 2045? 2055? 2065? Past 2065, it is exceedingly likely I will be dead, but realistically I do have to worry about a storm of the Perfect Storm-magnitude hitting us in 2065, as there's a good chance I'll still be alive (though 86).

tl; dr: Savor Boston and its environs now, before the inundation comes.
 
www.bostonglobe.com

Steve Pagliuca-led group reaches deal to buy Connecticut Sun, but WNBA cool on potential move to Boston - The Boston Globe

The league still must approve the sale, which will be for a record $325 million, and declared Saturday nine other cities which sought WNBA expansion franchises "have priority over Boston."
www.bostonglobe.com www.bostonglobe.com
WNBA basketball could be in Boston permanently by 2027 as a Boston-based group led by Celtics minority governor Steve Pagliuca has reached a deal with the Mohegan Tribe to move the Connecticut Sun to TD Garden, according to multiple sources involved in the transaction.
Pagliuca will pay a record $325 million for the team, according to those sources, then contribute $100 million for a new practice facility in Boston for the Sun to relocate from Uncasville, Conn. Sources said the Tribe has been looking to sell the club and the record offer expedited the process.
The sale price would be the highest ever for a professional women’s sports franchise.
[...]
A potential sale must be approved by the WNBA and the league’s governors, and according to a source, the WNBA would rather save Boston as a potential expansion city in 2033. The league has already announced expansion teams in Portland, Toronto, Cleveland, Detroit and Philadelphia over the next five years.
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themissinglink said:
www.bostonglobe.com

Steve Pagliuca-led group reaches deal to buy Connecticut Sun, but WNBA cool on potential move to Boston - The Boston Globe

The league still must approve the sale, which will be for a record $325 million, and declared Saturday nine other cities which sought WNBA expansion franchises "have priority over Boston."
www.bostonglobe.com www.bostonglobe.com
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Thats awesome I was wondering how long it was going to take for this to happen. Boston is one of if not the best sports towns in the entire country so if the wnba is going to be a serious league with serious fans they cant not have us. Any sports league without a boston team couldnt be taken serious, so thats cool to hear.
 
Just sucks for CT, who is going to lose their only top-level pro sports team, again.

(Plays mournful version of Brass Bonanza)
 
Of interest.

travelandleisure.com

This U.S. City Was Just Named One of the Greenest in the World—and No, It’s Not Seattle or San Francisco
The city’s lush Emerald Necklace and riverfront trails show why it’s one of the world’s greenest cities.

By Cameron Sperance Published on July 29, 2025

Time Out recently ranked Boston as the second-greenest city in the world (just behind Medellín, Colombia) thanks to our abundance of parks and access to nature.
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This U.S. Destination Was Just Named the Most Beautiful Winter City in the World for Its Skyline and Snowy Winters
The City on a Hill is a winter wonderland.

By Stacey Leasca Published on December 17, 2024

In late November, Premier Inn, the largest hotel chain in the United Kingdom, released a study that identified the most beautiful winter cities in the world. And Boston came in at the top spot.

In its analysis, Premier Inn showed 100 participants images of 72 images of cities experiencing winter around the world and used eye-tracking technology to measure which destinations held gazes the longest.
 
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