Fascinating--but also infuriating--because of the rank hypocrisy the fierce opposition campaign so starkly exposed. I'm highly confident the core of opposition came from wealthy Baby Boomer-aged whites living in Back Bay, West End, DTX, Waterfront, other posh Downtown-adjacent precincts. I imagine the overwhelming majority of the opposition fancied themselves as progressives--and yet, who did their opposition hurt?
--Poor folks in Chinatown and other gritty neighborhoods who could've desperately used the affordable-housing the (original, pre-pandemic iteration) would've brought.
--Working-class tradespeople, many of them minorities, from Roxbury, Dorchester, other working-class neighborhoods, who would've been (and in fact now are) constructing the tower.
--The service people, many of them minorities, many of them immigrant strivers, who would've (and eventually will be) servicing the building as doormen, janitorial staff, garage attendants, etc.
I'm so glad the pro-development coalition overcame the wealthy hypocritical opponents. I'm so glad the Baby Boomer downtown residents, whose conception of what Boston's urban core should look like has been trapped in amber since they attended college at BU, Harvard, MIT, Tufts, etc., etc., circa 1965-1970, will slowly but surely give way to a younger generation that actually embraces dynamic urbanism.
