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Depends on the section on SSP & also Urban Planet... SSP is strong in Canada (except Toronto & Montreal) , Philly / Pittsburgh Chicago , Mountain West , Southwest and West Coast with the exception of Seattle. SSC is strong in the Midwest , Florida (Except Orlando) , Baltimore-Washington for US activity. The site has exploded in the last few years , the Infrastructure and Transport sections are very active.. Along with Latin America , Europe and parts of Asia... We've grown by 7,070 members since early December only 100 were spammers... The Midwestern section has rapidly grown since we reorganized it last year... But I have noticed a slow down on smaller Urbanist sites.... I think its due to the limited amount of topics you can browse and explore... You need to visit other sites to see other cities...and regions.. Its not limited to Arch Boston , Wired NY , KCrag , Eomaha , UrbanSTL , Urbanohio , Montreal site have all seen slow downs over the last year... Some members have drifted off to SSC and others have just stopped using altogether... I don't think Facebook which is slowly dying itself and twitter which is going the same route has effected these sites... I think its just due to a lack of content...and diverse selection of content. Also not listening to members will cause a decline , whether its on SSP or Arch Boston... They'll go elsewhere if you ignore there concerns or complaints...
 
Depends on what is going on too. If there is a lot of development activity there is just more to see/talk about. It's when nothing happens for a while and people start to speculate that it can become boring and people will lose interest. I freely admit there are threads I've just stopped reading until something of real substance happens in the real world worth talking about.
 
Eventually me and Nexis should try to start a dedicated Boston section on SSC, now that there is more than enough development activity to justify it. Certainly one of the best truly urban and historic cities worldwide with significant development activity nowadays. Probably only Berlin, Vienna, Rotterdam, London, Oslo, New York, San Francisco, and some Polish cities can compare.
 
I tried to create an event for the board to see (GLX meeting), but the calendar only allows you to create an event through 2015, and hasn't been updated to include 2016.
 
Re: JP developments

I propose a reorganization of JP developments. JP has enough development going on to warrant more than just one thread but I don't think that all of the midrise developments need their own threads. Also, some have their own threads, and then some don't and have been lumped into general threads, which leads to inconsistency. Heres what I'm thinking:

- South Huntington Developments - all developments from Huntington and outward. This would consume the 161 So Huntington thread into the currently existing South Huntington thread.

- Washington St (JP) Developments - all developments on Washington from Egleston to Forest Hills (arbitrarily ending at the Arborway, but Metromark could also go with Forest Hills). Would include Metromark project , 3521-3529 Washington, and many others that are soon to be built.

- Forest Hills Developments - would consume everything around the station (Parcel U) but exclude Metromark. Arboretum Place doesnt have much on the thread and is completed so it could probably be left off.

- Jackson Sq Developments - no matter what, the threads for 225 Centre St and Jackson Square are redundant since the whole of Jackson Square is really one big project. These really would do better to just be combined.

- Jamaica Plain Infill - exists already, all other developments (assuming that nothing mammoth or stunning gets constructed in the heart of JP)

Thoughts? In addition to the inconsistency of having certain developments in their own threads and other lumped in inappropriately, the other factor is that there will be several new developments in the coming years on Washington, South Huntington, Forest Hills, and Jackson — and it will be a mess navigating them if every single one has to have its own thread. Since they are all midrise (even the 22-or-so one on South Huntington), and fit into certain development corridors, I think they are more appropriately grouped.
 
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I disagree. I think it makes more sense to have a JP thread, and then have individual threads for the major projects. Here's what I would recommend (and it's not a huge deal to me either way):

Jamaica Plain Development - I would merge the South Huntington Ave Developments, Jamaica Plain Infill, and Jackson Square threads. If you read through them, you will notice that people are very liberal with the boundaries and these would be better served in an all-purpose JP thread for the more minor projects.

MetroMark Apartments (née The Commons @ FH) | 3593-3615 Washington St | Jamaica Plain - leave this as its own separate thread. It's one of the largest developments in Boston. No change recommended.

161 S. Huntington; Home for Little Wanderers - leave this as its own separate thread. No change recommended.

225 Centre @ Jackson Square | 225 Centre Street | Jamaica Plain - leave this as its own separate thread. No change recommended.

105A South Huntington - make this into its own thread, rather than part of the existing "South Huntington Ave Developments" thread, or the proposed "Jamaica Plain Developments" thread.
 
^so the thing is that washington st is about to have a bunch of new projects. The corridor is 1) way out on the periphery of JP; 2) a specific corridor with its own identity as a general strip to be redeveloped and 3) the developments are all going to be mid-size and I really don't think we're gonna need 4-5 separate threads for these different things.

Metromark standing alone I can understand.

Re: Jackson Sq, all buildings built, under constitution and planned for future are under one general plan, and should go together. This especially so since the two current threads are quite loose on material discussed so even as they exist now, they aren't really separate threads as judged by their content.

The rest of the suggestions I guess just come down to personal preference... But I think having a system in place would be helpful. For outlying neighborhoods, I think unless a project is truly huge or transformative, then it doesn't need its own thread. However, if there are certain subregions of that outlying zone that are poised for multiple, mid-size projects, to me it makes sense to group all of them together in a separate thread. We have a single thread for everything going on by New Balance - the same principle should apply to Jackson Sq. JP is kind of unique since it has a few special areas that have lots of developable land and it's closer to the urban core than other neighborhoods, so I also don't think everything going on should be lumped under one thread either. My proposal for mid-size, grouped project threads is reflective of its unique position as an intermediate development area.
 
Now I see where you're coming from. Thanks for explaining.

FK4 said:
^so the thing is that washington st is about to have a bunch of new projects. The corridor is 1) way out on the periphery of JP; 2) a specific corridor with its own identity as a general strip to be redeveloped and 3) the developments are all going to be mid-size and I really don't think we're gonna need 4-5 separate threads for these different things.
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The "JP Infill" thread doesn't have much action. These "mid-size" projects are exactly what should be in a general "Jamaica Plain Development" thread, in my opinion. The specific corridor in question is definitely JP and you are right that we don't need separate threads for the smaller-midsize projects.

FK4 said:
Metromark standing alone I can understand.
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Agreed.

FK4 said:
Re: Jackson Sq, all buildings built, under constitution and planned for future are under one general plan, and should go together. This especially so since the two current threads are quite loose on material discussed so even as they exist now, they aren't really separate threads as judged by their content.
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You've sold me. Because Jackson Square is one major project with multiple phases. This is different than Washington Street or South Huntington, which are corridors with multiple, completely independent projects being undertaken.

FK4 said:
The rest of the suggestions I guess just come down to personal preference... But I think having a system in place would be helpful. For outlying neighborhoods, I think unless a project is truly huge or transformative, then it doesn't need its own thread. However, if there are certain subregions of that outlying zone that are poised for multiple, mid-size projects, to me it makes sense to group all of them together in a separate thread. We have a single thread for everything going on by New Balance - the same principle should apply to Jackson Sq. JP is kind of unique since it has a few special areas that have lots of developable land and it's closer to the urban core than other neighborhoods, so I also don't think everything going on should be lumped under one thread either. My proposal for mid-size, grouped project threads is reflective of its unique position as an intermediate development area.
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I like this analysis. I think it applies to Jackson Square, but not to South Huntington or Washington Street. When it comes to projects, I guess the question is: how big does a project need to be to warrant it's own thread. Drawing this line does come down to personal preference (from BRA):
  • Metromark, Washington Street - 300,000 square feet
  • JACKSON SQUARE REDEVELOPMENT - PHASE 1 - 230,000 square feet
  • 105A SOUTH HUNTINGTON AVENUE - 204,000 square feet
  • 161 SOUTH HUNTINGTON - 193,000 square feet
  • PARCEL U - 190,000 square feet
  • JACKSON SQUARE SITE III PHASE 3 - 146,900 square feet
  • 3200 WASHINGTON ST. - 100,000 square feet

Obviously there is a qualitative assessment that I am glossing over in the name of consensus-building. Here's what we agree on, that the mods can go ahead and do now:

Merge the "225 Centre @ Jackson Square" and "Jackson Square" threads into one "Jackson Square Redevelopment" thread.

Where we disagree:

I would like to see 105A South Huntington (Serenity) in its own separate thread. I want 161 South Huntginton to remain in its separate thread. I would like to see the mid-size Washington Street and South Huntington projects all part of a "Jamaica Plain Development" thread.
 
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Just a question. What do the different colors mean next to threads in the development forum? I'm assuming it has something to do with the status of the project.
 
tysmith95 said:
Just a question. What do the different colors mean next to threads in the development forum? I'm assuming it has something to do with the status of the project.
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White - Proposed
Grey - U/C
Black - Completed
 
Anyone else notice this down below on the main page?


Currently Active Users: 614 (2 members and 612 guests)
Most users ever online was 2,367, 11-13-2018 at 01:11 PM.


What is causing all these people to be here recently?

Usually the active users number hovers around 100-200 and the previous most active user record was set years ago if I remember correctly.
 
Mike said:
Anyone else notice this down below on the main page?


Currently Active Users: 614 (2 members and 612 guests)
Most users ever online was 2,367, 11-13-2018 at 01:11 PM.


What is causing all these people to be here recently?

Usually the active users number hovers around 100-200 and the previous most active user record was set years ago if I remember correctly.
Click to expand...

Automated webcrawlers/archivists
 
We need some picture takers these days huh? I can go out of my way a little more and take cell phone pictures if people are interested. Seems like our photographers have really dropped off in recent weeks. I'm interested if there's any downward progress on winthrop square and we have zilch for pics.
 
Might stop by Winthrop Sq tomorrow.. -it is and has been a bit cold - not as cold as past winters but still unpleasant
 
Suffolk 83 said:
We need some picture takers these days huh? I can go out of my way a little more and take cell phone pictures if people are interested. Seems like our photographers have really dropped off in recent weeks. I'm interested if there's any downward progress on winthrop square and we have zilch for pics.
Click to expand...

I wonder if we could recognize (original) photo posters in some way.... A little badge next to their username, or monthly posts recognizing contributors by # of threads or # of photos. The internet's taught us that, psychologically, people love little badges they can earn.
 
34f34f said:
I wonder if we could recognize (original) photo posters in some way.... A little badge next to their username, or monthly posts recognizing contributors by # of threads or # of photos. The internet's taught us that, psychologically, people love little badges they can earn.
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Sorry for my lack of photo contributions resonantly, but I'm currently out of state. I, for one, do not need any little badges, or happy faces to get me active. I just need to back in NE. Soon I hope! You don't even want to see the type of architecture I've been surrounded by for the past month. Simply put I'm not wasting any space on my memory card.
 
I kind of stick with whatever's visible from my lookout points because work precludes getting up close to most of this stuff during the day (ie the holes in the ground) and I have limited time during the weekends. I posted some good 4 Seasons ones the other day that got lost in the shuffle.

It also helps me a lot when I get out of work and it's still light enough to take pictures. That won't be the case for another 4-5 months.
 
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