Pinnacle at Central Wharf (Harbor Garage) | 70 East India Row | Waterfront | Downtown

[WhackyCharlie]

I can't believe the city allowed this garage to stay intact after the emergence of the Rose Kennedy Greenway. This garage should have been torn down and redevelopment a long time ago to create a better atmosphere for the public and the Rose Kennedy Greenway.

The hypocrisy by Harbor Towers group does not make sense claiming the tower being built is too high when they live in 400Ft towers next to the garage on the waterfront.
The Aquarium group built the Imax to block the waterfront from the pedestrians. How did the city and state pass those regulations?

 

[HenryAlan]

I think my second point about the average American thinking of Boston as this country's Venice is generally valid though.

Curious as to what you mean by this.

 

[eswwaa]

Precisely. I lived in Shanghai for several years and traveled extensively throughout Asia and they always said something like "Oh yea Boston- great schools!" or "Oh Boston- my [bio/med/tech] company has a big office there!" and I agree that often Asians weren't familiar with most other American cities outside of NY, LA, SF, Vegas, Chicago, DC or Seattle if they hadn't traveled to the US. I had expat friends from Cleveland, Portland, Memphis and others and it was rare that people had heard of them.

I once had lunch with a bunch of college kids in the Mekong Delta region of Vietnam, they had all heard of Boston. Between the schools, medicine, all kinds of tech (i.e. Boston Dynamics) and even the movies shot here Boston is far more famous than most would think.

 

[kjdonovan]

The fact is that Boston is the most beautiful girl in the room (depending on the room). I.e., Boston is either the best of the second tier cities or the worst of the top tier cities. Every year, tens of thousands of college students from LA and NYC and London and Tokyo arrive in Boston and say the burritos, bagels, clubs, museums and sushi all suck compared to home. Yes, we know there's great sushi in Tokyo. We get it. It's like saying Ryan Lochte sucks at swimming because he's one lane over from Michael Phelps. I mean, come on. Boston's inferiority complex is such that we feel devastated when someone leaves the MFA and says "It ain't no Louvre."

Now, if we concede that Boston is not, and never will be, the best at everything, we can consider it more evenly.

I'd argue that in terms of the total package--economic and cultural impact, share of voice, international reputation in a range of industries--the only American cities that punch MORE above their weight than Boston are SF and DC, both having surged in the past 30 years.

(A further derailment of this thread would be a sidebar on what has happened to Chicago in our lifetimes... its global profile continues to diminish by the year so though it may generate a lot of economic strength, it has dropped from Second City to, I'd argue, Fifth City behind NYC, LA, DC and SF. And don't get me started on the Texas cities...)

 

[type001]

" Now, if we concede that Boston is not, and never will be, the best at everything "

I don't think anyone said that at all, and no place in the Solar System is.

 

[bigpicture7]

When I was very young, I thought Boston was huge and impressive
When I stayed here for college and into my early career, I came to think that Boston was hopelessly small and backward and limited, and craved NYC/London/etc
When I took on a job that sent me to assignments in much larger cities domestically and abroad, I began to miss Boston
Now, having spent much time elsewhere, I know you'd be hard-pressed to find another city that punches as far above its weight as Boston

 

[kz1000ps]

Boston's inferiority complex is such that we feel devastated when someone leaves the MFA and says "It ain't no Louvre."

Around 10 years ago a famous sports/culture writer and Boston native, Drew Magary aka Big Daddy Drew, wrote about Boston, and I'm paraphrasing because I can't find the damn quote anywhere, "Boston simultaneously suffers from the world's biggest superiority complex and the world's worst inferiority complex" and it's stuck with me through the years as being 100% fact. I'm not from the area originally so I've always felt like I'm on the outside looking in at Boston's temperament, and learning how to love this area has literally been a 15-year journey... one that requires near-daily effort.

Having said that, it's obvious Boston has really turned a corner these past 10 years, and on top of it I've seen the vast majority of this country/matured into my 30s/etc etc and can appreciate that yes Boston punches WAY above its weight class.

It's a straight fact that Boston's downtown and suburbs are light years better than what passes for your typical American city's downtown and suburbs, and knowing this fact has really helped me turn my love/hate relationship with Boston away from the hating side by a huge margin.

 

[shawn]

When I was very young, I thought Boston was huge and impressive
When I stayed here for college and into my early career, I came to think that Boston was hopelessly small and backward and limited, and craved NYC/London/etc
When I took on a job that sent me to assignments in much larger cities domestically and abroad, I began to miss Boston
Now, having spent much time elsewhere, I know you'd be hard-pressed to find another city that punches as far above its weight as Boston

This parallels my experiences and thoughts well. And it extends from Boston to Massachusetts on the whole and New England in general.

I'll also add that in almost every APAC market, Boston has a bigger brand footprint and higher awareness (both aided and unaided) than any North American city not named New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, or Las Vegas (or "Hawaii"). It's higher than for DC, Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Seattle, and Chicago, and substantially higher than for Philly or Houston, to reference an earlier post.

 

[Wiltonion]

Several state agencies just posted an RFP (or RFR technically) for legal representation in this case. Appears the Commonwealth's current law firm, Keegan Werlin, is getting the boot. My understanding is that there will be an appeal in this case. I have also heard, through informal channels, that the Commonwealth will not be messing around with lowest bidder stuff and may be looking to hire a white shoe firm.

RFR is attached.

 

[navigator4]

Several state agencies just posted an RFP (or RFR technically) for legal representation in this case. Appears the Commonwealth's current law firm, Keegan Werlin, is getting the boot. My understanding is that there will be an appeal in this case. I have also heard, through informal channels, that the Commonwealth will not be messing around with lowest bidder stuff and may be looking to hire a white shoe firm.

RFR is attached.

State agencies are required to rebid contracts at then end of their term. Under MGL c. 30B, they cannot just extend a contract like in the private sector. I wouldn't read too much into this RFR about the state's position or pleasure with its current representation.

 

[Suffolk 83]

Around 10 years ago a famous sports/culture writer and Boston native, Drew Magary aka Big Daddy Drew, wrote about Boston, and I'm paraphrasing because I can't find the damn quote anywhere, "Boston simultaneously suffers from the world's biggest superiority complex and the world's worst inferiority complex" and it's stuck with me through the years as being 100% fact. I'm not from the area originally so I've always felt like I'm on the outside looking in at Boston's temperament, and learning how to love this area has literally been a 15-year journey... one that requires near-daily effort.

Magary isnt from Boston and never was as far as I can tell. Wiki says he went to Colby and thats about as close as he ever got. I actually love the guy but his shtick is to hate Boston incessantly and that not only gets old fast, but it means you gotta take everything he says about Boston with a grain of salt. Sorry to sidetrack

 

[kz1000ps]

Magary isnt from Boston and never was as far as I can tell. Wiki says he went to Colby and thats about as close as he ever got. I actually love the guy but his shtick is to hate Boston incessantly and that not only gets old fast, but it means you gotta take everything he says about Boston with a grain of salt. Sorry to sidetrack

Oh damn what? I could've sworn he'd spent at least some time here. Any time he'd write about the Patriots or whoever he'd load up his writing with some phenomenal local references. But yeah I agree that his schtick can get schtick-y at times... purely for entertainment purposes.

 

[Bananarama]

Magary isnt from Boston and never was as far as I can tell. Wiki says he went to Colby and thats about as close as he ever got. I actually love the guy but his shtick is to hate Boston incessantly and that not only gets old fast, but it means you gotta take everything he says about Boston with a grain of salt. Sorry to sidetrack

I mean no offense, but this thread/tangent is encapsulating that quote pretty perfectly lol

Boston is a decent city. Ranking and comparing to others doesn't do much good unless we're arguing for a higher quality or accepting the par.

 

[Suffolk 83]

Oh damn what? I could've sworn he'd spent at least some time here. Any time he'd write about the Patriots or whoever he'd load up his writing with some phenomenal local references. But yeah I agree that his schtick can get schtick-y at times... purely for entertainment purposes.

Haha yea- I swear he must have an ex from Boston or something that fueled his vitriol so strongly

 

[DBM]

Curious as to what you mean by this.

I'm assuming the analogy is being made because, allegedly, the international "Boston brand" and the international "Venice brand" are equivalent in that people think of both as being ornaments trapped inside a snowglobe--metropolises overly-reliant on quaint, sentimental perspectives on their long-ago history, and also overly-reliant on their rich endowment of historic architecture.

That may be the case. But I'm curious, in terms of relative regional economic dynamism, how reasonable an analogy that is. I

If you stack Venice's GDP versus that of Milan, Turin, Genoa, and Bologna, Florence ... and then do the same for Boston versus Philly, NYC, Providence, Hartford, and Portland/Portsmouth, how do those two hierarchies look side-by-side?

 

[HenryAlan]

Thanks, that's what I thought he might mean, and I agree with you that the analogy doesn't work when you look at available metrics. To my mind, Venice is similar to a place like Savanah or Santa Barbara, not a place that I consider to be a major city.

 

[tobyjug]

Legal services are not required to be bid. GL c 30B, s. 1 (b) (15).
Who do you think writes laws?

 

[BronsonShore]

Thanks, that's what I thought he might mean, and I agree with you that the analogy doesn't work when you look at available metrics. To my mind, Venice is similar to a place like Savanah or Santa Barbara, not a place that I consider to be a major city.

Venice = Charleston, South Carolina. Once a major center of commerce and culture, now a snow globe of a city selling its beauty to outsiders. Or maybe that sells Venice a little short (it is still the 12th biggest city in Italy, after all). Call it New Orleans, then.

If any Italian city is analogous to Boston, it's Turin. It's the capital of a distinctive region. It's a city known for its high culture and historical significance. It's a step below Rome and Milan in terms of influence, but still a major and dynamic economic center. We even share nicknames: Turin is known as the Cradle Of Italian Liberty.

 

[tobyjug]

Harbor Towers is the Shroud of Boston.

 

[shawn]

I know we're getting off the rails here, but Boston's official sister cities are surprisingly apt:

- Kyoto (current educational and historic cultural center of Japan; side note: Kyoto-Osaka is basically the only place in Japan that "does sarcasm" and is overrepresented among national TV hosts, comedians and comedic actors, and script writers / show runners . . . sound familiar??)
- Barcelona (as above for Catalonia / Spain)
- Hangzhou (as above for China, plus it's been the PRC's eds/meds/tech hub since Beijing starting emphasizing these in the 90s)
- Melbourne (Australia's eds/meds/tech hub, plus it's where all the Italians heading to AU immigrated after WWII and has the highest percentage of Irish in the country)
- Taipei (arguably where most of historical China's cultural legacies were saved and now flourish, plus . . . eds/meds/tech center of Taiwan)
- Strasbourg (seat of the EU Parliament)

And speaking of Venice, there's also Padua, which just so happens to be the anchor city of the Padua-Treviso-Venice Italian version of a MSA, which is the 5th largest in Italy. Similar to where Boston-Prov is ranked among American consolidated metros.