Rose Kennedy Greenway

Its success is precipitated on a well-functioning, highly maintained, and active open space. I?ve heard some people say that now that the Greenway is open, you can actually stand on that parcel and look at the water. It?s a beautifully designed public park that people enjoy.
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I want to slap Geoff Edgers for sneaking this cartload of shite into the article. WTF? Are all those empty ramp parcels just figments of our imagination?
 
Neat graphic from today's Globe.

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Seriously, does any other major American city have as weak and feeble a development community and construction environment as Boston?
 
GREENWAY SEEKING NEW, HALF-BAKED, UNDER-FUNDED VANITY PROJECTS
Niche Non-Profits and Eccentric High Net Worth Individuals Eyed for Open Space Destruction
 
Detriot is pretty bad these days. The states, Govt are out of money. Bottom line they have spent the country into bankrutpcy. Boston made mistakes especially letting Fidelity find a new home. It's very expensive to do business in this city. The only reason Cambridge is so hot with Biotechs is MIT, Harvard and other schools which give the city vast wealth of great talent to the labor pool for these companies to choose from.

The downtown needs more diverse companies besides Finance and Law firms in Boston. Every Retail spot in the DTX area is a bank, starbucks, Dunks, CVS. These franchises are the only ones that can actually afford the retail rents DTX. We need some unique companies to start to mold a new era in Boston.
Then the rest of the city is one big college campus.
 
aquaman: You can, in fact, stand on the New Center's parcel. A path and mini-Greenway has been threaded between the ramps, and it's actually quite a pleasant place to walk -- perhaps because it is narrow, winding, and constricted. Wish the same were true for the other two ramp parcels.

While I regret the loss of this development, I'm not entirely convinced that another new performance space is what Boston needs right now. We've added quite a few over the past decade -- Calderwood Pavilion (multiple stages), Zero Arrow, Central Square Theatre, Opera House, Paramount Theatre (two stages and a film screening room), and soon the Modern Theatre. Meanwhile, the Constellation Center in Kendall Square has yet to get off the ground, despite having all permits and a much less challenging site plan.
 
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TheRifleman said:
I agree about Causeway St with the EL Train. I never thought I would miss it but I liked that area better back then. It felt more like good old blue collared BOSTON. Now we have YUPPIE central.
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I thought I did miss it...but then I visited Chicago for the first time and experienced walking under the Loop. Realized that, for me, life without the EL is better (though I do have fond memories of it), but I'm not happy with the staleness of this glorified median strip. I think we just need to be patient (really, really patient, unfortunately). Assuming that the economy gets better, and financing becomes more attainable, the Greenway will see some development, and hopefully more activity.
 
Another jewel lost in Greenway crown
Financing trouble ends plans for $80m cultural center


I have another question who is paying these non-profit people to organize these projects. At this point they should be fired especially if they are state workers. Not one of these project will be built in my lifetime.
 
Does anyone have any updates on the "Boston Harbor Islands Pavilion" that was supposed to go on the RKG? That tiny project at least seems feasible.
 
I think that's happening this year, and just waiting for warm enough weather to begin construction.
 
Just so everyone's clear on the location, this is the parcel where the New Center had proposed to build. Photo is from Mackey Photography's flickr page, taken from the 470 Atlantic Avenue observation deck.

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As you can see, this ramp parcel has a walkway through it, unlike the Boston Museum and YMCA parcels further north.
 
If these parcels are designated for buildings, it's time to put them out to bid. Non-profits and cultural institutions are fine, but Boston already has plenty. If they can't find the money to build, then lets sell to the private sector. Much of what is wrong with the Greenway would be fixed with a few buildings scattered in to the mix.
 
(responding to HenryAlan) While I agree, building on these ramp parcels is going to be much more challenging (and expensive) than building on solid land. Columbus Center and Fenway Center come to mind (or Copley Place in the 1980s).
 
This is great news.

Instead of a half-baked "cultural center" that will use occupy its space poorly, be surrounded by a grassy moat and seldom attract many people (I have never really encountered the New Center as a cultural organization, but it sounds pretty fluffy and I have doubts about how much decent programming it could put together, or how many people it could attract), maybe we'll actually get a city.

No more non-profits, cultural pies in the sky or tourist traps. Just some decent apartment and office buildings with ground-floor retail. They don't have to be super-expensive -- anything like the Vancouver and Hamburg pics recently up would do. Just get some people living in this area rather than turn it into Boston's paradewalk of culture nobody asked for.

EDIT: I don't mean to dismiss the big unknown of whether it'll be possible to profitably build on this parcel, given its ramps. Even with that uncertainty, I think the collapse of Druker's lame arts center is a plus.
 
vanshnookenraggen said:
Jesus, enough with the overly dramatic self flagellation.
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Thank you.
I think this is a Boston thing. We need to be the best at something or the worst.

The most horrible word you could ever use about anything Boston-related is 'average'.
 
Is the Greenway not the perfect place for an indoor/outdoor market that operates year round? Obviously outside in the warmer months and inside in the cooler months. Think San Fran Ferry Terminal.... Something like that can't cost as much as these failed projects and would be more useful for Bostonians than another museum that locals will visit perhaps once or twice in their life.
 
^ The patches of grass w/ the street through the middle, bordered by Causeway and N. Washington, would be ideal for an indoor / outdoor market.

Temporary solutions like this are needed to bring life to the Greenway. Expensive cultural proposals like those in the Globe article aren't practical now, and may never be. Fairs, festivals, farmers markets are perfect and cost little.

While we're at it, why not install a restored diner on N. Washington, by Grand Canal's new deck. It could be considered "temporary" until something else is viable (years). The rent for the site could go back into a Greenway fund, and a 24 hour diner would be a very cool draw.
 
I thought all of the land you refer to had been designated for private development already, though? It's not actually part of the Greenway.
 
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