Rose Kennedy Greenway

There's no shot in hell of these guys recouping any cost on these parcels now. Could you imagine the outcry if they decided to sell a few of the parcels to developers? It's a shame.
 
Christ, close it down and start with a fresh group of people. I nominate me.

Salary? $500 a week and all the $3 hot dogs I can eat.
 
Lrfox said:
There's no shot in hell of these guys recouping any cost on these parcels now. Could you imagine the outcry if they decided to sell a few of the parcels to developers? It's a shame.
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The only people that would be crying are the political assholes. Everybody in the private sector understands what is going on.

Chiofaro is one of the keys to making the Greenway work. Start with him then find another developer for Congress St.

Too bad Menino and the BRA fuckup everything they touch.
 
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Nancy Brennan makes $225,000 per year, more than the governor??? The Conservancy has programs costing hundreds of thousands a year to put what, 11 kids, to work learning hoticulture??? And for the past few years, Ms. Brennan has been complaining about a lack of funds?? Has she no shame to her face??? It really is sickening how these political hacks get into these positions. I'm all for anyone making a decent salary but come on, more than the governor?? And then the politico's wonder why movements like the Tea Party are born! The Conservancy needs a complete overhall, starting with Nancy Brennan's ass being kicked out the door! And this statement comes from a politically moderate to very liberal sort of guy!
 
I'm also liberal, and I have to use one of the zestiest words in politics to describe this. PORK-BARREL!!!!
 
Even in Massachusetts politics this has to be some kind of record for the onset of astronomical institutional rot.
 
TheRifleman said:
You really gonna wonder who NANCY BRENNAN knows?
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She was the former head of Plimouth Foundation. She is the daughter of Justice William J. Brennan. I don't know what ties she has to Massachusetts politics, as the Brennans were from New Jersey.
 
Rifleman, you wrote:

"Too bad Menino and the BRA fuckup everything they touch."

I'd have to disagree - the past 15 years have, in general, been pretty damn good for the city - look at the difference on the waterfront, in South Boston, LMA/Boylston Street, former Combat Zone, etc etc. Just because your friend seems unwilling to follow the Article 80 process like every other developer in the city isn't the Mayor's or the BRA's problem.

With respect to the Greenway, it's always easy to find something to pick on (like that youth program) - but it's not the Conservancy's fault that the state is turning its back on promises made at the time the conservancy was created. Read the legislation: $5 million in annual funding. No sooner did the ink dry on the bill than the economy soured, the legislature looked for cuts, and slashed the Greenway's funding. It's a public park and should be funded by the public, and it's within the legislature's power to do so.
 
Greenwayguy, I recalled that you made that argument many times that other developers gone through the hoops. Therefore if Chiafaro just go through the procedures and paperwork like everyone else, he would be greenlit by now.

However, many have repeatedly wrote back with a rebuttal that the system doesn't work like that. The paperwork requires Menino's, indirectly or directly, approval of the project.

In theory, Chiafaro have to work with the BRA and technically it is not under Menino's mayoral powers.

In practice, Menino's influence more than compensate the official structure. Without his approval, he will have to spend years and millions on studies and other paperwork and then simply be ask to do it again which will force the proposal to turn into decade. With bureaucratic paperwork, it is not very hard to drag it out over a long period of time(to everyone else: correct me if I am mistaken of how the variance system officially vs unofficially works).


Despite that is said many times or something long those lines. I never seen you counter-rebuke that argument that what blocking his efforts is not unwillingness to do the paperwork, but a mayor's approval. Technically, the mayor shouldn't have any bearing, but in reality he does and makes the effort of putting million of dollars into studies that the they have plenty of ability to just string more tape unless they don't want to string more tape.


Please address the above statement please. This is a direct response and I wrote that with seriousness for I never seen you wrote a direct response.

With respect to the Greenway, it's always easy to find something to pick on (like that youth program) - but it's not the Conservancy's fault that the state is turning its back on promises made at the time the conservancy was created. Read the legislation: $5 million in annual funding. No sooner did the ink dry on the bill than the economy soured, the legislature looked for cuts, and slashed the Greenway's funding. It's a public park and should be funded by the public, and it's within the legislature's power to do so.
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I recall there was a globe article that points how much more the conservancy is spending over the number of acres. This blog post points that the conservancy is spending $367,000 per acre at peak (now $293,000 per acre). Meanwhile the the Friends of Post Office Square Trust is spending around $168,000 per acre.

I haven't read to any explanation why it is spending so much per acre but in poverty at the same time. My first instinct to what's going on... well we can start looking at that nice salary and that 300k program for 9 kids. I don't care how deep of a horticultural experience you give to them, there's no way that 33k per kid on the horticultural experience can match what the same money can offer to either something that helps more children or... a college education?

So perhaps they should take a paycut first before they are given more money.
 
greenwayguy1982 said:
Rifleman, you wrote:

"Too bad Menino and the BRA fuckup everything they touch."

I'd have to disagree - the past 15 years have, in general, been pretty damn good for the city - look at the difference on the waterfront, in South Boston, LMA/Boylston Street, former Combat Zone, etc etc. Just because your friend seems unwilling to follow the Article 80 process like every other developer in the city isn't the Mayor's or the BRA's problem.
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It's an improvement indeed, but we could have done a lot better if Menino and BRA did not fuckup everything they touch.
 
greenwayguy1982 said:
Rifleman, you wrote:

"Too bad Menino and the BRA fuckup everything they touch."

I'd have to disagree - the past 15 years have, in general, been pretty damn good for the city - look at the difference on the waterfront, in South Boston, LMA/Boylston Street, former Combat Zone, etc etc. Just because your friend seems unwilling to follow the Article 80 process like every other developer in the city isn't the Mayor's or the BRA's problem.
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The only reason for Boston's success is the billion dollar expansions of the Universities in the city.

Now the Menino Bunch are crying that their is not enough tax revenue generated in the city but want to pawn off Filenes project to Suffolk University. Now our political figures want the Universities to start paying the city sometype of tax to maintain it.

If it wasn't for the colleges, Boston would look like Detriot. I have said this many times.
It's really tough to have respect for any politicans that have made politics a 20 year-career. This is everything that America is suppose to be against.

The economy just started heading downward the last couple years and their is a killing everyday in Mattapan and Dorchester. So who are we kidding.
 
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ant8904 you wrote:

"Please address the above statement please. This is a direct response and I wrote that with seriousness for I never seen you wrote a direct response."

OK, simple. Let's start with an example. Most folks in the city would tell you that there is a perception that there isn't much love lost between the administration and developer John Hynes. Right? OK. But Hynes just got his 6 million square foot Seaport Square project approved because he took the time and spent the money that it takes to be a real developer in this city, and to respond seriously to the BRA's scoping determination. The issues and questions raised in a BRA scoping determination are real, technical issues. If a developer can demonstrate that these issues can be addressed, generally speaking, the project moves forward. Article 80 is about process, not politics or personalities. That process worked for the tens of millions of square feet developed in the past 10 years in Boston, and for the 38 million square feet of development already permitted in the city today. If that process is not to the liking of one individual developer, I don't see why that's the city's problem. Again - dozens of other developers have successfully completed the process and built projects in the city under the current administration in recent years. Maybe Chiofaro should just try following the process like everybody else who has successfully built projects in the city in recent years.
 
greenwayguy1982 said:
ant8904 you wrote:

"Please address the above statement please. This is a direct response and I wrote that with seriousness for I never seen you wrote a direct response."

OK, simple. Let's start with an example. Most folks in the city would tell you that there is a perception that there isn't much love lost between the administration and developer John Hynes. Right? OK. But Hynes just got his 6 million square foot Seaport Square project approved because he took the time and spent the money that it takes to be a real developer in this city, and to respond seriously to the BRA's scoping determination. The issues and questions raised in a BRA scoping determination are real, technical issues. If a developer can demonstrate that these issues can be addressed, generally speaking, the project moves forward. Article 80 is about process, not politics or personalities. That process worked for the tens of millions of square feet developed in the past 10 years in Boston, and for the 38 million square feet of development already permitted in the city today. If that process is not to the liking of one individual developer, I don't see why that's the city's problem. Again - dozens of other developers have successfully completed the process and built projects in the city under the current administration in recent years. Maybe Chiofaro should just try following the process like everybody else who has successfully built projects in the city in recent years.
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Are you seriously using HYNES for an example? The entire Filenes process was cluster fuck.
Hynes blows a hole in the middle of downtown then walks away. OH Yeah he's great developer. I actually thought the first step in the process of development would be to know if you had the FUCKING FINANCING to build the project.
 
^^
Rifleman, sorry if I missed it - so does Chiofaro have financing to build his project all of a sudden? If he doesn't, why hasn't he taken what you call "the first step in the process of development" before he tries to move ahead with permitting like Hynes did ??
 
greenwayguy1982 said:
^^
Rifleman, sorry if I missed it - so does Chiofaro have financing to build his project all of a sudden? If he doesn't, why hasn't he taken what you call "the first step in the process of development" before he tries to move ahead with permitting like Hynes did ??
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I'm sorry but using Hynes as an example is horrible. In fact, it probably goes against what you were arguing about. The Filene's project was fast tracked and there were hardly any meetings before it got approvals. The proposal to approval process I believe was about 1 or 2 years, probably the fastest any project in the last 30 years. Why can't the Mayor do the same with other projects? Why can the Mayor propose a 1,000ft tower that would cast a shadow on the Common and find that okay, but not when other developers do the same?
 
^^
And One Lincoln? Was that a bad example too, one of the most successful (financially) commercial development projects the city has seen in the past 10 years? Look, I'm not jumping to Hynes' defense here, I'm just saying that even though there is alleged to be a "personality difference" between he and the mayor, that didn't stop his projects from moving through the approvals process. And Kent, you're making my point exactly - if Hynes and the mayor were on the outs, the fact that Filene's got through the approvals process as quickly as it did (rightly or wrongly) just shows that if you do your homework you'll advance the ball down the field -- something that the Harbor Garage folks haven't done -- irrespective of politics or personalities.
 
greenwayguy1982 said:
^^
And One Lincoln? Was that a bad example too, one of the most successful (financially) commercial development projects the city has seen in the past 10 years? Look, I'm not jumping to Hynes' defense here, I'm just saying that even though there is alleged to be a "personality difference" between he and the mayor, that didn't stop his projects from moving through the approvals process. And Kent, you're making my point exactly - if Hynes and the mayor were on the outs, the fact that Filene's got through the approvals process as quickly as it did (rightly or wrongly) just shows that if you do your homework you'll advance the ball down the field -- something that the Harbor Garage folks haven't done -- irrespective of politics or personalities.
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Actually no it doesn't show that you do your homework, you'll advance the ball down the field. It's quite the opposite. The Filene's project was fast tracked so that it didn't have to meet with the community as much as other projects. Something that happens when you are on the good side of the Mayor. You can be assured now that if Hynes was to propose something new and did his homework diligently, the Mayor wouldn't be approving in such a short amount of time.
 
^^
"You can be assured now that if Hynes was to propose something new and did his homework diligently, the Mayor wouldn't be approving in such a short amount of time."

You mean like Seaport Square, the 6 million SF development proposed by Hynes that got approved last month by the BRA?
 
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