Rose Kennedy Greenway

^ The Rifleman: the Greenway has all the damn ingredients for success -- as realtors will tell you when they try to sell you real estate near it... But I'll be damned to pin down why it has failed for so long. I'm not saying that it will fail -- that's just betting against the house -- I'm just not sure when someone can find something to make it succeed.

But to say that the Seaport will crash is a bit too strong of a prediction. It's an area that has been blessed with lot of strengths.
 
HenryAlan said:
You keep banging that drum Rifleman,
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I actually just took out the PIPE and will continue to tute this sound. The Seaport construction is on borrowed time. What do I mean?

Either way this economy heads in either inflation or deflation. When the time comes GOVT spending will screech to a halt because nothing good is coming out of this one. Way too much debt in the economy.

The Mayor's Innovation District will be 1/2 finished.
A couple of box buildings built in this prime location with some cool restaurants all on the backs of the taxpayers of this great state.

The innovation district is so hot does a company actually move in this area without a tax break? But its so HOT.

I'm telling you this is going to backfire on the Mayor. Blame the planners for not building the infrastructure & transit first.
In the end the Piper will call in the DEBT.

JoeMail said:
^
But to say that the Seaport will crash is a bit too strong of a prediction. It's an area that has been blessed with lot of strengths.
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I'm not saying crash & burn, Just get ready for major disappointment for this prime development spot.
 
TheRifleman said:
I'm not saying crash & burn, Just get ready for major disappointment for this prime development spot.
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The seaport has an almost magical connection with the water.

Walk along Seaport Blvd between Sleeper St and Northern Ave. You're surrounded by parking lots. And yet it feels oceanic and _glamorous_.

Walk along Seaport Blvd between B St and Trilling Rd, and it's just a hot feeling -- a vibe out of Hong Kong, a mix of commercial, nightlife, and the sea.

The Haborwalk near the Courthouse is just nice. And that's just parking lots right now. If they don't bungle it with the Vertex development, it might get nicer.

The Greenway is already built up. Not a parking lot in sight. Only high-end developments. And for some reason, it feels terrible lonely walking through that ghost town, day or night. It doesn't have a magic that lets a physical place transcend.
 
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JoeMail said:
The Greenway is already built up. Not a parking lot in sight. Only high-end developments. And for some reason, it feels terrible lonely walking through that ghost town, day or night. It doesn't have a magic that lets a physical place transcend.
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There is a parking lot in the middle of the Greenway.
I'm not saying the Greenway is a major success. I think overtime it will work out.

As for the walks around Seaport maybe you see something I don't. But everytime I park down in the area and go out to eat, I feel like it takes forever to get to a restaurant from one of the parking lots. The views are beautiful in the area but I would prefer to be closer downtown.

I'm sure its for personal preference for some people.

I feel like the seaport is a get away from the city.
It doesn't feel attached to the city.
Im not sure if this is good thing or bad.
 
TheRifleman said:
I actually just took out the PIPE and will continue to tute this sound.
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I needed to single out this line. It was priceless.

So is that article on the FiDi's reactions to the mural. "Terrorist"...yeah, pretty much what you'd expect.

Joe, do you think the "oceanic feeling" in the Seaport will last once all the parking's filled in? Do you feel it in Fort Point, away from the water?
 
czsz said:
Joe, do you think the "oceanic feeling" in the Seaport will last once all the parking's filled in? Do you feel it in Fort Point, away from the water?
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That's a good question. Instead of being ugly, the parking lots contribute to an oceanic feeling: their vast, flat openness mimics the water surface and look like beaches.

Filling them in won't diminish the ocean feel because: 1) Broad boulevards provide a similar vast, airy flatness. They also give oceanic sight lines -- World Trade Center Ave for instance. If city hall continues to be smart, they will preserve and proliferate broad boulevards in that area. 2) Oceanic architecture helps too: The Convention Center facade is nautical, like a sailboat. The Manulife / John Hancock building is an ocean wave.

Areas in the Seaport south of Summer Street, like Fort Point, lose the ocean feel due to narrow constricting streets. But if the two above elements can be brought southward, that would help.

The D Street trunk, for example, is an attempt to import the ocean deeper towards South Boston. This was a city-planning decision that will lead to success in the Seaport area south of Summer St.
 
czsz said:
I needed to single out this line. It was priceless.

So is that article on the FiDi's reactions to the mural. "Terrorist"...yeah, pretty much what you'd expect.

Joe, do you think the "oceanic feeling" in the Seaport will last once all the parking's filled in? Do you feel it in Fort Point, away from the water?
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Fox 25 received a massive influx of horrifically racist comments when they posted a picture of the mural on Facebook. BostInno managed to document a lot of them.

http://bostinno.com/2012/08/04/gian...s-racist-comments-on-fox-25s-facebook-thread/

A highlight:
“Finally a building worth crashing a plane into.”

Absolutely deplorable that these people exist.
 
Seriously, i love the idea of the mural but this was a poor choice for this particular drawing around skyscrapers. WTF is the Greenway conservancy thinking? These people would screw up a free lunch.

This will be the last time the city sees a Mural on that wall again. Back to the shitty wall that existed before.
 
TheRifleman said:
Seriously, i love the idea of the mural but this was a poor choice for this particular drawing around skyscrapers.
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Not at all. If you read some literature about the piece, Os Gemeos were inspired by the skyscrapers/urban conditions on both sides of the Greenway. The mural was designed as if the person is "squeezing in" among all this dense urbanity.
 
Oh right. Broad Boulevards everywhere. That's a great idea... for creating more highways and sprawl.

I noticed a funny thing today on the bus: an advertisement for the Rose Kennedy Greenway. Boston's only "all organic park." It wasn't advertising any particular event. Just the RKG itself.
 
I was down there eating lunch with my co-workers today and the first thing on of them mentioned was that it was awesome. He was aware of who the artist was and his credentials. I guess when people are ignorant, the first thing they would spew is hatred.
 
Matthew said:
I noticed a funny thing today on the bus: an advertisement for the Rose Kennedy Greenway. Boston's only "all organic park." It wasn't advertising any particular event. Just the RKG itself.
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That is weird Matthew. Not exactly what you'd want the conservancy spending money on. Also, what's an "all organic park"? I mean why wouldn't the Common qualify - have they been injecting antibiotics into the fallen soldiers monument?
 
Presumably it has to do with the fertilizers used - organic versus inorganic fertilizers which have been used for centuries.
 
Maybe it's some sort of in-kind promotion, not a paid ad, just as it's not likely Conservancy paid for space on MassDOT wall for Os Gemeos.
 
I noticed that Philadelphia has this new public space, "the Porch," outside 30th Street Station:

http://www.theatlanticcities.com/arts-and-lifestyle/2012/08/philadelphia-porch-entire-city/2885/

It's basically a bunch of poured concrete in an otherwise desolate area with some tables and programming. And yet, Atlantic Cities reports that it's monstrously popular.

I immediately thought of the Greenway, which largely sits amid a slightly less lifeless area and still often manages to be deserted, despite the endless $$s sunk into the conservancy and its festivals. And yet no one ever reports the Greenway being consistently so popular (despite also having a major train station at one end). Is this simply a matter of scale? Something to do with the specific programming (at the porch, it seems more whimsical)?

Has anyone been? Is this space just overhyped?
 
Looks great but "monstrously popular" seems overhyped.

Images/video of the Porch suggest it is no more whimsical or better attended than, say, the recent Figment festival on the Greenway.
 
depending on the week or day, perhaps music, a farmers’ market, a beer garden, or even miniature golf
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So perhaps it's programming that makes the Porch work? The same thing that brings crowds to the Greenway.
 
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