Rose Kennedy Greenway

I think you are right about the Guggenheim and MoMa. Hugely popular with Japanese tourists.
 
Some cellphone pics of my favorite parts of the RKG.

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Re: the last one: Welcome to Bouston, Texachusetts.
 
More like Dodge City after a shootout. What a shame. Just imagine if 3 parallel streets of 4- to 6-story townhouses had been built here, accommodating residential, retail and small offices, reclaiming the street grid, creating a new, progessive and proud neighborhood and injecting life and ideas into the city...

Small plots owned by landlords, shops and small businesses from travel agencies to environmental engineering firms to tech firms, designed individually to offer an exciting, diverse environment. Maybe a park or museum every now and then, perhaps with chunks of the Expressway left standing.

But that would be the work of an intelligent, forward-thinking person. A Bloomberg. A Wowereit (Berlin mayor). Perhaps even a Deval Patrick.

Not a Menino.

Sorry, couldn't help myself... City Hall Plaza, if it is redeveloped (and it should be) will probably become a massive skyscraper or a few glass-curtain anonymous condo towers. But imagine leaving the current City Hall (which could repopulated in a fascinating way with boutiques and a central subway station), rebuilding the street grid that was once there, and filling in the resultant lots with small plots to create a vibrant, urban neighborhood. ... That's something we can actually do -- especially if someone like Larry Summers were to oust Mayor Mumbles.
 
N. End gateway?s makeover
Martignetti site to get new shops, historical signs
By Scott Van Voorhis | Thursday, March 6, 2008 | http://www.bostonherald.com | Real Estate

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The Martignetti liquor store, a North End landmark for decades, will get a new life as home to a popular neighborhood eatery.

After being forced out of its longtime home on Hanover Street, Cafe Graffiti unveiled plans yesterday to reopen in the former Martignetti building.

Citizens Bank is now in the midst of plans for a major renovation and redevelopment of the longtime neighborhood store, which had been in business for 70 years and which gave birth to the Martignetti liquor empire.

The building stands at the gateway to the North End and now, with the removal of the Central Artery, fronts on the new Rose Kennedy Greenway.

The revamp of the building will involve taking down the Martignetti sign, upgrading the facade and putting in spacious new windows. It should be completed later this year.

?A lot of people in the neighborhood are very pleased to hear we will take this building that is a bunch of bricks . . . and really transform it along the Greenway,? said Tom Cox, a real estate executive at the bank.

Along with Cafe Graffiti, Citizens - which has a 10-year lease on the building - also has plans to rent out space to another neighborhood establishment, Christina Defalco, an upscale clothing boutique. Plans for a third tenant will be announced soon, a bank spokesman said.

Citizens plans to install a pair of eight-foot-tall color maps on the building?s facade, one of the nearby Freedom Trail and the other of North End historic attractions, said Michael Jones, a bank spokesman.

That decision arose out of suggestions by Peter DeGrandis, a longtime North End resident who has proposed a museum of North End history for the building.

The closing of the Martignetti store earlier this year was first reported in the North End News, which received an outpouring of comments from readers.

?I think we got more response to that headline than anything else,? said Bill Lee, the paper?s editor.
Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/business/real_estate/view.bg?articleid=1078118
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Ugh. Some gateway building. What a sad, sorry waste of potential.
Hey, at least they preserved the view of the party walls and the billboard. :mad:
 
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The Greenway Saga has officially gone from tragedy to farce.
 
Why do you say that? Cafe Graffiti is a much better use for this site than a liquor store. I hope they can use the brick plaza out front for additional seating, displacing the cars that are now parked there.
 
The use is fine.

I was bemoaning the aesthetics. Which is about as bad as it could be for it's location.
 
Ron Newman said:
Why do you say that?
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Look at that rendering. What are we using as a model here, a strip mall? Why are we building single-story commercial strips along the Greenway? Is it to preserve the European-like vistas of the N. End? You know, European as in Dresden, circa 1945.

Ron Newman said:
Cafe Graffiti is a much better use for this site than a liquor store. I hope they can use the brick plaza out front for additional seating, displacing the cars that are now parked there.
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I bet those that live in the N. End don't think so. Why is yet another cafe in the N. End more valuable than a liquor store? People need alcohol too.

What do you think about the bank, Ron?
 
This isn't "yet another cafe", it is the reopening of a popular cafe that recently lost its space on Hanover Street. I believe it was more popular with locals than with tourists. People often went there to watch soccer games.

Citizens is not opening a bank branch here, just an ATM (replacing B of A's ATM that was formerly at the corner).
 
I'll chim in as a North Ender. Personally, I loved Martignetti's and what we're left with in the neigborhood doesn't come close to picking up the slack in terms of selection and price; the Golden Goose is expensive and primarily a Grocery; Hanover St Liquor is small, expensive, and primarily sells wine; the wine place on Hanover is... just a wine place; 7-11 has a great selection for people who love having to choose between 30 racks of Bud or 30 racks of Miller; and the whatever it is on Salem is limited as well. The loss of Martignetti's was a personal tragedy for me as there is no longer a spot that sells both Rouge Ale and the $6 Tall Boy Sixer of 'Gansett within walking distance of my apartment.

Personally, I also loved Cafe Graffiti, and although they don't realy cateer to me, I loved Christina Defalco. The reason I love them is because they offered something for the people who live in the North End that isn't just another tourist trap restraunt. In the North End, if you want a convenient place to eat spaghetti and red sauce, you've got your pick, however, if you want a convenient place to do a lot of other things, you're often S.O.L. As far as I'm concerned, the fact that both of these establishments are going to reopen is a good thing.

That being said, in a perfect world that building would be torn down and something much bigger would be put in it's place (preferably with a Martignetti's on one of the floors, mmmm.... booze). The spot really demands it in the sense that, it's the gateway to the community and right now it doesn't really reflect well on us. However, this isn't a perfect world and we can't always get what we want. So, you know... I guess sometimes you just have to take what you can get.
 
^^Aww, c'mon guys...The redevelopment of this building is an overall positive, until such time that finances may allow more along Cross St.. Joe Pace and Sons down the block supposedly have plans to build apartments on their lot, and hopefully keep the deli going. This strip of stores was created when Cross St. was cut through in the 1920's, exposing the backs of a number of buildings on Hanover and Salem Sts. Building higher here would have the effect of blocking whatever views people have from the apartments behind this strip of stores. I say give them a break; let them enjoy the view for a while. The cafe will be a welcome respite at a critical spot, where people can take their goodies and enjoy them in the new park across the street.
 
I understand the sentiment Padre, and I can appreciate it, but one of the risks of living in the city is the potential loss of views. I'd be annoyed if it happened to me, but overall I really think a taller building is best for the city.
Part of the whole 'social contract' thing, I suppose.
 
At least when it was a package store you could get liquored up cheap to soften the bad aesthetics.
 
I want something 3 or 4 stories tall. Trader Joes would be great!
 
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