Equilibria
Senior Member
- Joined
- May 6, 2007
- Messages
- 6,942
- Reaction score
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Negative development areas
North Station (Just doesn't feel like the old Boston)
Kenmore (Ditto)
Seaport/Fan Pier (should be Boston sports mecca area with Cubs neighborhood feel)
Columbus Ave (absolute Disgrace)
The Greenway (Poor Planning)
Downtown (looks like a warzone)
South Station/Tommy's Tower (can we get a 800FT building in the city)
The skyline looks very old and decreped
Chinatown (I actually miss the old 70's and 80's crazy place)
Postive Areas
North END (it still has the local shops but not the locals)
Backbay (always beautiful to walk through)
Boston Common/Fan Hall (Boston at it's Best)
South End (has cleaned up thanks to Northeastern)
Theater District (improving)
I agree with you on all the positives and most of the negatives. However, North Station and Kenmore are 2 impressive mass transit stations, and some of the nicest looking in a mostly underwhelming MBTA system. I've heard some people (perhaps including yourself) knocking the North Station area for not being grimy enough before, and I just don't see it. It was simply unpleasant to go to the Garden and the area around it before, and the new station is efficient and beautiful, an achievement for which the T doesn't get enough credit.
As for the Wrigley thing: I appreciate the vision, but as someone who lives in Chicago at the moment, Wrigleyville would be impossible to develop on the waterfront. Heck, even the Cubs can't develop any more of it in Wrigleyville. Good authentic neighborhoods take decades to develop, one small lot at a time. I don't know if Hynes and Fallon will do something nice in SBW, but I am very happy Fenway is in Kenmore and not in a sea of parking lots marking a failed "Ballpark Village", with no real transit access.
As for the tax breaks, I think we're jumping the gun a little. It's tax breaks, not a payout. I have no idea how this deal is structured, but I'll guess that the city has given up some portion of it's tax revenue on the site for some period of years (5 to 10). Since the land should be worth much more now than it was as parking, one would hope the city has only cut into that revenue increase to allow that increase to take place. They aren't losing money, they're making less so they'll make any at all (if I'm totally off-base, sorry about that).
Of course, if Boston didn't offer that deal, Burlington would, or Raleigh. I, for one, am happy to see something built here. It can only get better.