The recession is over, let's spend money! Boston Development 2010

I'm not sure if it's Melborne or Sydney, I'm leaning towards Melborne, but they just opened an awsome new soccer stadium. Really next generation stuff.
 
Melbourne is making a mockery of Boston. Easily Australia's most historic (architecturally) and cultured city, and yet it manages to push forward the boundaries of art and design instead of merely slinking back, resting on past laurels, and clinging to "that's good enough for me" provincialism.

Maybe it helps that its rivalry with Sydney is a bit more competitive and serious than Boston's with New York.
 
I am playing around with the diagrams section on skyscraperpage, and noticed that since Menino took office, Melbourne has actually built slightly larger than the equivalent of Boston's entire skyline. Is that a good reason to be sad? It has consistently been rated among the top 5 most livable cities in the world, repeatedly as high as #1. Could there be a correlation?

Someday, I hope to move there and never come back (and send you all regular picture updates, where the grass IS greener).
 
DZH22 said:
I am playing around with the diagrams section on skyscraperpage, and noticed that since Menino took office, Melbourne has actually built slightly larger than the equivalent of Boston's entire skyline. Is that a good reason to be sad? It has consistently been rated among the top 5 most livable cities in the world, repeatedly as high as #1. Could there be a correlation?

Someday, I hope to move there and never come back (and send you all regular picture updates, where the grass IS greener).
Click to expand...

I seriously doubt that skyscraper has a direct relationship on livable cities. But if that's true, Hong Kong and New York should be near the top which they are not. I think skyscrapers are the result of high livability, and not the other way around.
 
Last edited:
KentXie said:
I seriously doubt that skyscraper has a direct relationship on livable cities. But if that's true, Hong Kong and New York should be near the top which they are not. I think skyscrapers are the result of high livability, and not the other way around.
Click to expand...

I don't think it has anything to do about the height of the skyscrapers. What Boston lacks is the confidence of investors. I'm sure many investors would love to invest in this city which would create job growth opportunities.

The problem is the Boston is a poltical risk. The only investors are inside and if your an outsider the politicians will rape you for everything. History will show that Boston Mayor Menino was nothing more than a corrupt hack which actually kept Boston from really exceling into the 21century. No matter who the next Mayor is he won't be able to pass up on investment opportunites from outside investors.

I still can't believe how powerless the Unions have become in the city of Boston.
 
TheRifleman said:
I still can't believe how powerless the Unions have become in the city of Boston.
Click to expand...

The unions have destroyed this state. It's so bad that Hoffa has tried to controll the thugs and convicts that work at the convention center. Look at all the great work the teachers union has done in Boston.
 
BostonObserver said:
The unions have destroyed this state. It's so bad that Hoffa has tried to controll the thugs and convicts that work at the convention center. Look at all the great work the teachers union has done in Boston.
Click to expand...

True, with the help of all the career political hacks.
 
BostonObserver said:
The unions have destroyed this state. It's so bad that Hoffa has tried to controll the thugs and convicts that work at the convention center. Look at all the great work the teachers union has done in Boston.
Click to expand...
I'm sorry...but the whole "Union's have destroyed the Commonwealth," argument gets old after a while. Unions are around in every state and every city in the Continental U.S.
Are they crooked? At times? But imagine what life would be like without SEIU, IBEW Local 103, Stone Masons...and others.
 
"Imagine life without the unions ...?"

Well, I'd have won my election for one thing ...
 
Mayor Menino's Crohn's said:
I'm sorry...but the whole "Union's have destroyed the Commonwealth," argument gets old after a while. Unions are around in every state and every city in the Continental U.S.
Are they crooked? At times? But imagine what life would be like without SEIU, IBEW Local 103, Stone Masons...and others.
Click to expand...



Defintely need to find some balance with the Unions, Govt, Private Sector...
 
Boston wants more money from nonprofits
By Associated Press
Wednesday, December 22, 2010 - Added 2 hours ago


Boston is scheduled to unveil a fairer formula to calculate how much the city?s nonprofits pay in lieu of property taxes.

The 128-page report scheduled for release Wednesday ties payments in lieu of taxes to property values and quantifies scholarships, volunteer work, and other value that colleges, hospitals and museums bring to Boston.

Mayor Tom Menino says it?s only fair that the institutions help pay for city services, including police and fire coverage, that they take advantage of.

Some nonprofits pay millions of dollars annually, while some pay nothing.

Many are resistant to change.

A spokesman for Boston College, which could see its payments increase six-fold under the new formula, tells The Boston Globe the university is opposed to the plan.

http://www.bostonherald.com/news/regional/view.bg?articleid=1304846

I would love to here what everyone thinks of this. Tell this fools are not trying to game the system.
 
Cuz no capitalist has EVER tried to game the system!

I think this proposal is fair, especially in a city like Boston where a big chunk of the economy is based on schools and non-profits.
 
vanshnookenraggen said:
Cuz no capitalist has EVER tried to game the system!

I think this proposal is fair, especially in a city like Boston where a big chunk of the economy is based on schools and non-profits.
Click to expand...


I think the state should try to balance it's budget first. Then stop giving tax breaks to companies like Liberty Mutual because their is no reason to give these people tax breaks unless the politicans owe them political favors.

First the city needs balance its budgets then possibly look more into the colleges or Hospitals. The Mayor is part of the reason why the entire city has become one big giant college dorm.
 
Zoning and approval processes which makes it only profitable to build for the rich, coupled with subsidies for the poor has a huge effect on running the middle class out of town. The middle class suffer from supply pressures and financial burden of not being rich enough to afford to keep pace with a still artificially inflated housing market and not poor enough to qualify for housing subsidies, so they leave the city.

The city could end subsides, effectively opening up more areas of the city to gentrification by the middle class, but that would force all poor people out of the city and that is politically untenable for those politicians buying votes. The zoning and approval process could be changed as well to allow developers more leeway in what areas and types of housing they can build for all economic strata and make a profit. However, that goes against the city's desire to maximize tax revenue versus cost to provide services per resident in all non-subsidized new development. So neither will ever happen.

Boston actively manipulated the market since the 1950s trying to engineer the perfect political city of favored suppliers and dependents. Now we all get to live with the consequences.
 
Didn't he say that he didn't want to "Manhattanize" Boston?"

http://www.bostonherald.com/business/general/view/20101222wall_street/srvc=home&position=also


Mayor Thomas M. Menino is making an all-out push to persuade top Wall Street firms to shift some operations to Boston?s waterfront, the Herald has learned.

The battle between Boston and New York for high-paying financial services jobs may not yet be as hard-fought as the Sox-Yankees rivalry, but it could have a long-lasting effect on the Hub?s economy.

?Financial services are one of the strongest components of Boston?s economy and over the last few months we?ve talked to several companies about making Boston a new place to invest in,? Menino said. ?There?s been some interest and they like the South Boston waterfront because it?s close to the airport, to downtown?s financial services and to universities.?

The mayor wants to lease the vacant space at the Marine Industrial Park for $8 to $12 per square foot, a deal that may be too good to pass up.

?We have an advantage over other cities that are much more expensive,? Menino said. ?The Innovation District is an alternative for these firms.?

Menino declined to name specific companies being targeted, but he said a sales team from the Boston Redevelopment Authority will hold direct talks with several firms early next year.

?We are always bullish on Boston and we believe others are too,? Menino said. ?So we are trying to get these businesses to recognize the qualities we have in our city, the brainpower we have here, (that) you get a bigger bang for the buck in Boston.?

Vivien Li, executive director of the Boston Harbor Association, said the campaign to attract Wall Street firms is a smart move and shows the city is not only trying to raise revenue but is working to raise the profile of an underused section of the waterfront.

?It makes sense for Goldman Sachs and other New York firms to locate back-of-the-house activities here because it?s dirt cheap and they still have access to the airport and the Silver Line,? she said.

The city?s Marine Industrial Park boasts 4 million square feet of space. Of the 3.5 million square feet of industrial space, 658,500 square feet are available to these firms, according to the BRA.

Massachusetts? financial services sector employs 170,000 people - 5.4 percent of total state employment - and produces $35.5 billion in annual economic output, according to an October study by Mass. Insight and PricewaterhouseCoopers. Boston is already home to such money-management heavyweights as Fidelity Investments, State Street Corp., Putnam Investments and Boston Private Financial Holdings.

JP Plunkett, senior director at commercial real estate broker Cushman & Wakefield, said that when New York-based banking giant JPMorgan Chase leased 100,000 square feet of space at 451 D St. in South Boston in June 2008, in the shadows of the Marine Industrial Park, it sparked hope that the district would become a home for other financial companies? back offices.

?When that deal was signed, collectively the market thought that deal would start a trend of other financial firms would follow,? he said. ?Nothing?s been signed since down there . . . but a real marketing push by the city and the state could help.?

But Michael Smith, managing director at Jones Lang LaSalle, said to attract big-name firms, the Marine Industrial Park will have to offer more restaurants and shops.

?The infrastructure is done around there, but in order to lure these firms who want their employees to be happy, the district needs amenities for workers,? he said. ?Twenty years from now it could be there, but it?s not there yet.?
Click to expand...
 
Goldman Sachs is a criminal organization -- not really what our city needs more of.
 
Ron Newman said:
Goldman Sachs is a criminal organization -- not really what our city needs more of.
Click to expand...
But they pay well. :)

Although I did not realize that the Boston Marine Industrial Park was intended to house "back office" for financial firms. This really doesn't sound either industrial or maritime related to me.
 
I always said the SBW felt a bit like Battery Park City. If Goldman Sacks moves in it WILL be.
 
City to compete with private industry for Co. $
It looks as though the city?s leadership is looking to steal companies out from beneath the noses of private landowners.

Thomas Grillo reported in Tuesday?s Boston Herald that Boston Mayor Thomas M Menino and the Boston Redevelopment Authority (BRA) are attempting to lure New York-based companies to the Hub.

?Financial services are one of the strongest components of Boston?s economy and over the last few months we?ve talked to several companies about making Boston a new place to invest in,? Menino said. ?There?s been some interest and they like the South Boston waterfront because it?s close to the airport, to downtown?s financial services and to universities.?

In what is sure to be a controversial move, the city will attract out-of-state companies by offering below-market rents.

The mayor wants to lease the vacant space at the Marine Industrial Park for $8 to $12 per square foot, a deal that may be too good to pass up.

?We have an advantage over other cities that are much more expensive,? Menino said. ?The Innovation District is an alternative for these firms.?

Now, imagine you?re a Boston company that owns a big, tall office tower somewhere in the Financial District or Back Bay. You typically offer rents in the $40-50 per square foot price range. Suddenly, the city is your competitor, offering to rent to companies for as little as 16 percent of what you are used to charging.

You?re out of luck. What company would rent with you when the city?s offering a much-better deal?

Even better, the city might be willing to offer prospective companies sweet-heart deals, similar to what it gave to JP Morgan Chase back in 2008, when it granted it property tax breaks of approximately $2 million.

Meanwhile, millions of square feet of office space remains empty.

http://www.bostonherald.com/blogs/news/getting_real/?p=374&srvc=blogs&position=recent


Politcal Hacks are out of control. Tax Non-profits, Rent space so low we can destroy private companies. Give certain companies tax breaks and others not. I would say if your in with the politicans you can get everything free, and if your not you can get everything stolen from you.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top