Re: 115 Winthrop Square | Financial District
London has only one building over 800 feet. What a small economically depressed and unimportant city. Denver and OKC are much more important because they have better skylines!!
London has a 1000' building completed and a 900'+ under construction (over halfway up). London is actually booming beyond belief and in a couple of years we won't be saying any of that.
Nobody here has given me a good reason why Boston should automatically never build taller than the Hancock again. I have at least brought up data of my own for why we should. I compare to other cities because other cities all over the country and the world are jumping on the height train. It doesn't mean they are better cities. What it does mean is they decided they want to have "nicer things" in their city.
It's like our sports teams. Having winning or losing sports teams doesn't automatically make you a better or worse city. But it's still a source of pride for the city. Just because it isn't NECESSARY and therefore falls under "wants" as opposed to "needs" doesn't mean we can't want something very very badly.
Basically, I think a fancy new tallest tower in Boston could be an immense source of pride in this city, similar to the Hancock is now. Not one of you has said why it wouldn't be. You just write me off with "Boston doesn't NEED it" and that's true. But that's not an argument against it. I use real data that forces me to actually think and gather information, and it shows that one city after another after another is deciding to build new tallest buildings. The thing is, most of these cities don't have the type of land crunch in their downtowns that we have in Boston. It actually makes sense for Boston to build tall, and instead we get projects chopped down that literally sit right on top of major rail lines! (ie North Station)
I want something to happen. Your general apathy is not an argument against that happening. I defend my opinion. Many of you attack it without any real defense of your own. Just because you don't NEED something it doesn't automatically mean you shouldn't want it or get it. Outside of NYC and maybe San Francisco, not a single one of these other cities building tall NEEDS to be. But they thought it would look good, be a new icon for their city, a new source of pride, and had the guts to achieve something that we can't here in Boston.
Honestly, it's really sad how many people here are willing to settle for mediocrity. Like oh, the city's already good, so why do anything to improve the aesthetics at its most visible points?
Also, my frustrations at this point are pretty well founded. How many major projects have failed to materialize over the last 10-15 years? I know we are finally getting some nice (and BIG) stuff, but is there any city that moves slower than here? That 1000'+ building in Denver is aiming to break ground next fall. So in Denver it takes 1 year to get going on a 1000'+ giant, but in Boston it takes 5 years just to approve something half that size or smaller, and by then most of those never get built. Then we wonder why there is a housing crisis, or why the roads are clogged when the only things being built with regularity are the 5 over 1's in poor transit areas.
So because Boston built great things 100 years ago, we are supposed to sit on our hands for the rest of our lives and marinate in self satisfaction? I don't get it. Everybody here has either been beat down too long and jaded, or are too young to realize just how much stuff fails to happen after the "process" guts it of both its impact and feasibility. The defeatist attitudes all over this board are appalling. Well, I am just getting started. This matters to me. Find a cause that matters to you and stop telling me how I should think and feel. If you want to argue with me that's fine, but you better bring real data and real examples. Remember, it's already 2017. According to many of the sci-fi movies we grew up with, the future is NOW. I want to be as proud of the present and the future as I am of the past.
If you really don't give a damn, don't step up and attack somebody who does.
