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When it comes to the Filene's Memorial Hole, it's all or nothing for the mayor
By adamg on Tue, 08/03/2010 - 9:19am
The Herald reports that Mayor Menino rejected an idea from developer John Hynes to rebuild Filene's Basement - and add a parking garage - on the crater off Washington Street, but that Menino said that wasn't good enough.
As the Herald almost comes out and says, Hynes's scaled-back plan was half-baked - it assumed the state would kick in $25 million - but Menino wants a tax-generating tower there, not just a discount store and a garage.
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Comments
Ugh ugh UGH. From his
Ugh ugh UGH. From his Puritanical alcohol policies to this, Menino has drained this city of its pulse. No wonder everyone wants to move to New York--well, except for the geezers who keep electing this guy. **facepalm**
Don't you mean Houston?
If it shocks you that the Mayor wants to ensure that something productive, viable, and aesthetically pleasing gets built in our town and you would rather see him simply allow the developer to build whatever he wants there, then I think you must want to move to Houston where they don't have any zoning, as opposed to New York where, as I recall, the mayor, the developers, and the public have been locked in a death grip since 2001 over what to build on ground zero and what it should look like. One might say that ground zero is an even worse hole in the ground than Fileene's. Personally, I would like to see the Mayor/BRA pull Vornado's permits or, better yet, take the property under Chapter 131 and transfer it to a different, viable, developer Kehoe-style. If that hole isn't blight then I don't know what is. However, in reality, the problem with the Fileene's hole isn't the developer but, more likely, that we are in the worst commercial real estate market in a generation and NO ONE can get financing to move on projects like this. One way or another, that hole will eventually be a tower and will eventually be filled with offices, or a hotel, or condos or some combination of all of the above. Patience (like sobriety) is a virtue Anon.
What I want
I want a mega-tower that generates all of the money that the entire city needs without taxing anyone else's property while simultaneously flooding the housing market so that I can afford to buy a home for under $300,000 somewhere within 4 miles of downtown AND flooding parking availability so that nobody considers it reasonable to charge $20/day or $200,000 for just a parking space downtown AND build it to use green technologies!
I'd settle for a discount store and a garage.
It'd be better than a vacant blighted hole in the heart of the city.
I do love it
when Kaz goes on a mocking rip with his trademark yellowjacket hyperbole ad absurdum cynicism (except when its me he's taking to task.-)
Let's remember that the hole
Let's remember that the hole is there because of the last thing the mayor wanted, and indeed wanted so badly that the Boston Redevelopment Authority skipped required regulatory steps, mostly notably the part that examines a project's finances for feasibility. Development in this town should stop being about what some incompetent authority figure wants, and start being about what the people want as communicated through a democratically accountable planning agency.
here here
...and ice cream tastes good.
hear hear!
and while it's self-evident, somehow it must be said. So here we have the mayor trying to make a shit sandwich out of his own shit?
Does mayor have statutory or functional veto power over BRA decisions?
hair hair!
Practically speaking the mayor has complete and utter control over the BRA's decisions which is the source of the problem. To hear the mayor introduce Kairos Shen (Chief Planner for the city) is like watching a mafia don embarrassing a gopher in front of da resta da guys. It's quite obvious that the titles at the BRA, "Chief yadda yadda", "Executive blahblahblah" mean nothing as in the end if they make a decision that his highness does not like, he'll just rescind it and do whatever ends up with more campaign money flowing his way or at least his name emblazoned all over the final product (usually both).
It's arguable that the BRA was necessary back in the decade or two after the war, but it's really an undemocratic anachronism that must go away in this day and age. The BRA was created by State law and it's going to take an act of Beacon Hill to disembowel that hog. I don't see that happening anytime soon. So you better hope you like da mayor's taste in drapes.
kazaa kazaa
It's a bloated pig, isn't it? Time for a Globe Spotlight on budget, staffing and results of the BRA, including a study of alternative structures in comparable cities.
I don't think that John Hynes
I don't think that John Hynes would have approved of this proposal by John Hynes, either.
Nor would Curley. But for a different reason.
All I want
...is Filene's Basement back, and to not have to look at that hideous hole in the ground across the street from my office every day. The rest I literally give zero shits about.
I much rather have a cool
I much rather have a cool looking hole than a parking garage.