Very true. In fact, W/S took pains to try to develop some. I think they've only marginally succeeded, but the effort was there.
BPDA approves Fenway Corners, a $1.6 billion development around Fenway Park
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"marginally" is doing a lot of work there. It's pretty bad, and given the liquor license disaster it's actively hurt the rest of the city.
I'm not sure what the "liquor license disaster" is referring to, but the Seaport was a barren wasteland for almost 50 years when McCourt sat on the land forever and then leveraged it to buy the Dodgers. Several development cycles were missed, but there was never going to be a neighborhood development like the back bay, south end, beacon hill, etc., given its proximity to the CBD and the value of the land for commercial development. W/S developed, at considerable cost, a park system from its properties to the water, but it just isn't that nice IMO. They tried, but like I said, they mostly failed/marginally succeeded.
Big disagree on the Seaport... have you folks been down there on a nice day between May and October? It's very active, filled with people, and quite vibrant especially along the Harborwalk. It could have been better but it's nowhere near failure... it's quite nice. It's a very different vibe than say Back Bay or the North End but that's to be expected.
I lived downtown for a decade and watched it go from parking lots to what it is now... I was pretty skeptical initially of the the first buildings but wholistically what the end product has become has totally changed my mind.
I lived downtown for a decade and watched it go from parking lots to what it is now... I was pretty skeptical initially of the the first buildings but wholistically what the end product has become has totally changed my mind.
I live in the North End now, and have lived downtown for the majority of my adult life. The Seaport development has been great, and it is a very busy, active part of town. Especially in the summer. There is one section right after the bridge near the courthouse that is a little overbuilt and feels a bit claustrophobic. They could have used one shorter building/block in there to lighten things up. But other than that the neighborhood is well spaced given the density. The parks aren't perfectly connected, but they did have to work around some existing places. Walking from the bridge along the waterfront to the ICA is pretty nice once you get past the cement barriers that block entrance to the Northern Ave bridge that hasn't been replaced decades after it was taken out of service. It will be really nice when they replace that rotting rusted hulk with what is supposed to be a (mostly?) pedestrian bridge.
Depends what you were expecting. It's a playground for well-off young people, but not really a neighborhood. There's no grocery store, no decent public transportation, and no library or school. It's a place to get in and out of, either over the course of an evening or a couple years.
But like others have said, even if it's nice, it looks absolutely no different than any other new development in any other city in America. If that's replicated outside of Fenway Park, there will be nothing that is any different than what's outside of Oracle, or Petco, or any of the other new urban ballparks. The streets that don't connect at right angles will be the only clue you're in Boston.
Yeah, I worked at a container shipping firm near the Boston Design Center from 2002-2005. The times I've been back, especially when the weather is nice, the Seaport is way more busy and miles nicer than it was 20 years ago. I think folks are letting their personal preferences on the design (which is generic as hell for sure) and the nature of the crowd (well off young people) cloud their judgment.
There is a Trader Joe's at Thomson Place and an S&S not far as well, so not sure where "there's no grocery stores" is coming from either. There are, obviously, schools (and even a library on Broadway) that serve the area as well. It's fucking Boston, not rural Maine.
Come on... these talking points are dumb.
1. Silver Line is right there and can get you to the Red Line. The Red Line is a quarter mile away if you want to walk. It's more transit accessible than huge chunks of Boston that people always seem to love to exclude when they think of "Boston" because everyone thinks Boston ends somewhere beyond the intersection of Washington st and Mass Ave in South End.
2. There's a Trader Joe's in Fort Point and Roche Bros 3/4 of a mile away. Not to mention I'd expect many people living there have groceries delivered. I know a couple folks living in the Seaport and "we can't get to grocery store" is not one of their talking points.
3. Nobody living there is sending their kids to BPS. There is no need for a school. Also it wouldn't matter as Boston busses kids all over the damn place so it'd just end up filled with kids from other neighborhoods.
4. It's a neighborhood for wealthy people, just like pretty much all of Boston east of Kenmore Square. The horror.
There is a Trader Joe's right next to the Trillium brew-pub, and a pair of fancier (and very pricey) little market places. The silver line goes there, but yes that does kind of suck. South Station isn't that much of a walk from much of it either. The public transportation access is better than most of the rest of South Boston. There is no library, but there is an excellent art museum. There are no schools. But schools and libraries, like functional bridges, are built by the state and city governments, and not by developers, so you can't really blame them for that. If you don't like new architecture, that's fine, but it's not like Boston was completely unique in the style of buildings they built at any given time. Boston has huge tracts of crappy triple deckers, but I wouldn't advocate for building hundreds more of them just to keep the architecture consistent. It's a new neighborhood in a prime spot, so yes it is very expensive. I don't think that makes it bad in any way.
I mostly just want them to get that movie theater back up and running. They are supposed to be turning it into an Alamo Drafthouse, which is perfect for yuppie hipsters like me.
Fifteen years ago there was nothing but mud lots, a couple of businesses and a few broken down restaurants in the SeaPort. It was an absolute waste of beautiful land along the water and it's never been an area for "libraries, schools and grocery stores". My wife worked at John Hancock at the time and she could have eaten at either the Barking Crab*, Morton's or Pier 4. That's it. I was just there for a concert last week and we brought my BIL and SIL two weeks ago when they visited from Atlanta. Both times were immense improvements of what used to be there.
* The folks from the Barking Crab are doing okay. For five of us, lunch was almost $300. And that place was packed on Saturday--so much so you had 90 minutes to eat and the leave. No hanging around and enjoying a liquid lunch.
The SeaPort is cool as hell. I hope that Fenway's new area is like it.
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Yeah, its kind of hard to think what the complaints are about. Even if its full of chain stores and yuppies living in condos, think of the tax revenue the city is getting out of those buildings versus what the empty parking lots used to generate. I'm sure that funds a lot of programs that are highly valued by lefty-types who complain about these sort of developments.
You would think that they would use some of that tax revenue and improve the infrastructure. . . .
Oh and that Trader Joe's is a nightmare (and that's a low bar).
It's a great neighborhood though. I don't get the complains (at least from mid-April-mid-November) other than cost of housing if you like urban places. Probably the best people-watching neighborhood in Boston.
Plus you're close to the Southie Beaches, and ICA is right there. And Leader Bank Pavilion and Harpoon brewery.
This is untrue. There is a Trader Joe's right there on the corner. My in-laws live the next block over and they shop there.
there was also the No Name and the Asian seafood place just to the west of that, and Yankee Lobster just past the tent.
284 days per year of no/low revenue is a liability no property owner can ignore.
If gentrification is bound to happen around every ballpark, and helps improve the on-field product, do it here and do it well.
If gentrification is bound to happen around every ballpark, and helps improve the on-field product, do it here and do it well.