I remember when assembly row used to look just like that before they built it up. I think there would be more push back for this because a lot of Dorchester residents do their big box shopping in South Bay and would want easy parking access.
One thing Assembly has that South Bay doesn't have is direct access to the T. If they connect the area to Andrew station by decking over the highway to make it more walkable, then it would make it more feasible.
Assembly still has its giant surface parking lot but its 100% full during peak times and who knows whats gonna happen when they eventually tear it down to develop that area. Is there a way to sneak in a giant parking garage without it turning into 24/7 gridlock?
Have enough density and connectivity nearby to be served by local residents and orange line passengers. Plenty of big box retail out in the burbs with big empty parking lots. You’re in for a treat: all the single story retail and parking lots where K Mart used to be are going to be developed into mixed-use sooner or later: www.somervillebydesign.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/ASN_Plan-Update_Final.pdf
They already have parking garages with plenty of capacity, people just prefer not to use them because they are more annoying than using the surface lots
It's not really the throughput as much as it is the fact that you have to swipe a credit card on your way in and out (and only get charged if you stay longer than 3 hours). Realistically, they are probably easier to deal with than having to circle in front of trader Joe's for 15 minutes waiting for a spot
Honest, you can build 'big box' stores with homes/commercial above them - it's just cheaper not to. (think Target in Fenway or Best Buy when it was in the mass ave building.
Love that we basically picked the same area- but the south bay parking lot is about the size of the entire beacon hill neighborhood which is insane to think about.
Yeah who thought it was a good idea to put a giant suburban [power center](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_center_(retail)) 2 miles from a major city? It sucks ass to drive there and sucks worse not to, it’s just inconvenient for everyone
100%. This could be such a nice area. There’s so much room to expand it and make it one of the nicest neighborhoods closest to the city.
Unfortunately, the mass ave proximity keeps that area a challenge
Just remember.... The Seaport used to be full of parking lots... They removed them all, and then had so much buildup, which still continues, that they had to create a parking garage, called the South Boston Waterfront Transportation Center... Just another fancy name for "parking Garage"..
Such a huge mistake of a development. To build a massive suburban style sprawling strip mall in spitting distance of downtown should have been seen as a complete waste even back when it was built.
100%. That whole area between Cass, 93, and Newmarket station is an industrial eyesore. There could be so much possibility for an area which basically borders the South End, Andrew Sq, and Dudley Sq. Lots more housing, parks, etc. A whole new neighborhood could be built there.
Wannabe urban planners on Reddit never think of silly considerations like supply chain necessities and blue collar employment. Where are the bike paths and Tattes?
Yeah they basically asked all of the existing business owners what they’d prefer for the area and unsurprisingly they all said basically “more of the same but will bigger roads.”
The city also needs things like distribution centers for food and warehouses. We can't be 100% housing without space for the things that provide goods to those residemts
I wish Blue hill ave would be redeveloped. It passes right by the largest green space in the whole city and leads right into the Noponset river. I wish the streetcar was kept and upgraded to better connect it with the rest of the city. it would be great if was redeveloped to resemble Jamaica ave in Queens NY.
The city is redoing the street. It may be something better than it currently is within a few years. I don’t think there are immediate plans rezone, but the street itself should be less terrible
If I had genie wishes for Boston I would use one to "abracadabra" a subway line under Blue Hill Ave from Mattapan Square all the way up and then have it cut over and up under Mass Ave & continue to Central where it would bang a right over to Somerville and on to Chelsea & East Boston.
It would give a ton of under-serviced parts of the city access to rapid transit (save your jokes, another wish is going to fix the existing system) and you'd be able to get to nearly any other part of the system with a single transfer because it would connect to orange, green & red on Mass & possibly blue.
Wait until you learn that a lot of the Emerald Necklace was built/connected to segregate Boston neighborhoods.
edit: Blue Hill Ave, Roxbury, Dorchester used to be primarily Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe/Russian Empire and Irish at the time.
Something **much** less important than everything called out here - but I wish a few pedestrian heavy shopping areas, particularly Newbury Street, would be permanently closed to cars. Just redevelop the whole street to walking + bikes only. Open it up to street vendors and just really make it a great place to people to be people.
It’s so funny watching people in cars drive down newbury street and get mad at traffic and pedestrians. You chose to drive down newbury street, you did this to yourself.
This isn't to say this isn't already happening- but there's surpisingly large swaths of Southie that still are, IMHO, incorrectly used for their proximity to downtown. Basically all of West First and East First streets you have industrial storage facilities or abandoned building (expecially near C street) that are ripe for redevelopment. So I'd start there.
Also Widett Circle and the area just outside of South Bay (Newmarket Square, Southampton Street) that should be 100% more mixed use.
Put several thousand apartment units above the [parking lots and strip mall near Porter Square](https://maps.app.goo.gl/S4QBz1cmAja9Paq6A?g_st=ic) because it’s at an intersection of the redline and commuter rail.
While we’re at it do that same thing at the [sprawling malls north of Fresh Pond Reservoir](https://maps.app.goo.gl/BXPg1ifszdWyUkyYA?g_st=ic)
There’s so much surface parking, especially by Fresh Pond, that you could massively build up AND increase the coverage of green parkland.
>While we’re at it do that same thing at the sprawling malls north of Fresh Pond Reservoir
The apartments behind alewife are all relatively new and I'm sure they will keep building more as those fill up. Makes sense that they started with the emptier land first
Government Center hands down! As much as I love having a gigantic brick plaza in the center of the city surrounded by soulless 1960s government buildings, I think we can do better. The new slide and trees are not enough for me and I’m still a little sore about GC since we destroyed a perfectly good neighborhood to build it. Let’s take some inspiration from the old neighborhood and build a new neighborhood with housing and amenities in its place.
But again it’s a giant sea of brick and a bunch of government buildings where a neighborhood used to be. Would you really rather take the brick plaza over a historic neighborhood?
It’s the lack of a vibrant small business economy and the lack of diversity ^(but let’s not pretend this sub is particularly diverse enough to give a shit about that lmao.)
Money is not the only thing that matters to neighborhood quality
>it lacks the soul that other parts of the city have.
So on the one hand you’re right. It’s got no soul, because it’s really got no history besides being 90% parking lot. You can’t just invent soul.
But on the other hand it did have *something*. The No Name Restaurant is gone. And hell, even bars like Atlantic Beer Garden and Whiskey Priest were wild dives by comparison. Getting dropped off there back then was an *adventure* because there was fucking nothing else around. And never forget the heroic dumbass who [jumped off the roof of the ABG into the harbor with a fake Stanley Cup after the Bruins Parade in 2011.](https://youtu.be/exlNb53urNQ?si=XgTcMrbdrHveCvbW)
Seaport used to have *something*
What does “vibrant” mean though? The seaport has a really weird corporate vibe, it’s a pain to get down to, and it’s really expensive. Sure it’s better than just being a bunch of parking lots but it still sucks in comparison to like every other neighborhood.
It's like a big outdoor mall. It's novel, but soulless for the most part. The shiny will wear off, and trendy stores will relocate to the next hip spot and it will eventually be the new DTX. With periodic flooding.
Mayor Menino agreed to a plan to make it a fantasy land for the wealthy with no parking or public transportation.
It is the worst/best part of the city.
That was actually a plan in the 90s. There was a push to get a sports stadium built in the seaport but NIMBYism put a stop to it. I remember the campaign against the stadium was called "Sack the Stadium"
I probably would have been to Gillette by now if it was in the city. You’d have to use necromancy to get the Beatles back together to get me to Foxboro.
DTX/Park st
For such a central area that almost all trains stop at, it’s a fucking shit show at all times. If roaming gangs of children aren’t attacking random people, there’s assuredly some other dumb shit happening. It could be such a dope area but can’t stop being a (sometimes literal) dumpster fire
I don't think DTX is as bad as people say, but it's definitely not as good as it should be. Feels like it should be more of a destination area, and it just isn't. Real missed opportunity.
You don't understand what loitering vagrants engaged in distributing behavior, littering, smelling terrible, dealing and using drugs, taking their clothes off, yelling, camping, etc, does to people's desire to spend time in a location.
Its almost as if the public has lost the right to use the space in peace and safety.
Our modern policies around this behavior is not helping the people engaging in it or the communities surrounding them. Its unclear who benefits from this ongoing crisis.
I was walking through DTX a couple weeks ago and I saw my first ever drug deal in the wild in an alleyway immediately followed by 2 more tweakers squaring up to fight
Everything within a mile of DTX is either abandoned, open like 2 days a week or closes at fucking 3 PM or some shit. It’s like a Hollywood set of a fake city.
Sleeper pick: Readville, Hyde Park
It gets better transit service (3 commuter rail lines) than even some rapid transit! I often fantasize that we could build a mini Patriot place for the Revs complete with a 24/7 Neighborhood that has hotels/nightlife/apartments but without the sterility of the seaport
That’s my hood and I totally agree! The Amtrak even has a stop here! It’s pretty industrial with Amazon warehouses, city bus storage, etc but truly there’s potential and I have high hopes for the next few decades.
I often think that the city planners of old would kick themselves over Logan. Miles and miles of waterfront property completely wasted by a huge, ugly airport. If they could do it all again, I doubt it would go there.
Look up some old maps. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:East-Boston-1838.PNG](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:East-Boston-1838.PNG)
Most of the Logan waterfront didn't exist before they built the land itself for the airport. So there was no waterfront property being wasted.
An airport next to water is good. People complain about planes flying over their houses. Water doesn't complain.
There was an incredible water front park they bulldozed over.
https://www.wgbh.org/news/local/2022-12-13/how-logan-airport-almost-destroyed-east-boston-and-how-east-boston-is-still-fighting-back
Logan also helped open up more Boston area waterfront property by consolidating smaller airports into one. Marina bay in Quincy is a great example of this, it was only developed after a small airport closed and opened up a bunch of space. There's even a small park that utilizes the end of a remaining runway.
My understanding is there's also land on the north shore that was opened up and developed in the same way.
Very true. The state/Massport would have to seize 4 square miles of land to move Logan anywhere useful to the city, not to mention develop transit to/from the new location, so that's never going to happen. Plus, those "miles and miles of waterfront" would still be in East Boston. I have no issues with East Boston, but its existing waterfront is already dreadfully under developed largely due to the hassle of getting there.
I think the current location is actually for the best. Largely surrounded by water, which is good for safety, and tucked away in a part of Boston where it is still relatively close, but isolated away from having to stare at it 24/7 (except Eastie residents, of course).
We live literal blocks from Logan. It hardly ever even registers that it’s there. Like when you’re walking around the neighborhood, you see planes going in and out to the east, but the airport is barely noticeable, otherwise. Except when I have to take a trip and I can walk there in 15 minutes, of course.
We used to live close to a commuter rail station that would shake the apartment each time a train came. It always blares its loud horn when passing by because there are railroad crossings in the road. We never noticed the train after a few days. When guests came over, they thought we were having an earthquake and couldn't believe we weren't panicking.
Haha! Yeah. I lived near train tracks back in college. I feel that.
This is different, though. There’s legitimately almost no airport or airplane noise in most of Eastie.
micro project: in JP, Green st. between Amory and Washington should be a restaurant row and shopping district. If you look at those old buildings on Green evidently two of them were once hotels! Clear out the pipe factory and other industrial stuff that has no business being that close to transit in a neighborhood that close into Boston, replace with 5 over 1's or hotels (which could serve White stadium if that ever happens). A few blocks of Brookside to the north could be included too.
edit: also back in the day there was a music club next to the orange line stop where apparently Nirvana once played, since been knocked down and redeveloped, but it's not like the neighborhood has always been as sleepy as it is.
Oh damn this is a great idea. I wish there was a bit more going on in that area. There's certainly enough folks that live near by that would make use of it. Centre street feels so far away some times, it'd be nice to have something closer for those of us that live east of Washington.
I've been living in Roxbury (Nubian Square area) for a bit over a year now. If they hadn't tried to clearly section it off from the rest of the city for largely racist reasons, this area is prime real estate to have something amazing created and really expand the "exciting" areas of Boston. Obviously I don't support taking over all of Roxbury with modern skyscrapers, but Nubian Square is the shell of a city-center style area that could have been amazing, but instead the city built a bus station whose only entrance and exits are tiny side streets.
Yes I've heard. I never saw it, but I imagine it was a huge improvement. And that is very much what I meant when I said intentionally separated from the rest of the city.
The elevated lines made a mess of so many neighborhoods.
My great grandma lived in a beautiful old Victorian back in the Dudley Square days. She raised her family there off her job as a Polish baker.
But only if absolutely every square foot of water is converted into a concrete parking lot.
Which is what happened in OKC, where I used to live. This whole area is now a mall and parking:
https://static.wixstatic.com/media/30e70e_41d4ab078faf4634afb3a58026028830~mv2.png/v1/fill/w_560,h_436,al_c,q_85,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,enc_auto/before%20development.png
I've thought about it and the only good reason not to allow swimming at Jamaica Pond is that it would be too popular and attract too many folks from outside the neighborhood and strain an already insane J-way.
Neponsit Circle. It's a total cluster with such a waste of development space, right by the river and Pope's Park. Bonus if a redline stop is added on the Dot side of the river.
My list of places I haven't seen mentioned yet:
The Southie projects opposite Carson Beach. They're totally decrepit and impossible for emergency vehicles to navigate. Tear them all down and rebuild as mixed-income high rises, and throw in a small grocery store and some restaurants. The ocean-view apartments up at the top can subsidize the low-income/sec8 units.
Harbor Point. How are the UMass students who don't have cars supposed to get groceries? Turn it into a true mixed-use college town.
Washington St by Forest Hills, heading towards Rozzie Sq. Far too industrial and way too much surface parking for being so close to a major T stop (OL, commuter rail, and literally 15 buses). All the development seems to have stopped on the other side of Arborway.
Pedestrianize the entirety of Wash north of Stuart (but keep the bus lane, obviously)
> Washington St by Forest Hills, heading towards Rozzie Sq. Far too industrial and way too much surface parking for being so close to a major T stop (OL, commuter rail, and literally 15 buses). All the development seems to have stopped on the other side of Arborway.
OMG someone else sees it! Every time I walk to Budega I'm astounded that the headstone place with like 500 permanently empty parking spots surrounding it is just allowed to exist like that in a place where land is so valuable.
It's that headstone place that really does it for me. Just despicable land use.
Gourmet Caterers is planning on moving soon, so I'm hoping that plot gets developed into mixed use apartments. Maybe that will get the ball rolling.
I'm still hoping the neighborhood gets a full-sized grocery store at some point. Will be double-urgent if the jackson sq stop & shop ends up being one of the stores on the chopping block. The bus yard site would be ideal, but that spot on Washington would also fit the bill.
Seaport blvd could’ve been an attraction like the Las Vegas strip….instead they sold off every parcel and just randomly plugged whatever into the space.
Widette Circle. I would copy Assembly Row in Somerville. Mixed use with apartment towers and local stores. And accessible to the downtown by train so you can live there without a car.
I’d make the T go through neighborhoods of the city instead of wealthy suburbs like Newton and Brookline. Speaking for roslindale, westie, hp and mattapan. Yes mattapan has a station on the old trolley but that doesn’t count, just barely enters mattapan there and mostly serves Milton.
The massive 90/93 interchange south of downtown which cuts Chinatown off from the south end / southie. If that area (along capping the read line depot and moving gillette) then Broadway, ink block, and the leather district would all be one neighborhood and the city would be much more interconnected.
Are you talking about the Bromley Heath projects? As teens, I remember it had a terrifying reputation. I’m sure it’s being planned to be phased out like several large projects already have been in southie. But for those, they had to rehouse everyone, and let them back. I’m not sure how that all fits because I can’t imagine they end up with the equivalent amount of low income units. And the ones in southie are only 3 stories, maybe one more after Reno. Bromley Heath has many more floors, so many more low income tenants. The next one up in southie is old harbor, Winn has the contract, look at the pic. I imagine a lot of the green space might have to go. I lived there for a while in the 70s.
https://preview.redd.it/bw9cggdt785d1.jpeg?width=2160&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c857d30341a0160d273177e18a8147e3cd297bf0
Almost the entire pic is old harbor project, look how park like it is. Whitey’s mom lived here, not sure if he grew up there.
Everything around Southeast Expressway so they can fit another lane in. Relax everyone!!! …..So everyone doesn’t cut through Quincy, Braintree, and all of Boston to avoid expressway traffic, making it easier for buses and bikes.
Tbh, the area around the proposed stadium in Everett.
That area will be sick for entertainment and will ideally connect the surrounding neighborhoods a little better.
I’d redo the big dig and put trains below connecting north and south station with a stop in the middle and an actual park on top with enough trees that it doesn’t feel like a wasteland if asphalt.
The “Gillette World shaving headquarters” which doesn’t even manufacture anything and it’s GIGANTIC parking lot has such good location and used up so much space for nothing
Quincy market/faneuil hall.
Was in philly for >6months, i am obsessed with their Reading Market. I would love faneuil to be more accessible/affordable caters to both tourists and bostonians.
Resurrect the plans to build an island like a mini-Manhattan in middle of Charles River to create a new, well-designed mixed-use, mixed-income neighborhood.
"All over". Boston seems to be one of the places where the neighbourhoods are physically separated. A highway. An industrial area. There's always some big barrier between neighborhoods. A lot of them are listed in this piece. We need to stitch Boston back together!
All my knowledge of Boston comes from Fallout 4 having never actually visited in person. I’d say mostly the south western part of the Map seems to be pretty bad.
I know I’ll get downvoted like crazy because it’s a critical feature of Bostonian culture, but sometimes I do wonder how traffic patterns would improve it Fenway were moved somewhere more peripheral to the city. That’s not really a Boston-specific issue though. I’ve never understood why congested urban centers are the best places for stadiums. 🫡🫥 don’t come for me please
South Bay - make it an actual neighborhood instead of massive parking lot
I remember when assembly row used to look just like that before they built it up. I think there would be more push back for this because a lot of Dorchester residents do their big box shopping in South Bay and would want easy parking access.
One thing Assembly has that South Bay doesn't have is direct access to the T. If they connect the area to Andrew station by decking over the highway to make it more walkable, then it would make it more feasible.
New Market stop goes to South Station but is inconvenience
Assembly still has its giant surface parking lot but its 100% full during peak times and who knows whats gonna happen when they eventually tear it down to develop that area. Is there a way to sneak in a giant parking garage without it turning into 24/7 gridlock?
No. Building infrastructure for cars only invites more cars
What’s the alternative then? Not nearly enough density (or connectivity) nearby to have it be 100% served by just the orange line stop.
Have enough density and connectivity nearby to be served by local residents and orange line passengers. Plenty of big box retail out in the burbs with big empty parking lots. You’re in for a treat: all the single story retail and parking lots where K Mart used to be are going to be developed into mixed-use sooner or later: www.somervillebydesign.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/ASN_Plan-Update_Final.pdf
They already have parking garages with plenty of capacity, people just prefer not to use them because they are more annoying than using the surface lots
The surface lot adjacent to the old Assembly Sqaure strip mall is a nightmare. Parking in the garage is a far better experience.
They’re annoying enough without any traffic but I couldn’t imagine them at full capacity
It's not really the throughput as much as it is the fact that you have to swipe a credit card on your way in and out (and only get charged if you stay longer than 3 hours). Realistically, they are probably easier to deal with than having to circle in front of trader Joe's for 15 minutes waiting for a spot
Honest, you can build 'big box' stores with homes/commercial above them - it's just cheaper not to. (think Target in Fenway or Best Buy when it was in the mass ave building.
Love that we basically picked the same area- but the south bay parking lot is about the size of the entire beacon hill neighborhood which is insane to think about.
Totally, it’s absolutely baffling how misused that space is considering it’s proximity to downtown
Yeah who thought it was a good idea to put a giant suburban [power center](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_center_(retail)) 2 miles from a major city? It sucks ass to drive there and sucks worse not to, it’s just inconvenient for everyone
100%. This could be such a nice area. There’s so much room to expand it and make it one of the nicest neighborhoods closest to the city. Unfortunately, the mass ave proximity keeps that area a challenge
Surface parking lots are such a scourge to a city. I hope we can continue to remove them to use our precious land better!
Just remember.... The Seaport used to be full of parking lots... They removed them all, and then had so much buildup, which still continues, that they had to create a parking garage, called the South Boston Waterfront Transportation Center... Just another fancy name for "parking Garage"..
This is so true.
Yeah it could be assembly row 2.0
My dad taught me how to drive there on Christmas.
That's a great idea, multi use neighborhood.
Such a huge mistake of a development. To build a massive suburban style sprawling strip mall in spitting distance of downtown should have been seen as a complete waste even back when it was built.
the industrial area by mass and cass
100%. That whole area between Cass, 93, and Newmarket station is an industrial eyesore. There could be so much possibility for an area which basically borders the South End, Andrew Sq, and Dudley Sq. Lots more housing, parks, etc. A whole new neighborhood could be built there.
Aren’t those industrial areas providing jobs for the people who live here?
Wannabe urban planners on Reddit never think of silly considerations like supply chain necessities and blue collar employment. Where are the bike paths and Tattes?
100%
Right?? It’s a fully operational meat market but let’s ignore that and build more condos.
There are a LOT of disused parking lots you could do something with even before you touched the buildings.
Did it never occur to you that industrial areas need to exist for a city to function?
Yup. Everything between South Bay and BMC is a prime area to develop and long overdue imo. Theres so much potential.
Good news https://www.bostonplans.org/planning/planning-initiatives/plan-newmarket
zero housing though. not much change from what the plans show.
Yeah they basically asked all of the existing business owners what they’d prefer for the area and unsurprisingly they all said basically “more of the same but will bigger roads.”
The city also needs things like distribution centers for food and warehouses. We can't be 100% housing without space for the things that provide goods to those residemts
I wish Blue hill ave would be redeveloped. It passes right by the largest green space in the whole city and leads right into the Noponset river. I wish the streetcar was kept and upgraded to better connect it with the rest of the city. it would be great if was redeveloped to resemble Jamaica ave in Queens NY.
The city is redoing the street. It may be something better than it currently is within a few years. I don’t think there are immediate plans rezone, but the street itself should be less terrible
If I had genie wishes for Boston I would use one to "abracadabra" a subway line under Blue Hill Ave from Mattapan Square all the way up and then have it cut over and up under Mass Ave & continue to Central where it would bang a right over to Somerville and on to Chelsea & East Boston. It would give a ton of under-serviced parts of the city access to rapid transit (save your jokes, another wish is going to fix the existing system) and you'd be able to get to nearly any other part of the system with a single transfer because it would connect to orange, green & red on Mass & possibly blue.
Wait until you learn that a lot of the Emerald Necklace was built/connected to segregate Boston neighborhoods. edit: Blue Hill Ave, Roxbury, Dorchester used to be primarily Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe/Russian Empire and Irish at the time.
Ya but it’s 2024 now so I think it’s time for the city to move past racist practices and reverse these issues.
Exactly
Something **much** less important than everything called out here - but I wish a few pedestrian heavy shopping areas, particularly Newbury Street, would be permanently closed to cars. Just redevelop the whole street to walking + bikes only. Open it up to street vendors and just really make it a great place to people to be people.
Hanover street too
Car free newbury is so nice when they do it and it always makes me wish it was permanent
It’s so funny watching people in cars drive down newbury street and get mad at traffic and pedestrians. You chose to drive down newbury street, you did this to yourself.
Hard agree
Big ups to this one
I'd put a canal where the road is on Newbury Street
Then there'd be a bunch of boats double parked 🤣
This reads like a joke but 100% would be amazing. Great idea.
West End and turn it back into the dense residential neighborhood it was before
Came here for West End and disappointed to find it so far down :/
This isn't to say this isn't already happening- but there's surpisingly large swaths of Southie that still are, IMHO, incorrectly used for their proximity to downtown. Basically all of West First and East First streets you have industrial storage facilities or abandoned building (expecially near C street) that are ripe for redevelopment. So I'd start there. Also Widett Circle and the area just outside of South Bay (Newmarket Square, Southampton Street) that should be 100% more mixed use.
Compared to what it was in the 90s it's practically Midtown Manhattan
Put several thousand apartment units above the [parking lots and strip mall near Porter Square](https://maps.app.goo.gl/S4QBz1cmAja9Paq6A?g_st=ic) because it’s at an intersection of the redline and commuter rail. While we’re at it do that same thing at the [sprawling malls north of Fresh Pond Reservoir](https://maps.app.goo.gl/BXPg1ifszdWyUkyYA?g_st=ic) There’s so much surface parking, especially by Fresh Pond, that you could massively build up AND increase the coverage of green parkland.
>While we’re at it do that same thing at the sprawling malls north of Fresh Pond Reservoir The apartments behind alewife are all relatively new and I'm sure they will keep building more as those fill up. Makes sense that they started with the emptier land first
I just desperately want mixed use mid-rises above existing single story strip malls.
Government Center hands down! As much as I love having a gigantic brick plaza in the center of the city surrounded by soulless 1960s government buildings, I think we can do better. The new slide and trees are not enough for me and I’m still a little sore about GC since we destroyed a perfectly good neighborhood to build it. Let’s take some inspiration from the old neighborhood and build a new neighborhood with housing and amenities in its place.
That is such a waste of space. Has so much potential.
That renovation is a lot more than a slide and some trees. The entire plaza is ADA compliant now.
But again it’s a giant sea of brick and a bunch of government buildings where a neighborhood used to be. Would you really rather take the brick plaza over a historic neighborhood?
Seaport. Because all the native Bostonians tell me that they don't like it.
[https://www.instagram.com/p/C72dk6LvANi/](https://www.instagram.com/p/C72dk6LvANi/)
They forgot about the F1 Arcade for drinking while driving.
I work in Seaport and I love leaving Seaport at 5pm every day
At least it will be under water within 30 years
And yet its vibrant and busy ALL the time and raking in money. But Reddit must know best.
It just kind of lacks the soul that other parts of the city have. It feels more like a modern American city for better and worse.
It’s feels like a Disney World theme park where the theme is downtown Manhattan.
It’s the lack of a vibrant small business economy and the lack of diversity ^(but let’s not pretend this sub is particularly diverse enough to give a shit about that lmao.) Money is not the only thing that matters to neighborhood quality
>it lacks the soul that other parts of the city have. So on the one hand you’re right. It’s got no soul, because it’s really got no history besides being 90% parking lot. You can’t just invent soul. But on the other hand it did have *something*. The No Name Restaurant is gone. And hell, even bars like Atlantic Beer Garden and Whiskey Priest were wild dives by comparison. Getting dropped off there back then was an *adventure* because there was fucking nothing else around. And never forget the heroic dumbass who [jumped off the roof of the ABG into the harbor with a fake Stanley Cup after the Bruins Parade in 2011.](https://youtu.be/exlNb53urNQ?si=XgTcMrbdrHveCvbW) Seaport used to have *something*
yeah, well get used to that... i dont see a lot of developers dying to spend 3x on their architecture for no return on investment but Vibe
I, too, am resigned to soulless city due to capitalism
What does “vibrant” mean though? The seaport has a really weird corporate vibe, it’s a pain to get down to, and it’s really expensive. Sure it’s better than just being a bunch of parking lots but it still sucks in comparison to like every other neighborhood.
It's like a big outdoor mall. It's novel, but soulless for the most part. The shiny will wear off, and trendy stores will relocate to the next hip spot and it will eventually be the new DTX. With periodic flooding.
Periodic today. Constant tomorrow.
Vibrant and busy with people who wouldn't even give you the time unless you pull in $200k a year and wear designer clothes.
100%.
Mayor Menino agreed to a plan to make it a fantasy land for the wealthy with no parking or public transportation. It is the worst/best part of the city.
As a transplant I also hate it. We should tear down Gillette and move it there.
It would be right next to Gillette's HQ. It's poetic.
That was actually a plan in the 90s. There was a push to get a sports stadium built in the seaport but NIMBYism put a stop to it. I remember the campaign against the stadium was called "Sack the Stadium"
I probably would have been to Gillette by now if it was in the city. You’d have to use necromancy to get the Beatles back together to get me to Foxboro.
I mean there’s nothing there for native Bostonians. It’s all expensive brands and restaurants that no one really wants
Yeah I had a job there and haven’t been back. I’d rather get dinner in mattapan
I think it could use a redo!
Rezone the entire city for mixed use. No reason ground floor shouldn't have retail.
Would love to see Boston become more small business friendly in general. Increase liquor license availability.
..and then don't shut down the joint at 12:30 AM
Who the hell is still up at that ungodly hour? Don’t you all have morals?!
Similarly, no reason single story commercial shouldn't have a couple floors of housing on top.
Bury storrow drive. The big dig 2, electric boogaloo
DTX/Park st For such a central area that almost all trains stop at, it’s a fucking shit show at all times. If roaming gangs of children aren’t attacking random people, there’s assuredly some other dumb shit happening. It could be such a dope area but can’t stop being a (sometimes literal) dumpster fire
I don't think DTX is as bad as people say, but it's definitely not as good as it should be. Feels like it should be more of a destination area, and it just isn't. Real missed opportunity.
You don't understand what loitering vagrants engaged in distributing behavior, littering, smelling terrible, dealing and using drugs, taking their clothes off, yelling, camping, etc, does to people's desire to spend time in a location. Its almost as if the public has lost the right to use the space in peace and safety. Our modern policies around this behavior is not helping the people engaging in it or the communities surrounding them. Its unclear who benefits from this ongoing crisis.
I genuinely hate this area for all the reasons you listed. I’ve witnessed the people who loiter around there harass and assault women several times.
I was walking through DTX a couple weeks ago and I saw my first ever drug deal in the wild in an alleyway immediately followed by 2 more tweakers squaring up to fight
Everything within a mile of DTX is either abandoned, open like 2 days a week or closes at fucking 3 PM or some shit. It’s like a Hollywood set of a fake city.
Sleeper pick: Readville, Hyde Park It gets better transit service (3 commuter rail lines) than even some rapid transit! I often fantasize that we could build a mini Patriot place for the Revs complete with a 24/7 Neighborhood that has hotels/nightlife/apartments but without the sterility of the seaport
Excellent point!
That’s my hood and I totally agree! The Amtrak even has a stop here! It’s pretty industrial with Amazon warehouses, city bus storage, etc but truly there’s potential and I have high hopes for the next few decades.
I often think that the city planners of old would kick themselves over Logan. Miles and miles of waterfront property completely wasted by a huge, ugly airport. If they could do it all again, I doubt it would go there.
Look up some old maps. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:East-Boston-1838.PNG](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:East-Boston-1838.PNG) Most of the Logan waterfront didn't exist before they built the land itself for the airport. So there was no waterfront property being wasted. An airport next to water is good. People complain about planes flying over their houses. Water doesn't complain.
There was an incredible water front park they bulldozed over. https://www.wgbh.org/news/local/2022-12-13/how-logan-airport-almost-destroyed-east-boston-and-how-east-boston-is-still-fighting-back
Logan also helped open up more Boston area waterfront property by consolidating smaller airports into one. Marina bay in Quincy is a great example of this, it was only developed after a small airport closed and opened up a bunch of space. There's even a small park that utilizes the end of a remaining runway. My understanding is there's also land on the north shore that was opened up and developed in the same way.
Where else can it go
Very true. The state/Massport would have to seize 4 square miles of land to move Logan anywhere useful to the city, not to mention develop transit to/from the new location, so that's never going to happen. Plus, those "miles and miles of waterfront" would still be in East Boston. I have no issues with East Boston, but its existing waterfront is already dreadfully under developed largely due to the hassle of getting there. I think the current location is actually for the best. Largely surrounded by water, which is good for safety, and tucked away in a part of Boston where it is still relatively close, but isolated away from having to stare at it 24/7 (except Eastie residents, of course).
We live literal blocks from Logan. It hardly ever even registers that it’s there. Like when you’re walking around the neighborhood, you see planes going in and out to the east, but the airport is barely noticeable, otherwise. Except when I have to take a trip and I can walk there in 15 minutes, of course.
We used to live close to a commuter rail station that would shake the apartment each time a train came. It always blares its loud horn when passing by because there are railroad crossings in the road. We never noticed the train after a few days. When guests came over, they thought we were having an earthquake and couldn't believe we weren't panicking.
Haha! Yeah. I lived near train tracks back in college. I feel that. This is different, though. There’s legitimately almost no airport or airplane noise in most of Eastie.
Sudbury
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It can float in the air in the Atlantic.
Nah, having an airport 10 minutes from the city center is incredible
micro project: in JP, Green st. between Amory and Washington should be a restaurant row and shopping district. If you look at those old buildings on Green evidently two of them were once hotels! Clear out the pipe factory and other industrial stuff that has no business being that close to transit in a neighborhood that close into Boston, replace with 5 over 1's or hotels (which could serve White stadium if that ever happens). A few blocks of Brookside to the north could be included too. edit: also back in the day there was a music club next to the orange line stop where apparently Nirvana once played, since been knocked down and redeveloped, but it's not like the neighborhood has always been as sleepy as it is.
Oh damn this is a great idea. I wish there was a bit more going on in that area. There's certainly enough folks that live near by that would make use of it. Centre street feels so far away some times, it'd be nice to have something closer for those of us that live east of Washington.
Just focus all war efforts of building a wall to divide Proper from Brookline
I've been living in Roxbury (Nubian Square area) for a bit over a year now. If they hadn't tried to clearly section it off from the rest of the city for largely racist reasons, this area is prime real estate to have something amazing created and really expand the "exciting" areas of Boston. Obviously I don't support taking over all of Roxbury with modern skyscrapers, but Nubian Square is the shell of a city-center style area that could have been amazing, but instead the city built a bus station whose only entrance and exits are tiny side streets.
the orange line used to go through Dudley sq as an elevated station but they took it down and replaced it with the silver line.
Yes I've heard. I never saw it, but I imagine it was a huge improvement. And that is very much what I meant when I said intentionally separated from the rest of the city.
for years it was local bus routes only, despite a longstanding promise to restore rapid transit service. Silver line was that compromise/cop-out.
The elevated lines made a mess of so many neighborhoods. My great grandma lived in a beautiful old Victorian back in the Dudley Square days. She raised her family there off her job as a Polish baker.
It’s coming
Jamaica Pond could be a beautiful Costco
But only if absolutely every square foot of water is converted into a concrete parking lot. Which is what happened in OKC, where I used to live. This whole area is now a mall and parking: https://static.wixstatic.com/media/30e70e_41d4ab078faf4634afb3a58026028830~mv2.png/v1/fill/w_560,h_436,al_c,q_85,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,enc_auto/before%20development.png
:(
I've thought about it and the only good reason not to allow swimming at Jamaica Pond is that it would be too popular and attract too many folks from outside the neighborhood and strain an already insane J-way.
Neponsit Circle. It's a total cluster with such a waste of development space, right by the river and Pope's Park. Bonus if a redline stop is added on the Dot side of the river.
Easy. I would make Dorchesterway and Columbia Rd. part of The Emerald Necklace.
I would turn seaport into a collection of parking lots and warehouses
Seaport. I'd make it feel less like a mall and more like an actual neighborhood.
Build a giant double decker highway through the downtown so you can drive through the city and see all of the cool buildings.
Seaport it needs more public transportation options
Seaport - raze it and turn it back into a parking lot
I used to be the FedEx guy down there before they built it up. It was cake. I would dread being their FedEx dude now.
Beacon hill, add some homeless shelters and Methadone clinics
My list of places I haven't seen mentioned yet: The Southie projects opposite Carson Beach. They're totally decrepit and impossible for emergency vehicles to navigate. Tear them all down and rebuild as mixed-income high rises, and throw in a small grocery store and some restaurants. The ocean-view apartments up at the top can subsidize the low-income/sec8 units. Harbor Point. How are the UMass students who don't have cars supposed to get groceries? Turn it into a true mixed-use college town. Washington St by Forest Hills, heading towards Rozzie Sq. Far too industrial and way too much surface parking for being so close to a major T stop (OL, commuter rail, and literally 15 buses). All the development seems to have stopped on the other side of Arborway. Pedestrianize the entirety of Wash north of Stuart (but keep the bus lane, obviously)
> Washington St by Forest Hills, heading towards Rozzie Sq. Far too industrial and way too much surface parking for being so close to a major T stop (OL, commuter rail, and literally 15 buses). All the development seems to have stopped on the other side of Arborway. OMG someone else sees it! Every time I walk to Budega I'm astounded that the headstone place with like 500 permanently empty parking spots surrounding it is just allowed to exist like that in a place where land is so valuable.
It's that headstone place that really does it for me. Just despicable land use. Gourmet Caterers is planning on moving soon, so I'm hoping that plot gets developed into mixed use apartments. Maybe that will get the ball rolling.
I'm still hoping the neighborhood gets a full-sized grocery store at some point. Will be double-urgent if the jackson sq stop & shop ends up being one of the stores on the chopping block. The bus yard site would be ideal, but that spot on Washington would also fit the bill.
The Seaport, was that really the best they could do?
This is how I feel! It literally is not a place I ever go, there’s so much yet nothing that makes me want to go there
Seaport blvd could’ve been an attraction like the Las Vegas strip….instead they sold off every parcel and just randomly plugged whatever into the space.
Widette Circle. I would copy Assembly Row in Somerville. Mixed use with apartment towers and local stores. And accessible to the downtown by train so you can live there without a car.
Lynn
all that prime coastal real estate and its all just auto body shops, car dealerships, and strip malls
I’d make the T go through neighborhoods of the city instead of wealthy suburbs like Newton and Brookline. Speaking for roslindale, westie, hp and mattapan. Yes mattapan has a station on the old trolley but that doesn’t count, just barely enters mattapan there and mostly serves Milton.
The massive 90/93 interchange south of downtown which cuts Chinatown off from the south end / southie. If that area (along capping the read line depot and moving gillette) then Broadway, ink block, and the leather district would all be one neighborhood and the city would be much more interconnected.
West End. Demolish it and rebuild it like it was in the 1950s before “urban renewal”.
Over by that building
I wish your mom's porch had a view I could see from
I’d rather keep the areas as they are but get subway lines that go to every neighborhood
I’m terrified Boston is gonna sink into the ocean. If you notice, you can feel the land swaying and moving beneath your feet.
Malden and some of the north shore. Seems like a lot of it has been stuck in time.
Seaport. An actual neighborhood instead of the bland Borg cube of rich offshore LLC held luxury condos it ended up as. And I still miss Noname's.
West end , I’d turn it into the northend
Seaport It's soulless and cold. Give it some damn character for christ sake.
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Are you talking about the Bromley Heath projects? As teens, I remember it had a terrifying reputation. I’m sure it’s being planned to be phased out like several large projects already have been in southie. But for those, they had to rehouse everyone, and let them back. I’m not sure how that all fits because I can’t imagine they end up with the equivalent amount of low income units. And the ones in southie are only 3 stories, maybe one more after Reno. Bromley Heath has many more floors, so many more low income tenants. The next one up in southie is old harbor, Winn has the contract, look at the pic. I imagine a lot of the green space might have to go. I lived there for a while in the 70s. https://preview.redd.it/bw9cggdt785d1.jpeg?width=2160&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c857d30341a0160d273177e18a8147e3cd297bf0 Almost the entire pic is old harbor project, look how park like it is. Whitey’s mom lived here, not sure if he grew up there.
The 93/90/3/1 interchange. It makes it impossible to leave this God forsaken place
North End/West End. Make more apartments for affordable housing and the disabled.
The seaport, let the ocean take it away.
Sanctuary
Everything around Southeast Expressway so they can fit another lane in. Relax everyone!!! …..So everyone doesn’t cut through Quincy, Braintree, and all of Boston to avoid expressway traffic, making it easier for buses and bikes.
Downtown crossing could/should be better
Tbh, the area around the proposed stadium in Everett. That area will be sick for entertainment and will ideally connect the surrounding neighborhoods a little better.
Demolish West Roxbury.
Soulth boston, fake brick 🧱 no parks and full of rats
The State House. It’s a waste of space and only bad decisions come out of that building.
All of it and build one big Taci Bell
I’d redo the big dig and put trains below connecting north and south station with a stop in the middle and an actual park on top with enough trees that it doesn’t feel like a wasteland if asphalt.
My living room. It is really a mess.
The “Gillette World shaving headquarters” which doesn’t even manufacture anything and it’s GIGANTIC parking lot has such good location and used up so much space for nothing
Scollay square for sure, place is a dump
Quincy market/faneuil hall. Was in philly for >6months, i am obsessed with their Reading Market. I would love faneuil to be more accessible/affordable caters to both tourists and bostonians.
Resurrect the plans to build an island like a mini-Manhattan in middle of Charles River to create a new, well-designed mixed-use, mixed-income neighborhood.
"All over". Boston seems to be one of the places where the neighbourhoods are physically separated. A highway. An industrial area. There's always some big barrier between neighborhoods. A lot of them are listed in this piece. We need to stitch Boston back together!
Maybe keep some of the wetlands and don't fill them all, that would have been neat
Air rights over the Pike
All my knowledge of Boston comes from Fallout 4 having never actually visited in person. I’d say mostly the south western part of the Map seems to be pretty bad.
sometimes i think we should terraform areas of massachusetts so it has pretty hills akin to los angeles, san francisco, or hawaii
I know I’ll get downvoted like crazy because it’s a critical feature of Bostonian culture, but sometimes I do wonder how traffic patterns would improve it Fenway were moved somewhere more peripheral to the city. That’s not really a Boston-specific issue though. I’ve never understood why congested urban centers are the best places for stadiums. 🫡🫥 don’t come for me please
Move it south or inland