November 06, 2008

City Has Its Limits Solution

Couple clarifications.

It is not a homeless problem downtown and the police do a great job downtown. It is more a gathering of Paulie's Pajama people that does not attract people, who want to spend money. Instead you turn elsewhere.

Do you think Buddy Cianci would allow this to happen in front of Providence City Hall when he was Mayor? No way!! For that matter neither would Mayor Giuliani, when he was Mayor of New York. Paulie, stop worrying about Jordan Levy and lets focus on the true " Mayor" of our City, our City Manager.

We should have the WRTA buses move to the intermodal transportaion hub and move the downtown police station there. We all know that there is space there, so why pay rent to Berkeley for that substation when we could pay rent to ourselves at Union Station? Don't think the commuters using Union Station or parking in the garage would mind the police presence either....

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Danger, Will (Robinson) !!!!

Filene's Basement redevelopment is off, a possible pre-cursor to CitySquare news, perhaps?

Read on...

http://www.boston.com/business/articles/2008/11/07/building_stalls_at_filenes_old_site/

Building stalls at Filene's old site
Ambitions scaled back, officials say, as hope for loans fizzles
By Casey Ross, Globe Staff | November 7, 2008

The $700 million redevelopment of the Filene's block in Downtown Crossing is being halted for at least 90 days because its developers have been unable to line up enough financing to continue with the highly anticipated project.

Developers John B. Hynes III and Vornado Realty Trust will immediately stop construction on the site and will instead try to cut costs after they came up more than $100 million short in their financing package. Hynes told Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino about the postponement at a meeting Wednesday, according to city officials. The delay leaves a hole in the Downtown Crossing area, and in Menino's effort to revitalize the gritty shopping district.

Neither Hynes nor Vornado returned calls seeking comment.

Hynes and Vornado have been scrambling to secure financing, but banks have proved unwilling to lend to such a massive commercial project amid a global credit shortage and weakening US economy. The developers do have some funding in place through prior financial commitments.

While they hope to resume work in March, the delay could imperil their efforts to land key tenants for the complex. The law firm Fish & Richardson has been in negotiations with developers, but the firm's lease is up at the end of 2010, just as construction was scheduled to be completed. Officials with the firm could not be reached for comment last night.

The developers met with Menino this week to outline a significant redesign of the 38-story mixed-use development. A city official briefed on the plan said the developers intend to reduce the number of condominiums planned for the tower and make an expensive underground parking garage smaller.

"The mayor understands the market conditions, and we don't want this to be another hole in the city," said Dot Joyce, a spokeswoman for Menino. "He wants this project completed, and if they can produce a plan to do that, then we're on board."

Construction has been slow since contractor Suffolk Construction broke ground last May, with workers digging a foundation on the site that now will remain empty until at least March. Instead of battling tight credit markets, the developers have decided they must instead significantly scale down the project's most expensive elements.

Hynes's firm, Gale International, is involved in several massive development projects worldwide, including the $30 billion New Songdo City in South Korea and Seaport Square, a 6-million-square-foot residential and retail project proposed for the South Boston waterfront.

The Filene's project, at the corner of Franklin and Washington streets, originally entailed construction of a 1.25-million-square-foot tower with retail on the first four floors, 250 hotel rooms over eight floors, and 475,000 square feet of office space, along with a grocery store and a parking garage, according to city filings.

The original plan also included 166 condominiums on the top 12 floors, but that component will be scaled back - or eliminated entirely - as part of more slender design, said officials familiar with the plan. Any design changes will have to be approved by the Boston Redevelopment Authority, the city's planning arm.

Menino views the Filene's project as the catalyst for improving the Washington Street corridor. The project will also upgrade access to the Downtown Crossing MBTA station and incorporate new seating, landscaping, and decorative lighting at street level.

Casey Ross can be reached at cross@globe.com.



Harry T
Worcester,MA

PS

PLEASE let this not happen to City Square !!!

Bill Randell said...

harry;

it has already happened at City Square. The only thing that will save City Square is a reliable one hour commute from Union Station to Boston on the T

Bill

4rilla said...

I know this is not the right spot, but I wanted you to see it Bill.

ORH/Direct Air and Virgin got some pub in the Globe today.

http://www.boston.com/travel/blog/2008/11/fly_virgin_amer.html

4rilla said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

It is a good article in the Globe. Comments are funny too or should I say typical. It's funny how people seem to know our traffic patterns during rush hour but can't spell Worcester.

Paulie's Point of View said...

big difference in rhetoric that comes from Boston leadahs oposed to our leadahs...Menino right in the mix..our leadahs wonderin' whats goin on

Anonymous said...

Bill, yesterday my inital reaction was the same....re moving bus stop to union Station .........but if we do get commuter rail to thrive even more...we end up with our dirty laundry on display twice daily for those who will be using Union Station...........including all the "reverse commuters" coming to Worc to work.

Is this really a wise idea? I am certain that this was the original game plan a few years ago...........so I wonder why it didnt happen?

BTW, my prediction was off a bit.......we got the expected letter to the editor in todays T&G...I was about 2-3 weeks premature. I'll leave it to the moderator to publish it on here. I will again issue a denial here w/o an accusation....... I am not the letter writer.

Bill Randell said...

Jahn:

I am not sure about Union Station either, but having huge bus stops in front and around City Hall on both sides of the street makes no sense either

Bill

Anonymous said...

Also, a tip of the hat to our city law dept. They just had a case decided in citys favor( tossed out) yesterday and there was another one earlier this week that ezcapes my memory at teh moment.

Kudos and an Atta Boy to the city solicitors office. Let us use the same legal minds to address this knife ordiance issue.

Thanx

Gabe said...

See the thing about pedestrian traffic in front of City Hall is that probably 6 out of 10 folks walking around down there are of the homeless/substance addled/pajama people variety. Another 10% look enough like the other 60% to make you think they are even though they very well might be hard working adults and students.

If you move the hub to Union Station the numbers scew a little more to where it might be 50/50 regular hard working folks and pajama people so you might get an atmosphere more like Central Sqare in Cambridge.

It's not a matter of hiding these people away, we live in a large city, it's never going to happen.

I think the city should move the hub over to Union Station and at the same time try to fill up Union Station with not super high end stuff, but stuff that definitely does not appeal to the pajama person crowd. Starbucks or Tim Horton's, chain places that do not cater to low income folks.

I know that the Dive, The Greyhound and The Lucky Dog only have occasional problems with your typical Green Island folk and that is because they have gone out of their way make it obvious as hell that their establishments are not for them.

Paul at the Greyhound told me he had a problem with a guy because he had nothing in the bar for under $3. He had to deal with the guy once but that guy will probably never come back. If you move the bus hub to Union Station and then take away every reason the pajama people have for going there besides taking the bus you'll have people taking the bus and that is it.

What I hear over and over again from people about why they don't go downtown what I hear repeatedly is that there isn't anything down there for them. It works the other way you know. We want less pajama people downtown then we need less reason for them to be there. It's just the bus stop. There are MANY businesses down there that cater to the pajama people.

Gabe said...

What I meant to say is that it's NOT just the bus stop, in reference to what draws those folks downtown.