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Menino: Make BRA even more powerful

I'm listening to Radio Boston's report on the Boston mayor's race. More later, but to start with Menino: Rather than split the Boston Redevelopment Authority into separate pro-development and planning agencies, he is working to bring the city transportation department into the BRA.

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Comments

a good idea....if the mayor weren't stuck in 1950s car centric mentality.

Making development in the city paired with transportation issues is a great idea, if someone like McCrea, Yoon or better yet Ross were Mayor. They understand that pedestrians need more, not less, walkable areas of Boston, and that the city needs to promote, not fight (E line, Silver line being reduced to buses) public transportation. The city needs an advocate for those of us that have seen Boston go from Americas Walking City to an increasingly hostile place for those not in a car or truck. How did the city let an opportunity like the Big Dig pass without getting at least light rail between North and South Station. Fort Point and the S. Boston Waterfront have only 1 rail stop at the edge (south station) and a bus that links only to one of the subway lines. People in east Boston can see Fort Point, but to get there- blue line to green line to red line to silver bus? Where was our mayor?

And reducing sidewalks to make room for more parking (like along the waterfront side of the greenway in the north end or the upcoming shrinking of MA ave sidewalks to add another turning lane to increase speed on MA ave, and of course the bike lane on MA ave still stops at Bostons border.

This is not a person I want having any more power related to tranport, else we will end up with Boston being Framingham on the water, lots of highway ramps, pedestrians beware.

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Big Dig was a state project.
THe MBTA is a state agency.
Silver line buses because of Federal mandates...
Bike lanes stopping in Boston --- because that is the only
place the Mayor can make a bike lane.
If you have to play the blame game at least affix the blame to the right entities...
The Mayor has done more for biking in Boston than anyone...

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Right, and if bicycling were useful for the majority of residents or truly possible and safe here year-round, that would mean something.

It isn't, on both counts.

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Setting the transportation infrastructure aside for a moment, you can see Menino's car-centric mindset on display in the South Boston Waterfront. It has the appearance of a suburban office park on Rt. 128, and functions like one.

Unremarkable buildings isolated from one another which present nothing more than blank walls of tinted glass and concrete to the street - usually set back behind a few feet of grass. Buildings are separated by wide streets and miniscule parks.

You either enter buildings through the One Defined Entrance or the parking garage. There is zero incentive to walk around and see what's there - because there's nothing to see. If you go exploring you'll find green-tinted glass with tightly pulled blinds on the other side, or some Alucobond. It's a place to designed to be accessed by car.

Good thing the BRA looks to be backing the plan for 6,500 parking spaces.

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OK, see, I read that headline and was like, wait, what's wrong with single black women as a whole?

http://1smootshort.blogspot.com

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One thing that sets apparently thriving cities - SFO, Chicago, Portland OR - apart from what Boston does is that Boston has no requirement for street-level retail or public access. I'm not sure that Chicago requires this (it seems to live by it if it does not), but I know that Portland requires a minimum of first floor space given over to retail or other interactive space. This not only drives down retail space costs, it creates foot traffic and life that blank foreboding fortress walls do not.

Boston is not Vegas - much of the year, people do want to walk around.

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Fell out of my chair and hit my head on the floor when I heard that one. These guys work a few floors away from each other. I know businesses that collaborate on complex projects across oceans. It boggles the mind to think that putting more power in the hands of the BRA is somehow going to enhance collaboration on planning and development.

I came away from the interviews with one thought - any one of the three would do an infinitely better job than Tom for the future of our city. Flaherty was right on this - the current administration has done a phenomenal job at lowering expectations. Hats off to all three of these guys for raising them again!

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Polls indicate the city residents feel that the city is on the right track...not so with state...I thought peiople were looking for savings and efficiencies in government...
stevil spends so much time trashing the Mayor you would think he is a candidate..check Globe and Herald comments on any given day --- he also has stated he is a McCrea supporter...Anything he says is from a very biased source

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If there's accountability and transparency, I'm fine with this.

If's can be so big sometimes...

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BRA more powerful? Like WONDERBRA? Wow, that would really lift up the city ....

Was Diane Wilkerson trying to make her BRA more wealthy?

And, could the BRA ever be powerful enough to pass the Dolly Parton test?

Sorry ... cannot... contain ... juvenile ... impulses ....

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They just need the right support.

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