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Down-but-not-out-town Crossing
By adamg on Sun, 10/11/2009 - 9:56am
The Urban Mechanic (no, not the mayor) refuses to count Downtown Crossing out, because of its good bones:
... In the case of geography and placemaking, good bones can be seen as transit, roads, and other elements of the built environment. Downtown Crossing has the best of all of this. All five of the MBTA urban transit lines converge on/around the Downtown Crossing area. South Station and the emerging South Boston waterfront area; next door. Boston Common and the Public Garden is but a block away. The Financial District is; well right there. Emerson College and Suffolk University are right in the neighborhood. Tufts New England Medical Center is next door. Beacon Hill; across the way. Government Center; next door. The Theater District (and the 19 screen Boston Common Cinemas); right in the neighborhood. ...
So, current conditions may feel a bit dower, but one thing seems completely certain to Urban Mechanic. Downtown Crossing will remain vibrant, hopefully always a bit gritty, definitively urban and uniquely; Boston.
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Comments
Nice photo, but...
...DTX is hardly "gritty, glistening, and bustling." More like deteriorating, depressed, and Detroit-ish.
Urban mechanic accurately lists all the assets, but this only leads us to question how an area so blessed by location, location, location can nosedive so dramatically. The real estate folks, gorging on the self-reinforced greed of this decade, saw themselves cashing in on luxury condos until gravity took over. City Hall, feeding and riding on that greed even as those in the know were telling us that what goes up must come down, had no Plan B when the meltdown occurred. And there's no sense of civic stewardship here to pick up the pieces.
It's a monstrous failure of business, public, and civic leadership. And, in classic Beantown fashion, there's little accountability.
Greed = getting one more
Greed = getting one more dollar than I have.
Actually
Greed = getting one more dollar than you have...from you.
Downtown Crossing's failure
Downtown Crossing's failure has nothing to do with the recent real estate bubble. It has to do with failed 1970s policies which encouraged the suburbanization of the area: wholesale demolition of old stores for super-blocks, banning cars trying for a mall like atmosphere, filthy paving materials, and tax policies from the Curley era which treat the area as if it's still booming with a dozen department stores.The entirety of the Filene's debacle is only a drop in the bucket compared to all the other failures allowed to fester over the years.
Converting the derelict office space above many of the empty storefronts into rentals, condos, and dormitories would do a lot to enliven the area. As would reopening Washington Street to vehicular traffic. The MBTA stations also badly need to be renovated to get rid of the awful 1970s and 1980s dreck. This in conjunction with better overall cleanliness and better signage regulations would make the area much more accessible, presentable, and appealing to the public.
If it had restaurants and residential
I see no reason why it can't be a more vibrant area. After work gets out, its scary.
yup, it should be a showcase
This should be a showcase part of the city, vibrant, open, lively, and multi-use. The downward trajectory over the past five years has been so dramatic, it's hard to remember what it looked like when it appeared the district was on the upswing. Who would've thought, c.2004, that today we'd be using the term "urban blight" to describe that area?
As urban mechanic's photo shows, it's still possible to angle a few nice camera shots around DTX. But overall, it's a highly unrealistic representation of the area.
Howard Johnson is right
Yes, this is called edifice economics, and it's practiced by liberals and conservatives alike. Tall buildings, pedestrian malls, convention centers or sports stadiums are all supposed to rejuvenate an area.
You can't solve one sweeping remake by another federal-state-local mishmash public/private partnership. They should wash their hands, regularize the rules and let whatever takes seed there grow on its own.
Part of the problem is the
Part of the problem is the BRA refuses to rezone the area for mixed use retail/office/residential use and continues to fetishize the pedestrian only disaster. Every time a property owner gets the very bright idea of taking, hard to rent class C floorspace in narrow floor plates in, a derelict building to convert into desirable residential space it has to go before a very long variance review by the BRA.
Putting people into 24 living situations above retail spaces would create patronage for those businesses, restaurants, etc and bring badly needed life to the area at all times of the day. Yet the BRA only seems to full speed ahead on this concept if it's being implemented by some connected developer friend of the mayor in new construction, rather than re-purposing existing underutilized buildings.
FTW
"Blazing Saddles" reference for the win!
Did anyone read the post or..
I'm not trying to be a hater here, but did anyone actually read the post or did everyone just take the first visceral thoughts that came to mind?
Yes, Downtown Crossing has more than it's share of problems. My point was that despite these problems the area will make it through (and for good reasons). I suspect that the area WILL have more residential units in the not-too-distant future. Plenty have been constructed in the past decade for sure. One contributor suggested adding dormitory beds. That's already happening.
As to the huge hole at Filene's, I see nothing too crazy about the development, if it would actually move forward. It would bring more housing, hotel rooms, and some office and retail space.
Yes, the pavements are kind of silly. I've never been a fan of crazy streetscape schemes. The rule of good urban mechanics, have a plain concrete and preferably wide sidewalk. Populate it with appropriate lighting and fixtures (trees, trash cans, flower pots, benches), and keep it clean! Same goes for store fronts, keep them clean, clear, and have just the right amount of display and always have flowers.
As to vehicular traffic. Normally, I would suggest opening up pedestrian malls, but quite frankly this area doesn't have the same problems as other pedestrian malls. It actually is appropriate to be largely pedestrianized. Adding traffic, in this case, seems like it would be quite a detriment. Plus, the area is already wisely not purely pedestrianized. I know most anti- 60's and 70's planning sorts want to get rid of everything from that era. I'm generally supportive of such sentiments (hehem, City Hall Plaza). BUT, don't try and fix what isn't broken.
I do love the idea of making the place over just as much as anyone. It could be a real gem. Yet let's not try to polish it too much and fix things that aren't actually broken either. Downtown Crossing has actually aged quite well in time compared to a lot of other urban places. There is a lot that will change down there over the next several years. Cities, despite all of our strongest desires, don't just snap together (or in this case back together) over night. Those that do (hehem Dubai) well they have their own problems for sure.
That said, I understand this is no reason to stand still and not expect more...so maybe another post (and exercise is in order).
If I was Candidate Floon
I would film a dozen commercials with the Hole That Was Filene's
directly behind me. The economy notwithstanding, can you imagine
any other "World Class City" allowing that disgrace at it's
commercial center for eighteen months?
World class city - How about Chicago?
Google for "Block 37" in Chicago some time.
gotta love the fact that
the Chicago Transit Authority just hired the outsourced real estate department of the MBTA, "Transit Realty", to do for The Windy City what they did for Boston.