Interesting debate going on between Chris Cagle and the Modern American about expanding the T and the merits of increased urban density:

CC: Expanding the T - in particular, construction of the Urban Ring
MA: Will only work if the Boston area becomes more dense
CC: In defense of the T
MA: Why I'm Still Not Sold On T Expansion
CC: Politics of urban density

John Daley doesn't cotton to newly unveiled plans for the Greenway:

If you're drawn to the warm and inviting expanse of City Hall Plaza, you're gonna love the new treeless Greenway. ...

Sharon's posted an interesting interactive table that lets you see how Massachusetts cities and towns increase and shrink in population as workers flow in and out during the average workday.

Yes, quelle surprise. But should the state be subsidizing snobbery? Chris runs some numbers on the state's confusing Community Preservation Act (which lets towns raise taxes and get matching state funds to pay for either subsidized housing or to buy up land so nobody can build subsidized housing on it). He discovers that Cambridge, which has roughly 1.7% of the state's population, is responsible for 58% of CPA housing outlays, which means taxpayers in wealthier towns are subsidizing units in Cambridge (but not Boston, which doesn't participate in the CPA) - and keeping the poor folks out:

... Which is great for those dwellers lucky enough to get a price break, but does absolutely nothing to solve a housing shortage that spans much of the eastern part of the State. ...

Lisa, who lives in Watertown, wants some of that money spent in her town:

... Since the program is financed via state taxes, that means that H2otown residents are paying for affordable housing units in Cambridge. ...

Marc follows the saga of the new Hess station planned for Mass. Ave. and what it says about how planning and zoning work in Cambridge.

Sharon is all in favor of revamping Downtown Crossing - if it can be made into a place people want to go after 7 p.m.:

... I used to enjoy shopping at Filene's and Macy's in Downtown Crossing, but the last couple of times I visited, the stores just seemed depressing - the only women's clothing store worth the trip was H&M. Some modernizing isn’t a bad idea - if it's done with improving the pedestrian ambiance.

Derek reports on a BRA meeting last week about new development on the west side of Roxbury's Fort Hill.

... Things started going downhill in my group when we moved on from the topic of parking to density. Personally, I'm a big fan of density. I loved it when I lived in London and Japan and enjoy walking through the Back Bay, Cambridgeport, and Jamaica Plain. From what I remember hearing, dense communities tend to be safer ones because the residents have a greater degree of familiarity with each other and they look out for one another more often. On a purely emotional level, though, I enjoy dense neighborhoods like Cambridgeport and Jamaica Plain because of the uniformity of appearance (all brownstones or all triple deckers with no breaks in between) and because I find the jumbled and varied sights and sounds to be appealing to the senses. Unfortunately, some of my neighbors don't share the same impressions. ...

Framingham selectmen apparently feel that they can't revitalize downtown Framingham without moving the Salvation Army from its current building on a main street.

If this is true, Framingham selectmen apparently have no clue that there are a lot of other issues that have conspired to "unvitalize" downtown over the past 30 years. Like, oh, all those malls up on Rte. 9.

Medieval Boston chronicles downtown Boston from the 1920s through today via a series of photos and narrative. Don't worry, not all the photos will get you depressed about what Boston used to be - check out the photo of the large "Premium Ham" billboard that used to be where Samuel Adams now glowers at the tourists in front of Faneuil Hall.

Striking is the medieval way space runs in the streets as rivulets defined by buildings. From the standpoint of figure-ground, this is the exact opposite of suburbia, where individual buildings sit objectified in infinite space that extends from here to Nepal and beyond.

Via Shimon.