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You won't be meeting George Jetson near the South Boston convention center anytime soon; plans canceled for new development there
By adamg on Tue, 04/18/2023 - 4:21pm
The Massachusetts Convention Center Authority announced today it plans to start over with plans to develop six acres it owns near the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center, rather than going forward with either of the two mixed-use development proposals it had received.
The Boston Business Journal reports one of the proposals included a landing pad for electric-powered copter-like air taxis on the land, along D and E streets.
South Boston elected officials - State Sen. Nick Collins, State Rep. David Biele, and City Councilors Ed Flynn and Michael Flaherty - all vehemently opposed the authority's timing and lack of public input on the plans - for which the authority issued an RFP this past Thanksgiving week, with plans to pick one of the two options last month.
Authority Executive Director David Gibbons said the authority hopes to issue a new RFP soon and that this time, it will talk to the BPDA, if not necessarily the public, before it selects a company this fall to develop the land.
Gibbons said the decision to cancel the current RFP came after "input received by several constituencies."
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Comments
I would say that flying car promises are like fusion promises…
…but this would be insulting to fusion as a field that intends to do things aside from grifting.
Opportunity for Healey here
If Healey’s administration is really serious about developing or redeveloping housing on unused state land (as she said in interviews a few months back), this MCCA plot seems like a good opp to prove it.
Also, if MCCA wants income, lab space demand has softened a bit, and office demand is weak. But housing’s still hot!
Relevant band name
We Were Promised Jetpacks
Flying cars
Flying cars, for when The Simpsons ruined your chance at a monorail boondoggle.
Lies go so far back
that people forget them. Weren’t we told that this land would not be developed and it would remain open space if the neighborhood would support building the Convention Center?
Was that a promise? Can you
Was that a promise? Can you back that up?
Anon is correct
And if you think the politicians would put that in writing or on a deed restriction you are not that smart.
What was said at numerous public meetings I attended was that land would be used as a buffer between the BCEC and the neighborhood.
How old are you?
Did you live in Boston during the Convention Center’s planning stage? The biggest lie the neighbors were told was that there would be no “gate” shows. I believe this was written into law but was changed after a few years. Now we have boat shows, Car shows, Comic-cons etc.
The biggest lie was
that nobody would drive to the BCEC, therefore no need for parking. We were told convention center attendees would take the Silver Line from Logan Airport to the Seaport. Locals would take the T to South Station.
Today you cannot drive on Summer Street on show days without running into double parked ride-share vehicles waiting to pick up their fares.
Vehicles visiting are forced to park over a mile away at Marine Industrial Park.
FYI
The first C in the BCEC stands for the same thing that the CON in COMICON stands for. Convention!
The E stands for "exhibition", which is what all the boats and flowers and cars are doing there on exhibit during predictable weeks of the year.
Have there been concerts at the facility? No? Then there have been no "gate events".
Also, any vehicle on Summer Street is causing traffic. Yours is. So is mine. So are all of them.
*NOTE* this threaded onto the subcomment, not the one two steps up - but it works for both.
You are incorrect
A gate show is an event where attendees pay at the gate. Conventioneers pay in advance or are given admission tickets from exhibitors. You don’t see people going to the NE Seafood exhibit with cash in their hand.
So what’s your point?
Jane ... his wife!
Jane ... his wife!
Daughter Judy
There's a hair salon on Mass Ave between Harvard and Porter Square called Judy Jetson Hair.
Relevant band name, part 2:
His Boy Elroy
Daughter Judy
who has a hair salon in Cambridge between Harvard and Porter Squares.
Too bad
Rorry Rorge.
Why did they all live in the sky?
What happened on the surface?