Unfortuneately, there are too many ghettos by the sea in East Boston. A nice city view won't make up for the crime experience. 

One can tell the age of a Glob reporter by noting the lack of facts found in stories such as this one.  A key reason the East Boston (and major parts of the Charlestown shore) have not been developed years earlier than now can be squarely blamed on the Massachusetts Port Authority.  As recently as during the Mike Dukakis administration, Massport officials would hide at questions of the East Boston or som Charlestown piers being given over to purposes other than cargo ship handling.  Back in the 1980s, one sometimes heard the term "land bank" used to describe su ch waterfront property hoarding by a state quasipublic agency.

I hope they are planning for a three-foot sea level rise.

Ultimately, the "new" East Boston could be an answer to two of Mayor Menino's long held goals:

1) to add more affordable/attainable housing stock in the city (Eastie is far enough away from the city's market-warping college-age renters)

2) to address the city's chronic loss of post-graduate young professionals who leave Boston for more affordable and/or entertaining locales.

Structural barriers to this neighborhood's success will need to be overcome with a significantly attractive value proposition for potential residents.  The current neighborhood's primary intrinsic draws are public transit accessibility to downtown Boston, water views of the city, and arguably its pizza.  Good, but not great.

There's a reason East Boston has been "up and coming" for so long (longer than the decade stated in this article), while neighborhoods from the South End to Southie have gentrified.  It's tough to overcome being hemmed in by a highway and an international airport.

But all hope should not be lost; in fact, that hope should just be better coordinated.

East Boston has the opportunity to be Boston's miniature Brooklyn.  A vibrant, diverse community of young professionals and creatives; families and singles; "old" residents and new.  In that urban satellite neighborhood on the water, development has come through "affordable" housing options relative to its "downtown" host city, structurally appealing amenities such as larger open spaces and performance spaces, and a diverse but unified population of new residents looking to create a community together  (even the renters!).

A revitalized neighborhood must have a draw, though.  While parks and walkways are helpful for establishing a sense of community for an existing resident-base, they are not a magnate in their own right.  Those are capstone features.  On the other hand, the arts are a classic community (re)development catalyst - think Disney Hall in Downtown L.A. or the artist lofts of Fort Point.

One draw to the neighborhood could be a waterfront performance space looking out at Boston (similar to Williamsburg Waterfront in Brooklyn); but, since Boston already has one of those in the Seaport district, it could be difficult to support a second.  Another option could be differentiated public services such as magnate/charter schools (fiscally difficult).  A third idea could be bars open past 2am (socially extreme).  The brainstorm goes on...  Relying solely on new housing stock availability  however, is a risk:  The neighborhood could end up a mix of residents who, while potentially diverse, would be less aligned on the type of community they are looking to develop.  In the absence of that alignment, it could end up a vanilla urban elevator bank like the West End's high rises.  Kendall Square's recent development, while successful in terms of new housing units and offices filled, has resulted in a much more anonymous urban setting than the optimum community could feel. There's a reason all the new shopping centers built these days have a "main street feel" to them.

Here's hoping, Mayor...