A neighborhood’s identity shouldn’t just be able to be wiped out by fiat — at least not without some stiff resistance. In the span of a decade, though, the mass of land sandwiched between the Fort Point Channel, First Street, and Boston Harbor has been wiped clean twice, as Boston’s Seaport District was rechristened first as the South Boston Waterfront, and then as the city’s Innovation District. Fierce (if shifting) identity politics define Boston, and no one would dare pull this trick in a place like Roslindale; it’s a testament to how disconnected the Seaport is from the rest of Boston that City Hall managed to pull it off twice in a short span.
The redevelopment of Boston’s old industrial waterfront has come in fits and starts, but the hundreds of undeveloped acres across the channel represent far too big a prize for the effort’s conclusion to ever be in doubt. Once the Seaport building boom winds down, will the district exist as just a collection of buildings ringed by streets, or will it become a real, functioning, breathing neighborhood, the way the Back Bay and South Boston are?
Comments
Looking from the Seaport District toward downtown I was struck by how overbuilt the district is. Not just there ,but all over Boston.
The hundreds of new buildings, most of which are good looking, but appear to have been stuffed into spaces which are way too small.
Who is responsible for this nightmare? Who and where are the City planners? The place is beginning to look like a Lego contest.
Do we really need more hotels? From what I've seen, we do not.
Need for hotels is based on occupancy and number of available beds. Boston is consistently in the top 5 in terms of occupancy.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/hotelcheckin/2012/11/26/hotel-industry-record-demand-106-million-room-nights-sold-so-far-2012/1708371/