Wednesday, December 13, 2006
New City Hall vs. New New City Hall
Seth, John and I tend to agree: There is indeed something striking about City Hall's iconic exterior that's worth preserving. As we all know, it's the plaza and dreadful interior that have long needed addressing -- and city government has utterly failed to tackle the problems. ... Another major issue that I hadn't appreciated: The inaccessability of a City Hall in Southie. Silver Line, anyone? ... The last time we debated the fate of City Hall Plaza was about four years ago. I'm no longer in favor of keeping the building but turning it over to private developers for housing. Instead, keep it as City Hall, overhaul the damn interior and completely redesign the plaza. ... Always remember this: Mayor Menino once backed tearing down Fenway Park. Of course, City Hall isn't anywhere near as popular as Fenway Park. How could it be? But it does show the mayor has a pattern of going first for the tear-down/scram option, rather than seeing a solution in what's already there. ...
Update -- Adam asks how my plan differs from the attempt four years ago to revamp the plaza. Good question. The feds don't have veto-power per se over the plaza. They merely objected (and vehemently so, for security reasons) to the city's plan to build a new hotel right next to the JFK annex. They have never objected to overhauling the plaza in general. The problem is that the mayor doesn't want to spend city money on the plaza. He has always pushed to sell off portions of the plaza -- or all of it, this time around -- to raise funds. There's always a developer involved -- and always a reluctance by the city to take financial responsibility for enhancing its own property. ...
Seth, John and I tend to agree: There is indeed something striking about City Hall's iconic exterior that's worth preserving. As we all know, it's the plaza and dreadful interior that have long needed addressing -- and city government has utterly failed to tackle the problems. ... Another major issue that I hadn't appreciated: The inaccessability of a City Hall in Southie. Silver Line, anyone? ... The last time we debated the fate of City Hall Plaza was about four years ago. I'm no longer in favor of keeping the building but turning it over to private developers for housing. Instead, keep it as City Hall, overhaul the damn interior and completely redesign the plaza. ... Always remember this: Mayor Menino once backed tearing down Fenway Park. Of course, City Hall isn't anywhere near as popular as Fenway Park. How could it be? But it does show the mayor has a pattern of going first for the tear-down/scram option, rather than seeing a solution in what's already there. ...
Update -- Adam asks how my plan differs from the attempt four years ago to revamp the plaza. Good question. The feds don't have veto-power per se over the plaza. They merely objected (and vehemently so, for security reasons) to the city's plan to build a new hotel right next to the JFK annex. They have never objected to overhauling the plaza in general. The problem is that the mayor doesn't want to spend city money on the plaza. He has always pushed to sell off portions of the plaza -- or all of it, this time around -- to raise funds. There's always a developer involved -- and always a reluctance by the city to take financial responsibility for enhancing its own property. ...
