As an Masshole, but not a city one, I’ve always kinda admired the job they do in Boston. At least, you don’t get the big dramatic narratives about it crumbling, like California cities, and NYC seems to be a bit boom-bust.
Boston seems to always be doing fine. The Big Dig was a ripoff but that was ages ago, and the T smells like piss but that’s par for the course, right?
I lived in Cambridge/Somerville from 2013 - 2019 and always had the feeling that downtown was only for office workers during business hours. There never seemed to be anything to do after hours as all the workers left downtown at 5pm. If this proposal takes off it would be really nice to see a lively downtown on the evenings and weekends.
I live downtown (Leather District) and work downtown (Post Office Sq.) I think there's really quite a bit of stuff to do. Not NYC stuff to do level, sure, but definitely not a wasteland after dark either.
I do agree, there are some beautiful old office buildings around here that would probably make great residential buildings. That would be even better for the area.
Personally I'd live in Cambridge over Boston but, outside of the Financial District (which is pretty dead at night like it is in many cities), there's plenty of activity in the evenings. As another commenter said, it's not Manhattan but I worked downtown for about a year and lots to do.
We're not building enough housing, COL/rent is high to the point where it makes it hard for many smaller businesses to thrive, the MBTA is an embarrassment, we're not laying enough fiber, the roads could use some work, but overall things are stable and fine. I just wish there was more of a standard of excellence all around.
It's fine. The T is as bad as ever, shutting off sections for weeks on end for repairs. Rents are through the roof. But things aren't all bad, it's still a fun city.
Well the T is as terrible as always, but until 2 weeks ago or so the motorcycle and moped parking situation was ok, if you were willing to do that.
But recently they started enforcing that very aggressively and requiring motorcycles to pay the same amount as cars and park in the same spots. Just a wave of orange envelopes on every motorbike I walked by.
Kind of an unfortunate move IMO - one of the things I like about European cities is not having to have 1 person per SUV clogging streets.
The Big Dig does pay for itself. Despite being horrendously overbudget and overdue, it still works, and it's more valuable than what was put into it. It was a poorly managed success.
As an Masshole, but not a city one, I’ve always kinda admired the job they do in Boston. At least, you don’t get the big dramatic narratives about it crumbling, like California cities, and NYC seems to be a bit boom-bust.
Boston seems to always be doing fine. The Big Dig was a ripoff but that was ages ago, and the T smells like piss but that’s par for the course, right?